New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-19

heads were bent, and their small hands folded
while their kindergartners said grace.
After the meal was over the children put
away their very empty lunch baskets and pro-
ceeded to wash the dishes, and TO put them
away. A teacher stayed by to see that the
blue plates were all clean, for even self-direc-
ton needs supervision. None dropped cup,
none grumbled at the task 1t was part OF
the business of the day.
After the dishes were done, the babies put
on their hats and buttoned themselves into
their coats, and went with their teachers to
the campus to pursue their education by haul
ing leaves. The morning was over, and |
hadn't seen one cross or unhappy or indolent
or uninterested child. There wasn't one OF
them who was glad that school was about over
for the day. 1t was record for any kinder
garten to make.
went into the office to learn from Professor
Patty s. Hill how it had been done-how sho
and her co-workers came to evolve the new
system Of kindergartnng and how they had
made it work.
Professor Hill is the kind of person to
whom children take instictlvely - an alert,
kind-faced woman, with a rare manner of abso-
Lutte simplicity and naturalness, and twinkle
in her keen blue eyes, 1t isn't any wonder
that the Youngsters have welcomed her to their
own world Of reality to which most grown-ups
aren't given passports, so that she has been
able to understand them well enough to inst-
tute radical changes in the process Of their
education.
Nowadays our whole talk is Of denioc-
racy," said Professor Hill. "Why not begin at
the very beginning, and extend it to the chill
dren. beginning the making of good citizens In
the kindergarten?
81 appreciate deeply all that Froebel did.
But since his day whole body Of knowledge
about the nature Of childhood has come to light
which makes it necessary to modify great
deal that Froebel thought and carried into
practice. Nobody was more eager than Froe-
bel to find out by experimentation better ways
of working with children. All through his life
to the day of his death he continued TO change
and modify his work with children, in the line
of observation, as to how it affected them.
but after his death his immediate followers
began to look upon his work as completed.
and experimental work largely disappeared.
Here at Teachers College we feel that expert
mental work must go on as it did IN froeOels
day, along the line Of presenting knowledge n
children. Also we feel that in order TO bring
the work with young children TO its highest
level we must be willing to study with an opes
mind the best that is being done for thea
everywhere. But an open mind is critical
mind and critical mind accepts no system as
whole, but studies TO find that which is best
in it, as well as that which is weakest.
1.-THE same mistakes were made by Montes-
SORTS followers that were made by FroebePs
followers. AS long as she was at work with
the children she had the experimental atti-
tude. discardng all clements that did not tend
TO the development Of the child. But the diff
Guilty is that her worshippers follow blindly all
that she said and did Montessoris message
to kindergartners was TO preserve the indi-
viduality Of the children through wise liberty,
but the materials with which she worked were
too didactic," Professor Hill explained.
"Now we think that strictly limited use
Of such didactc material is a direct violation
of her theory Of liberty" she said. "We are