The Frankfort roundabout. [volume] (Frankfort, Ky.) 1882-1908, 1900-10-06
THE CHILDREN OF TO-DAY.


and generation are more favored
and more abundantly blest with
good gifts than those of any other
epoch i'm all the worlds history.
They are the objects of our great
est care and solicitude; everything
we can think Of is done for their
welfare. We are ready to try any
thing that promises TO benefit or
bless those who will take up the
worlds progress where we lay 1t
down. The hope of the future
rests with the children, and it Is our
duty TO equip them in a manner
calculated to realize that hope.
Granted. The hope of the race does
rest with the young. 1t is our duty
to prepare them for active useful,
vigorous lives. The question in my
mind is, Are we doing it?
l expect shall get msyelf dis
liked If say no. Nevertheless 1
say it.
We are adopting the Frobelian
motto, the cardinal principle of
Frobelian teaching, "Come, let us
live for our children" But we are
not applying it wisely. From the
elaborate fooleries of the kinder
garten TO the modern form of fam
lily discipline. where the parent
offers his child reasons for desiring
obedience, we are pursuing wrong
ideas and reasoning from wrong
premises. We are, TO put it briefly,
bringing up a generation of self
conscious. self-important, weak
willed and self-indulgent children,
who morally and intellectually
have been and are being developed
along the line of least resistance
morally and intellectually = and
physically too.
We are bringing up children
whose very advantages" are go
ing to be handicap to them in the
struggle of life, who are having
every atom of "sand" taken out of
them-because we are doing for
them instead Of teaching them to
do for themselves; removing OBJ
stacles from their way instead Of
encouraging them to remove the
impeachment or climb over it un-
aided.
The children go TO the kinder
garten to be taught cOlors and
forms and manual dexterity and
how to play. 1 wouldn't give a
brass farthing for child who has
to be taught TO play. If he is that
dull that he can not devise his own
sports and interest himself, he has
either been the victim Fof the sys-
tenn of training / deplOre or he is
too stupid: for anyg use. AS for
teaching the elaborate plating and
paper shipping and colors, those
are things the child finds out un-
aided in his normal state; they are
self-found accessories to his devel-
Opment-
l can not better illustrate my
meaning than by quoting the re-
mark Of teacher of the primary
grades in one Of our city schools.
Speaking of the kindergarten
taught pupils she said: "They are
the hardest TO instruct. 1t takes
term to get them to apply them
selves to anything that requires
effort. / reproved one of them the
other day for inattention, and the
young miss complacently remarked
as If the fault were quite wholly
mine, You don't interest mel
That's it. They've been taught to
expect entertainment and amuse-
ment, and haven't the faintestide
that any exertion on their part is
necessary.
In short, the system of spoon
feeding is begun in the kindergarten
which I'll admit is safe place
for the children, a source of rev.
enue to number of impecunious
and deserving young women, and
q great relief for mothers imbued
with the "let us live for our chill
dren" idea who want someone else
to do the living while they live for
themselves. =
The system is continued all
along the line. Look at the school
textbooks i'm use. Prettily printed
and nictured. and calculated To adj