Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1902-03-14
FROEBEL'S"C HILD GARDEN"
ITS IMPORTANCE, AIMS AND METHODS

kindergarten is Doing for Our Children-1ts
Origin and Developments Things the
Small Student is Taught-A Great Moral
Lesson and Its Benehcent Effect on Differ
emit Natures Experience Offered Instead OF
instruction.
1t has been borne in upon the minds
of some of our teachers in Brattleboro
that the importance of the Kindergar-
ten as factor in a child's training
has been dimly understood. At the
special request of the supervisor OF the
graded schools here, and with the
hope of making it more clear, / will
try to give an idea of what the Kin
dergarten aims to accomplish for chill
dren before they enter the public
schools.
The kindergarten is already we'll
known name, but the curious diver
sity of opinion in regard to its object
and scope, proves how little actual
knowledge of it there is in our midst.
A vely general answer, when asked
an opinion is, "Oh, | think it is a
very good thing for busy, over worked
mothers, to have their children taken
care ola very good charity or a
parent who has never visited the Kin
dergarten, you may be sure, has said,
Eyes, ! like my child to go to Kinder
garten, and learn the pretty little
things and have the opportunity of be
ing with other children, with someone
to take care of them. ~
Both of these conclusions are true
enough, but SO wofully short of the
whole truth! AS many other mothers
constantly testify.
What is kindergarten? May | re
call to you the work of that great
German educator Froebel, whose sol
itary childhood taught him two great
truths: That nature is good mother
and it Is a beautiful thing to know
and love her children, the birds of the
air, the beasts of the field and all the
others on and under the earth and that
is most important to
the little child. whose nature can only
be symmetrically developed when
brought in contact with other children
in games and play:
After complete university educa-
ton, and training along several spec
ial lines, so that he could measure
land and make maps; make plans of
houses and show men how to build
them: fight for his country, or stay at
home and teach classes in mineralogy
greater in Importance than all these.
Froebel felt, was the right start in
life for little children, who, one day
were to be the citizens of the nation.
And he was never satisfied until he !
had evolved the kindergarten, after
years of study of the needs of the /.
child, from babyhood up. Not gift, /
nor a game, used in his system, but |
had been the object of patient thought /
and study, that it prove the proper We
hicle of development of some faculty |
IF the child. AS the fragile flower or .
fruitful grain stalk is brought to its
pest growth, under the care of the !
gardener, in sunny, fertile garden
Dlnj, so should the small child thrive
n body, mind and soul, in his kinder
,r child garden.
Now what does the Kindergarten do
or children under six years of age:
What has it accomplished, when it
ENDS the child to the primary school:
do not mean what Froebel hoped
.ould be done in the ideal child gar
len, or what is occasionally accom-
,lished with bright children under
lifted teacher, or even what is done in
God private Kindergartens
In glancing over the requirements
f the child who has left the Kinder !
arten, and has been actually taught ,
othing, in the ordinary sense of the
'ord, we find that he has worked, ex I
erimented, invented. reproduced. He >,
as not learned to read and write, but
e has learned shapes and forms, and I
lade all sorts of crude little drawings
ear to his childish heart; so that the v
ork of reading and writing is play to ,
lie child who has been thus trained
lie has not learned Arithmetic, but he T
as learned to build a house, or table, r
: fireplace. with exactly the right
lumber of blocks, in the right place: I
I'D the foundation is laid for accuracy u
Id mathematics later on.
He has not leaned Geography-but
carer than fairy tales have been the =
lie stories of the little children who
We in the North, the South, the East
I'd the West, worked out, or rather
aged out, in blocks, clay or paper or
~ convenient form of expression {
e Esquimaux hut, or the tent of the
dian or the Arabian child of the
sert. The Swiss home in the noun
in or the water streets of a Dutch
llage.
He does not learn Grammar-but he
yes his teacher well enough to try to
e the words she has told him she is
led, at least while with her. -
He learns to know and love his flow al
and bird neighbors and something
the home lives of the insect and an
al world, that is about him every h,
Iere. ''
he is not taught continuous history, M
t he enters whole souled, into the
ry of great hero, and in magma
N. is sure he should have done the IL
ne himself. III
food pictures, shown and explained, G.
come real friends to him. and remain ~
recious possession from that time on, O
1usic also hath charms to soothe the
of the tiny child, as we'll as the
age brother of the forest, and when -.
perpetual motion of little feet and III
ads have been held in allegiance I'M
: long, long minutes, a motion song
game is happy outlet for the pent VIC
energy, that is the normal birth
ht of every healthy child, and the
ression of which will very quickly L..
elop irritability. God pity the small III
, whose parent considers it a duty raj
crush each budding attempt to
axe a racket He is taught to see | i
hear things that make his world :.
ger and more beautiful to which WI
~ poor mortals 90 through life
Id and deaf Oh
bove and beyond these things, and "a,
many others, which there is not