The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-11-20
MRS. PHILLIPS TALKS
TO CLUB WOMEN.

At the meeting of the Woman's club
yesterday, Mrs. J. H. Phillips discussed
the Results of modern study of child
hood and kindergarten interests Mrs.
Phillips said
While the two subjects or rather the
two phases of the one subject, that you
have assigned me for an informal dis
oussion, are intimately connected, TO do
justice to both of them would require
more time than you have at your dis
posal this afternoon. l shall submit to
you, therefore, only a few Of what con-
slider the more important results of mod
ern child-study, without comment leaving
the larger part of our time for consld-
ering kindergarten interests, especially as
we are realizing them In our midst.
An epoch making result of the study
OF childhood has been in establishing the
belief that there Is nothing else in the
world so worthy of love and reverence
and of consecrated service as the body
and soul of the little child, and that it is
a crime to cultivate the mind of the
child to the detriment of his body. Play
has come to be regarded as an important
factor in education, and work Is more
and more catching the joyous spirit of
play while 1t Is none the less work.
The young child with his tendencies to
good and evil is no longer treated as If
lis character was fixed While he may
tell an occasional falsehood, or appro-
pirate to himself the property of another
he Is neither regarded as liar nor a
thief More and more are his faust dealt
with in this light, with the fault held as
the obnoxious thing, while the child is
made to feel that he is none the less dear.
God won't love you II you are naughty
lie no linz t. ~
schools, when the offender is one of His
little ones"
Another epoch making result of this
study, especially among teachers, con-
sists In comparing the child's efforts of
today with his own efforts of yester-
day rather than with the present or past
work of another. One chid's best may be
snother child's poorest effort. A certain
degree Of emulation may be excellent at
times, in fact may be necessary, but it
is now considered saner to study each
child, find out his best, and let that be
the standard comparison. Cooperation
end not competition is growing to be the
watch word of the day There is a grow
ing hesitation in pronouncing that child
dull or stupid who is slow in his progress
in book study-he Is given a chance to
express himself according to his bent.
Finally, the guardians of the young are
studying themselves more closely since
their interest in childhood has been slim
ulated and freshened by the modern study
of the child. Thus they are getting a
clearer vision of their duty as mothers
and as teachers, and growing to de-
serve the proud title of defenders of
the happiness and the rights Of child
hood" These few results alone give us
the right to hope tina this study will yet
result In our realizing that the home
and the school were created for the child,
not the child for the one or the other
The Kindergarten interests in our
city like those of nearly all other pro-
gressive cities, presents two phases. the
children's department and the training
school for young women.
These departments are inter-dependent,
neither being able to accomplish its high
est good without the other In the devel-
opment Of the kindergarten movement
in most cities the children's department
is usually established in advance of the
training school, but In Birmingham they
were opened simultaneously. Six years
ago the association began it's work in a
vacant room in the Paul Hayne school
with thrty-three children enrolled, six
young ladies in training and one teacher
in charge of both departments.
Although three new buildings have been
erected since then, lnere is not fOOt
Of space for the free kindergarten work
within their walls and this growth in
the public schools finds a corresponding
growth in the kindergarten work The
association now operates and supervises
four kindergartens, with an enrolment of
$50 in the ehildren's department, and
twelve earnest young women in the train
ing school. Five teachers, or kinder
gartners as they are professionally called,
are employed, and one supervisor, who
is also principal of the training school,
The influence of the work Is. even wider
than this, for Avondale and Bessemer
both have free lindergartens which are
the outgrowth of the movement here
More than once this club has given
some member of our board of directors
an opportunity of speaking of our work
before you. and it is because you, too,
wish ito help childhood generally, more
particularly that phase of it that is rep
resented in the homes of the poor and
needy of our city" that you invite us
here. l believe that you are aware of the
importance of the influence that the kin
dergarten exercises over the child dur
ing the most plastic period of his life;
that his formative mind is here made
to see elementary moral and mental
truths when 1t is most receptive, and
when impressions are most ndellble. and
yet l greatly fear that the kindergarten
as a preventive of crime is no. fully ap-
preciated.
1t places the forming of good habits as