p .t ; ■ : \ KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 1 i AND PRACTICE , BY KTVre DOUGLAS WIG6IN I AND NORA T^RCHIBALD SMfTH '1 i i 'i : :! i ^r ^' LIBRARY. <>• T^ms-^. W I Cu Kc. 13 ^-^-t J ^p iflrg. SMtffffW* THE BIRDS' CHRISTMAS CAROL. Illustrated. Square i2mo, boards, 50 cents. THE STORY OF PATSY. Illustrated. Square i2mo, boards, 60 cents. A SUMMER IN A CANON. A California Story. Illustrated. i6mo, 5i-25- TIMOTHY'S QUEST. A Story for Anybody, Young or Old, who cares to read it. i6mo, $1.00. The Same. Holiday Edition. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $1.50. THE STORY HOUR. A book for the Home and Kindergarten. By Mrs. Wiggin and Nora A. Smith. Illustrated. i6mo, Ji.oo. CHILDREN'S RIGHTS. By Mrs. Wiggin and Nora A. Smith. A Book of Nursery Logic. i6mo,$i.oo. A CATHEDRAL COURTSHIP and PENELOPE'S ENGLISH EXPERIENCES. Illustrated. i6mo, gi.oo. POLLY OLIVER'S PROBLEM. Illustrated. i6mo, $1.00. THE VILLAGE WATCH-TOWER. i6mo, $1.00. THE REPUBLIC OF CHILDHOOD. By Mrs. Wig- gin and Nora A. Smith. In three volumes, each, i6mo, J 1. 00. I. FROEBEL'S GIFTS. II. FROEBEL'S OCCUPATIONS. Ill KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES AND PRAC- TICE. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, Boston and New York. THE REPUBLIC OF CHILDHOOD BY KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN AND NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH III KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE Z\]c Hcpublic of hering. We are com- pelled to remember that we have living spirits to deal with, which must, by most wonderful and •■ ■' ,' 2-,.' ; ;/; \ -the art and mission ' • ' < t r , A i i''; ''.', .' Uiysti2ri6u> ithout tins, his best conceptions must be falsified and turned against his aim ; mechanism alone would remain, bringing back teacher and pupil into the old tracks of routine. The fact that it is so easy to. counterfeit Froebel's system, or rather so diffi- cult not to do so, without very close and dis- criminating study, explains the many pseudo- kindergartens we see everywhere around us, — institutions which do much to prejudice thinking peoj)le against the real thing, and which could not exist did women in general understand what a/ kiiulergai-ten should really be. If any young woman, therefore, is to be a wife, a mother, a teacher, a governess, a kindergart- ner, or none of these, but a thoroughly develoi)ed 6 THE ABT AND MISSION woman and a helper in th e workr .s work, then, What the ^^^ view of the nature of her responsi- ne^mufr* bilities, she needs a definite and syste- learn. matic training in child culture, and it is our belief that she can get this nowhere so well as in a good kindergarten training school. Can she not take up the study by herself, you say, at odd moments, and by following out a course of read- ing ? No, dear madam, " odd moments " will not do for such a work as this, and, though a course of reading in the history and philosoj^hy of education would be most desirable for her or for any other woman, yet it woald never give her such a know- ledge of the kindergarten as she could gain in a class of earnest young women united b}^ a com- mon aim, and guided by a teacher whose life has been spent in the working out of Froebel's prin- ciples. And, more than all this, in studying by herself she would lack the companionship of chil- dren, the opportunity to translate her theories into practice, and this part of the training is, perhaps, more valuable than any other. If, then, she de- sires to add this crowning glory to her education, let her work earnestly and systematically, under the best training teacher she can find. She will then learn, first, the technique of the Froebel system ; she will become meas- Technique. » .,. urably familiar with its every instru- mentality, gifts, occuijations, recreative exercises, use of stories and games. She will also begin to OF THE KINDEliOAIiTNER 7 learn tin* inactical inaiiagt'inciit of cliildien ac- cordiiiii' to their physical, mental, and moral needs, and tins wni include aniontr Mmmge- other things the secret of diseiphne, — of leading-, not driving; of living with thcni, not for, above, beyond, or instead of them. A happy method of thus diseii)lining- and guiding children is no easy thing to AnofOrai learn T but hardly less difficult, to the '^'""'^'''^■ ordinary i)erson who has been educated entirely from text-books, and instructed rather than har- moniously developed, is the mastery of the art of oral teaching, and this awakens a sense of power in the teacher as fully as it develops self-reliance in the pupil. She must come before the class, not with the printed word to inspire questions and verify answers, but by force of necessity, with the subject clear and complete in her mind, ready to adai)t it to the immediate needs of all. " Such teaching is an exhilarating mental gym- nastic, develojiing observation, expertness in illus- tration, logical and rhetorical skill, fertility of imagination, self-connnand, power over one's own resources, and sympathy with one's scholars.'' ^ * " Oral lessons ! They should come from the overflowing beaker, not from tin- scanty cup. If nieclianical, what an utttT failure tliey become I They must bo so spontaneous its to awaken an interest in every pupil ; so well prepared for as to satisfy tlie aroused attention ; so replete as to tempt and reward all nient.-il craving ; so suggestive as to start innumerable activi- ties iu the listening brain ; and so forceful and iuspiring as to 8 THE ART AND MISSION Oral teaching docs what no other teaching can do as well, — sees the child's need as it arises, and adapts itself })romptly to meet it, thus mak- ing a more vivid, real, and lasting impression. But it must be said in passing that this as well as the text-book method is in dauoer of falling: into the " jiouring-in process," and then becomes just as disastrous to the development of the child's mental jjowers, because it is so often sadly want- ing in exactness. Some people naturally possess this gift of oral teaching in a remarkable degree, while to others it comes only with long practice ; but it certainly can be secured in fair measure by study in a Nor- mal training class. The student must learn to " think on her feet ; " to come to the right conclu- sion quickly ; to see the child's mental need when it arises, and meet it at once ; to teach what is vital and necessary, and within the child's powers, and not waste time upon mechanical iterations and useless facts; to draw from the child, not " pour into " him ; to make him the discoverer of knowledge, instead of being herself an instructor. She must learn to seize upon the salient points of a subject, and throw so bright a light ujDon them that the blindest may read and comprehend ; to drive to investigation, research, and study by every available means. They should be mixed with every recitation, — an infil- tration of sunlight over every path of knowledge, shortening and illuminating the road, and yet revealing an infinite vista." — Louisa P. Hopkins, How Shall my Child be Taught ? p. 76. OF TlIK KiyUEltG ARTS Eli 9 make lu'isclf intorcstiiii'- and channintr to chil- then : to bo al)lo to iiii[)rc's.s the same idea in more than one way, and with more than one set of terms. And for all this teai-hinir she needs a trained voieo, elear and musieal, to be used with ease, natural intleetions, perfect articulation and pronunciation. To be an expressive reader has long been thought a requisite of primary teaching, but, alas I that is not enough for us : with the new methods we recpiire eloquent talkers, for '* faults of tone, modulation, and manner are propagated by the teacher, as well as false syntax and incor- rect pronunciation," To do thoroughly skillful educational work, however, not only implies a mastery of r 1 1 • 1 1 Laws of the art of oral teadnng, but a know- Mental Sci- ence* ledge of the laws of mental science, — of what to teacji, when to teach it, and how. The student must learn to know what kind of forces she is handling, and understaiul how to develop them. The science of education is the science of nature and the science of man, and it is this which she is to study. It will carry her into regions of thought which j)erhaps she has never entered before in any previous experience of her life, even if she has accpiired a great deal of book knowledge. It is the psychological part of Froe- bel's plan that gives it })ower and value, — those ])rinciples which, seen at first " through a glass darkly," unfold and grow in one's mind day by 10 THE ABT AND MISSION day, until they seem to explain the universe. Only when they are fully comprehended will she see the real spirit of the system, and realize that its chief significance lies just there, and not in any cut-and-dried formalities or petty details. And yet this is not enough. There is that s tiff^ unwieldy imagination and fancy with Need of Sen- , . , , i en • j i sibiiityand vvhich most growu pcople are attlicted. Imagination. r; n » i . ^ Jr^oor grown tolks ! we have not only lost the unwrinkled brow and dimj)led cheek of childhood, but we have parted with its fresh- ness, unconsciousness, and faith ! We are very wise, it is true, but we are also blind, cautious, incredulous, dull, prosaic, and unreceptive. Chil- dren see at a glance analogies and spiritual rela- tions which are beyond us. They really live more in the spirit and less in the body than we of a larger growth. (The kindergartner must fit herself, then, to enter the child world, — to become play- mate, friend, and companion ; for no woman can afford to let all the poetry and gayety of life fade away from her, even when grief threatens to eclipse the sunshine, and experience casts a shade over the full joy of living / To become " as one of these " little ones may be a difficult thing to learn ; but if it is the only way to the kingdom of heaven, it is just as much the only way to the perfection of child gardening. It is growing to be childlike, not childish ; for \there is a heaven-wide difference between the two OF THE laXDEIWAIiTNKIi U r ex])rossions. What tlie lviiuler<^avtner constantly strives to accomplish is to Invak the stiff, infiox i- blc, onter crust, and ivach_thc heart_of.iliin;;s. i Von may call it stoopinj;-, if you choose, but in reality with every step we take down towards the child we are lifted to a higher level. In the telling of stories, repeating bits of appro- priate verse, framing of simple tales from picture- books, entering into the si)irit of the symbolic games and songs of the kindergarten, — in all these things a lively imagination is needed, and a truly fresh and childlike spirit. Nor can the student of Froebel afford ulti- mately to restrict herself to an under- Need of n standing of the proper education of an.rFine'in- children between three and six years, '^^"'K'""^"- for be assured .she will neither be able to con- duct nor to superintend that first teaching well unless she is also fitted to do more. " It takes nuich universal knowledge and wisdom," you know, " to be able to impart the right little suc- cessfully." Every woman should certainly take an interest in the ])roblems of heredity ; she should inuler- stand the imjiortance of prenatal influeiu?e.'3 as well as of nursery training ; and, if this is neces- sary, should sjie not also l)e broad enougli and sufficiently well informed to take an intelligent view of the higher education for which, whether properly or improperly, she is j)reparing every 12 THE ART AND MISSION child under her care ? The fact is, no mantle of charity is huge enough to cover the clumsy educa- tional attempts which sometimes go by the name of kindergarten. The portions of the work that are most easily learned and are of the least value, that might almost be called the tricks of the kin- dergarten, are those that generally most please, and are thus brought into rmdue prominence. There is nothing which so entirely depends for its value upon superior intelligence. If the kin- dergartner does not see what effect every step the child takes is to have upon its future devel- opment ; if she does not clearly distinguish be- tween entertaining him and educating him : if, in short, she has not something of a view of the entire educational field ; if her work is not con- sciously philosophic, — it is likely t o be a posi- tive injury. Agreeable manners and entertaining exercises and pretty games are well enough, but they must not be confounded blindly with education, unless they are lifted to it by fine intelligence. True kindergarten work is impossible without such , intelligence. "^"311 these topics which have been touched upon The Office of ^^'® important enough: but, as already Kindergart- noted, perliaps the most important of ^^^' all, in its relation to life and growth and character-building, is the daily practice in the kindergarten itself, — studying the child OF Tin: KlSDEUaMlTSER 13 iiatur(\ and observing and practicing the varied ways of management and discipline necessary in individualizing each child. The office of the true kindcrgartner is one of the most delicate and exacting in the world ; for though the mother herself is expected to regnh\te the moral and in- tellectual atmosphere which her children breathe, and to be the fotintain of justice, wisdom, love, and svmpathy to which they naturally turn, she has not always the time nor the intelligence to attend to her duties properly, and they are thus relegated to the kindcrgartner. In many busy households, with their flocks of little ones, the weary mother has an endless round of duties to perform, in which too often the child, with his hourly wants, his intellectual hun- ger, and ceaseless questioning, is either ignorantly censured or impatiently brushed aside as trouble- soTue. How good a thing it is, then, when he can be removed to a new little woild, where he can expand morally, intellectually, and physically ; where he can enjoy the society of equals, and live in the companionship of a new and charming beintr, who seems to him half mother and half teacher. And thus in proportion to its vast importance is the task of the first teacher of childhood a most delicate one. A mother conunoidy has siu'h an instinctive ami thorough understanding of her child, if she has kept his care iu her own 14 THE AET AND MISSION hands, that she knows his good possibilities, and can balance them against the evil ones better than any one else ; and thus, if she be a true mother, she is her child's best educator. The teacher must learn all this theoretically before she is fit to take the mother's place, and only by learning it theoretically is she prepared to ^" add to her knowledge by experience. But here let us say that no amount of abstract book knowledge or scientific experimenting can com- pensate for the lack of that subtle something Uvhich we call " materna l instinct." " One who is a mother only to her own little ones is not one of God's mothers, she is only a woman who has borne children," says George Macdonald. Learn- ing may make a pedagogue, it will never of itself make a kindergartner. On the other hand, we can do nothing without it : it is love and learning combined which we need in our vocation, for " a loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge; this it is which opens the whole mind, and quick- ens every faculty to do its fit work." There can be very little class instruction in I the kindergarten : its chief weapon is personal /influence, and instead of learning we aim to / give life ; instead of study, experience. It ' should never be in any sense a school, but if it reaches its ideal it becomes at last a bit of practical child-life, a community in which each tiny citizen acts out his own good will and pleas- OF Tin: KiyDERCAltTSER lo lire, so lonpj as it does not interfere witli the pleasure of Iiis neicjlibor or with the connnon welfare. AVe aim to make the children self-governing. The kindergarten is a republic ; the x,,c Perso,,- happy mistress of that republic i.s or Trm-Kin-"' should be a child among the children, '^'^s"'^*""- merrier than the youngest, but able to guide them all. The soul of a wise and loving mother, the mind of an earnest woman, the heart of a little child, that comprehends the personality of an ideal kindergartner, — it is what, despite our limitations, we all strive to be. '' The very soul of the kindl•l•^;u•tt•ll is i1i.' cliild gardene^Tjj' She must know how to guide the children watchfully and tenderly. Obedience must be hers, though it must never come from terror, but from an innocent, trustful, never-disappointed love. She should be the child's confidant, hel})cr, and ad- viser. He knows where to find symj^athy if he is iix trouble. lie knows who will smile when he has some happiness to recount. lie does her will cheerfully, because he .sees that she is always call- ing him to new and joyfid experiences, always giving him command over himself and his facul- ties, ever leading him to fresh victories. She seems to him a compendium of knowledge and wisdom, a j)laymate who knows just what he desires, a friend who never fails. He is sure of her, and she, on the other hand, is equally sure 16 THE ABT A^^D MISSIOX of liim, if she is mistress of her art. She moves from child to child with smiles and words of cheer, or with friendly caution and encourage- ment. She knows when the little hands are weary, when the tired head needs rest. If she is in spnpathy with her vocation, she is the hap- piest woman in the community, and why should she not be so? She is surrounded with bright eyes and rosy cheeks, with loving lips and tender little hands, with merry looks and ringing laughs, or with pale faces which touch her very heart. She is helping willing fingers and busy brains to begin their bit of the world's work ; and though she does not always see harmony, yet great is her joy when a glint of it begins to appear here and there. Yes, take all the professions, singly or in a mass ; take the good cheer of a physician who has saved his patient, the complacency of a lawyer who has cleared his client, the ecstasy of an artist who has wrought out his ideal, the joy of a preacher who has led a human being from error to truth, — there is nothing in any of these more beautiful or satisfying. But in order that the kindergartner may accom- plish what she strives for so earnestly, cess can be in ordcr that she may work with intelli- attained. , . , , " , • , ^ i gence and reap with certamt}^ deep and earnest preparation is necessary, that she may comprehend the philoso])h^ of the sy_st^iand ap- or THE Ki\i>i:n<;.\irr\i:n 17 ply it wisely ; for, unless a kiiulerj^artnor is both more thoughtful and skillful than the machine teaeher, it is not only evident that the system of Froclxl eannot effect any "Teat reform, but that she cannot safely be trusted with that most diffi- cult of all tasks, tho(forming of the miiiid^ that of the succeed iuui; teachers, the inform ini;- of the already partially formed mind, being- a much simpler process. " It is useless to expect social regeneration from persons who are not themselves regenerated," says Dr. Harris. It is one thing to teach and cpiiteN another thing to make the children love that ) teaching ; yet in proportion to the love engeuy dered do the trials disa})pear on both sides. Kuskin says : " Education then, briefly, is the leading luuuan souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them, and these two objects are always attainable together and by the same means ; the training which makes men liap])iest\ in themselves, also makes them most serviceable/ to others." Now, all that has been outlined of what the kindergarten student is to leaiii, and the lofty ideal which she must set before her, may appear a formidable summing up of the subject, but it is not, in fact, at all exaggerated. It is possible in the ordinary course of training, and with the vari- ous degrees of preliminary culture and exj)eriencc with which the student enters the class, for her 18 THE ART AND MISSION to do just this, — perfect herself in the practical management of a kindergarten, and in the entire technique of the Froebel system, and make her- self mistress of the art of oral teaching, if she has some natural ability, and, if not, gain a know- ledge that will in the course of a year's experi- ence show tangible fruits. It will be the same with the various arts of ex- pression, — illustration, story-telling, singing, and gesture, — much depends upon talent ; but much can be developed from moderate abilities, if the student is earnest and intelligent. Of the science and history of education, and of the laws of mental science, she will learn as much as possible in the allotted time, and the amount of time she gives will be absolutely dependent upon her receptivity. If she keeps the ear of her heart open aU the time, she can listen advantageously and begin to develop almost immediately. Many things, however, must be left for future study ; in some departments of training it will be possible only to give her the key words, the foundation, trusting that she may add the superstructure in future years. If the student accomplishes such work as has been indicated in the year, or two years, which is the ordinary length of the kindergarten course, she will have learned more than in any other similar perjod of her life, but she can do it all by great conscientiousness ; by recognizing the diffi- OF THE KIXDERGARTXEIi lU ciiltics l)cfore her and econoiniziiij; her time ; hy givin}]^ up piirt of her social pleasures for a sou- son ; by working carefully and with regard to health and strength; by accomplishing eaeli small task in the allotted time; by treating whatever her leader says with respect and faith until she sees a better way, but by never taking any method unquestioned ; by unremitting fidelity to all her days of work and observation (for this, after all, is the most precious part of her training) ; by punc- tuality and energy and sympathy ; and by doing everything required of her so well that the stand- ard of the whole class will insensibly be raised. No amount of private reading, study, or reflec- tion would give the earnest young woman y,,ug ^f so complete a knowledge of the kinder- gtrl^tioiiand garten theory and practice as this class ^'^p"'^^^°°- instruction and association with others in the same field of thought and labor. Studying in common is valuable in that it aids the imagina- tion, which in adults is apt to have lost its saliency and flexibility. It is of vast importance to freely communicate with others, and, with respectfid mutual considei-ation, exchange experiences, im- pressions, and ideas, that " thus by one another's gifts we may complement our individual limita- tions." The student will find, however, when her prep- aration is com])lete, that she has, after all, only grasped the *' skeleton of Frocbi I's plan, wliich 20 TEE AET AND MISSION is in its turn only a skeleton of God's plan of education ; it will take a lifetime to clothe it with flesh and beauty." The idea was prevalent not so very many years An Ignorant ^g® ^^^^^ ^ kindcrgartner was a jjerson Kiudergar'r ^^o youug and too ignorant for pub- ^"' lie school work, and too proud to be a seamstress or nursery governess, and so this most exacting of all professions was deemed open to those who had not the requisite education, talent, or genius for any other occupation. Now, how- ever, we are beginning to see that all the learning, accomplishments, and graces that the human mind can compass, and the human heart blossom into, are not sufficient with which to reach the ideal of kindergarten teaching. If any young woman thinks that this is the calling where her deficien- cies will show the least, and her accomplishments count for the most, she will not only be wofully mistaken, but she will narrow her work down to a paltry mechanical imitation of what should be a reality full of truth, beauty, and strength. If she have not the consciousness of genius, and must even deny herself the luxury of possessing talent, she has still a mission, and there is an opportunity, though by no royal road, for her to rise in her chosen profession. In all our work, we must keep our eyes well on the ends, or rather the aims, the ultimate ideals, and beware of losing our efficiency in OF rill': hi.\D£iiGAiiTM:i: 21 exflusivi' attention to narrow innnctliate results. "Never for a nioiucnt." says Dr. Hail- xi,i,„„to mann, " lose your faith in the universal '"'*""'* law of lovi", which in the world of the emotions is as unfailinj;' aiul as free from exceptions as the law of gravitation in tlie material worhl. Never for a moment lose your faith in trutli, which, by the same law, the mind is destined to find and follow ; nor in that supreme freedom of will that knows no obstacle to the doini; what head and heart have recofjnized as good and right. Love in the emotional, truth in the intellectual, and free- dom in the ethical life constitute a spiritual trinity which you in your work should worship always." Above all things, let us aim to adhere, as stead- fastly as we may be able, to the highest ideal of womanhood ; for the womanhood that is lovely and pure, that aims to reach the highest and best, that keeps itself in the eurrent of the time, recognizing its new responsil)ilities and added possibilities, — this is a woman's richest gift to the world, and is the flovrer of her fairest possi- bilities. Let us remember in conclusion that "to acquire a knowledge of the mind, and of the means by which the mind may be developed, is the study of a lifetime. Let us stand before it with humility, remembering that it is the meek who inherit the earth, lie alone is really learning who feels the immensity of the truth, and realizes that all he 22 MISSION OF THE EINDEEGABTNER knows or can know in this workl is but as a drop in the g-reat ocean of truth that stretches bound- less and fathomless into eternity." ^ These are but the texts that have been given ; we will write our sermons from them day by day in each other's hearts and lives, and through sweet deeds of love and motherliness, through ever new accessions of mental and spiritual strength, through the steady growth of that insight which perceives the harmony of God's nni verse, we will make out of the broken sonnds of life a song, and out of life itself a melody. 1 Francis W. Parker. NATURE-STUDY " And Nature, the old nurso, took The diihl upon lier knee, Saying. ' Here is a story-book Thy Father hath written for thee. " ' Come wander with nie,' she said, ' Into regions yet untroiied in her play to look at a spider,i exclaiming, " Oh, what a beautiful, smiling crea- ture ! " True, they are all beautiful, smiling, creatures to the children : and we blush for the , hardness, yes, the wickedness, of the mother, nurse, or teacher who would shake one of these litth' animals from the child's hands, and by word and look indicate disgust and repulsion. It is 30 NATURE- STUDY ( wise, of course, for fear of venomous insects, to say ! that all such creatures are best left out of doors, 1 where they are far happier, and can be watched / more easily, and that handling always frightens and often hurts them. This is well enough, but it is a far different thing to express horror at the sight of a harmless animal the child brings, to shrink from it, or even to kill it before his won- dering and never-forgetting eyes. Equal to the children's love for animals is their Their Love intcrcst iu Icavcs and shrubs, in flowers and^itsPro-^ and trccs, and in the life-giving earth it- ducts. ggj£^ where they delight to dig and grub, to throw up mounds and make miniature gardens. " As soon, however, as any power of observation has begun to supplement the merely instinctive movements," says the Baroness von Morenholtz- Biilow, " there is awakened an impulse to till the ground, and to make use of the productive force of nature : thus the child in its play, and thus man in the earliest stages of civilization, seeks to obtain better and more plentiful nourishment." ^ r It seems obvious enough then, as we have already said, that every child ought, from the / ideal point of view, to grow up in the country ; and the delight that city children show when they are taken back to the " c-reat sweet mother " shows that they only half live, at best, when pent ^ Bertha von Morenlioltz-Bulow, Child and Child Nature, p. 31. NATUUE-STUDY 31 * within four walls ami uoisy streets. A little pris- oner of the cit}', who had si)ent one blissful mouth on his aunt's farm, was sent as usual to j)lay '* outdoors in the baek yard " the day after he returned. It was not long before he eanie in, ehokiug with sobs and drowned in tears, and, when asked the cause of his grief, gas|)ed out, '"" Don't want this ou'doors ; want auntie's ou'- doors . The real thing always discontents us with the pinchbeck substitute, and be sure it is a healthy discontent, and one which will find its own rem- edy. The country child is blessed in that he has all that is necessary for his development, if he but be iriven the marne touch which sh;dl unseal his eyes and unstop his ears to the wonders of the univei'se. The kindergarten, however, connnonly has the city child to deal with, and it is he who must be considered now, not his for- Kii.d.rKar- tunate little country Inotlier. iSo one feeini.tso 11 1 IiiU-rehU. who has studied rroebel thoroughly but knows of that lov:e, for flowers which was one of the strongest of his distinguishing traits. From the hazel-buds, which early in childhood, he says, opened for him, "like angels, the great God's tem- ple of nature, ' to the garden from whence in later life he missed the lily, the " beautiful Christ- flower," — all through the various festivals, when he tells us that his zooms were always garlanded 32 NATURE-STUDY and decoratetl with blossoms, up to his dying / days, the flowers cluster in and over all the pages of his writings. Two of his last recorded utter- ances are : " Take care of my flowers and spare my weeds ; " and again, just before his gentle spirit passed away, " I love flowers, men, chil- dren, God ! I love everything." It is not surprising, then, that he so constantly and earnestly insists on gardening as one of the most valuable occupations for children, though perhaps it may be consid- ered surprising that his devotees, in this country at least, have done so little to carry out his wishes. Froebel desired that every kindergarten child should have a small plot of ground, wliich he might dig up and prepare himself, and in which he would sow the seeds and tend the plants, under the guidance of the teacher. He sees there "for the first time," says Froebel, " the fruits proceeding from his action in an organic, necessarily limited, intellectually legiti- mate way, — fruits which in many ways depend upon his activity, though subject to the inner laws of the powers of nature. This work gives many-sided and full satisfaction to the boy's life with nature, his questions about, it, and the ear- nest desire to know nature which leads him re- peatedly to contemplate plants and flowers for a long time, and to observe them thoughtfully. And nature also seems especially favorable to NATriiE-sTl'DY 33 this (k'sire and this i'm}>h)yinent, and to especially bless them by a fortunate result.'' ^ Only a small jdot of j^round is needed for each child, of course, and the plants, as Froebcl says, " should not be rare, hard to raise, or double. They should be easily grown, common ])lants, such as have an abundance of leaves and flowers." Much of the garden iuL^' may be done by the children together and for a common purpose ; flowers may be raised for decoration, vegetables may be given away, peas planted for the peas- work, lentils and beans for the point-work, and in the fall the seeds may be gathered and sorted for another year. All tliis is simple and delightful, and would lead naturally to the establishment of such school Gar- school gardens as have been planned by '^''"^• Dr. Erasmus Schwab, and are now compulsory in some parts of Germany and Austria. In these, which are really botanical gardens, cultivated by the children under the direction of trained teachers, botany is taught, as well as those other branches of natural history which may be called "inherent to the soil," and at certain hours all kinds of outdoor sports are played in the shade of the trees. Dr. Scguin, in his •• Ixejwrt on Education," traces in his picturescpie style the history of " Garden Schools," sketches their prob- * Friedrich Froebel, Education of Man (tr. by J. Jarvis), p. 07. 34 NATURE-STUDY able future, and points out of what value they may become in " making" the schooling of the masses more active and practical by transferring it to the open air." ^ Botanical gardens, however, either small or great, are quite out of the reach of most city kindei'gartens ; a foot-square plot of ground for each child, even, is an Arabian Night's dream, though it must be confessed that we do not always make the most of such resources as we have, and might, perhaps, had we Oriental patience, do a little gardening in the sand-heaps, or hard-beaten earth, that frequently surround us. But let us face the matter in its darkest aspect, and see if we cannot gratify the children's legitimate de- sires, even in a spot which has not one inch of ground at our disposal. The first essential is that we shall be ourselves convinced that it really is absolutely necessary for the little ones to have some opportunity to watch the processes of nature as shown in germination and growth, and not only to watch, but to assist those processes them- selves. AVhen this conviction is sown deep enough, a thousand ways of carrying it out will spring up in the mmd. Every kindergarten may have growing pla nts Gardening ^f souic kind, and it should be the chil- in Miniature, ^pg^'g pleasure to watcr and tend them ; every kindergarten may have wi ndo\v -box£s for ^ E. Seguin, Meport on Education, pp. 132-147. yjii UK-STL I) y 85 coinmunity ganlons, for there must be ut least one window sunny enoui;h for the growth and l)los.S(»niinu: of a few seeds of the hardier kinds. Every kindergartnor may fill sjionges with flax^ seed and hani;- them in the windows ; may hollow out and iill with water, earrots and sweet potatoc^ and suspentl them by cords ; may buy the eliarm- ing Italian *' growing vases," whieh need so little care ; may have Chinese lilies and hyacinths in bowls and pots ; may ])lant canary-seed in the ! sand-table occasionally : and if (supi)osition can no further go I ) the room be lighted by a sky- light, the children may still lay peas and other seeds on thin layers of cotton in l)owls of water, and daily watch the miraculous quickening of life. There is as much matter for wonder, when you come to think of it, in the growth of a nuistard- seed, as in that of a Sequoia Gigantea, and it is not best to ilisdain that least of seeds because you have no room for a grove of " big trees." Froebel again, in all his writings, insists that the child shall be allowed the privilege careof of companionship with animals, and, by Ammau. caring for them himself, grow to understand their needs, and be more closely bound to them by the feelinjr that he is their earthly Providence. " The child or boy," says Froebel,' "who has tended or ])rotected an outer life, even if of a very inferior degree, is more easily led to the tendance and care * Education of Man (tr. by J. Jarvis), p. 07. 36 NATUEE-STUDY of liis_o\i:rLiife. And the boy's desire to observe living, natural objects — beetles, butterflies, swal- lows — is also satisfied by the care of plants, as such creatures like to come near the plant-world." Here, again, the country child is a blessed one, for he can see close beside him every day the gentle creatures of the barnyard and field ; the colts and calves and lambs ; the tender mother- hen ; the birds at their nest building ; the snake darting through the grass ; the fish and frogs and turtles and lizards ; the ants and bees and cater- pillars ; and, far in the woods, "the " wee, brown, furry face " of the squirrel. In all these crea- tures he may, as Froebel says, " see his own fresh, stirring, inner life in the looking-glass of outer life, and feel how really strong it is within him." But we cannot make the kindergarten into a farmyard, nor do we wish to place any of our brother animals in an unsuitable environment, where they would be ill at ease in mind or body. The problem, it must be confessed, presents many difficidties to a city kindergarten, but not all of them are insurmountable. Those of us who are fortunate enouo-h to have a matron connected with our institutions may certainly have a cat and dog, and, by judicious petting and feeding, attach them to our firesides. Any one may have an aquarium, and by a little study and care persuade turtles, lizards and snails to live in it as well as fish ; a cage of white mice is possible (if not fascinating) ; a rab- AM TUIiE-STl'I) y 37 l)it-huti'h iiiii;lit be ostublishecl in tla- playground in suitably warm months : a dovecote is sometimes not out of the (]uestion ; and why might we not bor- row a hen and ehiekens occasionally ? Canaries, of course, are always charming, though many i)er- sons feel that their value to the child is lost be- cause they are unjustly restrained of their liberty. It woidd seem, however, that the chihl might easily see the difference between the capture and imprisonment of a wild bird, and the confinement of a canary who, with a long line of his ancestors, was born in a cage and knows no other home. It is necessary, however, with animals as with plants, that the children should tend and care for them themselves, for there is a soul-cultu re as well as j a scientific value to the work! mTss Blow says r " fiTcarmg for animals, moreover, the child learns to subordinate his pleasure to their good; purifies his selfish love for them into a thoughtful and protecting affection ; and fosters in his own heart that spirit of goodwill and heli)fulness which, transferred from feeble and defenseless animals to feel)le and defenseless human beings, blossoms into the disinterested service of mankind.'' ^ The children's scientific study of the animals about them and in their care must, of how wo course, be of a kind which will neither gt'iui'vLiv- hurt, disturb, or frighten the friendly '"'^ '""^''" creatures. Any information about life, which the ' Susnn E. Blow. Symbolic Education, p. 136. 38 NATURE-STUDY child gains at the cost of distress or pain to the living thing, will be information donbly cursed to the child and to mankind, for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own sovil ? And we may say much the same thing in regard to the plants and flowers the child studies. He is not to root them up and tear them to pieces for the sake of seeing how they grow and how they are made. This is a dangerous pastime for child- hood, and belongs to the analytic method of later scientific study. " The most important things to be considered in this connection," says Dr. W. N. Hailmann, " are the various manifestations of life on the part of the animal or plant under observa- tion. This demands patience and control of mere curiosity by a reverent regard for life itself. In hasty work, there is a tendency to forget this ; to look upon a knowledge of the external features of the livino- thinff as the chief concern, and to sacri- fice life for the sake of examining the tools of life, or for the sake of making a collection of preserved specimens, as the savage rejoices in his collection of scalps. It is our purpose, throughout the primary period, to repress these tendencies by stimulating and encouraging the desi r e to observBi and nurture living things, and to describe animals and plants chiefly with reference to their life- manifestations, rather than with reference to their merely external forms and peculiarities." \ATri;i:-srii>y ;i9 While we begin by studying tlie living animals near at hand, and the plants within our ^i.i^t^ care, wo may later on, by means of jne- ^j'j'Ii'y?' tures, reaeh txit further and learn to ^'"'^"""'■ know their kin in wood and field and in far-off eountries. There are many pictures whieli can be made most useful in this nature-teachinnf : f(n- so we can show the I'hild stiange wild animals, peculiarities of structure which he could not see in the living things, and also illustrate the homes and the nests and cradles that the}', as well as the mother plants, make for their babies. Poems which are true to nature, and which set some scientific facts in "fair remem- poemsand berable words," are always useful to the ^'°"''- kindergartner, while some of them may be mem- orized by the older children. Stories, too, — of course the field for them is inexhaustible, and they are of the greatest possible benefit if they are founded on fact, well-written and well-told. They should not be so imaginative, however, as to obscure the truth we are trying to reveal, nor so bald and bai-e in style as to rcjiel the children. All the books on botany and zoology contain useful material for stories, and even the encydo- l)a'dia and the dictionary arc rich with sugijes- tions if the reader have " the seeing eye." Should the kindergartner, however, be entirely out of the realm of books, she would still have stories enough for several generations of children in the 40 NATURE-STUDY nature-lessons before mentioned, and these also have many helpful suggestions as to poems and pictures. Although the children of most of our kinder- Walks gartens be but city prisoners, yet they Abroad. j^j,g j^Q^ chained to their dungeon cells ; and where a plant or animal cannot be seen at home, it is usually possible to go and visit it. Many kindergartens have parks and squares within walking distance, where a few of the chil- dren might be taken at a time to study the mys- teries of the flowers ; while most neighborhoods have at least one cow or goat, or flock of hens or ducks, that might be interviewed in a friendly way. A real coimtry ramble, where growing things may be seen in their proper environment, is a wonderful quickener of nature-study ; for here one may gather specimens of leaves and nuts and mosses and flowers, pick up bright pebbles and stones, watch the birds and the fish in their happy freedom, note the habits of ants and bees and butterflies, and gather material for a host of questions which form the basis of subsequent science-lessons. Yet these country rambles are impracticable as yet for many of us, though the very demand for them will create its own supply in time. Every kindergarten should have a cabinet in which specimens of all kinds are kept for play- SATLHE-STLDV 41 r lessons, and these are very useful in nature-work. If we cannot wateh the hirils at their Nature coi- nest-buildino-, we can study the wonder- '«'^''°"»- ful products of their skill : if we cannot raise silk-worms, we can see the eggs, the cocoons, and the silk ; we can have samples of flax, cotton bolls, rolls of wool, hornets' and spiders' nests, blown eggs of various kinds, paper made of vari- ous substances, and a very complete collection of shells. Some of these specimens may have been raised by the children in their gardens, as bulbs, roots, seeds, and pods ; others be treasures brouglit home from woodland rambles, as lichens, fungi, ferns, nuts, autumn leaves, pebbles, com- mon minerals and rocks : and the kindergartner may add to these, numerous specimens of pressed sea-moss, which, with its delicate branches and brilliant coloring, the children so delight to sketch and stiuly. One more aid to the wise love, protection, and snni)athetic studv of nature Froebel has given us in his games devised for that purpose, and these are imicpie in the history of educational methods. Nearly half the plays in the "Mutter und Kose-Lieder" are concerned with nature and natural phenomena ; and the (piaint, careful illustrations, executed according to Froebel's directions, all breatlie the "deep love that lieth under all." As tlie child imitates the weatliercock, beckons the chickens, mimics 42 NA TU RE-STUD Y the fisli in the brook, sings of the moon and the stars, phiys at tending the flowers, portrays the life of the farmer, he is learning his kinship with nature, finding out that "we and they are His children, one family here," and learning his du- ties and responsibilities toward that family. It is all play to ns, but to the child it is the deepest earnest ; for play is at once bis life and his lesson, his work and himself. No better foun- dation for science or religion can be laid than that sincere and reverent interest in nature which has found out, by seeking, that in this universe of ours ".all 's love, yet all 's law." SYMBOLISM : ITS USE IN KINDERGARTEN SONGS AND GAMES '' Each thing around us speaks A language all its own, And, though we may have grown Ilardeni'd and dull of ear. The little children hear." Friedrich Froebel. The use of the symbols of nature as means of education is unique in Froebel's system sj-mboUin of eliild-trainnig, and rests upon his con- virtion that all natural phenomena are signs of spiritual truth to which they give expression, and, again, that we nuist help the child, through na- ture, " To find those verities within himself Of which all outward things are but the type." Inspired by his belief that the development of the child must parallel the developnu'ut , , , . Tlie Child of the race, he looked back through his- »n.i the tory and tradition to find that God has from tho beginning trained humanity by means of symbols. "The undeveloped mind needs sen- suous perce]>tions. the visible signs," argues Froe- bel, •* in order to arrive at an understanding of 44 SYMBOLISM: ITS USE truth. As the savage needs his fetich, as the people of antiquity in a higher state of culture personified their ideas in the form of gods and various allegories, as even the Christian church cannot make itself understood without symbols, without the cross and the host, so the deepest need of childhood is to make the intellectual its own through symbols or sensuous forms." ^ A symbol may be considered to be a sensuous What is a object wliicli suggests an idea, or it may Symbol? i^g defined as the sign or representation of something moral or intellectual by the images or properties of natural things, as we commonly say, for instance, that the lion is the sj^mbol of courage, the dove the symbol of gentleness. It need not be an object, however, any more than an action or an event ; for the emerging of the butterfly from the chrysalis may be a symbol of the resurrection of the body, and the silver lin- ing of a cloud typify the joy that shines through adversity. Kindergarten symbolism has more than one phase, for Froebel, as master of the ten Symbol- syiubol. Well uudcrstood its value in ed- ucation. As applied to the gifts, it deals, as Miss Blow sa}- s, " more with poetic cor- respondences than with typical facts." but in the plays and games the latter phase is developed ; for we aim, by representation of the essential activi- ^ Reminiscences of Froebd, p. 105. IS KI.\DEIi(;AUTEy SOMiS ASD GAMES 45 ties of nature and of man, not only to understand those activities more ekarly, since imitation is the first step towards comprehension, hut also, hy u])- hohliui;' the mirror of nature, to teach the soul to understand itself and its destiny more clearly. In gra]diie and plastic art, in literature, in music, in religion, in language, in all life, the human mind has ever delighted itself with sym- l)(ds ; but it is not within the province of this little book to point out the eternal verities on which this universal delight is based, to cite the irreat thinkers of the world who have held to the essential relation of the natural and spiritual worlds, nor to trace the mystical correspondences of type and archetype. Our office just here is merely to give a simi)le explanation of the value of synd^olism as illustrated in the kindergarten games, for these hand-books are only intended for betrinners in the studv of education, aiul the the- oiy of symbolism as a whole is one which lies far beyond the scope of a single volume. Let those who would see more clearly the spiritual truths whieh underlie the subject, and which hide them- selves from a hasty glance, first study the '' Mother Play" and "" The Education of Man " long and seriously, and then reach out into the general lit- erature of synd)olism. For the student of sym- bols as used in the kindergarten. Miss Blow's ''Synd)olie Educaticm "' will be found most in- spiring as a commentary on Froebel's writings. 46 SYMBOLISM: ITS USE The study of symbolism, to some extent at least, is of the greatest importance to for all all teachers ; for the understanding of the adult must come to the help of the child, to open doors of expression to the im- pulses that are darkly struggling within him, to guide those impulses in the right direction, to make clear to the little one his own symbolic thought, and to give fit nourishment to his later conscious life. Froebel would have the child trained from the very beginning to look behind tlie effect to the cause, behind the symbol to the reality, behind the visible to the invisible ; and the teacher who does not herself realize that " Every natural flower which glows on earth Implies a flower upon the spiritual side," cannot be trusted to develop the soul and mind of the child through the use of symbols. To get at the spirit and inspiration of symbolic representation in song and game, it is "Mother- necessary first of all to study Froebel's "Mutter und Kose-Lieder." The sig- nificant remark quoted in the Reminiscences is this : " He who understands what I mean by these songs knows my inmost secret." Now Froebel spoke sometimes obscurely, but never lightl}', and one is -instantly impressed with the thought that here is something to be studied more deeply. The book is a collection of baby-plays gathered IS Kiyi)EIiGAIiTK\ SOXGS AM) GAMES 47 anions^ tlu' German jjcasant mothers, divested by Froebel of all uiineeessary or objectioiialde fea- tures, and thus redueed to the simjilo elements whieh God-given maternal instinct dimly felt to be essential. To these Froebel added various similar p:ames, and each one in the collection may be considered a type of a class of ])lays which make the universal feelings, the ordinary sur- roundings, the trivial round, the common task of every child, so man}- rungs in a ladder to lead him daily nearer God. Each play is preceded by a motto for the mother, giving suggestions as to the truths which the child's song symbolizes, and all are accom- l>anied by pictures which are to be shown to the children, and which are in themselves an epitome of Froebelian philosojihy. You will find people who say that the music of the original version is poor, which is largely true, and that the versification is weak, which is sometimes, not always, true ; but the.se ol)jection3 have now disappeared, since there exist three English translations of the work, all of which have points of great value, the latest being provided with new and truly poetic versification and nnisic.^ Had all the objections, however, to music, pic- tures, and verses been cogent ones, the idea, the ' Friedricli Fr(i (i.lMKS 53 There is a i;reat ililVc'ivnoe between iin})nu'ti- ealitv and ideality, — a ditl'erence wliieli is very eonunonly niisunderstood. Peopli- talk mueli of the need of a more ])raetieal edneation, as if an edueation eould bo practical which was not sj)irT) itual. It is the seers, the poets, of the world who havt' shown us that the u^rcater inelndes the less, the one the other, jnst as body is a shrine for soul. " WitliDut tl\i' spiiitual, ohsorve Tlie natural "s iinpos-sible, no form, No motion ; without sensuous, spiritual Is inapprcciahlo, no heauty or power ; Anil in this twofold sphere the twofold man (For still the artist intensely is a man) Holds firmly by the natural to reach The spiritual beyond it ; fixes still The type with mortal vision to pierce through With eyes immortal to the antetyjie Some call the ideal, better called the real ; And certain to be called so presently Wlien thinjjs shall have their names." ^ To the elass of people occupied exclusively with material things, the spiritual side of Froebel's system may, perhaps, seem mystical, for strivinp^ after the material fills the whole existence of many persons and leaves no room for any hiohor aims. The truth is, the world is cuml)cred with | })eople to whom nothinjj^ is real but catinj^, drink- / ing^, and tradlni;-. Anythim;^ hi<;hor is either not to be considered at all, or to be left for considera- ' E. B. Browninp, Aurora Leiijk. 54 SYMBOLISM: ITS USE tion in another world, where more leisure is pre- sumably to be found. Children, however, in their susceptibility, are most impressible to the influences of the biiityof spirit, and STeet them as perfectly nat- chiidiiood. -^ ' . * -Pl- ural experiences. Ihere is nothing mys- tical to them, all is real, for their visions have not been dispelled. As Wordsworth, the kindergart- ner's jjoet, says in the immortal Ode, — " But trailing' clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home ; Heaven lies about us in our infancy." Would that we could keep these radiant visions, breathing delight and liberty, the simple creed of childhood, yet a little longer, before the years bring the inevitable yoke, and — " Custom lies upon lis with a weight, Heavy as frost and deep almost as life." The imitative instinct, as we have said, is the first sj^ur to activity, but the child must be sup- plied with the necessary help and encouragement, or the " perpetual mimicry " becomes meaningless, and finally ceases altogether. In reality, word and symbol belong to and interpret each other, as inseparably as light and shade, day and night, soul and body. The more truths of every kind presented to children in a corporeal or symbolic form, the greater will their power of spiritual or abstract apprehension be in after years, for they IX KIXDEIiaAIiTEN 60XGii .L\D GAMES 00 will have living images in their minds, not merely a stock of moniorized statements. In early ehildhooil it is certain that all instruc- tion whicli is conveyed solely in words is ' , , ' • 1 • Growth of as cfood as lost, i he human mind, n\ Human its first stage of development, must have cor})oreal demonstration ; ideas must be presented to it in visible images. Certainly humanity in its initial period sought and found God in this way : and, before science could become exact, the world had tirst to gain general conceptions, which were reproduced roughly at first, and, as the mind of humanity matured, it grasped the pure abstract idea in its universality. We see this plainly in the idols and religious rites of the heathens ; in the language, philosophy, worship, and art of the ancients ; in the endowing by primitive peoples of all inanimate objects with life and powers ; in the allegorical world of gods, demigods, and goddesses ; in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, all striving through symbol- ism to make the unknown expressed and known ; the thing which was felt, uttered or utterable. The truths of symbolism are, indeed, firmly rooted in human feeling, and the highest sv-mhouof function of the symbol is to serve as a "'* P'"'*'""''- guide-post to the path of duty. The very sound of the drumbeat, '* the cry of the luigles going l)y," the flutter of the flag, thrill the soldier and make him ready to lay down his life for his 66 SYMBOLISM: ITS USE country ; and the symbol of tlie cross, to what glories has it not inspired the world ! The happy wife is loth to part with the golden circlet which prefigures the unending nature, the eternity, of human affection, for a ring is an emblem of fidelity, and has always been used symbolically ; indeed, the word symbolum for a long time meant ring. The circle signifies eternity, and the golden band has for ages been the outward sign of love or power. To all of us, and especially to the child, who Symbols understands her symbolic language bet- of Nature, ^^j. ^\^^^ ^g ^\^q liavc " gTowu hardened and dull of ear," nature speaks with a thousand voices. She has her mysterious revelations, all of which are felt rather than analyzed, and to each of us she tells a different tale, and has for each a different message. The fishes tell the child of freedom and entrancing motion, the " crystal fretting" of the brooklet sings him a song of joy in obstacles overcome, and in the placid surface of the pool he sees the image of his soul ; while the trees, rustling and swaying in the summer breeze, whisper him marvelous things not heard by other ears. He looks into the hearts of the flowers open- ing in the sunshine and reads tender secrets there ; the sunset clouds, floating in rosy glory through the western skj% shape themselves into gorgeous castles and heavenly visions ; the birds, the bees, and the butterflies all waft him a message from ;.V KIXDEIiOAnrEN SONGS AND GAMES 57 tlu'ir wings; the bobolink, katydid, and (linisli sjjuak to him in modern English ; lie reads a f:iiry tale in the Hames; he longs to make a bridge of the rainbow and walk thereon to heaven ; the stars are God's tapers, the sun and moon his lamps by day and by night ; the raindrops are the angels' tears ; and as for himself, he has been sent a guest out of heaven to this hospitable eai-th, and all he has to do is to examine its treasures and be ha]ipy while he can. When, however, the child has passed the period of unconscious susceptibilitv, when he „ ■, . " ... Prophetic bccins to be aware of his own activities Piaysof » • 1 1 Childhood. and the power of regulating them, he longs to imitate the actions of his future life. Nothing so delights the little girl as to play at' housekeeping in her tiny mansion sacred to the use of dolls. See her whimsical attention to dust and dirt, her tremendous wisdom in dis})ensing the work and ordering the duties of the house- liold, her careful attention to the morals and man- ners of her offspring. Hear her infantile lectures and wise sermons on etiquette and good behavior, and note how she reflects in all these conversa- tions the standards and ideals of the grown-up world. The l)oy, too, tries to share in the life of a man, — to play at his father's work, to be a miniature carpenter, peddler, or soldier. He rides his father's cane and calls it a horse, in the .same 58 SYMBOLISM: ITS USE way that the little girl wraps a shawl about a towel and showers upon it the tenderest tokens of maternal affection. Nay, she will do this if she has a mother cruel and unkind, or has never known a mother's care at all, so deeply implanted is love in the human heart, and so universal is \ the instinct of expressing it. All these examples go to show that every con- scious intellectual phase of the mind has a previ- ous phase in which it was unconscious, or merely symbolic, for the preliminary symbol makes easy and natural the pathway to ideas and clear thought. The Bible is full of symbolism, for preparation Symbolism ^^^ ncccssary before the world was in Religion. ^.^^^^^ f^j, ^^^ f^^jj rcceptiou of Chris- tianity, and the undeveloped mind needs the visible sign before it is able to grasp the abstract truth. " From objects to pictures, from pictures to symbols, from symbols to thoughts," says Froe- bel, " leads the ladder of knowledge." All the great phenomena of nature have been worshiped by races of men. The sun, moon, flames, beasts, waters, mountains, all have been deified : God revealed himself in a thousand dif- ferent ways to the hearts of his waiting people. It was the childhood of the world ; the thunder boom and lightning flash of Sinai, the budding rod, the burning bush, the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, the bow in the heavens for /.V KlXDKUdAJiTEN SOyCS AND GAMES 59 a j)roniise, ami finally the star in the east guid- ing the wise men to the Christ-child, whose sign appearing in the eastern skies synd)olized the moiiiing dawn of a new, perfect, spiritual Chris- tianity, — these were some of the means by which the world was led into the domain of pure religion. The human race had to serve its n\>- prenticeship before men were able to receive that " engrafted word "' of which the Bible speaks. It was not an entirely new, but an "engrafted word." So, in maturing life, the abstract truth may be grafted on the earlier syndjolized truth. The lessons of the greatest and divinest of Teach- ers were almost uniformly in parables : indeed, parables teach us as woidd no other form of words ; they remain longer in the mind and heart than mere moral lectures, sim})ly because of their poetic significance and symbolic nature. A pointed illustration is always a star to a mind in darkness. There exist, then, these deep analogies between the outer and the inner worlds, between Anaiopes the truths God writes in human hearts I^r'^!i^',i oui. and those He proclaims througli the ^'^^'"''^*- thousand voices of eartli. Dean Trench says these analogies are arguments and may be alleged as witnesses; the world of nature being through- out a witness of the world of spirit, proceeding from the same hand, growing out of the same root, and being constituted for this very end. 60 SYMBOLISM: ITS USE Such also was Froebel's firm conviction : he be- lieved that, by a process we cannot trace, the mind may move from the perception of the symbol to the conscious realization of the truth symbolized ; and in encouraging the child to interpret the symbolisms of nature, and express himself sym- bolically, he believed that the analogies which underlie his action will in due course develop comparison and abstraction. There are many persons, as we have said, who Common cousidcr an education carried on by the'usrof*" means of symbols a puerile thing in- sjnnbois. ^iggj^ ^^^^1 ill-adapted to prepare the child for practical life. Such people — they are all too easy to find — are possessed of Avhat we call hard common-sense. The phrase, on which they pride themselves, is indeed their own un- doing, for the greatest trouble with them is that their sense is all hard and all common. They fail to recognize a fact, which is so true that it will bear repetition, that education is only practi- cal when it is spiritual. The only reason for education is, that we are human beings with souls, partakers of the divine nature ; it is not merely to make people able to get their bread and butter. In the routine which runs through our daily teaching, there is a safeguard, but a dan- ger also, and this is true of all routine. If we do not, through all these technicalities, see the wisdom of the design and the highest truth it 2.V KiyUEliCiAIiTEX SONUii AXD GAyfES (Jl «• symbolizes, they are fruitless to us and every one else. So let us make the ehihls life ohjt'etive to him. Let us unloek to hiiu the si<^uitieauee of family, social, and national relationships, that he nuiy grow into sympathy with them. lie loves the syml)ol whieh interprets his nature to himself, and in his eager phvy he pictures the life he longs to understand. If we could make such educa- tion continuous, none can doubt that he would unconsciously grow into harmony and union with " The Life of all Life, The Lifcht of all Li-ht, The Love of all Love, The Good of all Good Things, — God!" THE TEACHING OF PATRIOTISM " Land of the forest and the rock, Of dark blue lake and mighty river, Of mountains reared aloft to mock The storm's career, the lightning's shock ; My own green land forever ! Oh, never may a son of thine, Where'er his wandering stejis incline, Forget the skies which bent above His childhood like a dream of love." J. G. Whittier. Beginnings of Tilings. The kindergarten deals with the beginnings of things; it takes the human plant just budding into being, and strives to set it in a soil and surround it with an atmosphere which shall unfold the mental, strengthen the physical, and foster the spiritual powers. In the last direction, it addresses itself not only to the cultivation of the individual but also of the civic virtues, and not the least among its duties it counts the development of a love of country in the coming citizen. Froebei himself, as a patriot and a soldier, has left us a notable example of his devotion to duty, in the motives which led him to join the German army as a member of Baron von Liitzow's famous volunteer corps during the TUE TEACJJiya OF rATUlOTISM 03 Napoleonif wars. He says that his avocation as a teacher inHtiencecl his action in the matter ; for every chihl who might later on come to be edn- cated hy him wouhl have a fatherhuul, — a father- hind now requiring defense, although the child was not in a position to give it. " Shall I, then," he s;iid, '* seek without a blush to inspire the love of country if I fail my country in her hour of need?" Tliere has been little systematic attempt, since the days of Greece and Rome, to cultivate patri- otism as a virtue, and it is jMjrhaps questionable from our modern stand})oint whether those coun- tries did not rather overdo the teaching, creating an education which was thoroughly particularistic, and which produced an ideal Greek or Roman rather than an ideal man. Not so would we have patriotism taught to-day in every department of education ; for . . - , True Patri- we would make it a wider and a more otic Teach- ing. inclusive study, using it as a foundation for a truer Americanism and a better, purer pub- lic sjurit. It cannot be taught without touching all the springs of hero-worshij), of ideality, of asj>iiation, if the historical facts on which it is based are treated in the right sj)irit, and that right spirit is the same to-day as it was when Montaiffue said that we must not so much im- print on the pupil's memory the date of the ruin of Carthage, as the manners of Hannibal 64 THE TEACHING OF PATRIOTISM and Scipio, nor so much where MareeUus died as why it was unworthy of his duty that he died there. Our history teaching must necessarily be of the simplest kind in the kindergarten, History in „ , ., , <• . the Kinder- tor our chiuiren are tar too young to garten. . n i • . appreciate the underlying laws which make it an " anatomy of philosophy," and accord- ing to the theory of culture-epochs it is an anachro- nism even to attempt to tell the little ones simple historical stories. Yet we personally do not give such complete adherence to this theory as to be- lieve in a diet of fables, and fables only, for our very little folk, nor in myths and fairy tales alone for the older ones of the flock. We feel that there is a power of spiritual apprehension in the child which enables him to grasp truths which would at first glance seem far above him, and, although the motives for patriotism are largely beyond his ken, yet he may perceive them dimly, afar off, and that which he does not understand still aid in his development, for " childish wonder is the first step in human wisdom." There are many simple agencies by which a History lo^c of couutry may be cultivated in ^^'®^' the kindergarten, chief among which are those debatable things above mentioned, — the history tales. It is obvious that these must be brief, picturesque, free from date and detail, and so associated with concrete things, with the child's rilK TKAClllSa OF I'ATIUOTISM »!') makiiii;- aiul building- and shaping, tliat tlioy pro- duce a deiinito impression on the mind. All the n-ifts and occupations lend themselves to the work- ing out of historical subjects ; and the sand-table, in which the children may carry ont some idea in iiuison. is especially adapted to history teaeli- The kindergarten always makes wise provision for the celebration of the nation's holi- jf„tionai days, aiming to give the children an "" "y*- idea of their historical and spiritual meaning, a reverence for the heroes who are associated with them, and a tender memory of the forefathers by whose trials and sufferings our land is free and beautiful to-day. There are a few of the so-called flag exercises which can be made appropriate for children of kindergarten age, and the mere march- ing with banners to patriotic airs, although a sim- ple diversion, yet has a well-defined value. Alice Wellington Rollins says : " A child may forget or disdain a fact, but he never recovers from an im- pression. It is atmosphere, not dogma, that edu- cates. . . . The ordinary school tells the child he ought to love his country ; the kindergarten makes hin\ love it. Tlie one tells him facts about Washington and Jefferson and patriotic lives ; the other irivcs him a little American flag to wave as he marches round the room to a stirring na- tional air, and, l)ehold ! he himself has become patriotic." 66 THE TEACHING OF PATIUOTISM There are various songs appropriate in senti- Patriotic nicnt wliicli the children may learn, and so"gs. which they sing with great zest and en- joyment on festal occasions, and, although the words of " America " are quite beyond them, yet the air is caught very quickly and seems to give particular delight. It is, in our opinion, much better to follow this plan — that is, to sing the tune but omit the words of some of the stand- ard national airs — than to teach verses which are utterly unintelligible to the little child, or to sub- stitute others which will only have to be unlearned by and by. There is no question, of course, of the value of music in intensifying any sentiment, and whether, few and simple as are our national melodies, there is yet something in their composition which touches the springs of patriotism ; whether the thrill and the heart-throb with which the teacher sings electrify the child with sympathy; whether, indeed, these old songs may not exhale the pas- sionate devotion which so many dead lips have breathed into them, — we cannot tell, but we know practically that they have a certain effect upon the veriest baby. Then there are pictures which may be made Value of most Valuable aids in the joint teach- Pictures. -j^g, q£ history and patriotism. Each national holiday should have its own special pictures, historically correct, well drawn, large i THE TEACUISa OF I'ATHlOTlSM 07 enough to bo seen by all the children on the ciri'le, and broui^ht out and luinj^, or drawn on tlu' blackboard, only when })reparations are l)('in<^ made for the celebration of the holiday. They need little I'onmient or explanation ; they will be h)oked at anil remembered, do not doubt, and remembered all the more because they are not forced upon the child. Let us make every effort, however, that these pictures shall be really good ones, worthy facsimiles of the originals, for they will be ineffaceably photographed on the sensitive plate of the mind. If the child has s[)ent the years from three to six under the direction of a thoughtful kinder- gartner, who has made wise use of all the oj^por- tunities and agencies at her command to develop a love of country in his heart, even then a beginning only has been made which later education must continue. There can have been, in the nature of things, no connected historical teaching ; and even if the nnisic ami j)oetry, the pictures and talks and stories, have been presented at the right time and given their fullest value, yet the subject is 80 broad and deep a one that we can scarcely be said even to have entered upon it with kinder- garten children. Still, an interest in these things has been created, an impression has been made, and "these impressions," as Froebel said, ''are the root-fibres for the understanding that is de- veloped later." 68 THE TEACHING OF PATRIOTISM As education progresses, as the child, the boy, Later *^® youth, gTows oldcr and more intelli- Education. gent, a thousand ojiportunities jjresent to themselves for making patriotism a " sweet habit of the blood." There is the wase study of history, the only study, as Plato rej^orts, which the Lace- dsemouians reserved for themselves, and which bore its fruit in the notable deeds of their warriors. Then there is the reading of hero-tales, and of the large body of fiction founded on American history which has been writ- ten for young people in late years ; and when the child is old enough he may be given " The Man Without a Country," and in receiving that masterpiece of literature feel his whole life quick- ened with the vigorous inflow of a tide of patri- otism. And better still for the cultivation of the pa- triotic spirit is the memorizing of the really good poems, which can be found in abundance for every period of the story of our nation. " The children may be kept tuned by them," if we may apply to this subject Her- der's famous saying, " like precious stringed in- struments ready for the playing." And the re- sult he predicts will not fail in coming, for " by the power of the spirit they will then vibrate and respond to the true chords in nature, and i TIN-: TEACiiiyr, of vatuiotism 00 tlinnigli unconscious activity put forth tluir own music. " Another cfYoctivc way of tunin^;- these precious stringed instruments — a way which has M.moriai not yet been tried to our knowledge in '^'''''''"*- any of our schools — would be the placing on the walls of the school-rooms memorials to the heroic dead. It might be the nation's saints and heroes and martyrs ; it might be the great soldiers and statesmen and writers and lawgivers ; it might be only the upright man of pure life and sincerity of purpose, never lieard of outside his own obscure village, but as valued and valuable in his sphere as he of world-wide fame. Those w^ho have visited the chapel of the United States Naval Academy know what a thrill of ten- der sentiment, what a glow of aspiration, what enthusiasm, what reverence, and what devotion, are kindled in the heart as one reads the bronze and marble memorial tablets on the walls of that little building. Pietter ten thousand times than a spoken discourse \\\)o\\ the brotherhood of man such a silent teacher as the following : — To the memory of CiiAS. Flint Pitnam Master U. S. N.avy Who voliiiitfercd for duty on board the U. S. Steamer Rodpcrs, a vessel Despatthcd to the Arctic OcM-an for tlie nliof of the .Itaiiiu-tte Exploring expedition. 70 THE TEACHING OF PATBIOTISM After having Gallantly succored his shipwrecked companions ■while returning to his station at Cape Serdze Kanien, Siberia, he drifted out to sea And perished alone on the ice in St. Lawrence Bay Behring Straits, about January 11, 1882. This tablet is erected by his friends and brother officers in loving remembrance and as a memorial of his heroic sacrifice. And who has ever read this story in marble without being: touched to hio-her things ? — In memary of Lieut. John C. Talbot, U. S. N. Peter Francis, Quartermaster, John Andrews, Coxswain, James Miner, Captain of Hold, All of the L^. S. S. Saginaw, Who were drowned December 19, 1870, while attempting to land On the Island of Kauai, in the North Pacific Ocean, after a boat voyage of fifteen hundred miles. Voluntarily undertaken in search of Aid for their wrecked shipmates on Ocean Island. To commemorate their adventuroiis voyage, In admirarion of their heroism. And to keep alive the remembrance Of their noble and generous devotion. This tablet is inscribed by their shipmates, And by officers of the U. S. Navy. " Greater love hath no man than this. That a man lay down his life for his friends." THE TEACllIMr OF r.lTUIOTISM 71 Few of the hundreds of young men who attend service in that ehaprl can liave looked uiunovcd on those memorials, and to how many must they have been a never-failing s})ring of ins])iration ! Might not such silent teachers be well cmi)loyed in the service of all the children of the nation, and would not their very silence allow us to hear more clearly their eternal meanings? Undoubtedly, in late years, a certain spirit has begun to show itself in our country winch has been called " a revived Amer- American- icanism," not a spirit of boastfulness or exclusiveness, not Americanism with a war-whoop, as Colonel Higginson calls it, but an api)eal to the best instincts of the people, who, remembering the cost of their liberties, must ever be ready to sacrifice everything for their ]ireservation. The modern societies of St»ns and Danohters of the Revolution, the Colonial Dames, etc., all sprung from the goodly seed sown by the Society of the Cincinnati, are evidences of this spirit ; and their meetings, their celebrations, the collec- tions which they are making of national relics, the interest and enthusiasm which they manifest in the preservation of historic sites, are all so many object-lessons in patriotism to our children. Another object-lesson is given whenever a na- tional holiday is celebrated with wisdom and dij;- nity, and whenever a new statue or moniunent is erected to the memory of courage and honor, to 72 THE TEACHING OF PATRIOTISM heroism, deathless fidelity, and devotion to prin- cij^le. The historic celebrations which many of our cities and towns and villages have been conduct- ing since the republic reached its hundredth year are most valuable, not simply as pageants and as reproductions of the day, but as quickeners of the sense of patriotism in every heart, and of a patri- otism which will bear rich fruit in a better pub- lic spii'it by and by. We need to be reminded now and then, even the oldest and wisest amongst us, of the great events in our history, and of the many reasons which we have for pride and grati- tude as a nation ; for, remembering our past, we shall gain greater strength for the struggles of the future. We need to remember and to reverence our heroes. Too engrossing a hero-worship in our children is not to be feared, for ideality is scarcely their besetting sin, and the higher their aspira- tions the higher they must climb to reach them. " The greatest thing a hero does for the race," says the Rev. William Alger, " is to have been a hero, and thereby inspire others to heroic living," and it is this inspiration which we wish to give our children. Throughout this chapter on patriotism we have, since we are Americans, naturally spoken of the history and traditions of the United States. It is not our purpose, however, to exalt our own land ri/ii TEAcnixa of i'atiuotism 73 at the expense of others : nor to foster in our chil- dren a spread-eagle Americanism which, because of its own screaming, is deaf to the patriotic song of other lands. We realize gladly that there is no nation which has not many passages in its history of which it may well be proud, as there are few human lives which have no glorious struggles, victories, or providences to celebrate. Yet the principles on which the virtue is based are the same in every country, and, in so far as it can be eidtivated in children, would be rooted in the same soil and nourished by the same influ- ences in Iceland as in Chili. The patriotism which we would teach is a fabric of many threads, — of gratitude, aspiration, hero- worship, noble self-sacrifice, devotion to duty, loving brotherhood, — all dexterously woven to- gether into a warp of tenderness for native land, — ■■ Land of the forest and the rock, Our own green land forever ! " CONNECTION OF CONTRASTS THE LAW OF BALANCE " The whole meaning of my educational method rests upon this law alone. The method stands or falls with the recognition or non-recognition of it. Everything that is left is mere ma- terial, the working of which proceeds according to the law, and without the law would not he practicable." Friedrich Froebel. " Our little lives are kept in equipoise By opposite attractions and desires ; The struggle of the instinct that enjoys, And the more noble instinct that aspires." H. W. LOKGFELLOW. This law, wLicli enters into all rroebel's^eclu- cational theories, was called by him the law of the mediation of contrasts ; but some persons ob- ject that this name recalls too generally and the ruling philosophy of his time. Dr. "William T. Harris speaks of it as an out- growth of Schelling's " Philosophy of Identities," which he considers a pantheistic system when logically carried out ; but he expressly adds that in his oi^inion Froebel did not intend to follow the philosophy strictly, but merely used it as a foundation for thinking activity. Schelling's sys- coyyECTioy of coyrnA^sTs lo torn of Iilontitios is both criule aiul uiieertain, if we accept Dr. Harris' verdict upon it, and we may l)e willing so to do, since be is regarded as one of the broadest and deepest of our thinkers ; but he distinctly says that, though this imperfec- tion in reasoning may belong to the interpreters of Froebel's views, he does not regard it as a fault of Froebel's system as he himself expounded it, and certainly not of his pedagogics, whit-li he considers profound and consistent both in theory and practice. Schelling, a German philosopher of Froebel's time, was at first a follower, though an eloquent and independent one, of Fichte, the pedagogic statesman. In what may be called the second and most famous part of his philoslicution in the spiritual world in the compensation of ever-recurring' opposites, — in the res- toration of cqiiilihriiim. Tlie everywhen? perceptible analof^ between the thought and its material apjx'aranrt! logically «le- mands the identity of law in both domains as held by FroebeL'' — lieminiscences of Froebel, p. '2iMJ. 78 CONNECTION OF CONTRASTS liis system is founded upon religion and must lead The Kinder- ^^ religion, and, again, that he works in foumied on Order that Christianity may become re- ehgion. alized. No greater enemy to materialism can be conceived than this man of pure enthusi- asm, noble striving and high capacity of self- sacrifice, and only those who are ignorant of his life and his writings could doubt the reality of his religious feeling. To return more specifically to the subject, Froebel's constant endeavor was to at- 8ai World- tempt to reconcile the workings of na- ture with the inner world or man, and to find the points of unity between the two. To understand the connection of all the i^henomena of the outward world, and the way in which they harmonize with the spiritual world, and thus to build his system of education upon the universal world-law, was the hope and aspiration of his life. The law of balance was not Froebel's in the same sense in which the great law of gravitation was Newton's. He did not by his own observa- tion establish a certain order of facts, or define the measure of a certain force, for the law had been in existence since the foundation of the world. It had been recognized in its effects upon various phenomena, and had been regarded by many phi- losophers as the necessary condition of thought ; but Froebel was the first person who recognized it as a princijjle of universal application uj)on coyxECTioy of cuxruA.'iTs T'J whirh education might bo fouiulod ; and his system of child-tvainint;- is nothing more or less than a constant obeilicnce to it at every stage of devel- opnient ; that is, '* it regnhitcs the natural, s\nm- taneous activity of the chikl according to its own inherent hiw, in order that the i)nrposes of nature, the complete development of all the natural facul- ties, may be fulfilled." This individuality and boldness of thought ex- plain to us why Froebel in his lifetime was so often misiniderstood, scorned, and condemned. His ideas were too new, too seemingly mystical, to be understood at once by the mass of his hearers, and in that day, as at present, anything startling or reformatory in its tendencies was called, by a snap-judgment, impossible, and heretical to past pedagogic science. Many people still, who claim to understand his system, understand it only su- perficially, and fail to place jjroper stress upon those principles which he himself declared to be its absolute basis, namely, his wish that the free spontaneous activity of children should be syste- matically, yet unconsciously regulated in the same manner as is the whole natural world. Ik'fore dwelling upon the eificacy or influence of this law of mediation of opposites as ^he outcr applied to education, we nuist first study ^°'"''^- it in tlie outward world, and perceive its uni- versality. AVc will look at it in the vegetable, animal, and mineral kingdoms, in its relation to 80 CONNECTION OF CONTRASTS art and beauty, aesthetics, and in that which is moral and spiritual, the world of ethics. We will consider it philosophically, intellectually, and sjjir- itually, in that which is animate and inanimate ; only then can we comprehend its significance.^ With the use of the law, in absolutely every Objective gif* ^^'^^ occupation of the kindergarten. Kinder"'^ wc cau soou bccomc familiar, for there garten. j^ j^ merely objective, easily demonstra- ted and understood. 2 Indeed, even before we look deeper, we see it very simply and plainly in the smallest outward apj)earauces of the kindergarten, which is the much-needed mediation between home and school, and the true kindergartner the link between the often too widely sejjarated opposites, mother and teacher. The day's pleasures are alternated op- posites ; work and play both drawn together and commingled one with the other, — work simpli- fied by thoughtful love until it becomes play, and play itself systematized, refined, robbed of all its lawlessness, and diverted into the channel of cheerful, united action. This very play, indeed, ^ " Attractions and repulsions are doitiinant in the celestial mechanism ; actions and reactions in chemistry ; movements of contraction and expansion in the heart ; expiration and inspira- tion in the lungs ; venous and arterial blood in the body ; posi- tive and negative electricity in the magnetism of nature ; antipa- thies and sympathies in the human magnetism." — E. Castelar. 2 In " The Republic of Childhood," vol. i., FroeheVs Gifts, the simple contrasts and connections lying in each gift are pointed out in every case. CONNECTION OF CONTRASTS 81 is the iiu)st i)orfoct connection of opposites ; for the child niin-ovs in it the life of numhood into which he is grt)\vini;' day hy day, and also the animal life so far removed from his, and yet con- nected with his knowledge, affection, tenderness, and sympathy by his merry sharing of it in play. But we must also consider the law subjectively. "We will glance first at the plants, for it T,,g p,^„t was a hinnble little flower which taught ^^"''''^' Froebel dindy to suspect the secrets of life which he afterwards saw everywhere with the clear vision of the seer. He perceived when a boy, he tells us, that every single petal was in itself a whole, but at the same time only a part ; then, asrain, the flower was a whole in itself, but also a part of the whole })lant ; the plant was a whole, but also a part of the jdant family to which it belonged, and this, again, a part of the genus. Thus, as a child, Froebel remarked the member- ship of all natural objects. '• If you would study intellectual science," we once heard Mr. Emerson remark, "you must iirst study natural history, for every law you de- duce from the phenomena is a principle of the mind," and " every law of nature is a law of edu- cation," said Froebel. All organic forms witness to this wonderful law of contrasts and their mediations. Look at the germinating seed, which, planted in any possible way, turns its phunule up towards the light and air. 82 CONNECTION OF CONTRASTS and forces its rootlet down into the earth. The tiny forget-me-not, opening its blue eye to the sunshine, and the valiant oak that breasts the S storms of centuries, are all governed by the same law of growth ; while the topmost leaf, waving high as the bird flies, and the patient root, boring its way in the bosom of the earth, are not only visibly connected by the stalwart trunk, but have their , true union in the sap-current, pulsing its way through every vein and fibre of the tree.^ Every plant also shows us the law at work within itself, — inner and outer, force and matter, cause and operation, the visible and the invisible. In the organism of animal bodies we again find The Animal iU^^stratious of tlic mediation of con- Worid. trasts, in the limbs set opposite each • other, as are the corresjionding petals of flowers ; in the circulation of the blood, the expansion and- contraction of the lungs, the exhalation and in- halation of air, etc. ; and thus we find the law of balance to be the ground-law of the universe. Nor can we except the inorganic kingdom as failing to subject itself to this principle, for those of the seeing eye and under- standing heart can follow the " divine geometry," 1 " The tree that climbs the highest, and lifts its leaves most freely in the air and in the sunshine, must have its roots firmly in the lowly earth. The lark, whose swift flight is the loftiest, and whose floods of melody descend like heavenly music even when the singer has passed from sight, builds its nest in the grass." COXNECTluy UF CUM'UASTS 83 from tlio lilies of the sky, the floating suowHakes, to the lilies of the rocks, the woiulerful crystals. Chemistry and astronomy only offer us in- creased ])]ienomena. Our globe is kc})! , . , I r. 1 . /. Chemistry m its orbit l)y the pertect adjustment ot and As- p 1 Til trcouiy- contrary forces, tor the cciitriiugal and centrii>etal forces rule in the cosmic universe only through great mutual deference and courtesy ; the centrifugal forces would fling the planets off into space were it not for the force of gravitation, and the force of gravitation would hurl them against the sun were it not for the centrifugal forces. But let us follow another train of thought. lu poetry, rhythm comes only from con- poetryand nectinjr the cadences of long and short *'"""'■ lines and syllaVdes ; in music, the fullest har- mony is brought out by welding into one melo- dious chord dissimilar tones; — the deeper rever- berating note brought into harmony with the upper and liner tones l)y all that falls between. In the chromatic scale every half-tone is the bridge that unites one tone to another : and you will find the Baroness von Marenholtz alluding in this connection to the simple chord, the basis of musical harmony, in which the opposites, the keynote and the fifth, are reconciled by the third. In art it will readily be seen that all effects are produced bv minirled liijhts and shadows, and also by sudden shocks of contrast; that the beauty of perspective is in bringing the 84 CONNECTION OF CONTEASTS far near ; that in the clever blending of ojiposite colors we get the loveliest tints ; and that he only is a master of color who can mix these contradic- tory shades into a new and harmonious blending. When we consider the matter, the number of ele- ments is infinitesimally small, but the vast power of combination seems to grow with every advan- cing step of science and art.^ In sculpture, true proportion alone gives to the chiseled marble the wished-for grace and beauty ; and proportion, of course, is but the mediation of the height to the breadth, the length to the width, and the proper balance of the parts to the whole. Kuskin says : " Symmetry is the opposition of equal quantities to each other. Proportion is the connection of unequal quantities with each other." And as Froebel, whenever making a fresh dis- covery in the outer world of nature. Soul Life. • n 1 • was continually seeking a corresponding point in the inner world of feeling and thought, we find him alluding to the continual adjustment of opposites in the life of the human soul as well as in the life of nature, " As the opposites of day and night are connected by twilight, as sum- ^ " Relativity appears in all the Fine Ai-ts under the name of Contrast, and necessitates that in every kind of knowledge there should be a real negative to every real notion or real proposi- tion : straight, curved ; motion, rest ; miud, extended matter or extended space ; in short, knowledge is never single, but is always double or two-sided, though the two sides are not always both stated." — Alexander Bain, Mind and Body, pp. 46, 47. COyXECTION OF COXTIiASTS 85 mer and winter by spiin;::^ and autumn, so in tlic Inuuan soul do the day and night of conscious and iniconscious life, the light and darkness of good and evil, activity and rest, happiness and sorrow, alternate with one another." As we have already said in passing, mental de- vel<)i)ment is based upon this law. The . . ' p Mental Life. mind receives impressions from the out- side world, wliich it gives out again in word and action, and there is a continual change and inter- change between thing and thought, and thought and thing. We can recognize nothing imtil it is compared with the opposite, so variety is con- stantly supplied throughout the universe ; and for the mind's movement as a whole, the contrasted processes of analysis and synthesis are neces- sary.^ The law is only lightly touched ui)on here, for it is a difficult one to explain to beginners in the study of Froebel ; it is difficult, save for a trained metaphysician, to follow it in the higher regions where it rules, and yet it is so simple in its prac- tical workings that the kindergarten child of five years uses it successfully. Here, again, are the "wise and prudent" and tlie "babe" con- trasted ; but Froebel ex})lains the child's success ' '• We analyze only that we may comprehend, and we com- prehend only iiiasnnu-li as we are al>le to reoonstrnct in thought the compli.'X effeet.s which we have analyzed int4» their elements. This mental reconstruction is, therefore, the fin.il. the con.sum- mative procedure of philosophy." — Sir William Hamilton. 86 CONNECTION OF CONTRASTS in apijl^ang the princijile by the fact that it is the law according to which he, as a creature of God, has himself been created. He does not need to learn it, for it is born within him. Now you say, perhaps, this may be all very true, but what is its application to edu- Applicatioii -ox toEduca- cation? It may be conceded to be a tion. . ^ "^ philosophical fact, but, as the child has no conception of it, how does it affect him ? It is not necessary, in the first place, that the child should recognize any process as going on within his mind. Whether he be conscious or uncon- scious of it, it will still go on, and go on syste- matically ; but if we believe at all in one of the cardinal points of all educational creeds, namely, in the A B C of things before the A B C of words, we must agree that the first sense-training must be properly given, or true understanding will be lacking in the future. If the kinder- gartner have a just conception of the law and its importance, she will supply materials by which the child may learn its practical workings, know- ing no more of its intellectual basis than he knows of the composition of the sun that warms his world. It is obvious enough, however, that the sun will continue to shine upon him, whatever the depth of his ignorance, and it is equally obvious that his comprehension or non-comprehension of the law will have little bearing upon its workings. Let those who have seen the child make use of it coyyEVTiux of comuasts 87 in the kin(lori2:arten testify to its value as applied to etlucation. Tf we have found tliat the reconciliation of oji- posites is the law of human thouu,ht. of j,,p j .,„. „( moral life, and of the physical w..rld, — ""^^'"-'y- in a word, the universal law, — then it must be the law of all activity. The Baroness von Maren- lioltz says, in " Child and Child Nature : "' '' If, then, the full development of human nature rests on this universal law of activity, there can be uo other rule for the guidance of this development in children and youth, or, in one word, for edu- cation. Nature follows this law in her dealings with children, and, if education is to be in accord- ance with nature, it must do the same ; and otdy when this fundamental principle is recognized, followed, and ai)pli(^'d in the development of hu- man nature, with full understanding of its aim and object, will education be raised to the level of art or science." That is, as Froebel states it, " If this law guides the process of spiritual de- velopment in early childhood, or in the period of non-deliberate action, educators must regard it as the law of nature for the human mind if they are to proceed according to nature ; and they must ajiplv this law in their method, and, above all, lead children to apply it themselves in what- ever thi'y do. and do this from the beginning of the child's development, in the stage of uncon- scious existence, which is the germ of all others. 88 CONNECTION OF CONTRASTS In this way the humau mind will be trained to render to itself an ever clearer and clearer ac- count of the laws of its thinking and acting, while an opposite method of education would more or less hinder the mind from attaining the power of clear thought." So, in the kindergarten gifts and occupations, in order that the child may distinguish occupa- different qualities of things, and in order that the process may be facilitated, he is given objects in which marked contrasts are pre- sented, and these contrasts grow less marked as his powers inci-ease. We can but notice, as we review Froebel's educational system, his wide knowledge of this universal law, and its obvious expression in all his appliances. Here are a few of the leading truths presented in the first gift, for instance, — the contrasts in the colors, with intermediate connecting links ; the motions in opposite directions, in straight and curved lines ; the ball itself as a separate individuality in con- trast to the child ; the one and the many, etc. You will notice how the child's attention is aroused by these contrasts, expressed each in its turn clearly, without confusion ; you will see how eagerly he observes with the eye and experiments with the hand ; how joyously he greets every dis- covery of relationship, however vaguely it may impress his mind. All these contrasts lying in the gift — con- coyxECTKjy of vumuasts 89 r trasts of color; of one ball and many balls : of rest and motion ; of motion in opposite directions, in strai-rht and curvtMl lines ; of motion from witlKMit. when the ball is thrown, and motion from within, when it rebonnds — appear clearly, dis- tinctly, boldly, free from all confusing;- mixtnres of more complex contrasts of shape, size, divisibility, variability, and jdasticity. In this way the recognition of the properties of the ball is rendered complete, and thus Froe- bel clearly shows one practical application of this law, which is at once so simple and profound. Of course it is not expected that the child shall com- prehend these things as abstractions, or ever hear of them as such, — he will work out the law in all the occupations of the kindergarten ; he will practice it in all his plays and inventions with the gifts. As science is based on experimental knowledge, so the child's knowledge is experi- mental. It is characteristic of the pi-actical side of Froe- bel's nature that he does not lay do\vn Learning by as a principle the value of this law to ^"'"^ educators, and then leave its carrying out to indi- vidual methods. Not only does he philosophize upon the doctrine, but he furnishes objects which the child may handle until he learns, by doing, the practical bearing of the law. Oi)])osites are essential, it is true, to mental and spiritual devel- opment, but they must not remain opposites, for 90 CONNECTION OF CONTRASTS the essence of the Froebelian philosophy is that not until their union, accord, and similitude are found, will their recognition be complete. And here is another point to be noted. The child is not to sit helplessly by, waiting for the imion to appear ; he is to learn by his own self-acti\aty how to discover the connections, if they are visi- ble, or, if they have not yet appeared, to create them by his own efforts. Thus he is to learn by play with concrete things in earliest childhood that in himself, and in his own activities, lies the solution of all contradictions ; and not only so, but that there are not and cannot be any contrasts so great that they have not " somewhere and some- how their intermedium and union." The "Mother Play" games of "Falling, fall- ing," " Hide and Seek," " The Cuckoo," of unitini"^ and " The Bridge," with their pictures, Contrasts. , , • £C 1 mottoes, and commentaries, otter ample illustration of Froebel's conviction of the moral value of uniting contrasts, and emphasize not only his religious mysticism but his originality of thought. It was a favorite principle of Eobert- son's — one upon which he based all his famous controversial teaching — that " all high truth is the union of two contradictions," " a statement of two opposites, both remaining undiluted, not a via media between them, or either of them alone ; " "a larger truth, which absorbs them both, and annihilates their respective errors." CONXECTION OF COXTHASTS 01 According to him, the truth is never to be found in any nii(hllc, moderate, timid doctrine wliich skillfully avoids extremes ; but in a truth larger than either of the opposite views, which is the basis of each, and which is really that to which each party tenaciously clings, as a matter of life and death. Who shall say, then, that a system of training the child to reconcile extremes by his own deed — of teaching him by experience that there must in the nature of things be a point of union for all apparently hopeless contradictions, — who shall say that this will not be one of tlie most valuable of life's possessions ? We cannot afford to be skeptical as to the pos- sibility of teaching high spiritual trutlis by means of childish ])lays. Childhood is the appointed time, and play the appointed method for these lessons, and one reason for the great extension of the jieriod of infancy and helplessness in the human being is that there may be time for the plenteous sowing of just such spiritual impres- sions. FROEBEL'S MOTHER PLAY " Use the book so that it may preserve for the child the first tender buds of thought and experience, and help him to conceive his life, not in the isolation of its particular acts, but in the unity of its process. By so doing you will bridge the gulf between the imconscious and conscious periods of life." Friedrich Froebel. Feoebel's "Mother Play," the kindergarten The Kinder- Bible, cannot be dealt with in a chapter, garteu Bible, j-^^j, -j^ ^ series of chapters; in one vol- ume, nor in a series of volumes. It might well demand for its fit elucidation an army of commen- tators numerous as that which has toiled over the dramas of Shakespeare, and an array of their re- corded opinions weighty with matter as the books of the Cumaean Sibyls. Not only so, but the book is so unlike all commenta- othcrs — SO Spiritual, so mystical, so commen- deeply jjhilosophic, so elusive in its taries. higher, finer qualities — that every com- mentator differs a little from every other com- mentator in his explanations of its inner meaning. It is like an invisibly suspended crystal sphere, through whose translucent surface glows a soft pure light, generously irradiating all, yet disclos- 1 FliOEBEL'S MOTIlEi: I'LAV 93 ing not to hasty glance the secret of its V)urning. Hut that secret, in the time-worn Scripture i)hras- ing, is sometimes hid from the wise and pruthnt and revealed unto babes. There is such a tliint,^ as too much commenting on Froebel ; such a flood of exphmation as to obscure the real meaning. It reminds one of reading Shakespeare with elab- orate marginal notes, which, as some one said, is like playing the piano-forte with mittens on ; or of that dear old lady who had always been able to understand the Bible until she read " Barnes' Notes." Commentaries are valuable because each mind catches the light of truth at a different an- gle, and we may not content ourselves with the gleam we get in our own little corner ; yet, after all, the original .vork is and must be the source of inspiration, and nobody else's vision will at all serve as a substitute for the use of our own eyes. "Die Mutter und Kose-Lieder" was written seventeen years after the " Education of Man," and toward the close of i'roebel s ai>J its Trauslations. life, when his insight was at its keenest and the flower of his experience in richest bloom. It is thus, as Miss Blow says, "his most trium- phant achievement ; " and that he himself felt it to be so, that he regarded it as his message to the future, is abundantly evident from all that lie says concerning it. First published more than fifty years ago, it was not translated into English 94 FROEBEVS MOTHER PLAY until 1879,^ when two Americans (we are proud to say) took the beautiful and noble work in hand. A second translation was made in Eng- land in 1885 by Frances and Emily Lord; and a third, also by an American, Susan E. Blow, has just appeared (1895). Froebel made the book a foundation for his lectures on theory to his own kindergarten stu- dents, and it was of course used privately by many training-teachers in this country and in England long before it attained the dignity of a published English form. Thus the date 1879 does not rep- resent the introduction of the English-speaking kindergartners to Froebel' s philosophy of educa- tion as laid down in the Mother Play; for the original, in its various editions, was at our ser- vice, and even those who did not read German were not without the gospel, for all our traditions were thrilled with its spirit. Every year, however, since the first translation Increased appeared, increased interest in the book Motlfer^ *^^ lias bccu felt in the kindergarten world, ^'^^' and where, fifteen or twenty years ago, only the training-teacher j^ossessed a copy and read from and explained it to her class, each stu- dent is now expected to own one as a necessary jDart of her equipment. No scheme of kindergar- ten training is complete to-day without a faithful ^ First translation by Josephine Jarvis and Fanny E. Dwig-lit. Lee & Shepard. FROKIiEL'S MOTHER I'LAY 96 stiuly of, ;uul course of critical lectures upon, the Mother Play ; everywhere experienced kinder- p^artners hand themselves together for post-grad- uate courses in the philosoi)hy it enihoilies, and the most helpful and successful commentators are much in request as lecturers on this or that song, or class of songs, or on the entire scheme of the book. Of late, too, other educators have wakened to the merits of the Mother Play, and, now that the last translation is published in the International Education series, this awakening will become more general, and all earnest mothers may learn from Frocbel, if they choose, how, by beginning at the proper stage of development, they may " accomplish, by a touch light as a feather, what later they could hardly do with a hundred- weight of words." The " Mutter und Kose-Lieder " is absolutely uni(pu' in the world's catalogue of books. ^^^^^ ^^ It had no })rogenitors, and has no de- na'y'fn scendants in strict line ; and although it ^'^""^'■«- is not perfect in workmanship, yet in conception and ins])i ration it ranks among the masterpieces of literature. If we reverence Goethe, Dante, and Shakespeare for their insight into human nature, for the skill with which they felt the pulse of life, so must we reverence Froebel, who " saw as never man saw before into the heart of the child." While other great books treat of developed man, 96 FEOEBEVS MOTHER PLAY man in the maturity of his powers, the Mother Play treats of man in embryo, Froebel himself saying that the book was an attempt to aid the mother to recognize in the period of earliest childhood the germ of all later life. Froebel recounts as follows the incident which Incident l^d to liis Writing the Mother Pla}^ writing'the " ^s I was Walking one day through the Book. fields," he writes, " there came towards me a mother carrying her baby on her arm. " Call the chickens ! " she cried to the child, at the same time showing him how to beckon with his finger. Deeply impressed with the simple act, its grounds and consequences, I went home and wrote out the little game, ' Calling the Chickens.' An- other and another followed, and soon I had quite a collection of songs and games. I sent them, as I wrote them, to a mother whose little child was ill. She assured me she could not thank me enough for the delight they gave him, and thus gradually, through a constant interchange of thought and feeling with mothers, grew this book." A simple incident, one would think, to lead to the writing of such a work ; but it is a truism to say that effects are not proportionate to causes, for " See how this mere chance-sown, cleft-nursed seed, That sprung up by the wayside 'neath the foot Of the enemy, — this breaks all into blaze, Spreads itself, one wide glory of desire To incorporate the whole great sun it loves From the inch-height whence it looks and longs." FROEIiEL'S MOTIIKIi I'L.W 97 Many of tlie songs in tlie " Mntter and Kose- Lleder" were lulupted by Froebel from origin of the tl.o traditional haby-plays ho saw in '^^""S""^''- use among tbe German jieasant mothers, — phiys which had boon handed down from generation to generation, and wiiich exist in essentials wherever a mother and child are found. They are neces- sarily better preservetl, however, in sequestered places where the progress of civilization has been little felt, and where the mother has remained a more purely instinctive creature ; and thus the quiet rural neighborhoods in which Froebel wan- dered were to him rich store-houses of material for his i)rojected volume. The plays he found in actual use he supplemented by others of his own composition, founding them on characteristic inci- dents of child-life that came to his notice ; others were suggested by mothers with whom he corre- sponded in regard to the scheme of the book ; and others still were written by his wife, and played by her with the children of Middendorf, Froebel's life-lonjj friend. We have now and then in Froe- bel's own words an account of some simi)le oc- currence whicli formed the basis for one of these little plays. lie says, for instance : " While j)aying a round of visits, I went to stay with a great fancier of pigeons ; my room at his house was close to them. I could hear them talking together very often, and particidarly when they liad just returned home. This is what led to 98 FROEBEL'S MOTHER PLAY the completion of my pigeon song for my little ones, — '' And wheu they get Lome you -will hear them all say, How delightful it was out of doors to-day ! — Coo-roo. roo-coo, coo-roo ! " From this incident he deduces, in his wise com- mentary, the desirability of leading children to recount, when they return home, all the little happenings of their walks, the mother making explanations of them : — " Ask them of each sight and happening lu the quiet twilight hour ; Help them weave it all together Like a garland, flower to flower. " With the years, the larger knowledge Of life's wholeness then will come. And its twilight hour will find them With themselves and God at home." ^ The " Mutter und Kose-Lieder "consists, first, of Plan of seven " Mother Communings " in verse, Book. descriptive of the feelings of the mother in unity with her child, observing his develop- ment, talking to him, holding him to her breast, and watching his manifestations of life. Then follow fifty symbolic songs, each one of which illustrates some arc in the first circle of the earliest child-life in its unfolding ; the last one, " Closing Thoughts,"' being intended for the mo- ther alone, and summing up the results presum- ably attained by the experiences which the songs 1 Friedrich Froehel, trans, by Henrietta R. Eliot. FROEliELS MOTIIKl! I'LAV UD rehearse. Eiich little i)lay is preceded by a motto for the mother, sujjcgesting or explaining the deeper meaning' which uiulerlies the apparently simi)le life-manifestation of the child, — " As, liidilcii in tlu" uncut pom, there lies A niinliow waitini;' to di'liplit our eyes." Music is provided for each song, and all hut three of them are accom})anied with synd)<)lic and wonderfully comprehensive pictures. Add to these Fi-oebel's own exj)lanations of the illustrated title-page, the cover, the Mother Connnunings, and the entire series of pictures and plays, and you have the scheme of the book. The music to the songs was written under Froe- bel's direction by his disciple, Robert 11- • Music, Kohl, and, as a whole, is not i)artum- I'oems, and larly successful, although several of the songs, with a little adaptation, are still used and found pleasing in our modern kindergartens. The verses in the oriiiinal are not remarkable examples of poetic form, for Froebel, as Dr. Harris says, "was not a poet so much as a reli- gious mystic." We must remember, too, that the thoughts he was .struggling to express were mighty ones that could hardly be set to the tinkle of oidi- nary musical verse, and that ])robably the form of the message seemed to him of no moment at all compared to the truth it proclaimed. The ])ictures were drawn by Fricdrich L nger, a former ])u])il of Froebel's, and a painter in a 100 FEOEBEL-S MOTHER PLAY neiofliboring: villaoe, and to our minds are marvel- ous in the tender fidelity with which they adhere to the symbolic character of song and motto. They were entirely a labor of love, for Froebel had nothing but gratitude to pay for the work, and Uuger knew this before he began the sketches. There are traditions that the painter often came over to Keilhau in the evening with a finished pic- ture, which would prove so utterly inadequate that Froebel woidd destroy it in despair. Then Unger would say, " Tell me, only tell me, what you want and I will try again ; " and sometimes Froebel woidd sit beside him for hours, explaining his ideas, and how he fancied they might be carried out with the pencil. All but seven of the pic- tures are set in the midst of outdoor life, — are -surrounded with flowers, or given some flowery detail, reflecting Froebel' s saying, that the field had been his school-room and the tree his tutor. The figures are all dressed in mediaeval costume, that they may never grow out of date ; and each picture is so replete with detail, each tiny stroke in farthest corner so full of meaning, that they repay long and careful study. The verses may be translated and retranslated into all the tongues of earth ; the songs may be set and reset in newer musical fashion; but the pictures can never be drawn again, for the hand that guided the artist's is forever still. The drawbacks to the Mother Play are com- FliOKliELS MOTJILU l-LAV iOl nionly considered to be merely those 'that have a! ready been mentioned, the imperfect'ion r)ra«i)aikH of the oripnal verses and music ; both fouler of these objections having now been re- "^' moved, for Kn^lish-s[)cakin^]H>opU' at least, in the various translations. Mr. C'ourtliope l>«)\ven also finds that ^ '' there is no definite arrangement or se- quence in the book," which seems rather too broad a generalization, the songs moving as a whole, and with few exceptions, from a definite beginning to a definite end. He also says that in a few cases the allegorical interpretations are much too fan- ciful and far-fetched, which is sometimes true, though an enthusiast may be pardoned for think- ing that these " far-fetched interpretations " are sometimes most suggestive, and worth the trouble of the fetching. Miss Blow also speaks of the " lapses into arti- ficial .symbolism " which Froebel son\etimes makes, and this charge has some foundation. Neverthe- less, to all students of the Mother Play, and to none more than to the two authors just cpioted, the book, as Thomas a Kempis said of another subject, is " a mirror of life and a volume of holy doctrine." Froebel said : " Acce])t the book in a kindly and thoughtful spirit : study the jdays ; study especially the pictures. Be not too critical of the form of the one, or of the artistic merit of * H. roiirthope Bowen. Froebel and Education by Self-Ac- tivity, chap. iv. 102 FEOEBEL'S MOTHER PLAY th^ pt];iev. Remember that the aim and spirit of the hook are Qiovel, and that I am hreahing a path through unexplored regions of experience} My success must necessarily be partial and imperfect. Nevertheless, I hope to make clear to you truths which you have felt, but have not apprehended ; which you have therefore often misinterpreted in your actions, and which at best you have applied in a detached and hence ineffectual form. If my book lifts your hidden impulses into the light of consciousness, and teaches you so to relate your actions as to make them truly educative, you will not be critical of its literary shortcomings." 2 Froebel's purposes in writing the Mother Purposes in P^^Y sccm, in liis owu words, to have MotiTef Ibeen twofold, — " to lift the hidden im- ^^^^' pulses of the mother into the light of consciousness," and to teach her " to recognize in the period of earliest childhood the germ of all later life." To accomplish these two objects he makes use of the symbolism of the material uni- verse, that it may help the child " To find those verities -within himself Of which all outward things are but the type ; " and he also enlists in his service one of the deep- est-rooted faculties of the child, — that of imi- tation ; saying, in the motto to the " Weather Vane : "— ^ These italics are our own. — K. D. W. and N. A. S. ^ Friedrich Froebel, Mother Play, tr. by Susan E. Blow, p. 63. FliOJ^UEL'^ MOTlIElt PLAY 103 " A str.iiiper 'midst tlio surpiiip;- life of men, lit- ti> liis own lift'-stat\ire sliall attain By takings — to give back again." By Ijc'gimiini;; the child's educational training; at the very opening of life, Froebel appeals to those inborn presentiments of truth which awaken before articulate language is understood, and this procedure he bases on the belief — psychologi- cally a correct one — that, " by assuming insight in the child, insight will be earlier awakened than by training." ^ Thus, through the experiences of the various plays, the book " accomjilishes its doulde pur- pose of revealing the onward march of reason in the manifestations of childhood, and of holding up the ideals of reason to childish imagination and affection." - This simple talk upon the Mother Play is only intended to serve as an introduc- how to use tion to the book, our hope being that it ^.J^y „"{,'" may awaken the general reader and the student just beginning kindergarten work to a desire to learn for themselves more of the philo- sophy which it embodies. We shall attempt here no classification nor analysis of the plays, con- fining ourselves to an expression of what in our opinion should be the use of the book by child and kindcrgartner. » W. Ppcyer, The Mind nf iht Child, Tart I., p. ;U.'). ^ busan E. Blow. 104 FEOEBEVS MOTHER PLAY The claims of the Mother Play to be consid- ered unique are verified by the fact that it is the only children's picture-book which contains food for the mother as well. As she shows the child the pictures, or holds the book that he may study them, she catches a shining thought herself which changes the whole color of her day. It is the apparent insignificance of little tasks and daily duties which make them so joyless and so monoto- nous. When we have once perceived that they are but bits fitted into a life-mosaic, then patience grows for the completion of the pattern. For the nursery, however, as well as for the kinder- garten, the larger-sized separate pictures (colored and uncolored) issued lately in connection with Miss Blow's translation of the Mother Play^ seem to us far more useful, as they admit of study by a group of children together, and thus increase the general interest. It is surprising how well these simple pictures are loved by the little ones, and how long they will pore over their signifi- cant details ; yet the stores of thought which they open up to the infant mind have hitherto in many cases been quite neglected, for the size of the pictures, and the one copy of the book pos- sessed by the kindergartner have been inadequate for more than one or two children at a time. All the games played in the kindergarten to-day are of course founded upon those in the " Mutter 1 D. Apple ton & Co. Fnni:i!KL's; motiikh pi.ay lOf) uiiJ Koso-LIodor," thoiijrh it must be confessed that now and then one is seen wliieh seems to have wandered far from the original type. Froe- l)cl did not, of course, desire that the same words and tlioughts given in his phiys should always be used ; we are at liberty to comiwse innumera- ble new songs, so long as we adhere to the ideal standard of play which he laid down. Since, however, each little game in the book illustrates a typical phase of the child's development, we should aim to present all these (or others l)uilt ui)on them) to the child's experience at some time before he leaves the kindergarten. Froebel said in regard to the use of the Mother Play by the child : " As a child's book, it pre- serves a too easily-forgotten past, and endows the early years of life with continuity. This mission can be fulfilled only as song, story, and picture are vivified by your tliought and warmed by your heart. When, therefore, your child has entered upon that stage of development wherein thought mounts from object to picture, and in the picture discerns the symbol, use this book, so that it may preserve for him the first tender buds of thought and experience, and helj) him to conceive his life, not in the isolation of its particular acts, but in the unity of its process. By so doing you will bridge the gulf between the unconscious and con- scious periods of life." ' 1 FriiMlri.li Froebel, .V'///i» r I'lnij (tr. by Susan F- Blow), pp. <■»;!, tJ4. lOG FEOEBEL'S MOTHER PLAY The prime use of the Mother Play to kinder- gartner and mother — to teacher, too, Mother Play aud in fact to all women — is, in our by Kinder- . . « , . gartnerand opiniou, to "freshen lu ourselves the Mother. ^ ^ sentiment of the ideal." When we are a little skejitical and pessimistic, when we are distrustful of ourselves and our powers, when we are cynical as to the possibilities of the chil- dren in our care and weary at their slow devel- opment, — when, in fact, everything looks dusky and the sky of life seems to shut down on us like a box-lid, — then it is that the Mother Play streams in upon our souls as a fresh breeze through prison bars. How can one be distrustful of a humanity whose ultimate perfection this gen- tle optimist sketches in such convincing words? How can we weary when he tells us that we may " Step by step lift bad to good ; Without halting, mthout rest. Lifting Better up to Best ? " We may be accused of over-enthusiasm in the way in which we regard the book, but there seem to be some subjects over which enthusiasm is jus- tifiable and necessary. We are conscious of so much more that might haA^e been said of its worth to the student and the tliinker, we know so much more than we have intimated of the way in which it " illuminates the present and forecasts the future," that our words seem cold and constrained in comparison with what we might have written. FROEBEL'S MOTUKli FLAY 107 But in order that it may have the right spiritual and mental effect upon the student, in order that the truths it ])reaehes may be worked out practi- i':illy with the children, it must be read and reread as many times as the Scripture commands us to forgive our brother. It must become a part of life, a key to its lesson-book, and its sermons be strengthened by all that we can bring to it from the world's treasures of art and literature and music. Thi n. as we have truly lived it in, so shall we trulv live it out again, for inseparable from the gaining of spiritual treasure is the desire to share it with others. MORAL TRAINING " Truth is ■witliiu ourselves ; it takes no rise From outward things, whate'er you may believe, There is an inmost centre in us all, Where truth abides in fullness ; and around, Wall ujjon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, This perfect, clear perception. . . . . . . And, to know. Rather consists in opening out a way Whence the imprisoned sjjlendor may escape, Tlian in effecting entry for a light Supposed to be without." Robert Bkowning. He who cannot, like Froebel, see in every child The Faith of ^^^ possibility of a perfect man, should the Teacher, j^gygj. ^^kc upon liimself the office of educator. To undertake the development of the mind and soul of man at any age, requires a high and steadfast courage, an exhaustless patience, and a trust in the eternal verities which floods cannot drown, nor many waters quench. And it is because so much of the teacher's work is done in the dark, because he is toiling for the future largely, that this patience and this trust are needed. He knows what he is striving to accom- plish ; he knows something of the forces with which he is working, and of the methods of setting MORAL TliAJXIXG 109 those forces in motion : l)nt commonly his fate is like that of one who, after painfully (liii:.i;in<^ an inlet for the sea, may never hear the lappinj; of the waters, nor see the wave's white crest as it breaks upon his lanils. Yet must he work well, hopefully, manfully, confident that '■ While the tired wave, vainly breaking, Seems here no painful int-h to fraiii, Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in, the main." That to develop the perfect man whose possi- bilities lie in every child is the aim of j^e Perfect education, there can be no question, ^^' there has been no question since time began, though the ideals of full-orbed perfection have varied from race to race, from age to age, and the means of reaching that perfection been still more varied. No system worthy to be called education has ever seriously proposed to itself to develop any o iie_aidej Lf the cIiikT s nature at the expense I of the others, — to produce a vigorous body, s^ strong and discii)lined mind, or a pure flame of sjjirit alone ; and when any such results have been attained they have been due to an error of judg- ment in selecting methods, or to a lack of con- scious realization of the end in view, rather than to any determined i)urpose. No system of child-training which ignores the\ spiritual nature of the child can ever be success-/ ful ; it can never lead to right results, for it has/ 110 MORAL TBAINING started from wrong premises. Its foundation and its framework show an utter lack of comprehen- sion of the being of man, and a dulhiess of per- ception in the buiklers so great as of itself to predict failure. The soul needs culture, the will needs training, even more than the mind needs unfolding, or the body development ; for the moral aim in education is, after all, the absolute one, and all the other things are to be added unto it. Yet this moral training, in our estimation, has notking to do with forms or creeds or traditions ; for again we believe with Froebel that a ckild nat- urally guided needs no positive ecclesiastical form, " because tlie lovingly cared-for and tkereby stead- ily and strongly developed human life, also the cloudless child's life, is of itself a Ckristlike one." We need devote no time to painting tke evils wkick grow from an education addressed Tiaining to the miud aloue. Tke kowls resound tkrougk kistory of tke relentless liuman wolves wko, trained in mind Ijut devoid of soul, kave preyed upon tkeir fellow-beings. No danger so great can menace a country as tkat of rear- ing a race of Frankensteins, gifted w4tli acute men- tal powers, but lacking in all tke sj^iritual qual- ities. We willingly grant tkat we cannot be altogetker successfid in producing tkese monsters, even skoidd we wisk to do so ; for kere tke great Sckoolmaster of all guards us from tke conse- quences of our own errors, and will not leave tke MORAL TRAIN ING 111 human soul entirely at the merey of human teacli- injj^. This is true, ami we are blessed in theknow- le(lii;e : hut we shall do well, in examining; the produets of our modern systems of education, to assure ourselves that they have not a certain Frankenstein quality about them, for in truth muchjofour schooling' h as lit tle to do w ith the awakening of soul-life. This spiritual training should begin with the birth of the child (yes ! and long be- ^^^^ i„j. fore), and Froebel's philosophy is rich p-"^^*"^- with su2:i;estions for the mother as to the methods by which it may best be carried on. It should be begun when the spirit is most receptive, most im- pressionaVtle, when the mother is in closest com- munion with the child, and before the influences of the outside world begin to rush iu upon the sensitive spirit. Such soul - impressions, early given, will indeed be " treasures inly stored away." " Into their forms, like dew into the flower, The Lord instills his vivifying' power, And blessings they become forever ; States of the mind which perish never ; But, losing every tint of sadness Return with multiplying gladness ; Germs of eternal happiness Which never cease to grow and bless ; Strength for the seasons of temptation, Meatus of eventual renovation. The bond;! which link us to the angels most, — The light which may be hidden, but never can be lost." * ' W. II. Ilolcombe, Ode to Infancy. 112 MORAL TRAINING Lona" before tlie child understands articulate words, tones, looks, smiles, and inarticulate sounds are clear to liini, and it is in these earliest months that he most needs to be encompassed with a pure spiritual atmosphere. Froebel says : — /' Think not that he is all too young to teach : / His little heart wiU like a magnet reach \ And touch the truth for which you fiud no speech.' ' So, as the mother sits beside him, as she tends him and plays with him, in her word and song and action she relates his physical manifestations to the spiritual reality which lies behind them. What does it matter that words are as yet un- comprehended ? Heart - language and soul -lan- guage are independent of conventions of speech, and these are all-sufficient to create those " faint and delicate yet decided and enduring emotions " which Froebel calls presentiments, and which he declares to be the preparation for later spiritual development. These presentiments are of greatest use to us Later wheu the child has reached the kinder- Traimng. gartcu agc, but cvcu if his home influ- ences have been negative, or positively bad, we need not desj)air, for the Lord is mindful of his own, and we have the assurance of our dear op- timist, Elizabeth Peabody, that no child can get so far astray in his first seven years but that the shepherdess may in one month bring him back to the paths of pleasantness and peace. Yet this MUliAL TUAIMXa 113 cannot be true, or even measurably true, unless the shepherdess be a wise one, and one of her first duties must be to lead him to obedi- . Obedience. enee ; for " the three stages of edueation of the individual and of the race are : rules, habits, principles." ^ The rides of the kindergarten are scarcely to bo called so, perhaps, in any strict sense of the word ; they are rather imconscious ethical formulations, the crystallization of public sentiment in this or that direction. The child is never told upon entering the kindergarten that he may not do certain things, for why suggest to him a course of action that might never of itself have occurred to him? If he be a normal child, with the average home-training, he will be likely to do as he sees others doing, and insensibly to turn his moral weathercock to suit the prevailing winds. "When he shows signs of intending transgression, it is time for warnins: ; and when be has trans- gi-essed, then let retribution (in the form of nat- ural consequence) s^viftly descend. AVe cannot claim that the necessity of obedience has been invariably impressed upon our kindergarten chil- \ dren ; in fact, one of our commonest failings has been just here, that, in trying to give the child's individuality free development, we have forgotten that the highest life must still be submissive to law. It should be remend)ered, however, as a partial explanation of our failures, that the ideal kindcr- ' Iluratio Stebbiiis, I). I). 114 MORAL TE.UNING garten discipline is rather a delicate and difficult tiling to maintain, — trembling in the balance, as it must, between the military drill of the school and the joyous freedom of the nursery. Still we must not let this difficulty, great as it may be, serve to our own souls as an excuse for disobedi- ence in our children ; nor must we persuade our- selves that we show our love by allowing license, for no better prej^aration for life can be given to any child than the habit of prompt, cheerful obedience to sensible restraint, to wholesome au- thority and wise, overruling law. He who has never learned to obey can never be trusted to ride, and, least of all, to rule over his own spirit. It is our task in the nursery and in the kinder- garten gently to lead the children into " those blind but holy habits which make goodness easy," and obedience is one of the best of those habits. Another valuable element in moral training is the cultivation of the spirit of reverence, and the kindergarten offers us wide op- portunities in this direction. Our nature-work, our care of plants and animals, is most helpful here ; for who can study the mysteries of the uni- verse, who can meditate on its beauties, without feeling that " Not unrelated, unaffied, But to each thought and thing allied, Is perfect Nature's every part, Rooted in the mighty Heart." MOUAL TUMSlXa 115 Our stories, too, as they tell df l»rave deeds, of kind and helpful aetions, of sweet and tender thoughts for others, teaeli the child to reverence the spirit of God as seen in man, and thus by linkinir toLrether the life of nature, the life of man, the life of God, we cultivate the threefold reverence of which Goethe sjjcaks in the '' Ped- asfogfic Province." This is what Froebel means when he says : " I wish to cidtivate men who stand rooted in nature with their feet in God's earth, whose heads reach toward and look into the heavens, whose hearts unite the richly formed life of earth and nature and the purity and peace of heaven. — God's earth and God's heaven." Knowing that the pictures of our childhood fur- nish most of our imagery of celestial Kffectof things, we should strive to put within P"^'"'^^^ the reach of our children really worthy represen- tations of sacred subjects. Grotesque or horrible pictures of fiends or devils become indelibly im- pressed on the mind, and are sometimes so feared as to become a source of nervous disorders : while even the image which the child calls up of God himself is connnonly a mixture of confused im- pressions reproduced from random jiictures seen in the street, on posters, or in sho]) windows. Since the child must needs invest all the celestial beings he hears of with human form, it follows that the only wise \A\\n is to fill his mind with beautiful images, which will ]>reclude the possi- 116 MORAL TRAINING bility of his fashioning for himself impossible and hideous figures, such as were used to repre- sent the gods in early stages of religion. Chil- dren invariably delight in the countless beauti- ful pictures of the Madonna and Child, which artists have so loved to paint, and in the groups of gentle, tender cherubs and battalions of winged spirits, with whom they seem to feel a certain kinship, and about whom they so delight to talk. (Such pictures need no explanations from older l^eople ; their sj^iritual suggestions will of them- selves sink into the mind. The work with concrete things in the kinder- garten IS so carried on as to give a Accuracy of. , ° Action and dccidcd help in moral traniing'. The Speech. i .i i child soon learns that upon the exact- ness with which he folds his papers depends the beauty of his completed form ; that his design with the sticks is never pleasing unless a certain law has been followed in its making ; that his blocks must be laid straight or his tower falls ; and from this relation of " rightness " to use and beauty in tangible objects, the truth is and must be carried over into the mind and applied to spiritual things. The inevitable relation of cause and effect, so perfectly illustrated with the kin- dergarten gifts and occupations ; the certain loss that follows mistake ; the calm impersonality of retribution close following upon error, — all these are strong, wise teachers for the child, though the lessons they set are often hard to learn. MORAL TliAIXTXn 117 The icU'al kindrrp^artner, too, strives for an equal accinacy in observation and expression. The cliilil may not see mueli, but he must see it for liimself, and tell of his discovery in as clear lanjj^uage as his small vocabulary affords. He knows next to nothing from the intellectual point of view : but what he does know, as it has been learned in the way best fitted for his mind, is his absolute possession, which he can use to advan- tage. From all this precision, accuracy, and ex- actness. — this outward order, — it seems only reasonable to expect the inward clearness which Froebel predicted, and which it seems to us that we find in a well-ordered kinderu:arten. Then there are the sonirs and jjames which sow the seeds of a wonderful harvest of vir- . m . • 1 1 n V Effector tue. Iheir nuisic produces a dennite sonRsand • • 1 • • 1 • 1-1 Games. spiritual impression ; their words incul- cate love and reverence for man, for nature, and for God ; and the way in which they arc played opens a series of windows in the child's soul through which "the imprisoned splendor may escape." Would you let the light of self-abne- gation and self-sacrifice shine out? Here is a window fitted for it. Shall the consciousness of organic unity stream forth? Why, here are crys- tal panes just made to suit it, set around the soul like the wiiult)ws in a light-house tower. Indeed, «)ne can scarcely think of one of the virtues which may not be developed by the kindergarten games, 118 MORAL TRAINIXG — unless it may be that of prudence, which is, after all, too near akin to worldly wisdom to he altogether appropriate to childhood. Finer and more valuable, however, than any other lesson of virtue thus unconsciously learned is the pure feeling of universal brotherhood which is engendered, a feeling which, once awakened, can never again be rocked to sleep, and which will grow into a very giant of love and helpful- ness to fellow-men. The kindergarten day always begins with a prayer, said or sung, — one which only pra^re^and voices lovc and gratitude, reverence and Silences. . . - . • j_ r aspiration, and so is appropriate tor any creed and for any religion which looks up to God as the power that ruleth all and worketh in all. Then often follows what in our minds is a truly precious season for spiritual influences, — a brief space of time, only a moment perhaps, when the children cover their eyes and " think about being good," as they say. No one tells them just what they shall ponder, no one asks their thoughts or knows if they think at all ; but a sacred quiet de- scends, the soul retreats into itself, and the spirit of the Lord pervades the tender silence. When this quiet moment is over, and before the Morning mcrrimeut of song and play begin, the Talks. kindergartner has a wonderful oppor- tunity for an appropriate verse, or a few earnest words that will sink into the children's hearts ; MORAL Tl:AI.\L\a 110 but let her be sure that she really has something to say, and something that comes from the fullness of life within her, lest she trouble the waters of that " ehihlish uniMnisciousness " which is " rest in God." It is a difficult thing, in fact it is a dangerous thing, to talk to little children about religion at all, unless you know just how little and how wisely to speak. The Rev. Ileber Newton says : *' (xlib garrulity about God is the vice of most religious teaching (falsely so called), the bungling job-work of spiritual tyros who never should be set upon so fine a task as the culture of the sold." From our own reverence, our own love and worship and aspiration, our own faith expressed in common things, the child gets his practical knowledge of God, and none of these things are advanced, but rather retarded, by talking about them. Let his spiritual attitude toward his Maker be no subject for your interference ; it is in better hands than yours: but do you concern yourself with his obedience to the inner law of right, which should grow more and more clear as the restraints of authority are withdrawn. The essence of moral and religious training lies, after all, — does it not? — in cultivating in the soul a love of righteousness, and in so developing and .strenirtheninir the will that it is able to fol- low after and attain, in some measure at least, what it most desires. 120 MORAL TRAINING The ideal kindergarten discipline is addressed toward this will-training, and the woman who uses the system and its appliances to produce a capri- cious, impatient, unsteady, rebellious child, such as one sometimes sees in kindergartens, has com- mitted a trebly unpardonable sin ; for it is one against God, against the child, and against his interpreter, Froebel. How high, how pure, were Froebel's views on the spiritual training of chil- dren can hardly be known, save by those who are thoroughly familiar with his writings. Those who, like the most enthusiastic and devoted kindergart- ners, have read and re-read the " ]\Iother Play," the "Education of Man," the "Reminiscences," the " Autobiography " and the two volumes of " Let- ters," are so permeated with Froebelian philosophy that they find all life irradiated by his insights. And this is the man whose kindergarten was once called an infidel institution ; he who said, " We have to open the eyes of our children, that they may learn to know the Ci*eator in his creations. Only when they have found or divined God as the Creator, through visible things, will they learn to understand the ' Word of God,' — God in spirit and in truth, — and be able to become Christians. First is the visible world, then the invisible truth, — the idea." In spite of all that has been said about kinder- gartens, in spite of all the authority we have for knowing that they are blessed things for the chil- I MOUAL TIxAiyi.\G 121 tlivn, there are those who persist in thinking that tlie work is not worth the money spent R,.H„it8of npon it, even wliere the amount needed u.lI"Tr«h"" is reduced to a mininnim. It is not '"^' much wonder that jtcople who take no pains to study the subject conchide that it is of little im- portance. The tnie and valuahle resiUts lie deep. They cannot be written on blackboards, nor brought home by the children on slips of paper, nor can a chihl tell what he has learned. The resiUts of kindergarten training are foimd in the tendency of the head and heart; they become manifest in the mode of thinking and feeling ; they grow stronger and more beautiful with the child. "We are all giving keener scrutiny of late to our edu- cational methods. AVe question now, as we did not once, whether our mental tools get as thor- oughly tempered and sharpened as they should. There is a great satisfaction in noting this dis- satisfaction, but we need a yet nol)ler discontent. This reforming instinct has mostly to do with what we call the intellect, for habit has more effectually Ijlinded us to our ways of dealing with that far more subtle something we call spirit, or soul, or character. P^xclusive training of the intel- lect j)roduces but an ant-life of ])lanning, storing, and digging. AVe do consider her ways too lit- erally, yet are not wise. Read the faces of many of OUT leading citizens. You can find energy, shrewdness, cold, keen positiveness and deter- 122 MORAL TRAINING mined egotism there. We admire the hard sense of these our ^' able men," but there is after all a suggestion of spiritual poverty in the ty|)e. We complain of the prevalence of dishonesty, immo- rality, intemperance ; we mourn that we dare not appeal to conscience or a fine sense of honor, for the world's question is not " Is it right ? " but " Will it pay ? " and we are in despair at this coarseness of moral fibre. These are very close and serious questions to all of us, and thoughtful men and women must see that our alteratives do not go deep enough. A disease of the frame-work needs something more than patent liniments for external api)li- cation. It is character-forming that we need in home, school, and in Sunday-school and church work too. There is too much " saying of les- sons," both in school and Sunday-school. The kindergarten principle of learning through doing is too much in the background. This mere say- ing of rules and tables by tiny little ones, yes, and even this mere saying of texts and psalms, is only a fractional part of the learning how to live consciously with God, for God, with human- ity, for humanity. The wisest Sunday-school work is still a training in theories only, unless before and with it there is moral development in action. " A soft answer turneth away wrath ; " " Char- ity thinketh no evil," — we know these beautiful MORAL TBAINING 123 precepts well 1)V mcnioiy, by head, — alas, how imperfectly by heart ! Look in frequently at almost any good kinder- garten ; sec the unostentatious, quiet work, the developed spirit of helpfulness, which is its prac- tical religion ; help from teacher to child, from child to teacher ; from younger to older, and from older to younger children, — and remember that to hi'lp is to do the work of the world. Look at the bright faces, busy fingers, hai)py ^ voices, beaming smiles. The children are as merry as crickets, as full of song as birds, as busy as bees, and virtue kindles at the touch of such joy. One can never look at them without feel- ing that if the same love and guidance were given to them throughout their childhood days, and the same union of artistic, ennobling work and mental actiNnty enjoyed, they might grow into men and women who would regard idleness as vice, ignorance as degradation, and persistent de- spair as a crime ; whose awakened minds would, with increasing enthusiasm, increase in know- ledge and power ; whose trained wills would know the joy of striving ; and whose hearts would enter with delight into each fresh experience of life. If the kindergartner be a good, pure, loving, ear- nest woman, into whose heart the love of God has fallen to quicken all true and ])eautiful thoughts and motives, she can no more hell) m^vking Iut four hours' dailv work with the children a constant 124 MORAL TRAINING preaching of the gospel than the sun can help radiating light and heat. * ^ But the conclusion of the whole matter is just here ; no woman can create such an at- Conclnsion , ,, . i xi of the mosphere as this, no woman can be the priestess of this essential religion in the child stage, unless the fire of worship be ever burn- ing on the altars of her own soul. Emerson, who is always divinely right about these things, says : " The will of the pure runs down from them into other natures, as water runs do^Ti from a higher into a lower vessel. This natural force is no more to be withstood than any other natural force." We heard an address given by a Hindu monk, not lonsr asro, and as we listened we could not but marvel at the universality of truth, and be thank- fid that there is no Here or There to the workings of the spirit. Often certain things the Oriental said appealed especially to us as individuals, and, again the words seemed to have a genei*al mean- ing and we thought of kindergartners everywhere. One sentence, in its poetic. Eastern phrasing, its newly jeweled setting of a truth as old as time, was this : " Let the lotos of your life bloom ; the bees will come of themselves." Did we hear anything after this? We are not The Lotos siu'e, for our minds were filled with the of Life. thought of life and its lotos-flower as it opened to the sunshine, — of how, deep down at its golden heart, was the treasure that drew the MURAL TKAiyiNG 125 bees, and of how no words wore needed to tell the place of the honey, for in its silent sweetness the Hower revealed its own secret. And as " the atoms march in tuuo . . . Wln'ii they hear from far the rune," so these musings fell into orderly train as our minds reverted to their old, old reflections upon the influence of the teacher's personality. They are old thoughts, old to us, old to you, old in lit- erature, for every moralist, sage, and philosojiher has held them since time began ; but though a truth be old it can never be worn out till it has served its purpose, and in no stage of education has the imconscious influence of the teacher been held, as yet, of suflicient account. It must be a silent, an unconscious influence, the sweetness of the lotos that attracts the bees, and like that sweetness it must come from the golden heart. The kindergartner must, of course,! be intellectually e4uii)i)cd at every point ; she must know the theory which underlies the use of the kindergarten tools, and be able to handle them wisely ; she must understand the secrets of play and of story-telling ; she must know something of the laws of the mind and its workings : but she may possess all this knowledge and yet have a heart so dry and withered that not one drop of life-giving honey will distill from it. More fatal supposition still, there may be a drop of poison in 126 MORAL TEAINING the flower-cup, — only one, perhaps, but that is enough for the undoing of the chikl. We may not unclei-vahie knowledge, high men- tal gifts, power of diseijiline, executive ability, nor accomplishments in education ; but back of all these things there must be the power of the teacher's strong, true personality, or the mental attainments will be so much Dead Sea fruit to the child. In later years, w^hen the habits of the spirit are crystallized, the character of the teacher is of less importance, but in nursery and kindergarten it is the one supremely and infinitely serious thing. " Life-earnestness is the gift of gifts, and the in- spired work of the true teacher knows no bounds except those w^hich God's horizons and laws of spiritual gravitation impose. She who is always at her best, being and doing the best that then and there in her lies, with no suggestion of stint and every unconscious suggestion of love, of solici- tude, of self-sacrifice, is giving off virtue from her very garment's hem." We can accomplish little in any line of educa- tional or philanthropic work unless we are con- stantly adding to the riches of our personality, unless we are ourselves what we wish our children to become. No one may tell another how he may reinforce his spiritual strength ; no one may tell another how he may paint the lotos of his life with brighter hues, or add to its store of sweet- ness ; yet we know where the roots of the plant MORAL Th'AIMXa 127 are set, and as they stru<;gle (leei)er clown into the (lark soil, so will the flower al)Ove grow fairer. Yet not for itself alone does the lotos blossom, — for the sake of the eager bees it must expand all its infolded perfections. THE SCHOOL OF SPEUSIPPUS AET IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM " Were it left to my ordering, I should paint the school with the pictures of joy and gladness, Flora and the Graces, as the philosopher Speusippus did his. Where their profit is, let them there have their pleasure also." Michel, Seigneur de Montaigne. When you give your hand to Memory, and re- trace with her the softly-shadowed jDaths our Child- that vanish into darkness, do you find anywhere upon your journey a school like that of Speusippus ? In the many wayside inns that dotted the road of Education, was there one where the pictures of joy and gladness, of Flora and the Graces, were painted on the walls ? We recall distinctly our earliest school-rooms, one in the country, one in the city, and we are in- clined to believe that they will be found to bear a strong family resemblance to your own. The first one in the country had the usual stove, and ser- pentine lengths of melancholy pipe, the teacher's rostrum, bell, and blackboard ; seats and desks once white, now of no particular color, and marked with many strange carvings and hieroglyphs. Was there any further furnishing ? No, we think THE SCHOOL OF UPEUfiirPl'S 12U not ; but .st»i\% — yes, there was a tin water-pail and dipper. Our bodies were certainly not en- feebled by useless luxuries, for the windows had no shades and the walls no decoration, save spi- ders' webs, dust, and cracks. The children must have been the only ornament, save, perhaps, the teachers, who, if our memory serves us, were not always satisfactory in this regard. Yet there was a deliciously green outlook from those windows ; vagrant breezes, fiUl of perfume, strayed in now and then ; and jjlaytimes filled with grass and tlowers and the song of the river were always in prospect. The city school was less dusty, the seats and desks in better condition, the walls nuich cleaner ; but it was ecpially bare of beautifid things, much crowded, and the atmosphere oppressive to a too- early -susceptible nose ; there was nothing woi-th seeing from the windows ; and the same air of grim devotion to duty, of laying aside every weight and pressing toward the mark, was dis- tinctly to be felt. Yet this idea of a school-room, of a place where young minds are to be developed, is ob- \'iouslv the creation of man's brain, and schooi- runs counter to God's practices. He evi- dently believes in beauty as an educator, and did He not begin the training of man in a garden? The popular belief, on the contrary, seems always to have been that school is a place to con one's 130 THE SCHOOL OF SPEUSIPPUS book, and that any object in the room not strictly essential to this purpose is a beguilement of the mind and a snare to the senses. Few among the thinkers of the race have discovered until late years " That Beauty, Good, and Knowledge are tliree sisters That dote upon each other, friends to man, Living together under the same roof. And never can be simdered without tears," and the fact that the three sisters have com- monly been sundered, as far as the east is from the west, may explain the frequent failures of education to accomplish what is expected of it. All philosophers and educators have agreed to Training the ^^^^ ueccssity of refining the feelings and Taste. training the taste of children, and have suggested a variety of roads toward this end. Plato, for instance, advised the teaching of poetry and music; Aristotle, of music and di'awing; Quintilian, music and the memorizing of gems of literature ; Comenius, music, j)oetry, and games ; Eousseau, drawing, reciting, and singing ; Pesta- lozzi, music, dancing, etc. ; and Proebel, form, color, music, and the occupations, gifts, and games of the kindergarten : while all have agreed that courtesy must be taught, and the ethical nature early cultivated. It is possible, however, that all these moralists, save the last, relied too much upon the ear and too little on the eye in the training of taste ; and TlfK SCHOOL OF SI'EUSII'I'US 131 FroL'ltel, peculiarly susceptible to form and color in art and nature, provided liberally for these in his system of develoi)ing the ajsthetic sense. Kinderj^artners everywhere have recognized the close kinshii) of beauty to [rood and 1 11 Kinderpir- knowledire, and, niauv as have been tenDecora- their failures, have invariably tried, at least, to set their children in an artistic environ- ment. That they have not always succeeded, perhaps have seldom succeeded in the ideal sense, is quite true ; but the fact that to most persons the salient characteristics of the kindergarten are its coloring, its decoration, its gayety of effect, and that by these fruits is it commonly known, proves conclusively that the effort to reach the beauti- ful is duly recognized. Often the kindergarten rooms are not l)eautif ul at all in the artist's sense : but why should they be, how can they be, in any country where the majority of home interiors are ugly (impious as the saying sounds) ; where the exteriors are often equally unpleasing ; where the public buildings are frequently without pretensions to architectural taste ; and where, in many places, no museums of beautiful things are to be found ? There remain only the beauties of nature as edu- cators, and it seems to be invariably true, and reflects the development of the race, that " man must be won to the love and appreciation of na- ture by the interpretation of art." The stream cannot rise higher than its source. 132 THE SCHOOL OF SPEUSIPPUS and we must remember, wlieu we criticise the decorations of our kindergartens, that these are and must be on the level of the common taste, and that the fact that any need whatever is felt of making them beautiful is an earnest of bet- ter things and a hint of Utopian conditions to come. The first two requisites of an artistic school- cieanness I'oom are, in our opinion, cleanness and and Order, qy^qj. - and here we must be forgiven if we speak emphatically and in a loud voice, for the blood of generations of Puritan ancestors surges (nay, the word is ill-chosen), marches in our veins. The presence of Luca della Robbia's Singing Boys upon the walls would not compen- sate us for an inch thickness of dust upon the tables, and not all the glories of the Sistine Ma- donna could blind us to the condition of the closet shelves. True, those shelves are behind a closed door, but their helter-skelter, topsy-turvy, hit-or- miss condition is an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual condition of their owTier. Be clean first, be orderly next (in the school-room, at least), and after that be artistic, for it is against every dictate of common sense to frost the cake before you bake it, or to trim the dress before you sew the seams. We have said many times, and now repeat it, though the sentiment is somewhat out of fashion, that the ideal kindergartner must be a good housekeeper ; and why should this not TiiK SCHOOL OF tii'Ki'sjrrua 133 bo so, whtMi we know tluit she must first he the ideal woman ? AUied, in the traiuiu!;:^ of taste, to the neatness of the room, is the (h-ess of the teacher, p^g^, „, ^,,3 and neatness liere docs not prcsujipose '^*""='""'- a gcntlcmaidy severity of costume. One may he neat and yet artistically and hecomingly clad ; and children deli2;ht in hriglit, pure colors, in pretty ribbons and a]>rons, and in breast-knots of flowers. The natural heart of man, and of woman, for that matter, chooses rather to contemplate a blossom- ing rose-tree than a granite wall ; and though the ■wall is undeniably useful, the teacher need not emulate its blankness and angularity in her dress, nor does she thereby indicate a whit more clearly her moral rectitude of pur])(>se. AVho has not seen the admiring eyes of children riveted upon a pretty gown, felt the ap}n-eciative pat and stroke of small hands upon its folds, and the awed in- quiry on its first appearance, '' Is that your Sun- icture which is always hung on the wall in the same place is often looked on with an unseeing eye, and a brief absence restores its at- tractions. This we have found with our collections of pictures for special occasions, — for Christmas, Tlianksgiving, etc., which are brought out in the week or month preceding the holiday, and then packed away, We must remember, too, that if we wish to cultivate that taste in children which, as p;^,^,,^^ one prominent educator puts it, " is the ''*^''*- flower of a happy experience," we must also use care in selecting tiieir picture-books. Emerson 140 THE SCHOOL OF SPEUSIPPUS says in his essay on " Domestic Life :" " What art can paint or gikl any object in after-life with the glow which nature gives to the first baubles of childhood! St. Peter's cannot have the magical j^ower over us that the red-and-gold covers of our first picture-book possessed." Since the magi- cal power confessedly is there, let us remember it when we are looking over these books for kin- dergarten and nursery use. They are many of them such daubs, so violent in coloring, so impos- sible in drawing, so "creepy" in subject, as to make one tremble for the sensitive child who comes under their influence. Only a careless, thoughtless person, however, need buy such books to-day, for the picture-book market is constantly improving, so far as artistic treatment is con- cerned at least. That many of them are quite per- fect in technique, but destitute of sense or mean- ing, is true enough, and here, when patience fails, we can always fall back on the illustrations from Froebel's " Mother Play," which now may be had in large size, and both colored and uncolored. In the kindergarten we are not confined to look- ing at and admiring the beautiful, for other Aids ,_., ,, , in training 1 roebcl Qcvised numbcrless ways by which the child might produce it for himself and for his neighbor. All the hand-work fui-nishes opportiinities for combining colors, for designing, for training the eye, for shaping and moulding, for building, for reproducing and in- THE SCHOOL OF Sl'EUSlI'l'US 141 ventini;-, and in out-h ease tlu; dilliculties are graded, so that, step by step and easily, tlic ehild may learn the laws of beauty. The music and literature of the kindergarten, too, the teaching of manners and morals, are all aids in training the taste, for fortunately a touch on any of the fine strings of the child's nature will u^.ipHfrom set all the others in vibration. Froebel ^''""'■*'- advised that the first drawing and coloring work of chihlren should " refer to perceptions of Na- ture," and we sometimes forget wdiat a wonderful teacher of beauty she is when lovingly observed. Dr. Seguin says in his " Education : " " To train the taste, all the written books of the world can- not teach as much as the observation of the dis- tribution of resistances in a nutshell, or the dif- ferent attitudes of a branch of white lily from sunrise to sundown." Let us take the children to see the lily ; but if that may not be, let us buy the plant for the kindergarten, and, failing even that, at least have a picture of it, though the grace of its changing attitudes be absent. In the school report of Newton, Massachusetts, for 1890, the supervisor of drawing said : " If the apple blossom and the mai)le leaf were from the hand of man rather than of nature ; if they were duly entered according to act of Congress and stacked by the thousand in the puldishers' warehouses, — we should doubtless be at great pains to include them in our educational supplies." 142 THE SCHOOL OF SPEUSIPPUS We often ignore these natural aids in taste- training, it is true, and bemoan ourselves because we have no money for pictures, when we have an orchard within Avalkiug distance, a maple-tree on the corner, and a dovecote next door. With these materials we may make our own pictures, if we choose, and be sure that they at least are artisti- cally perfect in every detail. And now, for the purpose of all this training of taste, why should it be universal, Purpose of , , i i • i tt Taste-Train- why should it DC truc, as Jdamerton says, that it is still more important, from the intellectual point of view, that art should be understood by many than that it should be dexterously j^racticed by few ? It seems to us, from the industrial point of view at least (and perhajDS from that point we may get a glance around the corner at something else), we cannot answer the question better than by repeating a story that lately came to our ears. It was told to illustrate the effect of environment, to j^rove the powerful influence that surroundings may have ujion hmnan endeavor and achievement, and runs as follows. A party of women once had the privilege of inspecting a factory devoted to the manufacture of spool thread. Their guide was the proprietor of the factory, which is one of the largest and most complete in the world ; but what most impressed the visitors was, not the size and evident prosperity of the plant, but the THE SCHOOL OF srEi'.sirri's 143 Leauty of the place. Not only was every hygienic and oonimereial necessity attended to, hut, so far as possi])le, every a'sthetic consideration was oh- served as well. Around each wall of the spa- cious, well-lighted apartments where the work was done ran a broad, exipiisitely painted frieze. The figures upon it were a dainty dancing company, beautiful in color as well as in form, and fit to grace the walls of a dwelling rather than a mill. Finally, one of the women, a practical, plain- spoken dame, asked the mill-owner why he made beauty such an object. " I don't see the use of such a frieze in a factory like this," she said bluntly, — " why do you have it ? " The mill- owner smiled. " Well, come to think of it, it 's a very practical reason," he said. " I find that it makes better thread." That is the answer, — answer enough from the practical standpoint ; but is there sp„„, not a strong hint of moral and intellcc- Human"" tual truths behind ? Will not the con- templation of the beautiful make better human thread as well as spool cotton ? The more we teach children to love and admire the beautiful l)roductions of man, the more we open their eyes to the irlories of nature : the more we teach them of the joys of form and color, the more richly stored will be their niiiuls with sources of ha])- piness in maturity. The conception of the uni- verse which wc gain in childhood i'^ n<'Vfr wholly 144 THE SCHOOL OF SPEUSIPPUS changed by later impressions ; and he who has early absorbed the idea that the world holds no- thing but what is dark and dingy, ugly, ungrace- ful, and sordid, will sink his mental and moral ideals to the same level. Therefore, O Speusippus, we praise thee for that school of thine, so cunningly painted with pictures of joy and gladness, of Flora and the Graces ; and we doubt not that where thy pupils found their pleasure, there did they gain great profit also. KINDERGARTEN PLAY " Mosical training ia a more potent instmraent than any other, because rhythm and hannony make their way into the secret re- cesses of the soul, into which they do nxiyhtily fasten." Plato. '' \Mjat hoy and girl play in earliest cliildhood will become, by and by. a beautiful reality of serious life ; for they expand into stronger and lovelier youthfulness by seeking on every side appropriate objects to verify the thoughts of their inmost souls." FlUEDKlCII FkOEKEL. As one introduced to the treasures of an orien- tal monarch might pause first before one jewel, then another, each time exclaiming, " Ah, this is most beautiful of all ! " — so, as we linger over the riches of Froebel's means of education, we are in douV»t as to where most wisely to bestow our admiration. Yet we cannot long hesitate when boldly challenged for an opinion ; for life with children, and serious, .sympathetic study of their manifestations, show us ever more clearly the abitling truth of Froebel's theory of play. The employment of music and games in the training of children is, of course, not trgeof confined to the modern kindergarten, as M?"irin"'' a brief study of the hi.story of j)edagogy will show ; but the way in which, and the pur- 146 KIN BERG ABTEN FLAY pose for which, they are used by Froebel, are absokitely unique. With other educators they serve either to train the taste, to strengthen the muscles, to give appro- priate phj'sical exercise, to cultivate gracefulness and fitting poise of body, to develop the aesthetic faculties, to soften and refine the feelings, or to inculcate courtesy and politeness ; with Froebel, though all these elements are present, yet they are the merest dust in the balance as compared with the fundamental values which render them, in his opinion, essential to the proper develop- ment of the child. The theory of kindergarten play seems an absolute inspiration to the student of Kindergar- cliildhood ; but it is such an inspira- tenPlay. . ^ tion as only rewards ceaseless thought and study, long and patient observation and in- trospection, and unwavering devotion to a high purpose. The nursery was Froebel's university and little children his professors, and it was from them he learned that " the plays of this age are the heart-leaves of the whole future life ; for the whole man is visible in them, in his finest capa- city, in his innermost being." To so thoroughly understand childish play as to be able to sejjarate the various threads which enter into its compli- cated web, to comprehend why the child plays and what he plays, to estimate the dynamic force of the instinct, and upon this combined know- KINDEUGAliTEX PLAY U7 leilge ami insight to build up a system of songs and games not only suited to present needs, but directed toward future development, — this was what the founder of the kindergarten jiroposed to himself, and this is what he accomplished. Kindergarten i)lay, if conducted in agreement with the principles of Frocbcl, has the following values : — It is valuable, in the iirst i)lace. not so much for its effect upon the i)hysical development as for the\ sake of the mental and spiritual activity it evokes. It gives room for the earliest development of the pure social instinct, involving mutual give- and-take, and common effort toward' common ob- jects, thus forming for the child an introduction to moral relations. Through kindergarten play, the child comes to know the external world, the physical qualities of the objects which surround him, — their motions, actions and reactions upon each other, and the relations of these phenomena to himself ; a know- ledge which forms the basis of that which will be his permanent stock in life. The child's fancy is healthfully fed by images from outer life, and his curiosity by new glimpses of knowledge from the world around him. '• This is the significance of l)lay, which is chiefly imitatiim, that the undeveloped human Ite- ing is learning to know liimself by seeing what he can do. lie is revealimr himself to (jthers and 148 KINDERGARTEN PLAY to himself, and getting strength in his individ- uality." 1 In the necessary subordination of himself and his desires to the common good, which is essential, if the game be a perfect thing, the child gets a hint of what will be in future required of him as an ideal citizen. By reproducing the life of plants, of animals, of human beings, in his games, by depicting nat- ural phenomena, and by the simj)le hymns of love, gratitude, and aspiration which he sings to his Maker, — he is led to understand his threefold re- lationships as a child of nature, a child of man, and a child of God. By utilizing the " natural longing for some mode of activity which is inherent in childhood," he is enabled to reproduce in visible form the impres- sions which the external world has made upon his spirit. By the typical experiences which he lives through, by the touch of other lives upon his own, a dim feeling begins to dawn upon him of those universal relationships on which Froebel loved to dwell, and of that organic unity which is the cohesive power of the universe. Of the visible effects of these songs and games, with their well-chosen music and apj^ro- Kiudergar- priatc gcsturc, kindcrgartncrs can all speak enthusiastically. We know that the words suggest thought to the child ; the thought 1 W. T. Harris. KiyDi:iiGAiiTi':y play 14*J suggests gesture ; the gesture aids iu awakening the proper feeling ; the melody begets spiritual impressions ; the gestures, feeling, and melody unite in produeing the desired effects on the phy- sical, mental, and moral nature. The souree of the kindergarten songs and games is primarily, of eourse, to be found in •* i-iir T-" 111 111 f'f""'ce of the luaviiiir child, for rroebel based all songBand ® , - 1-1 . Games, the frames he left us on his observation of the instinctive activities of childhood. The greater part of these he collected in the Mutter und Kose-Lieder, but there are still a few games used in modern kindergartens which have never been })ublished at all, and which have come down to us by tradition, like the old folk-stories. In late years, however, each large kindergarten cen- tre makes use not only of the ]\Iother Play, but of one or two books of games and songs com- posed or comiiiled by its prominent local workers, and adds to these such selections from other pub- lications as seem most desiral)le. Each kinder- gartner, too, who shows any marked originality in dealing with the games, has her special plays, which no one else can handle as well, and which she has developed to fit the needs of her own par- ticular group of children ; but all these, as well as all the compositions in the kindergarten music- books, can, if they are really suitabh.' for children, be traced back to their source in Frocbel's collec- tion, and, back of that, to the child himself. 150 EINDEBGARTEN PLAY There is nothing cut and dried, nothing inflexi- originaiity ^^6, in thesc Mother Play games. It in Games. -^ ^^,^^ ^|^^^ ^.j^^^ ^^^.^ framed as illus- trations of typical experiences through which the child must pass if he is to reach the fullness of his development, but it was far from Froebel's thought to insist that these especial settings of the truth should always be used. It is charac- teristic of the first stages in student-life to fol- low exactly in the footsteps of the leader, and this is wise as well as natural ; but by and by, when princij)les have grown to be a part of life, imitation can be cast aside and individuality de- veloped, for " the truth shall make us free." Let no passion for originality, however, betray us into a desire to compose new songs and games before we really have anything within ourselves to express, or before we are so in sympathy with the child that he has given us a new suggestion. An old, old game that is the outgrowth of some one else's experience may be a thousand times better than a new, new game we just made up this morning. We have not all the same gifts, and we need not be discouraged if we are never able to compose a new song or play. If we were "born short" in that particular line, it is the law of compensation that some one else should be "born long," and thus we may complement our individual limitations by one another's gifts. " One piece of the wood is cut for a weathercock," KiynKna. i /; tkx i -l. i i' li> 1 yoii know, " and one for the sleeper of a bridj^e : the virtue of the wood is apparent in both." We pray yon (and the jirayer is the fruit of prickly exi)erienee) do not try to write the words for vonr jianies if you have no poetic talent ; do not struu<;le to make new tunes, if you have no nnisi- cal originality ; do not exhaust yourself in the search for new subjects for the mere sake of novelty. Meekly borrow your neighl)or's lantern to illuminate your path, and soothe your aching vanity by reflecting that he will probably ask for the loan of yours, by and by, to light him on some other journey. The kindergarten games and songs may be divided into several distinct classes, — Classification Familv Kelationships ; Trades and Oc- ofsongsand ^ Gaines. cupations ; Descriptive Songs ; Songs of the Senses ; Representations of Organic Life ; Songs of Natural Phenomena; Songs of the Gifts and Occupations ; Gymnastic, Dancing and Marching Games ; Games of Courtesy and Politeness (including songs of farewell, greet- ing, etc.) ; Ring Songs ; Prayers and llynnis ; the more i)urely symbolic songs illustrating sun, moon, stars, light and shadow; and improvised play, or the dramatization of the interests of the day. These various classes are quite sharply dif- ferentiated, the one from the other, and each is needed at some point in the circle of the child's development. They are not all equally important, 152 KINDERGARTEN PLAY however, and good judgment is needed in giving to them theii" proj)er relative value. It may be said, for the benefit of mothers and How they are teachers wlio are not familiar with kin- piayed. dergarteu ways, that the games are always played by a circle of children joining hands. Because of the various gestures and movements accompanying the words, the hands are not always clasped together during the en- tire play-time, but the ring is formed with some appropriate song in the beginning, and thus the sense of connection is felt, while the shape of the circle at least, is kept to the end. The majority of children's games in all countries are played in this way, as Froebel, of course, had noted ; and the form of the circle itself, the symbol of unity, he held to be essential, — the more so, as the prin- ciple of self-activity here comes into play, since the children make the ring themselves by their own efforts, and not one of them can be left out without breaking it. The game, if ideally presented, is always either Outgrowths of an outgrowth of previous experience. Experience. ^^, ^^ introduction to a desired theme, and is preceded by a talk or story which is de- signed to be explanatory of the words, and to make clearer the phases of feeling which they illustrate. If jjresented in any other way, if void of connection with the dominant subject of in- terest, it will only be a " languishing pantomime KIXDFnnARTEy I'LAY l.')3 into which wo galvanize life with more or less success.' It is somewhat difficult to explain on paper liow the jranics may be freely selected ^ 'i 1 1 1 1 The Children by the children and led by them, and itaii. yetare . ' , guiUeJ. yet move on the jreneral lines sketched by the kindcrgartner in her plan for the month or season. Miss Blow uses the old theologic statement, " Man walks freely in directed paths," to explain this union of free will and predestina- tion, and we may believe in the truth of the para- dox, though unable to explain it. The true kin- dcrgartner is a child with the children, and yet an older and a wiser one. The game would not be half as delightful without her, and her charms as a playfellow are so sensibly felt that her lightest word, suggestion, look, and tone are heeded. If she has been successful in creating the right at- mosphere in the kindergarten, if she is as thor- oughly in sympathy with her children as she ought to be, then her will commonly moves in harmony with theirs, and theirs with hers. They are all thinking about the same things while in the kinderfrarten, and all looking at them in much the same way ; so why is it not perfectly natural that their mental suggestions as to work- ing them out should have a certain family like- ness? Of course there are occasions when some dramatic occtirrenco in the house or in the neigh- borhood entirely changes the current of thought. 154 KINDERGARTEN FLAY but the wise kiiidergartner can generally bring the wandering attention back again when the incident has been fully appreciated, or may even, since the higher connection of things is ever present to her mind, use it to illustrate the original subject. And here enters one of the elements which ren- der kindergarten play so delicate and difficult a thing, requiring supremely good judgment and exquisitely fine sense of proportion. We may so easily become autocrats with children, and impose our own wills upon them so insensibly, that we may fail to realize what we are doing, until our eyes are suddenly opened to the real meaning of our actions. Constant thought and self-exami- nation are necessary to discover whether we are really driving or leading, whether by sheer force of will we are whipping the children along the road, or whether they are gladly winging with us across the blue sky, each one free to leave the course, yet glad to follow. Another important feature of the games which is suggested by the formation of the Cooperation. ., . ,i,.i •• ,• p ^^ CH'cle IS that the cooperation oi all is necessary to perfection. Everybody is always needed for the singing and the general dramatic action, and those who are not called upon as principals to-day will be called upon to-morrow. The older children are trained to think of the younger and less capable ones, and to choose them for such parts as they are fitted to fill, and at KiNJ)Eii(;.ii;TKy i'lay 155 loast ono game is selected each ])lay-timo as will be i)aitic'ulaily suited to their undeveloped ea})aci- ties. T\\v unity wliich hinds all nienihers into one whole in these plays is so plainly seen that it aids ehildien in feeling that their conduct is not a matter eoneerning themselves alone, but one which touches the community. How can any child long continue to say to himself. " I have a right to be naughty if I choose," when he sees before his eyes unmistakable proofs that the in- dulgence of this right (if it be one) is a direct infringement on the rights of other people ? These concrete illustrations of moral truths are most valuable to the child, for, though he might be incredulous as to the probable disastrous con- sequences of any wrong action if they were pro- phesied to him, yet he cannot disbelieve the pan- orama of events unrolled before his eyes, nor attempt to disprove its invincible logic. There can be no (piestion that upon the free- dom of the play dei)ends its approach freedom iu to perfection. The less ordering, the ^*^^' less preparation, the less restriction, the less in- terference, the less talk on the part of the kin- dergartner, the better will be the game. If any *• proj>erties " are reijuired (and the fewer of these the better), they should be placed where the children can find them without a second's delay, for any waiting, when feeling is just at the right ])<»int, is as disastrous to ]>lay as to cooking. 156 KINDERGARTEN PLAY There should obviously be very little, if any, " costuming " for the games, though there is no harm in a cooper's apron, or a baker's cap, per- haps. We say obviously, but jjossibly the word needs explanation. The fact is, the juste 7nilieu in kindergarten play is as elusive as the place of Mahomet's coffin, but the nearer it comes to absolute simplicity, and the farther from any- thing faintly resembling a spectacular perform- ance, the better for its ideality. The children should manage everything them- selves as far as may be, the kindergartner only being one of the happy company, and willing to accede to any reasonable suggestion. There should be in our opinion, too, as little choosing of leaders as possible. To ask for volunteers is far more pleasing and less restricted, and is really fairer to every one. It is easy to say simply, " Will six of the largest boys please make a forest of Christmas trees here in the middle of the rinsf ? " or, " Will some one come and be the master cooper to-day ? " If a novice at coopering offers himself, of course accept his services. He must learn some time, and why not now ? and the want of rhythm in the blows of his hammer will not injure the children a tenth part as much as the spectacle of one especial child always chosen to do certain tricks like a performing poodle. As the children daily emancipate themselves from their shyness, their nervousness, their self-distrust ]^;/.'^■.l/.•TA•.v i'lay 1C>1 of till' coininfjof spiinji; to a martial air like " Men of Ilaikili ; "' yet both these nuisieal ahomina- tions have eome to our ears, aucl two virtuous and truly exemplary young women were answerable for them. And here miserable Exi)erienoe would fain lift nj) her voice and bay the moon as she recalls the marches and the piano accompaniments she has often heard from kimlergartners. Who has not seen the children marching around and around the room nine hundred and ninety-nine times to the same tune, played (with the loud i)edal con- stantly in use) until it seemed that another repe- tition would bring on acute mania? Who does not know the kindergartner who thinks one bass note, if it be played heavily enough, all-sufficient for any brief melody, and having started with the first chord of C, continues to use it, though the tune change to E or G, or Q or Z ? Who has not met the person who says, " Kin- dergarten music is so siinjde, you know," and ])roceeds to illustrate her belief by drumming out the tunes with one finger? So it is simi)l(' in one sense, and so it ought to be ; but it is not nulimentary, and the student just beginning kin- dergarten work may assure herself that all her natural musical gifts and accpiired musical graces will be fewer than she needs for the career on which she has entered. We also insist in the true kindergarten that 162 KINDERGARTEN PLAY the words of the songs shall be poetic. All kin- worda of dergarten verses do not reach this ideal, Songs. ^^ i^g sure, but our aim really is that the children should never hear an imjjerfect rhyme, a false metre, or any but the most expres- sive and charming language. It is no easy thing to write really good and appropriate words for these songs and games, and neither confine one's self entirely to monosyllables, nor use language above the comprehension of the child. The verses must be carefully taught and exj)lained, too, and the kindergartner must frequently listen quietly to the singing to be able to correct mis- pronunciations, slurring and running together of words, or entire misinterpretations. She will frequently be rewarded by hearing a new and altogether unintelligible version of an apparently simple line, or perhaps a version quite contrary to the original in meaning. One of the authors well remembers a morning on her circle when a small boy abruptly inquired, after Reinecke's " From the Far Blue Heaven " had been sung, " Miss Kate, why will God never git yer ? " This question fell ujjon the assembled company — fifty children, four teachers, and an assemblage of dig- nified visitors, — as might a bombshell in time of peace. Apparently it had no relation to the song, and certainly not with the preceding religious teaching. " My dear boy," said Miss Kate after an astonished pause, "I don't know what you KIXDEIiCAliTES I'LAY 103 mean." " Yes, you do," persisted this seeker after truth ; " we sing it every day, — ' God will never git yer, for He loves yer well.' " (Tableau among the kindergartners, who remcmlHr that the line of the Keineeke song is, " God will ne'er forget yt inappropriate gestures, hur suufsrestions as to worthv ones, and the ciiild fol- lows the form of freedom in his endeavor to reach the ideal which she holds before him. In the classification of the songs and games an allusion was made to improvised play, improviaed and possibly the term needs some ex- ^^^' jilanation. ^^^■ mean by this such play as kin- dergartner and children arrange on the spur of the moment, and which is without words, and probably without music, unless a descriptive ac- comjianiment is required. It is often the illus- tration of some story or poem which has been unusually well told, and which offers such dra- matic possibilities as to evoke eager cries from the children of " Let 's play it I let 's play it I " No story can be successfully played, however, unless it has a number of characters, and unless there is a good deal of action involved. Another kind of improvised j)lay is the dramatizati(m of fascinat- ing street sights seen on the way to school, as the dancing liear and his keeper, followed by a crowd of children; the circus procession, the policeman's drill, the parade of some military organization. These in the country would be ])arall«'lcd by the ploughmen at work, the farmers sowing the seed 168 KINDERGARTEN PLAY and weeding the gardens, the mowing and reap- ing, etc. ; and though all these are labors esseiitial to life, and therefore more ideally suitable for kindergarten games, yet we cannot altogether exclude from our play the various activities of man which come under the eye of the city child. Improvised play is only occasional, of course ; but it is valuable, because it calls out so much indi- vidual thought and action from the children, as well as such a fervor of interest. The ideal kindergarten game, we boldly say. Discipline in requires no discipline whatever. If it the Games, jg strictly Froebclian, — that is, if it is simple, childlike, giving opportunities for all to join, appealing to emotions and ideas wdthin youth- ful range, if it is conducted as it should be, — it will hold the attention of a majority of the chil- dren, and will no more require commands or exhortations to keep order than a river requires threats to run its proper course. If attention seems to wander ; if children talk to each other and forget to sing ; if they are listless and unin- terested ; if they have constantly to be told to make the gestures and keep the circle intact, — then something is wrong, of course ; but the little ones themselves are not in fault unless they have been depraved by systematic mismanagement. Of course there are days when everything goes wrong, and wdien the blackness of discourage- ment settles down upon even the most successful KiyDERGARTEX PLAY 1C9 of kindorgartners. Slie may be over-tired, over- trovibletl, unusually nervous, not quite as wt-ll- poiscd as usual, and the children, like chameleons, change their color at once to suit hers. They may, jierhaps, be somewhat overwrought them- selves ; the first game may have been a shade too festive, or the preceding recess too riotous; — it only requires a touch and everything is out of balance. These " bad days " come less and less often with growing experience ; but they will ap- pear occasionally, and the only help seems to be to sit down and require absolute silence and quiet from every one until sweet Peace unfolds her white wings and flutters down again. Then some restful game may be chosen, and playtime end in serenity, if not in unclouded gayety. Black as are these infrequent days, however, they fade into insignificance, they can j-^ppj <,£ scarcely be seen at all, when they stand on^i'^'ic^n- near the white radiance of the innumcr- ^^s"'""- able company of good days. No one who sim])ly looks on, and is not an organic part of kinder- garten Jilay, can appreciate what Froebel calls "the reflex feeling of blessedness which always flows back over our souls, and over our minds and bodies also, when we have been amongst the children playing kindergarten games." lie never said anything more true : and every good kin- dcrgartiicr, every person who has played liapi)ily with chiklren anywliere, has felt this blessedness 170 KINDERGARTEN PLAY which is a form of spiritual exaltation, and which emanates from the absolute happiness of these souls unspotted by the world. It is "perfect human joy, which is also a divine worship, for it is ordered by God." MORE ABOUT PLAY There is a quaint old elmreh, in a far-away corner of this country, which bears above its clock-dial these words, carved in stone : " My son, observe the time and fly from evil." jMany who pass the inscription every day never lift their heads to see it ; many would pay no heed, even if their eyes chanced to fall on the moss-grown words : but may wc not suppose that now and then they serve as a warning- to some struggling human creature ? AVe believe, it is true, more in positive than in negative teaching ; but of what avail is all our hardly -gained experience if we may not use it now and then to adjure others to fly from evil? If we know that one of two broad roads leads directly to a precipice, down which no one may fall without serious injury, is it not our duty to make ourselves into guide- posts and stand with u})lifted finger at the ])art- ing of tlie roads, saying, "Go not this way"? In such a case, it is not enough to point out the right j)ath ; it is even more necessary to bar the wrong one. and permit no one to pass down it. We may be forgiven, then, if we make ourselves into sign-boards plainly lettered, that the careless 172 MORE ABOUT PLAY traveler make no mistake in the roads ; for broad is the way that leadetli to faihire, and many there be that travel thereon. We might use with ad- vantage, too, the remainder of the metaj^hor, because there can be no doubt whatever that strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto the ideal kindergarten play ; and few, very few, there be that find it. We believe that to conduct the games as Froebel intended is the highest achievement set before the kinder- gartner, and to extract from them their richest possibilities requires more than a touch of genius. Shall we then, since success is so doubtful, relin- quish the struggle altogether ? No ; for although it is probable that only three persons out of ten are fitted by nature to be ideal leaders of child- play, yet the other seven may by serious endeavor attain to a fair degree of proficiency in the art, and thus give to the children in their care a great deal of pleasure and profit. If the kindergartner cannot be a glorious success in this line, there is no need of her being an ignominious failure, and to the end that this latter casualty be avoided we propose to bar a number of roads which she might perhaps be inclined to travel. In the first place, then, she must not fire the game at the assembled company, like a shot from a cannon, — saying, for instance, " We will learn a game about the carpenter to-day, children. Now say the words after me nicely." This always re- MOliE AliOl'T rLAY 173 miiuls one of a certain game called " Beast, Bird, or Fish." in which the leader stands in the centre of the room with a cane, and after slowly repeat- ing " Beast, Bird, or Fish " several times, and leisnrely twirling his cane, suddenly points it at you, shouting " Bird ! " perhaps, whereupon ypu are at once expected to give the name of some feathered creature. The shock is so great, the assault so unexpected, that you either remain speechless, or stammer " Rhinoceros," or " Shark," or something ecpially inai)pr()j)riate. The kindergartncr must not treat the playtime as a period altogether apart from the other em- ployments of the day, but use it to strengthen the orderly series of impressions which gift, occupn- tion, story, game, and exercise are all employed to make. She must not play in swift succession a number of games on entirely different subjects, for if she does this she dissipates, not disciplines, the chil- dren's minds. She must not pass too rapidly from one game to another in the same playtime, even though all be connected, for this is a fostering of caprice. Nor must she allow the same game to be played over and over and over again, lest familiarity, in- deed, breed contempt. She must not play a game in the same way on every occasion, but suggest slight changes and im- provements that will give to it the zest of novelty. 174 MORE ABOUT PLAY She must not have her playtime too long, for mere physical and mental weariness often makes the cliildren inattentive or nnruly. She must not obtrude her own personality too much, but must teach the children to be lead- ers, while she remains the power behind the throne. She must not be arbitrary in her ideas about plaj'ing any game, but encourage the children to make their own suggestions, which frequently prove most useful and original. The plaj's she teaches must not be upon sub- jects outside the child's experience, and must never ajipeal to ideas and emotions beyond his years. There is nothing more unpleasant than a precocious child, and Heaven forefend that we should foster precocity in the kindergarten. If she has taught any game which may with justice be called " cute " (forgive the word) by an igno- rant on-looker, then let her commit it to oblivion on the moment, and pray that her sins be for- , given her. She must not drill her charges like a company of soldiers, nor harry them constantly about the position of their hands and feet and head and shoulders, for in this attention to details strenoth of feeling is frittered away. Nor must she allow their spontaneity such full play that it comes dangerously near to riot. A highway robber is undoubtedly " spontaneous " MORE AliOl'T l-I.AV 175 when \\r loaps upon you in some lonely ro;i(l, but such spontaneity is hauUy to be encouraged. She must not, as a rule, select games in which the action is conlined to two or three participants. The ideal game engages a majority, at least, of the children. The kimUu-o-artner must never allow certain capable children always to take the principal parts, for this sunshine of favor forces them into precocity and boastfulness, while the correspond- ing shade develops and stunts the poor little dull- ards and weaklings in the background. She must never " show off " her children, even to gratify the most innocent of maternal vanity. It is triie they are the loveliest creatures in the world to her when they are playing a certain game, but if they suspect that game to have been introduced in order to exhibit their attractions, then where has the loveliness fled? She must use as much connnou sense as she has been gifted with by nature in suiting the games to the weather, and the mental and physical con- dition of the chihlren. She must not expect to be successful with a game requiring a high tide of gay feeling, on a dull, damp morning, or intro- duce a steam-engine and car play when the mer- cury is at eighty-seven degrees in the shade. In the preceding chapter many things are writ- ten that the kindergartner must do if she would be a successful leader of the games, but two more things may yet be said. 176 MORE ABOUT PLAY The first of these is, that she must not hold her- self above criticism. It may be that she knows her games are not what they should be, and yet cannot tell what is amiss. Why not ask some friendly and exj)erienced kindergartner, then, to come and tell what she sees wath her fresh eyes ? If this does not prove helpful, then let her set apart certain days to visit acknowledged leaders of kindergarten play, and see what they do and how they do it. Above all, let her acknowledge her failures to herself, and vow to accept all sug- gestions and criticisms, be they kindly or un- kindly, that make her deficiencies more clear to her own mind. If she has parted with her vanity and is willing to be led, then gxiidance will surely come. And lastly, let her assure herself that she really knows where she is aiming; for if she is at all uncertain about it, how can she expect to hit the mark? Does she know what kindergarten play really should be ? does she comprehend its beauty and its power, and realize what a mighty weapon lies ready to her hand, if she can only learn to use it ? If she cannot answer in the affirmative, then let her go to Froebel again, and read him as she never read befoi-e. She must not confine herself to the " Mother Play," for in the "Pedagogics," the "Reminis- cences," and the "Letters" she wall find many a ray of illumination for her clouded mind. THE KINDKIKiARTKN AS A SCHOOL OF LIFE FOR ^\OMEN " The training is invahialile to all wonii-n, reganlless of ■whether or not they continue in the profession. The insight gained to (lisiTiniinate between essentials and non-essentials, the pKJwer to think well, to adapt means to ends, the command of self, will insure certain and unusual Success in any field of use- fulness." WiLUAM T. IIakkis. How many women in our country to-day are re- volving in their minds, over and over and j,,p Training over again, the question of " ti'ouhlesome °^ i^^ughters. daugliters," — trouble.some, not in themselves per- haps, Init in the numerous weighty and compli- cated questions attending their bringing-up, and their proper i)re])aration for life. Far, indeed, have we traveled since the days when our lancjuaire was strujrirlincj into being, and when the word '" daughter" siiui)ly meant "one who milks the cow." Easy enougli, one woidd say. to bring up a daughter then, for the definition clearly shows the ])riniitive conditions of life. Given the cow to milk (and her procurement would obviously not fall upon the daughter), and what a Dresden she])herdess exi.stence opens up to view, of lead- ing the gentle bea.st to the brook in the morning gi'ay ; of lying by her side, deep in grass and 178 THE KINDERGARTEN AS A SCHOOL flowers, while she grazed the long hours through ; of wading with her into softly shaded pools at hot noontides ; and of filling earthen vessels with her foaming milk at night ! Happy woman who need only prepare her daughter for such labors ! her lot seems an idyl- lie one when contrasted with that of the careworn mother of to-day who feels that iipon her child will inevitably fall a hea^^y weight of duties and responsibilities. Wherever we go we are constantly meeting these anxious mothers who want advice as to what they shall do with their daughters, and al- most every mail brings a sheaf of letters asking similar questions. The truth is, most sensible women feel that the education of gii'ls is not to- day, and has never been, an entirely satisfactory one. Even now that a higher education for wo- men is an established fact, that higher education still leaves many tracts of feminine nature unex- plored and uncultivated. It does not give a com- plete and full development of all the powers and faculties ; it needs suiJjilementing by some course of training which shall address the heart and soul as much as it does the intellect. To all these j^erplexed and conscientious women Kindergarten ^^ havc One auswcr : " Whatever your study. daughter does or learns before or after- wards, let her study kindergarten as an essential part of her equipment for life ; for, as oiu* dear OF LIFE FOR WOMEX 179 ami wise Kli/abeth IValuxly said, it is tlir highest Jiiiish that can 1)C "iveu to a woman's education." It is understood, of course, that in giving sueh an answer we are not considering the relative values of the various means of livelihood open to young women ; that wc are not advocating the kinder- jrarten as the highest or most lucrative branch of teaching, or the profession whicli offers most op- ])ort unities to dawning ambition. AVe are not looking at the work in any of these lights, but are merely considering it as an education and as a devel»)pment — as a training of the heart and soul and mind which prepares for any and every voca- tion in life, and which need not, and in fact can- not, be given up, whether the daughter in question marries or remains single. Kindergarten train- ing, when rightly given, is true culture, and as such becomes an integral part of the whole wo- man. It is no veneer of accomplishments, or varnish of sui)crficial knowledge ; it is ratlier a divine touch which changes the water of life into wine. We may well be thankful for the increased attention which is being paid of late study of years to the study of childhood, and for the f idler consecration of women to its service. Friedrich Froel)el, the jjrophet of the new educational era, in a private letter written in 1847 says : "' All jirogress depends on that of education ; and no education, least of all tliat of 180 THE KINDERGARTEN AS A SCHOOL infancy, can dispense with the active cooperation o£ women, who should have a full comprehension of their natural calling, — the care of childhood. Women are not as yet acqv;ainted even with the preliminaries of the education of man, which ig-norance causes them to expect that the superfi- cial educators of youth should make good again what the mothers have spoiled. This evil we have to overcome, and I know of no other means so thorough and certain to effect their purpose as the kindergarten. Let yomig women go there, and see the development of child -life going on before their eyes, noticing and understanding the laws and workings of it." The results of education midoubtedly depend on its beginnings, and these are in the hands of women. Here, at least, is a partial solution of the vexed woman question which does not restrict woman's sphere, but enlarges it rather, calling her more earnestly to become wiser, higher, bet- ter, stronger, the equal of men, destined, as she is, to become the mother and first educator of men. If any one fears that " higher education " of any sort — college training or advanced study, addressing the dry bones of the intellect rather than the spirit — will luifit women for the duties that inevitably lie before most of them, he will see in the attempt of the kindergarten to unite broad mental training with sweet, gentle heart- culture a certain corrective, if any be needed. OF LIFE FOR WOMEN 181 (Mou are so anxious, by the way, lest women should he too " strong-minded." I wonder it seldom oocnrs to them to worry lest they be too WJeffZ'-minded.) It is not enough that divine ideas — man-be- gotten, so they say — should exist in the world: there must be the necessary devotion, endurance, and self-sacrifice to carry them out, and this is the task of women. Our girls are being trained too much like celibates at present ; and if we had the eloquence to prove that every woman shoidd finish her education by one or two years' contem- jdation and study of childhood and its needs, we should feel that we had done an inestimable ser- vice to humanity. Herbert Spencer says truly that almost the only vocation for which woman is seldom wisely fitted is the one which she gener- ally assumes, — that of the child's first educator. " Is it that this responsibility is but a remote contingency? On the contrary, it is certain to devolve on nine out of ten. Is it that the dis- charffo of it is easv? Certainlv not; of all func- tioiis which tlie adult has to fulfill, it is the most difiicidt. Is it that each may be trusted, by self- instruction, to fit himself or herself for the office of parent "i* No : not only is the need of such self-instruction unrecognized, but the complexity of the subject renders it the one of all others in which self-instruction is least likely to succeed." " The subject which includi's all otlier sub- 182 THE KINDERGARTEN AS A SCHOOL jects," says the great philosopher, " and therefore the subject in which a woman's education should culminate, is the Theory and Practice of Educa- tion." In truth, what women most need for the due working-out of their heaven-born mission, is not the sense of duty, still less the love, but the sense of its real importance and the knowledge fitting them to fulfill it. Froebel, after years of striv- ing and thought, turned from the schools to the nurseries, and from the professors to the mothers. And tridy this work which he commends among the little children of the land, in home and kindergarten and school, blesses every one that touches it, — him that gives and him that takes. To make children happy gladdens all human hearts ; to be with them, to work for them, is like sitting in the sunshine ; and Froebel has helped us to understand and educate them wisely, besides making them happy. He who was left a mother- less babe, who became an orphan j^outh and a childless man, has bequeathed to the children what is indeed a priceless legacy, and every true, high-minded woman should constitute herself ex- ecutrix that each of these little ones may receive his rightful inheritance. It is impossible for such a woman to study Froebel and be anything but earnest, for he fills one with a divine enthusiasm for childhood that makes one long, unspeakably, to guide and guard it rightly. OF LIFE FOn ]\'<)}fEX 183 "We are most of us accustometl now to value kincleiLrarten work as an ecUu'ational force at the bejxinninj' of a ehikl s lite dertpirteii does " ° r • 1 ^'"' Women. in the nursery and school ; we are fairly- well convinced of its mighty power as a means of reaehinir the children of the masses in philan- thropic ways, l)y teaching them at the outset what is crood, beautiful, and true, as well as by giving the dormant faculties a spur to higher action : but what we do not fully understand is, what this kind of work is doing for women, — for the daughters, the future mothers, of the nation. It is giving tiieni new and consecrated views of childhood and motherhood, as well as of the profession of teaeli- ino- : civinjr them a method of education after nature's own heart, which they may use in the " sweet, safe corner of the household fire," behind the heads of their own children, or for the chil- dren of others. Dr. "William T. Harris, our United States Commissioner of Education, says : " A young woman will find so much culture of thought to be derived from the discussion of Froebel's insights and theories, . . . experience that will prove invaluable to her as a wife and mother, that she will serve her apprenticeship in the kin- dergarten gladly, though it be no part of her in- tention to follow teaching as a vocation. It is a part of the system, as an adjunct to the public schools, to educate young women in these valu- able matters relating to the early training of 184 THE KINDERGARTEN AS A SCHOOL children. I have thought," he continues, " the benefit derived by the two hundred young women of the St. Louis kindergartens from the lec- tures of Miss Blow to be of sufficient value to compensate the city for the cost of the kinder- gartens. A nobler and more enlightened woman- hood will result, and the family will prove a bet- ter nurture for the child." And again he writes : " Perhaps the greatest merit of Froebel's system is found in the fact that it furnishes a deep phi- losophy for the teachers. Most pedagogic works furnish only a code of management for the school- room. Froebel gives a view of the world in sub- stantial agreement with the spiritual systems of philosophy that have prevailed in all times. It is, I am persuaded, this fact that explains the almost fanatical zeal of his followers, and, what is far more significant, the fact that those who read his work are always growing in insight and in 2)ower of higher advancement." When Dr. Harris, natural teacher, philosopher, and metaphysician, speaks thus, we may be well assured that kindergarten training has indeed an inestimable value in mind and soul culture. Froebel, more than a ny other educaj;m:4i£iliap,s, satisfies JJie-^ovd as well as the mind of the stu- cjent. Many, other men preceded him ; he was only the outgrowth of his time : but lie reduced theories to practice, and transported the vague and shadowy dreams of other teachers into a rich OF LIFE FOR WOMEN 186 world (> f ]-p:i]ity There can be no Ila^)^ )ie^ pc<)i)le than Jhqso jvlu) j^uljtivc in Fnviwl's priuci- ples. Thoy have a beacon pf^r nf fnitli iu Lhcir work, — faith in the universab'ty and immutalill- ity of the hiw of love when it is a})plit;d intflli - gentlv, faith in child hood fl^id its oi-i.rjnnl purity, faith in hmnanit y mwl itA nltlimifn thv^tlny To those who s t ndv this ^\'\\ .wi.,..of;^» i:f^ lo no longer a mv^tpvy Mf^y ^ g^''^ ^^'^'^ ''^''^ ^^'" " t ju' piiipiw , , , t ill, kinderyarten bc{ji)ii to d.-iwn n])on her, that Aw tin n first ni|^^er.stood th<^ |ppnn- i ng of existence, a nd we douhf. wliPtlior n mnr.^ elocpient commentary on the valne of the study could be made than such an exclamation from a young girl just entering life, with all its hopes and enchantments shining before her eyes. The fact that the kindergarten is in truth a school of life for women, is as yet biit imperfectly understood. At the graduation exercises of a kindergarten normal school which a certain train- ing teacher attended last year, a gentleman sat besiile her who aj^peared much interested in the occasion. At the close of the programme he re- marked, and the remark is quoted because it is one which is so often made : '' This class of yoimg women seems so charm iug and intelligent, one can- not but regret that their teacher's devotion and their own talents should be so largely lost ; for I suppose most of them will marry in a few years, and, like their piano-playing and their French, 186 THE KINDERGARTEN AS A SCHOOL this newly-acquired knowledge will be quickly dropped." " My dear sir," the teacher replied, " you can- not have a conception of what kindergarten train- ing means. I suppose many of these young wo- men will marry. I will even go so far as to hope it. They are not vowed to celibacy, as far as I am aware, and a man would be blind and stupid indeed who could pass them by ; but the beauty of kindergarten training is this, — it will not only make them better kindergartners and teachers and governesses, but better sisters, better wives and mothers ; yes, and sweeter, more cheerful old maids, simply because it makes them better women." This was all her answ^er at the time, but she might have gone on to say : The training, if it be true training, so addresses the deepest, truest instincts of women that its hold grows more and more irresistible the farther the student ad- vances. As an idea, a conception, it is so large, so many-sided, that year after year, as she bends her energies to its full comprehension, she finds that what she saw at first was but a dim outline of the real thing, as the landscape that looked blurred and confused in the morning mist grows ever clearer under the rays of the noonday sun. It has that in it which ought to make a woman more thoughtful, broad-minded, earnest, logical, original, self-reliant, and patient. If it does not, OF LIFE FOR WOMEN 187 then the soil is too barren for the growth of such sweet flowers ; but at any rate the nature will be enriched under its influence, girlish thoughtless- ness and frivolity slip oft" like an outer garment, and the true woman stand revealed, — bright, earnest, tender, strong, not perfect, but longing to be and trying to be, — a woman who has lived with children, beloved because she has loved, getting because she has given, growing because she has lived, developing because she has thought, happy because she has conferred lia])piness, good, or at least better, through trying to make others better. You may think now, lia\'ing never studied Froebel, that we kindergartners speak in too serious a tone of what seems to be child's play ; but remember that " methods may make a skillful teacher, but only his aims can make him a bless- ing or a curse." Do not call this preaching. It is true that, believing in a vocation in life, we earnestly ad- mire and reverence this particular one, because it seems to evoke more from a woman, and en- ables her to give more to the world, than almost anything else, except it be an earnest, self-sacri- ficing, wise, and watchful motherhood, and it is an especial and com])lete preparation for that still greater mission of woman. If you think we speak in too glowing terms of what seems to some people only one of the many 188 THE KINDEBGABTEN AS A SCHOOL ways to earn a livelihood, we assure you that, if you are a true woman, it will soon be difficult for you to speak with anything but enthusiasm of such a cause, if you once begin to uphold it. After all, the enthusiasts have done most of the work in this apathetic world : What does enthusi- asm mean but " filled with God " ? If those women whose lives seem to them bereft of all love and comfort could only be reached, they might gain peace and contentment by showering happiness around them in ministering to the needs of little children according to the good old master Froebel. No woman need be ashamed of enthusiasm Value of i^^ such a work, though her enthusiasm Enthusiasm, jj^^g^ always bc tcmj^cred with discretion and earnestness. She must believe in her voca- tion with all her heart, and foster the deep con- viction that she has her hand on one of the levers which is going to move the world toward God's hope and thought of it. If we love the all-good first and best, our life-work large or small next, and put into it all the grace and force of a sweet and strong womanhood, then and then only can we draw others to a higher level than the one we stand uj)on, that " The good begun by us may onward flow In many a branching stream and wider grow." Never tell us, then, dear masculine critics, that this sort of work will be wasted on our daughters, should they marry instead of using it as a means OF LIFE FOR WOMEN 189 of livelihood, but rather apply yourselves dili- gently to the ereation of some sort of training- school for youui;- men, that the fathers of the future may keep paee in their di'velopment with the future mothers. This kindergarten work which we so prize, and which we so commend to the study of jhe Future • , 1 i* J. of Kinder- women, is not by any means a pcriect jj„rten thing as yet, hut we feel that it is planted in the right soil, and that it has the power to grow. It is full of eager life and aspiration and teachal)leness ; it is often misunderstood, misinter- preted, misajiplied, but its destiny is that of all truth : it may be deJayed, it cannot be prevented. The patient study of little children may not seem a brilliant vocation to the p'n de siecle girl, but in the revolt of the daughters that forms the present theme of English and American literature you will seldom see any direct shirking or belit- tling of maternal responsibilities. The " revolting dauirhter " wants to be free : she wants to ride and drive, hunt and fish, fight and preach, kill and cure, serve on a jury, and vote for her candi- date ; but after all, she seldom wants to be any- thing better than a woman, if there is anything better. When we speak of the kindergarten as a school of life for women, we are not relegating them to an existence spent in the nursery corner : we are only ui-ging that the gi-eatest of all subjects should 190 THE KINDEBGABTEN AS A SCHOOL not be excluded from their curriculum, for all women should recognize that, as Froebel said, " childhood and womanliness (the care of child- hood and the life of women) are inseparably con- nected and they form a unit, and that God and nature have placed the protection of the human plant in their hands." We have not evolved as yet the ideal training- school for women, nor have we the ideal kinder- garten for little children, as Froebel meant it, partly because we have not the ideal kindergart- ner, who must first be the ideal woman. She, alas ! is not born yet, though we have every faith that she will come to us somq time, and that the kindergarten influence will be one of the kind fairies who will lavish good gifts upon her when once her birth is heralded. EXCELSIOR "Let thy spirit bum witli a steady lipht. Thou canst not know when another shall catch the sacred fire from thee." Every year, as the kindergarten grows in public favor, greater things are denianclecl of its votaries. Courses of training are lengthened, in- creased age and attainments required for entrance, greater numbers of studies taken up, more strin- gent examinations held, and post-graduate courses more and more insisted upon. Longer, fuller experience only serves to deei^en the ^ . , -^ . . ^ The Ideal conviction that the ideal kindergartner KUidergart- ner. needs greater intelligence, truer refine- ment, wider knowledge, more varied accomplish- ments, better judgment, and deeper, finer quali- ties of heart and soul, than any other teacher. What, then, may we do to prove ourselves worthy of such a high vocation ? how may we grow to attain, though in ever so slight a measure, the consummate personality of the great teacher ? " lie is rare," says a writer of great moral insight, " more rare than great men in other spheres of action, and his influence, like a climate, is strong and silent, — 192 EXCELSIOR " ' As sunbeams stream tlirough liberal space, And nothing- jostle or displace.' " His work is silent, his studies are secluded, but his influence is along the way where men become immortal. He is teacher and taught in one, for he must be a student of human nature, and the student of human nature is the pupil of God." ^ What shall we do in the coming years to realize this definition in our daily lives? Let us con- sider the matter, mindful of past errors, clear- eyed as to present deficiencies, hopeful of future imj)rovement. We cannot work any harder or devote ourselves any more conscientiously to duty, perhaps, but what we do need may be told in one word, — seK- development. Nor is the aim a selfish one, for our added wisdom and culture will all be dedicated to others. We are radiating from Monday to Friday. Do Radiation t... ^6 absorb cuough to be equal to it ? Our Absorption. ^qj-Jj jg exactiug ; it demands a constant accession of power, ingenuity in ways and means, and originality in methods of thought. It is not an easy thing to keep ourselves first abreast and then ahead of our work as we should, — to live on that high plane where we drink in inspiration with every breath and give it out again in every word. Neither can it be reached by a single effort, however intense, for " life can never be a 1 Rev. Horatio Stebbins, D.D. EXCELSIOR 193 t1i"-ht toward the hiirlu'st; it must always hv a slow, weary climbing, every step gained with stern ilifHeiilty." The teacher who is still acquiring knowledge al- ways sympathizes more completely with those who are endeavoring to learn, and no one can teach well who has lost this symiiathy. No teacher or kinder- crartner deserves the name who is not also a student. It might almost he said that it does not matter what we study, so long as we stud;/ — and grow.7 He who knows only one thing knows nothing. The more knowledge we possess, whether it bears directly on our chosen profession or not, the greater breadth and strength we shall have, the greater facility of acquisition, the larger recep- tive powers, and the naore extended range of thought : but, above all, our minds will gradually srrow into that state in which thev assimilate know- ledjre unconsciouslv, without intense effort : in which slight impressions will produce resiUts : in which, if the smallest thought-germ he dro])ped, a garden wiU grow in a single night : in which in- tuitions of truth, born of this and that and the other suggestion, will spring into being and blos- som into action. Our eyes and ears will be open, our minds and hearts and souls alive and awake. " Heaven sends us ten thousand truths, but, be- cause our doors and windows are closed to them, they sit and sing awhile upon the roof and then fly away." 194 EXCELSIOR The moment we begin to think about or study a certain subject, we notice that it immediately assumes a relation to other things about us, and to our own stock of information. It supplements Self-improve- Certain things we know already, and is Hopeful itself explained by something else which ^'""^' is our own. Every new acquisition helps us to a firmer grasp and understanding of what we have previously acquired, so that the whole matter of self-improvement, though attended with difficulties, is the most hopeful thing in the uni- verse ; for with every fresh glimpse of wisdom's face the earth seems to grow fairer, human nature the grander, labor the sweeter, and lighter too, truth the nearer, endurance the easier, and the soul's vision of God brighter, more glorious, more inspiring ! " In the humblest thing, if the mind seizes it thoroughly, it grasps the whole world," says Goethe. But, of course, we must not study aimlessly, for the mere sake of study, — there is too much of that already. It avails nothing to heap know, ledge bit on bit, while the analytical faculty is perhaps wholly inadequate to the work of dis- crimination, — of perceiving relationships. We must try to study with complete directness of purpose ; first selecting, of course, those lines of thought which bear most readily and directly on our chosen work in life. We need greater personal effort and culture, EXCELSIfJR 195 boeausL' wo have to learn from thought and experi- nient wliat, iu some degree, other teachers can h^arn from the records of past experience; and, in any })hin for further development which includes laborious application and continued effort, we shall not have any special sympathy, or receive any special impetus, from persons unfamiliar with the scope of kindergarten methods. After all the tomes that have been written on the kindergarten, after all the talks and lectures on the subject, there still remain hordes of good but uninstructed people who say, " Nonsense ! you know enough to teach those little things ! AVhat knowledge can be required to amuse babies ? " Babies? Yes, and yet "there is no spot oiT earth so biq; with fate as that within the four walls of the kindergarten and primary school^ room." You may hear, occasionally, that the kinder- garten seems scarcely to have fulfilled T,,e Best the promise of its theory. AVe need not ufri'e ™ ^°^ be surprised at this. Herbert Siiencer ^''^""'*'''- ^_^ says : " The success of every appliance depends mainly upon the intelligence with which it is used. It is a trite remark that, having the choicest tools, an unskilled artisan will botch his work ; and poor^ teachers will fail even with the best methods. In- deecT, the goodness of the methou becomes in such case a cause of failure ; as, to continue the simile, the perfection of the tool becomes, in undisciplined 196 EXCELSIOR hands, a source of imperfection in results. A simple, unchanging', almost mechanical routine of tuition may be carried out by the commonest in- tellects, with such small beneficial effect as it is capable of producing; but a complete system, a system as heterogeneous in its appliances as the mind in its faculties, — a system proposing a special means for each special end, — demands for its right employment powers such as few teachers possess. . . . The true education is practicable only to the true philosopher. Judge, then, what prospect a philosophical method now has of being acted out ! (Knowing so little as we yet do of psychology, and ignorant as teacher s often are of that l ittle, what chance has a system which requires psychology for its basis ? " This, then, is the root of the whole matter. We have a great work to do ; we are Minds as -i • • • ^ ^^ i i weu as domo^ it With all our hearts : let us do Hearts. . . it with all our minds as well, though the mere " book-learning " — the facts, the items, the theories we shall gain — will be empty and fruit- less and vain enough until they have slipped from knowledge into wisdom, which is knowledge become one's self. Before this, " it is only learn- ing, not education," — " which is learning trans- formed to faculty," as some one says. It is only the means hy which, and not the end for which. It is only leaves, not fruit. Some good man said : " The very best result of EXCELSIOR 107 culture is still a finer coimnon scnsg/ ' Comiuoii sense, — the knaek of usino- swiftly, surely, und in conjunetion, the eoniiiiou Inuiian ]i()wers. lie who <;vts that knack may boast with Ifiehterthat he has '* made the most he eoukl out of the stuff ^)^ " To know what we know, to know that wo (Ton't know nuieh, to know how to get what we don"t know and need," — that is what comes to us from true eilucation ; it is the true secret of life's har- vest. Let us tear down our spirit-harns every year to build bijiger ones to hold the richness of that harvest. If we cannot travel hence to behold the harvest of others, let us be forever setting out on the higher journeys in ourselves. There are undiscovered countries in every human creature. Thus, with knowledge and experience blended with love, we shall develop that clarified vision which we need in dealing with budding minds and soids, — something of Michael Angelo's vision ; you remember, as he passed by a quarry, he said. " Bring that rock to my study ; I see an angel in it!" That is what we need, — the eye to see the angels in the rocks : only so will they ever be released and given to men. A young teacher's first year or so of work after her graduation nuist of necessity be pjr«tYpir» largely experimental. She is too much "fTeac'unR. occupied with ])racti('al affairs, with school man- agement and disciidine, — w ith trying to make the tangled ends of her theory and practice blend 198 EXCELSIOR into one harmonious whole, — to prosecute her studies to much advantage. During- these first years she has the daily prepa- ration of lessons, and the fixing and strengthening of knowledge only half gained, since it has not been tested. Her talents and accomplishments, graces of mind and soul, must all be burnished to their fullest brightness, that she may stand out before the children's eyes and hearts clad with every charm and endowed with all wisdom. But in the following years there is no apology for nar- rowness of thought or lack of development. She must look about her and see what other and wiser minds have done in this great vocation ; she must look abroad and cull from every source open to her the ti'easures of wisdom which are accessible to every earnest student. No amount of money, cheap notoriety, or even true fame, could ever give the earnest training- teacher any pleasure if her pupils did not seem to be working devotedly, fearlessly, and generously for the good of the children under their care, and for the cause which they represent ; bearing them- selves, in short, as if they were working with God, — as they are! The idea is passing away that God can only be served on Sundays and in temples. The Faithfulness iti tip tt <• to Simple poor blind world often puts Him so far Duties. ^ . ^ out of sight that He can scarcely be reached, but in looking too high for Him we turn EXCELSIOIi our backs upon half the blessedness of life. "VVe are just as likely to see Ilini in a child's eyes as in the stars I We must not be impatient, then, of all this studying of seemingly simple things : of doing simjile duties ; of watchfulness and painstaking ; of patient dealing with some- times ungrateful material ; of only helping some- times when we are anxious to take the reins of government and establish our own kingdoms. That power is greatest which is willing to lay itself aside, and even God sometimes hides him self under limitations. lie rules best who serves best ; the best assistant makes the best teacher She who is faithful over the little things is the one who will dispense the great things wisely. She who makes the quiet corner in the kinder- garten of somebody else ; who has the hapi)y children ; who wins the smiling faces and willing hands ; who has the best outward appearance of order, with the least show of fuss or discipline ; who conquers through the arts of peace, rather than those of war, — she it is who will come near- est to the ideal kindergartner when she estab- lishes her own field of labor. The root must come before the blossom. At the root of all ease lies slow, ])rofitless-seeming labor, as at the root of all grace lies strength, for "ease is the lovely result of forgotten toil." All our thinking and doing, writing, studying, and teaching, now is, or appears to be, in little, dis- 200 EXCELSIOR jointed pieces, fragments, good enough in tliem- Mosaic- selves ; but what we want and need is, to making. ^^ u ^U of a piccc,' '— to get unity ! Our study, reflection, and patient practice seem some- what like gathering the tiny fragments together for a mosaic. By and by, as we place the dis- jointed little bits in their proper places, the pat- tern begins to grow ; one bit gives color to an- other ; one piece is the complement of the next, and together they make a beautiful whole, — all the more valuable that it was not made by a single stroke, but by a thousand delicate touches, each one of which was pressed in place with in- finite forethought and patience. There is apparently no end to the modifications Demands ^^^ improvements necessary in the kin- EemKin- dcrgartcu in order to make our work dergartuer. j^ggp pace with our gTowiug idcals and our growing knowledge both of the child's nature and of the world's needs. Any but a strong soul might well be dismayed by the demands made upon the kindergartner of to-day. The musicians expect good singing, good music, good touch, and fair technical command of the piano. Literary workers demand good stories and good verses. The artists bear down upon us in a body and lecture us on color and form till we wonder at our past sins in this matter. Designers show us faults in our forms of symmetry. The sculptors declare that many of us are on the wrong track. EXCELSIOR 201 from tlu'ir standpoint, and the Delsartc and phy- sical culture people say that our systems of gesture in past years have been pathetic in their stupidi- ties. The public school teachers do not worry us so much about these little matters, but merely request us to send them disciplined human beiufj^s who can read the primer at sight, and wrestle with numbers like infant Samsons. An elocu- tionist said the other day that she thought the lack of systematic tone-culture in the kindergarten a most flagrant weakness. " My dear young lady,' a training-teacher said, "'be patient, and give us a little time. We have ourselves in hand, and we are at present endeavoring to develop into human polyhedrons, with each side as geometrically per- fect as all the others. AVe are striving to satisfy the artists, the sculptors, the musicians, the ath- letes, the literary workers, the ministers, the philanthroi)ists. and the teachers, to say nothing of scientists, socialists, mental healers, and school boards. We endeavor to form ourselves succes- sively on Froebcl, Horace Maun, Demosthenes, St. Cecilia, liaphael, the Apollo Belvedere, and Job, (Job, by the way, is the only one among these ideals on whom we can form ourselves with- out money and without price ; the rest demand an expensive apprenticeship, and kindergartners are always as poor as Job's o\nti domestic fowl whereof we read in the Scriptures.) The world is not quite patient enough with kin- 202 EXCELSIOR clergartners, but they set the example, perhaps, for they are not patient with themselves ; al- though they want to grow into all these lovely possibilities so much that they take suggestions, for the most part, in a modest and receptive spirit. Do not mind the discouragements that belong to growth. Expect to feel " growing pains," and do not be surprised if you have them. Don't be offended if you are criticised. Don't be over-troubled if you have made technical mis- takes. Don't be discouraged if you find that, in striving to keep abreast of the times, some- body accuses you of not being true to Froebel. Dr. Holmes says: "Every new real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of some- body or other." It is much more important to be true to truth than it is to be true to Froebel, and that is what he would tell you were he alive to-day. Shall we be discouraged that so much is de- manded of us ? Not a bit ! We ought to be glad that we belong to a profession in which there is such an ocean of room at the toji! We ought to be glad that the thing itself is so fine, and so true, and so alive, and that the fault is with us. Nothing is clearer than that all things are in all things, and that just according to the intensity and extension of our mental being we shall see the many in the one, and the one in the many. C Study principles more, even if you study details ExcnsioR 203 a little less. Seek for the soul of Froebcl's idea, and don't waste all your time in rattliiijj the dr; bones of technique, useful as thoy are. Do you know those "patent outsides " sent to country newspapers? They are made up in some metro- politan central office, a hundred just alike, and sent t« the editors in small towns. A little local ' news is inserted in the middle, and there is your newspaper I Some groups of kindergartens re- mind one of these " patent outsides." They .seem to have been shot, ready-made, into existence. Kindergartner, children, and squared tables might have been sent out of the same factory at the same instant, and the trail, not of the serpent exactly, but of the manufacturer, is over them all. There was once a saint, a holy man of God, so runs an old leirend, who taught and , .... A Legend preached and worked among his little for the Kin- ' ^ ^ dergartuer. flock of human beings day by day, and tried to lead them in the paths of usefulness and duty. And perhaps they did not understand him al- together, but yet they loved him and reverenced him. And it came to pass that one night, as he lay in a deep sleep, the very innermost truth of God, hidden from him before, came to him in a dream, written on three bars of sunlight. And the glow thereof was so bright that it 204 EXCELSIOR almost blinded him, for this is the nature of truth. And when he awoke he began to write the precious message on a scroll of parchment, and he wrote for luany days. And it came to pass that when the message was written he called his people together and said unto them : "I am bidden by the Spirit to journey into a far country, but I shall not leave you help- less nor lacking teaching, for the very truth of God has come to me in a dream, written on three bars of sunlight, and, lo ! I have transcribed it in this scroll of parchment. Live by it, I beseech you, and it will make you free." And the holy man delivered the roll of parch- ment into the hands of the people and journeyed into a far country. And it came to pass after many years that he returned to the place of his former labors. And as he neared the great open square in the centre of the village, he saw a high altar and the people j)rostrated on their faces before it. And he was glad in his heart, saying : " Truly my people are worshiping the most high God." And as he neared the altar he saw the roll of parchment in the most holy place. But, alas I the great seals were still unbroken ! For the people had been worshiping the parchment, lo ! these many years, and had never broken the seals EXCELSIOR 205 to read the iuuenuost truth that was written therein I Jnst so, in our hlindness, do we deal with the truth of many things that come to us on bars of sunlight. AVe give our worship to their outwai'd forms and semblances, and neglect to look within for the spirit. THE REPUBLIC OF CHILDHOOD The KinJergarUn is the free r,public of childhood.— Froebel. 1!Y KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN A N 1 > NORA ARCHIBALD SMITIL The following letter may be regarded as a sufficient justification and explanation of this series of books : — "Editors of the ' Kindergarten Magazine:' — You must help us to secure a book for mothers who are interested in kindergarten ideals. I have been at the Chautauqua Summer Assembly for several years, and •while I answer a thousand questions a day, I feel the need of putting such printed matter into the hands of earnest women as shall help them to know the doctrine and do the works also. IVe need a book that is not too technical and yet gives practical insight to the unini- tiated. Will you not help us / " In response to many similar appeals Mrs. Wio-dn and Miss Smith have produced three volumes, embodying the results of many talks on Froebel's educational principles with groups of earnest young women. These talks on the kindergarten have pur- posely been divested of a certain amount of technicality and detail, in the hope that they will thus reach not only kindergarten students, but the many mothers and teachers who really long to know what Froebel's system of education is and what it aims to do. I. FROEBEL'S GIFTS. i6mo, ^i.oo. After an introductory chapter the ten Gifts of Froebel are described and their use illustrated, and the book closes with some general remarks on the Gifts. "The kindergarten has long stood in need of a book that should explain its tools so simply as to reach the an- tagonistic mind and subdue it. Such a book is ' Froebel's Gifts,' by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith. So simply and directly does it present its subject that it will be a helpful guide to mothers who have been mystified and bewildered by the vagueness of language of a good deal of kindergarten literature. ' Froebel's Gifts ' is a book long waited for by lovers of the kindergarten. . . . There are philosophical books, technical books, and explanatory books on the kindergarten theories; 'Froe- bel's Gifts ' has imprisoned the spirit of the kindergarten, and given it to all who have receptive minds." — The Out- look {^&vi York). " It is altogether by far the best book in any language on the subject, and we hope that in later volumes the op- portunities that child-study already affords for fruitful suggestions will not be missed." — G. Stanley Hall, 77^1? Pedagogical Seminary. The writers have produced a singularly attractive book. They have not fallen into the ruts of pedagogical litera- ture, and their style is free from pedantry in a refreshing degree. No happier introduction to Froebel's mysteries than this little handbook affords could be desired. — Re- view of Reviews (New York). I have examined with interest the capital little text- book, " Froebel's Gifts," by Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin and Miss Nora A. Smith. It has the double advantage of being at the same time simple and comprehensive. Especially useful is the care- fully prepared list of books that ends each chapter and refers the reader to authorities that have been consulted. — Miss Constance Mackenzie, Director of Public Kindergartens^ Philadelphia, Pa. II. FROEBEL'S OCCUPATIONS. i6mo, $i.oo. COA'TENTS. The Gifts and Occur a- Paper Interlacing. TIOXS OF THE KINDER- SlAT INTERLACING, GARTEN. Weaving. Perforating. Paper Cutting. Sewing. Paper Folding. Drawing. Peas Work. Linear Drawing. Modeling in Clay. Objections to Linear Miscellaneous Occupa- D RAWING. TIONS. Circular Drawing. Sand Work. Free-hand and Nature General Remarks on Drawing. the Occupations. Thread Ga.me. "Some of the descriptions of lessons are so realistic that thev impart something of the enthusiasm gained by actual observation. The book sparkles with bright say- ings and nuggets of wisdom. . . . The spirit of the book is not dogmatic, it does not encourage blind following. There are counsels and opinions of educational authori- ties, but the kindergartner is left to form an independent judgment of her own. The kindergarten world is fortu- nate to have such a book written by two women who have achieved noted success in kindergarten work, and possess the talent to give the results of their experience in not only a logical way but in an attractive literary style." — The Kindergarten News. The thoroughness of the book is refreshing, and would be most useful to those half-trained kindergartncrs who have failed to comprehend the system in its entirety. This series of books is just what has long been needed, and ought to be in the hands of all who are trying to in- struct children in the methods first developed by Froebel. — The Coni^regationalist. To show the teacher what the right use of kindergarten materials is, and to make clear the fundamental principles upon which that use is based, is the object of this work, and it has the inspiration of strong personal enthusiasms to give it significance. — Boston Deacon. III. KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. i6mo, $1.00. CONTENTS. AND Mission KlNDERGART- The Art OF THE NER. Nature Study. Symbolism. The Teaching of Pa- triotism. The Connection of Con- trasts. Froebel's Mother Play. Moral Training. The School of Speu- sippus. (Art in the School Room.) Kindergarten Play. More about Play. The Kindergarten as a School of Life for Women. Excelsior. I must give myself the satisfaction of saying that, in my judgment, the first of the three volumes on " The Re- public of Childhood," — " Froebel's Gifts," — by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, is not only the clear- est and most suggestive exposition of the subject which I have read, but also a very delightful piece of writing. The kindergarten is rapidly gaining the attention of people in this country, and inquiries are constantly made with regard to literature on the subject. There has been great need of a statement of the Froe- belian ideas which should be adequate, untechnical, and orderly. The three books in which Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith propose to set forth, explain, and illus- trate the principles and practice of kindergarten educa- tion have come at a fortunate moment and will be of great service not only to students and teachers, but to mothers as well. They are educational tracts for the times ; and will not only give a new impulse to the growing interest in the kindergarten, but will aid not a little in that wide- spread, individual education which makes this country so interesting and promising at this time. — Hamilton W. Mabie. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 4 Park St., Boston; ii East 17TH St., New York ; 158 Adams St., Chicago. 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