The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-03-24
MISS BLOW ON
CHILD CULTURE II
The Noted Lecturer Addressed Rich
mond Educational Association on
the kindergarten.

the kindergarten.
Miss Susan Blow. cf New York, deliv-
cred a lecture before the Richmond Edu-
cational Association yesterday afternoon
at the JEFFERSON on the mission of the
kindergarten.
Miss Blow is recognized as authority
on the subject of the kindergarten, and
commands the highest prices. on the lee.
ture platform Her work insinaugurating
the model kindergarten systems of. st.
Louis and New York is well known to
educators. For few days she has been
at the Phoebe Hurst kindergarten in
Washington, assisting the principals and
instructors of that institution with yalu-
able suggestions and counsel. Because OF
her deep interest in the work in the South,
she consented to deliver lecture here,
for which she very graciously declines to
make any charge. Miss Blows services
In this line are so much in demand that
she has engagements six months ahead,
and was able to give only afew hours to
Richmond. arriving at midday and leav-
ing at O'Clock.
SUBJECT OF INTEREST HERE.
The Educational Association is much in
terested in the establishment of kinder
gartens in connection with the public
schools Of Richmond, and a movement
looking TO this end is expected to take
some tangible shape. i'll "a short time.
DR.. Joseph w. Sorthall, Superintendent
of Public instruction, presided and intro
duced Miss Blow.
The speaker led up to her subject by
describing the contending forces at work
all the while, on the one hand the bar
barrie and uncivliZed elements and ten
denotes of American life, and on the other
nh ',,yIic l,n (,
civilization. The momentous question of
all time has been how to introduce new
forces and factors into the arena of this
age-long conflict which will operate to
weaken the effectiveness of the forces of
barharism and strengthen and uphold the
tendencies which operate toward ciyiliza-
ton. The Nile for ages was infested with
crocodiles but the ichneumon which eats
the eggs of the crocodile has gained the
victory. The ichneumon of civilization
must destroy the eggs of barbarism. And
that ichneumon has been discovered in
the kindergarten.
ITS UPLIFTING EFFECT.
The young Arab, growing up in the
sums and on the streets of our cities,
is the embryo of an anarchist In the
kindergarten these children Of the streets
see and learn of things they have not
known. Instead of a development along
the lines marked out by their vicious
surroundings, the young mind is aWak-
ened and interested in nature studies and
objects and grows with a healthy and
steady growth up out of the mud ana
slime where its lot has CHANGED to be
cast.
This reacts on the parents, and we
have the kindergarten settlement. the
Kindergarten living in the neighborhood
and coming into close and vital touch
with its life and activity. Other feat
ures of the work are the day nursery
the children's play ground and the par
ents classes. The kindergarten child
observes and descerns, becomes gentle
helpful resourceful and imaginative
OF especial note is the cultivati ton d the
feeling of consideration and the sense
of the beautiful.
The kindergarten has a mission in the
homes of the wealthy, as well as in the
slums. Here it overcomes the dangers
incident to wealth and luxury by over
coming the tendencies which stimulate
the growth of the spoit child. The
child who has had everything is as much
in need of the discipline of the kinder
garten as the child who has had moth
ing Here in equal or even larger de-
gree the resourcefulness, independence
helpfulness and consideration, which
comes of kindergarten instruction IS
needed.
FOR THE COMMUNITYs GOOD.
The kindergarten has a mission for
the whole community. There is a period
when the child has outgrown the nur-
Sery and has not reached the age for
school. These all important years from
four to six are the field of the kinder
garten and if it did nothing other than
keep children out of the primary grades
at these ages. it would justify its claim
upon public attention.
The education results of the kinder
sarten are shown by thirty years of
practical application to the CONDITION
which obtain in America. The child has
gained in appreciation of number, form.
and color, and in manual skill. He has
advanced in intellectual activity. in re-
ciptivity, in logical power. in magma
ton in love of the beautiful. From an
ethical point of view he is neater. clean
er. more Industrious and painstaklng,
has self-conscious and more helpful, in
short, of finer sensibilities.
The influence of the kindergarten on
the kindergarten is most noteworthy
in awakening to a desire for q larger
education and larger fitting and equip
ment for the ali important task entrusted
to them. The ideal of the kindergarten
ana goal II STRIVES " le~iSli 10 liza A1."S'
beautiful of all relations-that or mother
to child For the kindergarten stands IN
the relation OF motherhood to the young,
rhe feeble. the sinful, the sorrowinG. the
suffering 1t aims TO be one of the forces
which. by transferring the life OF the
family and the child, will hasten the
hsppv time when the ideal CT nurture
and child growth shall be attained and
the will of God shall be done on earth
as it is in Heaven.
WORK OF THE Y. NJ. c. A.