The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-19

forth much fruit" Thus we see that
death is not the end, only the beginning
of fuller nobler life, and we can say
with st. Paul, 80 death, where is thy
sting? 0 grave where is thy yictory?'
! The child is so near the heart of ma
ture that great truths in their. simplicity
are easily understood by him. For in
stance, he knows no death
"A simple child that lightly draws its
breath
And feels its life in every limb
What should it know of death?"
To him it is only sleep, so he says:
The flowers have gone to sleep; The
lights have covered themselves up and
gone to bed If this simple child-faith
receive wise training it will grow. into
clear Insight; otherwise it will be lost
or drink into materialism..
Sooner or later he learns of the death
of some loved one. and fortunate indeed
he is if he has been led to look on the
| joyous, hopeful side of DEATH such as
had the little maid in Wordsworth's I'VE
Are Seven" Unfortunately, 1T is the sad,
worst side of deth which is too often
presented to the little one. A kinder
GARNER went into home one day and
found the nurse (by no means an uned-
ucated girD carefully instructing her lit
tie 2-year-old charge that cousin BERTHE
was dead and mamma had gone to
watch them put him in deep, deep
hole
But that is not the thought that Easter
brings. Cousin Berries body was dead
and was put in the deep hole, but Cous-
in BERTHE himself had gone to live in The
light and sunshine and happiness.
The early stage of education is often
called the symbolic stage, because all
truth must come to the child in symbolic
form. Not through one symbol only, but
SVnnbOlS that he
eventually abstract the idea symtolized.
Just here let me emphasize DR.. Harris
caution on this subject: 1.-THE child
should not be FASTENED unduly in his
progress out of symbolism. AS long as
he has interest and real delight in the
symbol he should be INDUCED in its
employment" The best symbol we have
of the Easter thought is the awakening
of nature in the springtime. semi
tropical country like Hawaii loses the
emphasis put on the awakening, as 1t
comes in cold countries. However, there
are many symbols to be found mere, and
with a little pains and trouble, the
teacher or parent can find them and
herself put the emphasis on the awaken
ing. The best ones are the seeds and
bulbs, the eggs of chickens, ducks, liz
ards and birls the pupa of the dragon
fly and the caterpillar. There Is MOTH
ing that can take the place of the act
ual observation Of the Transformation in
form. To plant seeds ones own self
and care for them, and wait, wait, wait
for them to come up-to still love and
watch them until they blossom-that is
the kind of experience that means most
To really own a mother hen and plan
and watch and wait for the little yellow
baby chickens, to find some little lizard
eggs and let them hatch, as they WILL
in cotton or sugar, to get a tiny butter
f1y's egg, put it in a box with a mosquito
net over the top, watch it hatch, feed
| it every day until it has spun its CO.
coon-and then oh joyi what an awaken
| ingi The main thought We wish to
symbolic may be lost If many other
I things are brought in, but if all the prep
aration is for the awakening, and that
is made the climax, it will not be lost.
In the kindergarten, all the songs,
stories and games tell the same story.
The children illustrate it in every way
possible They dramatic it. paint and
draw pictures which tell it, cut out of
paper, forms which, when pasted on a
card tell it again. For instance, they
may draw two nests; cut out paper eggs
and paste in the first, and baby birds TO
paste in the second. They will play the
bird-nest game, in which the mother
and father bird build the nest of chill
dren, choosing two or three to be eggs.
These the mother watches over. until
one glad day they awaken again. the
child will go to sleep all curled UP to
represent cocoon, and then show how
it awakens into a butterfly. After this