The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-05-28
JUDGE FEAGIN ON THE
 FREE KINDERGARTENS

ening process has set in, before its habits have been formed or character fixed The teachers thorough training enables her to detect and deal with the child's ac- tlvities and It's potentialities. She skill fully leads the child into the conscious possession of itself and gives 1t complete command of all it's powers. She gives 1t deep significance. She teaches the child as Socrates taught his students. to know themselves.
 "Some of our ministers see and appre- ciate this, and they have established kindergartens in connection with their churches. An infant class in a Sunday | school under a good teacher Is a good place in which child can be taught the word of God. All good people approve this. A kindergarten under a Christian woman who has given years to child study and to child training Is a better place for character building In one, an hour is given each week in teaching the child by precept only In the other. three hours are given five days each week in putting precept into practice, making the children doers of the word and not hear CTS only
 Tt is the true missionary spirit-the spirit of Christ Himself, brought to the very doors of our neglected little neigh bors, to save them from sin and shame and crime here, and to keep them from being lost in the great hereafter. It would not overdo the work to have a kindergar- ten In every Sunday school room. in ev cry public school building in the city un der the supervision of one head-a super intendent of kindergartens It is through the school room that our missionaries are doing their best work in saving the souls of the heather Chinese. We have called upon the school teacher to aid the church and the army in putting a stop to butch cry and bloodshed, to murder and crime in the Philippines. Why not practice at home what we do abroad? Why not ex- tend the Influence of the school to the youngest member of the family and of the state?
 Tt Is easier to form than reform, and
 
 than a thousand reformers. There is more economy in saving the child from way wardness than in repressing the crimnal An ounce of preventative is worth more than a pound of cure" Teach the child In the ways of construction rather than let him drift into the ways of de- struction If their little hands and heads are taught to build up. they will be less | apt to tear down when older.
 "Tt Is the neglected and inefficients who become hopeless and heartless and vic- ious. From these classes come the vag- rants. the paupers and the degenerates. Statistics show that these people com init 80 per cent o1 the crimes that curse communities. The kindergarten strikes at | the very root of this evil It takes the child at It's early impressionable age, at the budding of it's powers, when its ger minal forces begin their greatest activity and need direction. It trains them for better living, for a higher life. The kin | dergartener Is educated in the belief that In every child there Is triune existence. pody' mind' soul; that 1t is capable of a triune development, a gradual growth; that each phase of development is more marked along lines most exercised, more atrophied, when least exercised This skilled Instructor deals with these ac- tivities to promote symmetrical develop ment into well-balanced character, lead ing away from crime and to good citizen- ship. The kindergartens of the city should become a part of our public school system as they are in St. Louis. Louisville and In New Orleans.
 Birmingham will have taken a step to keep pace with Pittsburg and Detroit when she adds to her public school the kindergarten and a school of technology. She will then have begun to reduce crime and promote prosperity among the masses. She will then begin to decrease the inmates in the jails, the poorhouses and the reformatories and to increase the membership in the churches, the Sunday schools, the reading rooms and the pub lie libraries. The reformation may be gradual. but 1t will be lasting"