Evening star., 1937-11-07
District to Mark Anniversary
Of Kindergarten's Founder
Ceremonies to Honor Memory 0f
Friedrich FrOebeI Thursday
at Roosevelt High.

kiiiueTRarten teachefS was also a phil
anthropic undertaking. Mrs. Leland
Stanford in California, Mrs. Phoebe
Hearst in Washington, D. c., and Mrs.
Paul Agassiz Shaw in Boston we're
among the fairy godmothers who aided
this Cinderella sister in educational
circles.
AS the next step in the cycle of pub
llc kindergarten education came the
struggles with State Legislatures and
in the case of our own city. with Con-
gress itself, for the authorization of
public funds to be used for the estab-
lishment OF kindergartens for chill
dren OF kindergarten age in public
school systems
Once again actual demonstrations of
children in kindergarten environ
ment at great national exposition,
this time the Worlds Fair at Chicago.
in 1895, was tremendous factor in
general public enlightenment as to its
value
In 1899 the kindergarten movement
made the front pages of Washington's
society columns with the celebration
OF Froebels birthday given in the
great ballroom of the German En-
bassy. transformed for the occasion
INTO flower garden with the flags
OF the United States, Great Britain
and Germany as its BACKGROUND. Mrs.
Mckinley, wife of the President Nc
klnley, furnished the flowers from the
Government Conservatives.
In marked contrast to the close
doVe-tailing of the kindergarten of
today and the elementary grades as
sociated with the cycle of education
Ior children in the first six school
levels, kindergartens of the past almost
invariably emphasized their province
as a unique form of education apart
from and having little in common with
routine school procedure.
Blazed a Trail.
An authoritative pamphlet entitled
'Kindergartens, D. c. Public Schools"
compiled by Miss Watkins and / the
corps of kindergartens working with
her in 1896, stresses the credit which
should be given the trail-blazinp
kindergartners of the past for the
contributions which they made to- the
liberalized education of today. Among
them she lists the introduction of
such tenets of modern education as
learning by doing" self activity"
education Is life," 1.-THE whole child
goes to school, and "the present
emphasis on character education and
the development Of personality through
self-expression.
Attention is also called to certain
early kindergarten practices now be-
come part of routine school proce-
dure. such as excursions to points of
neighborhood interest, individual
school garden plots, the mid-morning
lunch, later changed to milk and
crackers, mothers meetings, the cele-
bration OF the Christmas festival and
other holidays and the conversion of
stark, drab classrooms into home-like
places through the introduction of
pictures, plants, curtains, books. mov-
able furniture and musical instru-
mentS.
Thursday night at Roosevelt. under
the direction Of Mrs. Bernice Ran
dali Angelica, the glee club of the
Wilson Teachers College will sing
group OF old kindergarten songs
illustrating Froebel's famous mother
plays.
Teachers College, Columbia Uniyer-
sity. has issued a series of historic
pictures in color showing the kinder
garten's growth and development up
to the present. These will be dis
played by group of young kinder
garten and elementary school teachers.
A movie illustrating current kinder
garten activities throughout the
United States will be shown by DR..
Mary Dabney Davis, director of nurs-
cry schools and kindergartens In the
elementary school division of the
United States Department Of Educa-
ton, who will give an interpretive
talk of each as it appears on the
screen.
The Wilson Glee Club group will
conclude the program with a group
of modern kindergarten songs in use
In our schools.
Associated with Miss Watkins in
arranging Washingtons part has been
an executive board made up of kinder
garten representatives from each
school division. These are Miss A.
G. Clifton, Oyster School, first divi-
sion; Miss Augusta Swan, West School,
third division; Miss Marion Zimmer-
man, John Burroughs School, NTH
division; Miss Marie Graf, Webb
School, sixth division, and Mrs. Ruth
sherwood, Bryan School, fifth divi-
sion.