Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-30
OF WORLDWIID INTEREST
THE KINDERGARTEN MOVEMENT
BY FREDERIC }. HAskIN

culture that the kindergartens bring
That is the least part. 1t Is the learn
ing to do by doing" idea of Pestalozzi
and Froebel that must have its ex-
emplification, and 1t Is the actual
reformation in personal and moral
matters that counts. When the Chi
cago Ethical society established free
kindergarten in that city's Ghetto in
1898 they did not receive a very warm
welcome from the parents of their
charges, but by and by. as the gospel
of cleanliness began to penetrate home
life, enthusiastic mothers rounded up
all their other children and brought
them down with the polite request that
the teachers please wash these, tool
Parent-teacher meetings brought both
sides into an understanding, and soon
the gospel found its application at
home.
1t is wonderful, this influence that
kindergartens have on home life. That
is where 1t counts most. The Society
for Ethical Culture i'm New York
opened kindergartens in New York city
in 1878, year after the work had been
added to the course of the normal col
lege. Record was kept of individual
cases of uplift in homes. In one in
stance 1t was found that father no
longer pawned his children's clothes
for drink, but urged his children to go
to the new kind OF school. One mother
stopped beating her children; another,
who had attended a mothers meeting,
moved into a house where she could
have more light and clean wsils;" the
children of the alleys fought less among
themselves and sang songs and played
games instead, things that the fortu-
nate ones who had gone to kinder
gartens had brought back to the others.
The New York kindergarten asso-
citation spends $1400 a year for each
school and yet their work is not drop
in the great bucket of need. In one of
their schools alone, down on the East
Side, there are twenty-nine languages
and dialects spoken, but Of such ma
terial they are early molding good
American citizens. The first New
York kindergarten was opened by Miss
Boelte in 1871, though German citizens.
Knowing of Froebel's work, had made
some attempt at such schools without
success a few years before. st. Louis
established the first kindergarten there
ir 1871 and by the school year 1S79-iSS0
had nearly 5000 pupils enrolled. The
board of education in New Orleans in
1875 selected teacher for primary
work with special reference to her
knowledge of kindergarten methods,
but the first organized school there was
In 1885. 1t is fitting that the interna-
tional convention should be held there,
for that is the city of Margaret" the
untutored working woman who lived
for the motherless and unframed chill
dren and who worked that she might
leave money to help pthem--"Margaret,"
the first woman TO whose memory a
statue was ever erected in this coun-
try.
1t is interesting to know that the
first kindergarten teacher in America
was the wife of Carl Schurz, that
broad-minded politician and man of let
ters. Mrs. Schurz came over richly im-
bued with the ideas of German kin
dergartens. From her Miss Elisabeth
Peabody of Boston learned of the new
education. the new republic OF child
Food" and eight years later went
abroad to further acquaint herself with
Froebel and his work. On her return
she became the apostle of the kinder
garten in America. Edward Eggleston
was one OF the earliest Americans to
have kindergartener in his home, and
from these pioneers has spread the
movement which aims at the social
upiift of the children, and through
them the uplift of the family, of the
reighborhood and eventually OF the ma
tion.
The inimitable "Squeers" of Dothe-
boys Hall was not wrong when illus
trating his branches of learning by
practical application. for the kinder
garten aims at practical things. Tho
kindergarten is as necessary for the
idle rich as for the idle poor, and is n
great nursery OF democracy and pa
triotic principles. When Oberlin, for
ffty-nine years pastor of Ban de la
Roche, near Strasburg, grew too old to
rreach and was later pronounced too
old to take care of the village pigs, t
was decided that he might have the
care of the village children, this being
the order of importance in those days.
So he taught them games, answered
their questions after the Socrato
method of instruction and had a young
woman come and teach the little girls
household arts and industries. HS
shocked his parish to the core, but his
assistant, Louise Scheppler, kept up the
work for sixty years more, ana the
shock that had set Ban de la Roche Dy
the ears spread throughout the world
and over here Froebels prophecy Is
reaching realization. He said: THE
kindergarten can only have its full de-
velonment in America. where the ma
tional principle is self-government, IN
perfect freedom. but according to law