The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1912-07-25
|KlNDERGARTENS ARE FAVORED
Paper Read Before National Education
al Association Shows Time and
Money Saved by Early instruction of
Children in the Lower Schools
(By Mary D. Bradford.)

trial activity. But not only are time
honored industrial practices being sub
mitted to scrutiny, not only are ma
chimes in factories being tested to see
if they are yielding the greatest
amount Of product for the energy ex-
pended to run them, but institutions
have come into the movement and are
being submitted to the same sort of
an efficiency test.
A process must be judged by results.
This is lust as true Of an educational
process as of an industrial process. 1t
will be remembered that [ have had
occasion to defend the kindergarten
and to urge the support of this portion
of our public school system.
My contention has been this:
Since by the law Of Wisconsin a
parent may demand education at pub
lie expense for his four and five year
old children; that since child cannot
proftably be started in what is COM
monty regarded as regular school work
before the age Of six years, and that
to attempt this work before that age
is a waste of time, if not positive
detriment later; therefore, it is neces-
sary that these young children be pro-
.vided with a sort of education adapted
to their age and their needs. This sort
of education the kindergarten affords.
My further contention has been that
in a city like Kenosha where 11.8 per
cent Of the public school children are
born across the ocean, and where SO
per cent Of them come from homes
where one or both parents are foreign
born, and in a large number of which
homes foreign language is spoken,
the kindergarten serves another very
important purpose. 1t puts children
at an early age in command Of the
English language, 50 that when they
are old enough to be taught to read
they can go right ahead with it. Be
fore child can be taught to read
English he must be taught to under
stand and to speak English, and this
the kindergarten can most readily do.
am, therefore, especially covetous Of
every little Italian, Bohemian, Rus
sian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Croatian
child of four and five years; for by
gathering these for half day for two
years under the care of trained teach
ers, they will at six years Of age I'M
derstand English and be ready to be-
gin to read; they will have quickened
powers Of perception, will be able to
make with the hands and express. with
the tongue, will be trained to self
control and respect for the rights Of
others, and be given such start that
their fourteenth birthday will find
them well up in the grades, where a
broader and better foundation for in
telligent citizenship may be laid.
This has been my plea and my rea-
sons for it. Last year had some hard
headed taxpayer called for evidence
that six years was the best age for be-
ginning first grade, or proof that the
kindergarten start was accelerator
of school progress, and saver Of re-
tardation, could not then have pro-
duced the proof.
Since that time, however, there has
come to us the convincing result of the
wide study made by Leonard P. Ayers
of the education division Of the Rus
sell Sage Foundation, one important
phase of which was the investigation
of the relation between entering age
and subsequent progress among school
children. It is a study of membership
Of the eighth grades of 20 cities and
involves 1857 children. The conclu.
sion he reaches after most careful
weighing of his data is that six wears
is the best age for child to begin his
grade work.
With that question settled for me
by scientifically handled investiea.
ton, | undertook to find out by study
Of the Kenosha school system whether
the kindergarten really did for US the
other things claimed; whether those
who come to the first grade at six
years with kindergarten training make
more rapid progress than those who
enter without it. In short, I under
took to make an efficiency test Of the
kindergartens Of Kenosha
Questions were sent out to all first
second, third, fourth and fifth grade
teachers. Those of higher grades than
the fifth were not brought into his
study because of the fact that in Ke-
nosha the kindergartens have not been
in operation sufficiently long or SO gen
orally throughout the city as to have
representatives in the higher grades