The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-19
TALKS ON MOTHER PLAY.
Miss Backus' Glass Discussed "The
Family"

on FNroebeIs Mother Play took place
yesterday morning at the PhiIbrick
Kindergarten. 1t opened with the
study of Play XIX on 'rhe Family, .
from the "Moutoes and Commentaries" !"
The picture was carefully examined
and each member of the class was
asked to mention any one thing which
it contained. The central picture rep
resented the human family of Ave
members, mother. rather, brother, sis
ter and baby, and was surrounded by
pictures of insect life and the animal
life of wood, marsh,. and, water. Miss
Baekus led the class to the analysis of
its spiritual meaning, showing, in
the significance of the sruallest points,
how the picture indicated the interde-
pendenee OF the created world, all its
parts united by the symbolic border
of gnarled limbs of a single tree and
thus expressing Froebers idea of evo-
luton and unity.
The books were then laid aside and
the class passed to the discussion of
the human hand which Miss Backus
introduced with the quotation Man
has a soul because he has a hand"
She spoke of the little childs inability
to articulate the fingers, showing how
he used fingers and thutnb as il the
hand were incased lii mitten and re-
ferred to the fact that one Of the
mothers earliest acts, conscious or
unconscious, Is to teach the little one
to differentiata the fingers by such
games as This little pig went to mar
this Instructive mother play had been
adapted to the governing ideas of
family life and love in the klndergar-
ten song for thurnb and fingers:
This Is the mother so good and dear,
This is the father with hearty cheer.
This is the Brother so strong and TALL
This is the sister who plays with her
doll,
This is the baby the pet of all,
Behold one good family, great and
small.
The fifst relations perceived by the
child he Is thus enabled to analyze
and arrange, giving them their proper
place and value He is then led to the
remoter relations of grandfather,
grandmother; uncle, aunt, and cousin
in which he sees his own family life
reflected The song was read by Miss
Backus and repeated and sung by the
class.
Then followed the consideration Of
the hand as a creative member. The
child's love OF manual labor from the
firts act of tearing strip of paper and
his delight In producing of himself a
change of form was compared to the
later results OF trained skill Many in
teresting illustrations were drawn from
the class. Miss Backus cited an In
stance of a small boy who, 1t is record
ed, pulled out and pushed in the drawer
of a desk seventy-nine times without
stopping for the mere unformulated
pleasure of causing the change. One
member of the class told of another
little fellow who sat on the floor with
a bottle and cork, pushed the cork
in hammered it down and said. Cork
rin;' pulled it out again and said Cork
out" and repeated the interesting pro-
cess and the equally interesting re-
mark without variation for half an
hour. The class was then asked for
illustrations OF the different gestures by
which the hand is made to express
emotions, anger, prayer, desire, aver
sion, contempt, and Miss Backus
showed by many examples which she
had collected the folk lore and super
stitions that have gathered around the
hand, and it's symbolic meaning in our
everyday life The books were taken
up again and Miss Baekus read the fol-
lowing I1dffSldIlOllE EsQy N1lSs tOlOW vi
the motto on "ThesF Family:
When baby's eyes first open to the
light,
The same dear household faces meet
his sight, ~
Which, as months change to years, he
learns to love.
oh, teach him that the dear ones of
his home
Both now and in the years which are
TO come.
Beneath one roof or wheresoe'er they
rove,
Are one dear family!-More closely
By love, thean if by iron girded
round"
BY we'll directed questions, Miss
Backus drew from the class the spirit
ual meaning of the motto. that the
child is to be led,. even in infancy, to
recognize the family as an organic, yet
necessary part of the whole. Out of
this grew the practical questions of
the child Of to-day at home, and the
mutual duties between parents and
children. The universal child play in
which is reproduced the family life and
it's various relationships, was dis
C0SoGu anu lb6 vi l6lh oShltOdhCufAO bihI
initiative faculty, one of the first TO de-
velop and to the Unborn parental in
stinct. The Importance of making the
child feel himself an essential part of
the unity of the family was considered
at some length. The diculties of mod
ern polite education which makes the
student life more absorbing than the
life, of home were voted practically in
surmountable, but the pressing neces-
sity was recognized for specific duties
which shall not be irksome or forced,
but shall appear a natural part of the
general scheme of living.
The meeting closed with the reading
by Miss Backus of a chapter in Henry
Drummond's Ascent of Man on the
Evolution of the Mother"
AS Miss Backus is called out of the
city by business, there viii be no other
class this week. No final decision was
made as to the regular time for the
classes. The next Will be held Friday,
at 1890, at the Philbrick Kindergarten,
when the subject will be Play XVII,
Naming the Fingers"
s-