The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-02

eral plan. When they see the construc- tive work of the older pupils they be- gin to regret that the children are reach ing the age when the kindergarten will not receive them.
 Not all American women, who have had every opportunity to inform them- selves on the subject, understand or ap- preciate the principles of kindergarten training, but they have seen enough to know that the child in the kindergar- ten is better employed than the child out of it. The language of the kinder- garten, the principles, may be only half understood and even then the most casual observer can not fail to be i'm pressed with the advantage the kinder garten- trained child has over the child who Is deprived of this training.
 We have the children three hours and after that our responsibility is not sup posed to extend said a Kindergarten teacher recently. But when 1 the children that l have been teaching all the morning forced to spend the entire afternoon in the streets for a breath of air l feel that the responsibility cannot cease until Birmingham has playgrounds for it's little ones. Children are obliged to live in the streets as long no pub lie playground Is provided. The kinder garten takes the child off the street for three hours, trains him, entertains him with work and play, but when twice as long time Is passed in the crowded streets where the influences are bad morally for the child, the Kindergarten as an influence is constantly being un- dermined in a way by the bad effects oI the street habit. But I can suggest no remedy-but that of playgrounds. Chil- drcn living in crowded quarters, sleep ing four and six in a room, should be provided with backgrounds. Three hours in the kindergartens can never be lost, but I feel a sense of personal respon- sibllity for the remaining hours when l have often seen my little pupils in the crowded districts of this city, exposed to the vicious influences of street life.
 Taking the central Kindergarten as the typical school where several nationalities are represented you will see many in- terestng little groups there any morning from nine to twelve.
 The room is large and attractive, and some fifty children occupy the little low chairs about the circle. From the mo- ment of the good morning to the last good-by there is not single word that does not sem interesting. The games on the circle, the songs, entertain the chill dren day after day and they are quick to toiHpIeHeilu luc pldn Ol tue WOfk, the constructive part that leads them into miniature worlds of beauty and happi- ness. Nature studies for the little alien child. A week of the water world'' for the little Syrian born on these shores. A general plan of work leading up to the seasons of Thanksgiving. to the Christmas season, to the season of planting" miniature gardens for the foreign child. playhouses, the construc- i tinp of marks If Is vast theme this Kindergarten training embraces, it's possi- bilities are limtless and the trained sindergartner realizes this, and makes you realize 1t also.
 There are many incidents of the kin dergartens where the children, American and foreign. prove that a child can hardly enter a kindergarten too young. Many of them are entirely ignorant of the lite commonplaces of life. Some of them are very poor. But the free kin dergarten is for the child most depend ent upon it.
 At one of the kndergartens the past week on the morning that the closing exercises were held, a bright-faced little boy upon hearing his teacher remark that the exercises would soon be over, looked up rather gratefully and said:
 ''ll Il be barefoot time in CT few min utes"
 The kindergarten does not attempt to suppress the natural instincts of child hood, but to cultivate them. It recog- nizes intuitively the "bare-foot" period.
 The illustrations made for this article represent different groups at the kinder gartens and no attempt was made to pose the children as types of different coun- tries. The Illustrations merely convey a general idea of the diversity of kinder