The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-28
THE KINDERGAHTEN
AaAINsT THE STREET

THE KlNOEH9AHTEN
 . AGAINST THE STREET.
 So much interest Is being taken now in the establishment of free kndergartens that all literature on the subject is of interest to those who are working on that line.
 An invitation is extended in these columns today to ali interested in kinder garten work to attend the exercises of the Free Kindergarten at St. Johns Church to take place on Friday morning at 10 O clock.
 With the invitation comes the request to publish the following article on the subject which appears in The Outlook of May l6
 '* In the sections of New York in which the population is densest the streets are the nurseries, playgrounds, libraries, and theaters of the children. These children are housed In rooms so few small and crowded that they are driven oat-of-doors for space to breathe, play. and live. The close. hot sitting- room, dining-room. bedroom. and kitchen combined. in which many of them live with fathers, mothers, brothers and sis ters. becomes intolerable at times even 10 the youngest child, and the street is the only refuge. It becomes a retreat for the suppressed and imprisoned per- sonaiity of the child; it gives him room for activity; for letting out his energy in noise and play; 1t makes place for his individuality; more than this, it affords plenty of companionship, for 1t is full of boys and girls sent from similar homes by the same conditions. There the child finds the drama of life going on before his eyes in it's most pathetic and often in it's most repulsive forms. The chase of h.n Aa~A l.,A Al. At.~4. Tx< x>f the ambulance. the rush of the fire-engine. the cries of the hucksters. the bickerings and fightings, are the sights and sounds to which the child of the tenement-house is accustomed from the time he can walk down stairs: in the streets he learns the first lesson of life. and as he grows into boyhood the stree. becomes more and mora his theater. He becomes familiar with the most degraded men and women, and knows the worst vices from infancy.
 "The free kindergarten Is the antagonist of the street. It rivals and passes the street in interest. and 1t puts the best education in place of the worst. It is a place which pleases the eye and the ear, and excites and satisfies the curiosi- ty. It opens a clean, airy room, with plenty of light. In this room there are flowers, sometimes birds: there are always things that are novel in form and color. The two teachers who are in charge know how to catch and keep the attention of children, because they know their habits, tastes, faults, and are in sympathy with them. They know how to open the eyes of the child to things that 1t has never seen before. and to open its ears to sounds that charm and win its attention. They are not bound by hard and fast rules; they do not impose on the child a method A-aw kAA& child as they find it-a semi-barbartan of ths street-and teach 1t cleanliness. order. obedience, courtesy. These lessons come as naturally to the child as the lessons it has learned in the street. and they soon make 1t over into civilized child. It finds the play In the pleasant room. led by older piaymates, more interesting than the play in the street; thousand objects are presented to it that excite it's