The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-24
Kindergarten Best Place For: Child3
By l.. s. BRADY

By l.. s. BRADY
 ID RIGHT boy of three and a half, ID well-developed physically and
 Very active; his father says he ought to go to kindergarten; his mother wants to keep him home. Who ls right?
 Why go to a Kindergarten at all? And at what age, if at ell? A good many. parents are facing just these questions, for now is the time to ar range to place your children in the best school for them, if they are to go this fall.
 Consider two extremes: the home of moderate circumstances, of seven or eight youngsters, where the mother does all the work herself; the children spend a good deal of time with other youngsters of the same age, on ethe' street. Consider now the home of the only child, who has a maid of his own, and who seldom gets to play with the other little youngsters on the block.
 Where is the lonely child going to get his experience in getting along with those of his own age? Not from his nurse, nor from his father or moth- CT, nor yet from the occasional party to which he may be invited. The rough and tumble of the streets is denied him-where is he to satisfy his crav- ings for activity?
 We'll, he may become a .bad,' child, breaking all his toys and anything else that he finds at hand, just to see what happens, or he may become his mothers darling, and be petted and spoiled out of all semblance of a real boy. Or he may merely mark time for another year, bothering his nurse with questions she can't answer, and his parents with questions they won't take time to answer.
 The youngster in sthe other home is in continual contact with other chil- dren in the give-and,take of the street and is not in the same danger of being spoiled or of living in a world of day dreams; he is learning in the school of experience, and, if anything, he is the one who needs kindergarten even less than the child of luxury or of the middle class home, where the east side fashion of using the Streets for a play ground is not particularly encouraged.
 For what is learned at kindergarten Is precisely this: that the children are trained to get along with each other, to give and take, to play fair, and some other details, such as certain fam liiarity with typical schoolroom acti- vities. The emphasis is, and rightly so, upon the childs social needs rather than on the few academic tricks we are accustomed to look upon as ''educa- tion."
 If this theory of training were car ried over into the later grades, what a magnificently trained lot of men and women we would have, instead of the present hodge-podge of trained parrots, Hat inN poIo Ioha viksi
 From three to six the child is emerg- ing as distinct personality. During this time he is forming most of the emotion al reactions toward life which he will carry forever. You cannot be too care full what those habits are. No nurse, generally speaking, is going to furnish the same source of valuable training for the child as is the trained kinder garten teacher-who, it may be re- marked in passing, is probably the best trained for her job of the teaching pro- fession.
 And the child who is in need of bit of intelligent guidance which he will not receive from his own play mates, to be sure-he is going to be better looked after in kindergarten than on the streets. The years from 8VnFce tO SIX are ulOTe important tHaIl any other three years in the child's whole life-can I emphasize that so that parents won't just say "Yes, that's lso," and then do nothing about it?
 Unless you have fine lot of children with whom your youngster can play this winter, and unless you are bet ter student of child needs than most mothers are-better be on the safe side send the child to kindergarten this fall.
 What age child towsend? A bright, active and healthy chSld of three and half is plenty old enough to profit by the experiences which he will receive in kindergarten. A sickly child of five may perhaps be kept at home, where he may be given an unusual amount of rest and medical care. But personal ly. know of many children attending Kindergarten profitably who are under four years of age.
 If you are in any doubt about the health of your child, or his power to absorb enough worthwhile habits and attitudes to merit the expense of main-