The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-17
lRNING TO DO BY DOING
Rv FREDERIC J. HASKIN

| for the good the training may do him.
! This was one of the causes of FroebeI g
| founding the kindergarten system. The
idea is not new. Says a noted educa-
tor, it is the one (which Quintiiian
din,ly conceived, which Comenius pro.
posed. and which Pestalozzi cher
ished.' Because Frederick Froebel
was lonely, neglected child, he was
drawn IN later life TO all children, and
because his own little hands had so
often ached for the want of conpenial
work or for some harmless playthine,
he begged the privilege of teaching
tiny children the things be wanted to
know and to do, His opportunity came
to him there among his German people,
although he had many difficulties TO
overcome on account of the UNPOPULAR
ity of his ideas
Froebel's S first "child garden" was
opened in 1s40. In 1854 DR. Henry
Barnard wrote pamphlet advocating
the Introduction of kindergartens in
America. The first one opened in the
United States was in Columbus. Ohio,
in 1858 by Miss Caroline Louise Frank
enburg, In 1850 Miss Elizabeth Pea.
body established a kindergarten in
Boston, and her work attracted gen.
eral attention. In 1861 German col
ony opened one in Hoboken, New Jer-
In 1873 st. Louis opened experimental
kindergartens, and later made them a
permanent feature of public school
work. In 1874 the first charity kinder
garten was opened in Florence, Massa-
chusetts. and the movement soon spread
throughout the country. At the time
or her great disaster San Francisco
led in this work, having fortv-one
schools supported by the Golden Gate
association
The statement that there are nearly
100000 children, nearly all babies, in
the public and private kindergartens of
the United States. has little significance
TO the average reader until he remem-
bers that of these there are many thou
sands who come from families Of ahso-
lutte and dire poverty where home is n
meaningless word, and where many of
the .graccs and ordinary practices of
civllizat tion are wanting. Through the
kindergarten these homes are reached
and most beneficent influence exert
ed. 1t is the fulfllment of the pro.
phecy that ga child shall lead them -
There are hundreds of homes that have
been made cleaner and more attrac-
tive, hundreds of parents who have
learned the purifying uses of soap and
water and the advantages of better
foods, simply because painstaking kin
dergartners have bathed unkept little
waits and dressed them in clean clothes,
have taught them a few simple cour,
tesies of life, and have made them see
the beautiful things in everyday lv-
ing, The workers who find time to 90
and see the pathetic toil-driven par
ents in their homes often bring n word
of cheer and encouragement from the
outside world which these modern
drudges never have time To visit,
All children who have had kinder
garten training are better fitted To en-
ter the primary schools, and knowing
this. fourteen States have authorized
them by law, and 353 cities having
population of 1000 and over have es-
tablshed free kipd6rgartens. There
are several hundred private ones
throughout the country and as many
charitable ones. In all of them chill
dren arc gathered from the alleys of
the slums and taught the first princi,
pies of law, order, honesty and pat;
riotism.