The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-12-04
The Purple Mother and -. r. Z.
the Raja Yo!ga School

addressed with bowed head and downcast
eyes; every one seems to stand in great
awe Of her, and her will is absolute law
throughout the entire institution.
Since the controversy i'll the newspapers
and with the government has arisen over
pupils for the Raja Yoga school, it may be
interesting to know something Of the in
stitution The school building is circu-
lar structure of peculiar design and deco
ration, something like the East Indian
bungalow. In it is a large schoolroom
in which, at the time of the writer's
visit. there were forty or nifty children Of
various ages, ranging from 3 to IS or Il
years, boys and girls. all under the care
Of one teacher. This teacher was young
lady, apparently not yet 20 years old, but
a. remarkable woman. A class in geogra-
ply was reciting. Nothing peculiar devel-
oped in that connection, but a glance
around the room revealed the fact that
these children comprised not only variety
as to age. but as to color and race. There
were Americans. MeXicans, Cubans and
Indians among the number. The next
class consisted of four or five little girls,
called up to read. The youngest was
about years old, and, according to Mrs.
Tinglcys statement, had been a mental
and physical defective, and physically was
still Somewhat defective feeble, slight
and small for her age. The largest was
I
daughter of Boston parents, also said to
have been mentally defective. The reci-
tation revealed remarkable mental alert
ness on the part of the little one and rea-
sonablc aptness on the part of ALL When
at the end Of the reading lesson the teach
| er, perhaps for purposes of exhibition.
| gave them some exercises in mental arith-
lnetic, the Boston child, which had seemed
dull and uninterested before, Immediately
became attentive, eager and quick to re-
spond. One or two other classes came
upon the floor to recite, after which Mrs.
| Tingley suggested that the visitors might
be pleased to hear some of the boys speak,
! assuring us that there were some good
| speakers in the Raja Yoga school. OF
course. a desire to hear the speakers was
! expressed. A boy of about II or IL years
; of age was called out. 1t was expected,
of course. that he would declaim some
! thing that he had been taught, but Mrs.
Tingley asked that he be assigned sub
! ject. He was asked to tell us about the
flowers. Promptly and without the slight
! est embarrassment. he began to talk about
| the flowers, their mission, their care and
| made an exceedingly intelligent and salts
! factory offhand, original speech on flowers,
| occupying, perhaps. two or three minutes.
He was then dismissed and another boy
OF about the same age was called forth.
/ Mrs. Tingley asked that he be assigned a
!
the watch. This he did, too, in a salts
! factory manner, not quite SO well, perhaps.
as the first boy. but pleasingly well. The
third boy, perhaps II or Is years of age,
was q Cuban. Less than year before he
| had been brought from Cuba unable to
speak word of English. This boy, Mrs.
/ Tingley said, was quite patriotic; per-
| haps some patriotic theme would suit him
/ best; he was asked to tell us about the
| flag. His little speech was quite well ex-
| pressed; he had the right idea of the flag.
and acquitted himself remarkably well for
| a boy of his age, called upon for an origi-
| nal impromptu speech before strangers,
There was this fact noticeable about all
| the children in their recitations and in
| their speeches-remarkable ease of man
rer, absence OF embarrassment Mrs
| Tingley explained this as one of the re-
suits they seek to accomplish. and ac-
counted for it on the ground that ths
children are never lead to feel by their
teachers that they are likely to be harshy
critized or ridiculed for innocent mistakes
or that they have any reason to fear to
express their original ideas, but are en-
couraged to do so. At the same time dis