Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-27
FREE KINDERGARTEN SCHOOLS
possible.

FREE KlNDERGART SCHOOLS.
The house committee on education has
favorably reported or the bill, providing
for free kindergarten schools in the
states, and recommending it's passage
with an amendment or two. This bill, if
It cover the course generally pursued IN a
kindergarten school, and it is presumed it
| does. is directly in line with the educa-
tional interests of the state. In the kin
dergarten the foundation for character
building is or should be laid, The young
child is pliable and receptive to an al
most unlimited degree. In the very act
of storing away it's r~udimentary knowl-
edge it absorbs from it's teacher much of
what may be good, or bad or Indifferent.
In doing this it insensibly adds little by
little that which may influence it's whole
after life. 1t is building it's character
while learning it's a. b. c's through object
lessons.
Say what we may about the PURPOSES,
aims and objects of education, character
building is of first Importance in the cur
riculum. 1t is, we repeat, in the kinder
garten, the primary of primary schools,
where the foundation is laid upon which
the superstructure or character is laid
This fact is not generally accepted by
educators, but nevertheless it is true. The
state and county levies taxes to support
schools. Our schools are supposed to turn
out good, thoughtful. law-abiding citi-
zens. Do our schools turn out such? The
answer is found in the prevalence of pro-
family, of vice, of ill-will, of contempt of
law among the thousands who yearly
: come fresh from even our higher educa-
} tional institutions, labelled Gifted for
l life's work" It is not pleasant to note
this, but candor compels the admission
The fault does not lie in the free public
school system, but to errors committed
o under the system.
Too little attention is paid to character
d building, too little Importance is attached
to the kindergarten in which character i
&c so easily and readily formed. 1t is Their
e where the actual life of the ~well-equipped
ID thoroughly informed and devoted teache
% comes within the pale of the actual lif
l of the pupil and where his or her ~influenc
- is felt through life. Character is bein
built.
Character building is a part Of the cur
iculum of the kindergarten. If not
~ should be made a part. The day Shout
long ago have passed when the teache
goes to his or her school, hears recitation
from text books, and returns home again
day by day, without touching, in an
way, the individual life and purposes
his pupils. If this now be done thu
he
: teacher ignores or omits the most pract
Ir.
cal and serious purpose of his vocation
N, ,-
.IThe philosophy Of school teaching is ba!
ed or the fact that the destiny of ea6
pupil is more or less within the contr
of the teacher. If he or she fail to &C
:. something strong and enduring to the
character they nave not been true to the
work and should return to the kinderga
-. ten for instruction in their duties. II
properly conducted kindergarten is
m prime Importance to the education of Il
vt youths of the state. Make them as fir
rse as the flowers of May, as free from r
ted ligious prejudices or bias as the streets
70. the New Jerusalem and as accessible
in the air we breathe. and Montana will so<
nd become as famous for its educational (
de- ~cilities as it is for its great mines, i
ter broad ranges and ts agricultural o
puts.