The Washington times., 1914-05-06


light after darkness-hope fulfilled:
a new world whose existence had
been felt. but never known-revealed.
Like many another, / had felt
from the earlier days Of my mother
hood, that there was something
wrong in our methods Of bringing
I'D our children. 1t Is not right
to strike them. to shut them up in
closets, or to stand them in corners,
and generally to antagonize them
And yet, Of course. disobedience-
the disobedience In particular that
would result in bodily or moral harm
to the little ones, cannot be permit
ted.
I sought much advice. I read many
books and tried many experiments.
but never found what felt was the
true method Of character building.
All either put me in opposition to
my children or required the admin
istration Of punishments which,
though they might claim to be
natural" I felt unjust, as II was
mostly possible to trace the cause
of the childish delinquency 10 some
.mismanagement Of my own
Something Wrong. y,
Not only did 1t seem to me that
there was something wrong In our
scheme of child rearing, l felt also
that there must be a terrible waste
of time in deferring systematic eou-
cation for four or five years H.
as I was told. a baby learned more
in the first hours, days, weeks anu
months of its existence than In sue
ceeding months and years. shouio "e
not be able to utilize them In soihe
WAYS not hurtful even to the uny
brain?
Surely It should be possible 10
put purpose in the eager little hahus
stretching out after bright cotors.
1t could be no more OF a TAX on Tic
small intelligence to have thinos
systematically presented for It's con-
stderation, than to allow It to search
ain,lessly around, confused, and De-
wildered by multitudes OF ooJeclS
unrelated TO each other. and utler-
ly beyond its comprehension OF III
terest.
Here, also, I got little help; The
family physician when appealeI to'
murmured something about rue
bel and I tried earnestly to get noia
of his writings to discover nis Ieal
thought, for l was convinced tndl
there was much more IN ms phiio
sophy, than what appeared IN tne
kinderCartens that I visited Cnlort-
unately / never found a book OF
his. or a satisfactory account OF aus
theories: while the occupations l
saw did not appeal to me-
Struggled Blindly.
So had to wait and struggle
blindiy after something I knew my
baties ought to have, but which
could not give them. I did try. the
babies had bright red. yellow, green,
purple and blue balls to play ~itn'
and when older grown were
trained to notice leaves and flowers;
the lay Of the landscape forming
peninsulas or islands, etc. A doils
house made with their own hands
under their fathers direction vas
approaching completion when fire
destroyed both it and the .aiuily
home. The children's father, true
Mcntessorrian before ever the Dot
toressa was born, gave advice and
suggestions. But these, though they
helped greatly. we're not enough,
and he was too busy a man to be
able to give much time to the chill
dren.
So the years-the precious years
In which SO much more should have
been accomplished, slipped by-and
the Youngest baby was a twelve
year-old girl before l at last saw
the first kindergarten that seemed
to me what Froebel had meant that
they should be. II was a really
wonderful place where children.
blindfolded. were trained to recog-
nize cubes, oblongs. and spheres by
the sense of touch, where, In short.
there was real sense training. with
every faculty reached and made ac-
tive.
II remained the ideal by which all
other educational work was gauged;
till one wet snowy day in February,
1872 ! stumbled on a little school IN
Tarrytown, y. Y.
Play Healthful Games.
The children were the youngest
/ had ever seen in school. and at
first glance they were having about
the same training as in the ideal
kinQSrSaTtCH.
of what we saw did not strike me at
first. 1 said to the teacher, Mss
George. OF course, you insist on
their finishing everything they start
to do. OF course. you insist that
they put away their things be-
fore beginning other occupations"
And l was surprised that when re-
cess came the teachers and chill
dren just played tag" and blind
mans buff." good, healthy. old
fashioned games. but not improving.
like tie pretty kindergarten plays.
Mss George did not say much:
she left me to draw my own con-
clusions and gradually it dawned
on me how radically different every
thing was from anything that / had
ever seen before. That. whereas l
had been giving my ch ldren and
grandC h!ldren things to do, these
children were doing things of them
selves, This meant. the opening of
a whole new world of ideas, and
north by month since that day the
wonder and absolute riChtness of il
has grown, and little children have
become more and more a source OF
intense interest
Entity Unfolds Self.
~. ., ,raat tho lrtrIa new human