z_6 ini LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 019 823 344 4 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS ANOELINK BROOKS, Prol'eBsor of Kindergarten Methods, Teachers' Oellege, New York City. Milton Bradley Co., springfield, mass. Lbinf .6f Coi'VKUJHTKl), 1894, By MILTON BRADLEY CO. Sl'KINdKIKLl), MASS. CONTENTS. I. The Philosophy of the Kindergarten . II. The Possibilities of the Kindergarten . III. The Kindergarten as an Institution for Moral Training ....... IV. Play and Work in Education .... V. The Connection Between the Primary School anci the Kindergarten ..... VI. Frwbel's Interpretation of Nature VII. The Religious Nurture of Earlv Childhood Pa<»:. 5 12 31 43 The Philosophy of the Kmdergarten.* Frcebel, the founder of the Kiudergarten, announced as the basis of his system an educational law which he called the law of unity. The first chapter of his ''Education of Man," entitled "Groundwork of the Whole," opens with these words: "In all things there lives and reigns an eternal law. . . . This all- controlling law is necessarily based on an all-pervading, ener- getic, living, self-conscious, and hence eternal Unitj'. . . . This Unity is God. All things have come from the Divine Unity, from God, and have their origin in the Divine Unity, in God alone. God is the sole Source of all things. In all things there lives and reigns the Divine Unity, God." Froebel declared that it was the application of this eternal law, here traced to its Source, which gave him the right to call his method a system. He spoke of it under different terms, as the law of the connection of opposites, the law of development, the law of balance, the law of contrasts and their connections, as well as the law of unity, and declared that the whole mean- ing of his educational scheme rested upon this law alone. Other great minds have recognized the operation of the same law, and it is toward the consideration of the underlying unity of all things that all modern thought tends, whether in the realm of religion, of science, or of philosophy.. It is seen that all things are from God, that all things have relation to man, and that therefore all must have relation to one another. Emerson gives expression to the satisfaction which the human mind experi- ences in the contemplation of this truth, when he says: "The ♦Reprinted by permission from The Christian Union, September 24, 1S92. 6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. day of days, tlie great day of the feast of life, is tliat in which the iuward eye opens to the uuity of things." An extended reference to the law of unity in its universal ai> plication is not pertinent to the purpose of this paper, but it is hoped that a correct apprehension of the idea involved in the term in its application to education may be gained by a brief conr sideratiou of the underlying principles of Froebel's philosophy. The term education, as P^ra?bel uses it, contains the central idea of his system, for, recognizing "the identity of the cos- mic laws with the laws of our mind," and seeing that the opera- tions of nature are always in orderly evolutions, he defines edu- cation to be a process of development. This thought is con- tained in the word Kindergarten (child-garden) , for, as the wise gardener seeks to give each plant the best conditions for unfold- ing the divine thought which it contains, so the Kindergarten demands for each human being, created for freedom in the im- age of God, the opportunity to develop his inborn possibilities, spontaneously and freely, in accordance with the eternal law. The limiting, repressing, dwarfing methods of mere instruction, which prescribe for all alike, and which regard the human mind as merely a receptacle to be filled, have no place in the new education. Admitting that at present the schools are far from making vital, in actual practice, the developing method, it is encouraging and inspiring to note that the tendency of the most advanced educational thought is in this direction. "The object of education," says Froebel, "is the realization of a faithful, pure, inviolate, and hence, holy life." Enlarging upon this idea, he says: "Education should lead and guide man to a clearness concerning himself and in himself, to peace with nature and to unity with God ; hence it should lift him to a knowledge of himself and of mankind, to a knowledge of God and of nature, and to the pure and holy life to which such knowledge leads." How far present educational methods are from attaining the results required by this standard, our crimi- nal records, our juvenile asylums, our State prisons, and the general disorders of society testify. Such results can be reached THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 7 ouly through that uuificatiou of life, everywhere spoken of iu Froebel's writings, which involves all man's relationships — to God, to nature and to humanity — and which necessitates the education of the whole human being — his head, his heart, and his hand — in uninterrupted continuity of development from the earliest infancy. No language can be too strong to express the emphasis which Froebel places upon the need of religious education. In one place he says: "All education which is not founded upon the Christian religion is one-sided, defective, and fruitless;" again, he says: "The object and end of all education is the union of the individual soul with God." This idea is pervasive of all his writings ; it is the central thought of the whole. Recognizing the interdependence of different planes of spirit- ual activity, Froebel sees social education to be essential to true religious culture. In fact, he traces the religious and the social instinct to the same source, and finds in the child's love of companionship — in his desire to find some being in loving re- sponse to himself — the germ of all religious feeling. A guid- ing thought iu Froebel's philosophy is the idea of the organic relation of the individual to the race. He says: "In the de- velopment of the individual man the history of the spiritual de- velopment of the race is repeated, and the race iu its totality may be viewed as one human being, in whom there will be found the necessary steps in the development of individual man." That humanity is a living organism, whose members are vitally related to each other, is acknowledged in common language iu such expressions as "the body of the people," "the popular voice," "common consent;" and the analogy between the development of the race and that of the individual is recog- nized in such terms as "the infancy of the race," "this age of the world," "the development of humanity." That the human being needs practical social education is shown by the discords which result from violations of the laws governing human so- ciety. The child's first social life, which Froebel would have cherished and fostered most tenderly, is that of the family; 8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. but at an early age there comes the oecessity for a wider eoni- paiiiouship thau the home circle affords, and the Kindergarten, which is pre-eminently a place of social education, offers itself to meet the needs of this important stage of development. Edward Everett Hale says : "The great idea of the present cen- tury is the togetherness of the human race." Considering man in his relation to nature, the first and most obvious thought is of his body, upon the healthy condition of which right living on the higher planes of thought and affection so largely depends ; but a deeper thought than this underlies the expressions "a knowledge of nature," "peace with nature," which Era^bel includes in his statement of the object of educa- tion, quoted above. In nature he sees the "embodied thoughts of God," and it is to nature as a book of C4od that he would lead the child. The interpretation of the book of nature he finds in its symbolisms of spiritual truth.' His words are, "All natural phenomena are signs of spiritual truth to which they give expression: thus they may be called symbols." In this correspondence between spiritual truth and its natural symbol, Froebel sees a grand illustration of the law of unity, and most earnestly he urges upon educators the obligation to apply it. He says: "It is quite a different thing whether we look upon concrete things and facts as merely material things and facts, serving this or that outward purpose, or contemplate them as the outward forms of spiritual contents, the intermedia of higher truths and higher knowledge. In this sense the material world is a symbol of the spiritual world, and it is in this sense that education needs to use it, especially in leading the child to the ultimate cause of all things — God." In the technical Kindergar ten gifts and occupations Froebel presents what may be called a primer of the book of nature. These gifts and occupations he liases upon three typical forms — the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder— in which he sees the whole material universe epitomized and symbolized. These three forms taken together embody the law of unity, and in their use in the true Kindergarten that law is always observed, in sequences of thought and of work. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 9 Hitherto school education has been one-sided, confining itself chiefly to the intellect, and making little provision for the cul- tivation of the heart or the training of the hand. In fact, although claiming to give attention to good morals, the schools in their systems of marks and distinctions, have had a powerful influence in exactly the opposite direction, fostering untruth- fulness, self-seeking, jealousy, dishonesty in its worst forms, and tending to defeat even the one end chiefly sought ; for the painstaking but slow child, seeing the honors of the school bestowed upon his more gifted but possibly less faithful com- panion, becomes discouraged and indifferent, while the prize pupil, who has worked, not in joy and freedom, from the love of knowledge, but, as he unblushingly confesses, for marks, is thereby dwarfed and crippled intellectually as well as morally. Against the self-seeking system of the schools the Kindergar- ten protests in the most practical manner, for all its methods are adapted to develop feelings of kindness, of helpfulness, of sympathy with, and of respect for, others. No one is encour- aged to do better than another, but each is stimulated to do his best. Right feeling is necessary for true thinking ; it is only when the heart is joyous that the intellect does its best work. The child depressed by discouragement, burdened with fear, wounded by injustice, or hungry for love, does not thrive either intellectually or morally, and the first aim of the Kindergarten - is to see that he is happy. But right feelings, without means of expression, are mere sen- timents ; they must take definite and tangible shape before they ■ can be of any value, either to the subject of them or to another; I and the crowning excellence of Fro?bers system — that which ] gives it practical value — is found in its industries and activi- ; ties, its manual work and representative play, through which, . by actual doing, the loving thought is expressed. One applica- I tion of the law of unity is seen in the fact that the industries of the Kindergarten are the industries of the race in miniature — working in clay, building, weaving, sewing, etc. — all leading out into the life of the world. But it is not from consideration 10 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. of theiv use iu the activities of practical life, importaut as these may be, that Froebel lays such emphasis upon the industries of the child. He sees that man in his best development is neces- sarily a creative being, and he urges a higher application of the law of unity in the reasons which he gives for the encourage- ment of creative activity. He says: "The Spirit of God hov- ered above the shapeless chaos and moved it : then began rocks and plants, animals and men, to assume definite shape, to exist and live. God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him ; therefore man should create and work like God ; his spirit, the mind of man, should hover over and move the formless chaos of life in order that definite forms of life may emerge. Herein lie the deep meaning and importance as well as the main object of work and industry ; working is in a certain sense creating." It is only through doing that the human being can be de- veloped — can realize his own possibilities — can be himself ; and he must see himself objectively in some product of his own ac- tivity before he can know himself. With what feelings of sat- isfaction and self-respect, with what a sense of his own dignity and importance, the little child of the Kindergarten exclaims, as he holds up some finished piece of work, "See what I have made ! See what I did myself !" The seed sown by Froebel more than sixty years ago is bear- ing fruit. Character-building as the end of education, and the training of the hand as an indispensable means to that end, are two thoughts now prominently before our leading educators. In regard to the training of the baud, the question of the schools now is, not, "Shall we encourage it?" but "what indus- tries can be introduced, and in what way?" The most difficult part of the problem — that of providing work suitable for the youngest children — was solved by Froebel himself. It is left for his followers to devise occupations adapted to the schools and suited to the needs of our times. A recognition of the importance of infancy for educational purposes is one of the peculiar features of Froebel's system. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 11 "Life," he says, "is one continuous whole, and all the stages of development are but links in the great chain of existence ; and since nothing is stronger than its weakest part, it is essen- tial that the first link, babyhood, be made firm enough to bear the strain of future life." Practical as he always is, Froebel shows in "The Mother Play and Nursery Songs" — a book worthy of the most careful study by all mothers — how this first link in the chain of life may be strengthened. Two thoughts, each involving the idea of unit}', furnish the key to this book ; they are, the relation of the germ stage of life to all other stages, and the symbolism of material things. It is through the activity of play — the only activity in which the child is free and joyous — that the ends sought in the Kin- dergarten are attained, and the school finds work made easy when it is done in the play spirit. In his motto, "Come let us live with our children," Frcebel urges the fostering of a sympathetic union between parent and child. The importance and the sacredness of such relationship he expresses in these words : — "For thyself in all thy works take care That every act the highest meaning bear ; Would'st thou unite the child for aye with thee, Then let him with the Highest One thy union see. Believe that by the good that's in thy mind Thy child to good will early be inclined ; By every noble thought with which thy heart is fired The child's young soul will surely be inspired ; And can'st thou any better gift bestow Than union with the Eternal One to know?" II. The Possibilities of the Kinderofarten * How to save the children, and how to reach the homes of "the other half," j^re the two questions most prominent before the philanthropists of the present time. A careful considera- tion of the means at hand for the accomplishment of these two inclusive purposes discloses the fact that there is no other avail- able agency that in the least compares with the Kindergarten. Apart from its philanthropic aspects, it is also recognized as an educational institution, and the idea of introducing it into our public school systems has for some time been gaining ground. It is true that the Kindergarten has possibilities which ally it to the school, and it is claimed by some that when public Kin- dergartens shall have been established there will be no further need of those whose object is purely philanthropic. However, a consideration of the methods employed in the attempt to adapt the system to the schools leads to the conclusion that they fail fully to appreciate the requirements of the true Kindergarten, and that, under their administration, society will not realize its fullest possibilities. One reason for this conclusion is that the school regards the Kindergarten as a mere preliminary to the established course of school work, whereas a view of the present state of society must convince the careful observer that what is needed is not merely more school, but something different fi'om the school. In proportion to the population, the number of criminals in this country is now greater than it was twenty-five years ago, and furthermore, statistics show that the average age of crimi- nals is decreasing, each succeeding year adding a list younger *Open letter in "The Century," January 1893. By permission of the Century Company. THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 13 than any of the preceding years. The cause of this alarming state of affairs may, to a great extent, be traced to the neglect of childhood. It must be conceded that the public schools fail in not making character-building their primal duty, as, theoretically, the chief reason for their existence is to make good citizens. Their failure to do this necessitates, in many instances, the establishment of juvenile tisylumsand reformatory prisons, the object of which is to reclaim a dangerous class, who, had they been properly trained in early childhood, would have required no reclaiming. An important failure of the schools in their adoption of the Kindergarten is in not utilizing the two j^ears between three and five ; for if the Kindergarten were to be merely preliminary to the school, with its present standard of purely intellectual training, it would be a mistake to overlook these years in which the child develops intellectually more than in any subsequent two years of his life, and to which the Kindei'garten is perfectly adapted. Before the development of the Kindergarten there was no systematic course of intellectual training available for children below five years of age, the infant schools of two gener- ations ago, with their forcing processes, having been abandoned as entirely impracticable. Important as these years are for in- tellectual training, the Kindergarten values them especially as a time for moral and spiritual nurture^ an opportunity for doing both preventive and upbuilding work. Even should the public schools take the child at three years of age, these social possibilities of the Kindergarten, which are important factors in philanthropic woi'k, would not be realized, for the public school-teacher is not required to know, and sel- dom does know, anything of the home life of her pupils. In- deed, her long hours and many pupils render this impossible. In all philanthropic Kindergartens, however, visiting in the homes of the children is an essential part of the work, and the Kindergarten is frequently a welcome visitor where no city missionary would be admitted, often supplying what is most needed, namely, a friend. 14 THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE KINDERGARTEN. The true Kindergarten regards not merely the intellect, but aims to cultivate the heart and to train the hand. It has a pur- pose entirely distinct from that which is practically recognized in the schools. It seeks to make children joyous, pure, trust- ful, docile, reverent and unselfish, while it is conceded that the effect of school influences is often the very opposite. Many of the faults of the school are traceable to the fact that so many pupils are assigned to one teacher that she cannot give them attention individually, and the same conditions are found in most of the public Kindergartens thus far established. The true Kindergarten idea is to develop the highest possibili- ties of each individual child, and at the same time so to culti- vate the social feeling that the individual will be subordinate to the good of the community. To promote these ends, the Kin- dergarten must be in sympathetic relations Avith each of the children, and, therefore, the number must not be too great. III. The Kindergarten as an Institution for Moral Training* The Kindergarten as an institution for moral training is tlie subject I have been asked to present. Morality may be defined as the observance of the duties involved in the social relations of men. The vital importance of giving more attention to this subject than it has heretofore received is being more and more appreciated by both educators and students of social science. Society is a unit, and the absurdity of neglecting moral train- ing in the schools, thus necessitating remedial measures later on, is obvious. The tax-payer who supports the schools must also pay for the maintenance of good social order, and he has a right to complain if through any neglect of the schools social order does not prevail. The public schools were first established in this country, and have since been maintained, for the purpose of making good citizens, for it is universally conceded that "ignorance is the parent of vice." However well they may have fulfilled their mission in the past, new complications have arisen which re- quire the adoption of new measures. In all departments of in- dusti'y and social life, customs that prevailed forty years ago are now practically obsolete, and it must be admitted that many of the changes which have resulted have produced condi- tions not favorable to the formation of good social habits. The crowding together in large cities of so many families in tene- *Paper read at Columbia Colleg^e, New York, Oct. 22nd, 1892, before the Conference of Educational Workers and published in the Kindergarten Magazine, February I893. 16 MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. ment houses deprives children of the comforts enjoyed by a well-ordered family, prevents the forming of any standard of what true home-life may be, and induces a life of idleness. The education in practical morality, which the country boy re- ceives from the varied occupations of the farm and the kindly and helpful associations of neighborhood-life, is entirely want- ing to the boy in the city, who having, when out of school, no proper field for his activities, inevitably falls into mischief. The criminal records and the statistics of our reformatory insti- tutions show that from year to year there is an alarming in- crease of juvenile criminals, and the establishment, within a few years, of the reformatory prison at Elmira, in this state, was deemed essential because of the existence of this increas- ing and dangerous class. Our educational problem is further complicated by the fact that a large part of the tenement population of our great cities is composed of recent inimigi-ants who are henceforth to be citi- zens of this country, but who have brought hither the igno- rance and the vices of the lowest classes of the Old World. New York city, in which multitudes of this foreign population are accumulated, is in danger of being overwhelmed by this constantly increasing mass, ignorant of our language and of the principles which underlie our national life. These are the classes which must be transformed into good citizens. In view of this alarming condition of things we turn with pleasure to the Kindergarten as a possible means of solving our difficulties. It would, however, be too much to claim that the Kindergar- ten would accomplish so great a result should the schools re- main as they are ; but it is claimed that the Kindergarten is the foundation of a true education and that it is based upon prin- ciples which, if established and fully applied in the schools, would accomplish the needed educational reformation. It is my purpose to show that the Kindergarten is an institu- tion pre-eminently promotive of both social and moral education, and that, therefore, it is adapted to the exigencies of the times. MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 17 As no other educatioual iustitution has ever done, it provides for the most impressionable period of the child's existence. The schools do not ordinarily accept the child below five years of age, and frequently not below six, but all acquainted with child- life know that his practical education is well advanced before this age, and that he has already received the bent which de- termines not only what his school-life will be, but frequently also what his whole future character will be. A child five years of age may have been so well started in life that when he enters the school he may have a receptive mind, a docile, reverent, and trustful spirit, habits of truthfulness and obedience, refined tastes, gentle manners, a cheerful disposition, and a will so trained to regard the rights of others that he can easily adapt himself to the social condition of the miniature com- munity into which he has been introduced ; or he may have quali- ties the reverse of these ; but with his previous education the school has had nothing to do, and must take him as it finds him. Now that we are becoming familiar with the Kindergarten and its possibilities, we are beginning to realize what an enor- mous loss of opportunity there has been in neglecting the years between three and five, to which the Kindergarten is perfectly adapted. In introducing the Kindergarten, as it is proposed, into the public schools in this city, it will be impossible, with out a change in the laws, to admit pupils under five years of age. It is true that at present, with our crowded school-buildings, it would be practically impossible to provide suitable accommoda- tions for all the children between three and five years of age, of whom it is estimated there are at least seventy thousand in the tenement houses alone. Visionary as may appear the scheme of thus extending the school age, there are in the way no dififlculties which will not be surmounted when the public becomes fully aroused, in their con- sideration of the enormous interests at stake, and are made thoroughly conversant with the preventive and upbuilding edu- cational possibilities of the Kindergarten, when presented under the best conditions. 18 MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. In the social development of this country this is distinctly a time of emergency, to meet which new and heretofore unused measures must be resorted to. A long step will have been taken toward that unification of society which Froebel saw would be the inevitable result of the application of his theories, when all classes of society shall unite in a common enthusiasm for childhood. Two features of the Kiudei-garten particularly adapted as means of promoting the moral training we are considering are (1) its manual training and (2) the joy of the play spirit in which the work is done ; play necessarily implying playmates, and therefore involving direct social education. Much has recently been said and written on the moral and intellectual value of manual training, and it is chiefly on these grounds that it has been accepted in the schools. The Kindergarten w^as the pioneer in the great manual-training movement, which during the last decade has extended through- out the country, and which marks an epoch in the development of our educational ideas. More than sixty years ago Froebel, in "The Education of Man," laid down the principle that no instruction is of value which is purely theoretical. He declared that education should be the means of disclosing to each indi- vidual his own possibilities ; that no one can know himself, and hence suitably respect and esteem himself, until he has seen himself objectively in some product of his own activity. He therefore strongly emphasized the necessity of doing. Froebel never stops with mere theory, l^nlike the great writers on edu- cation who preceded him, he reduces all his theories to prac- tice, going into the minutest details in the preparation of ma- terial for the use of infant hands, and prescribing particular directions for the conduct of the organized games of the Kin- dergarten. He has probably gone more deeply than any other writer into the psychology of the subject of manual training. In the notes of one of the songs of the "Mother Play" book, he says that counting, which is necessarily involved in all exact manual work, is a moral act; and in the "Education of Man," MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 19 he says that mathematics, which he would always give to the child in concrete form in connection with some work of his hands, are allied to religion. In the simplest and most elementary occupations of the Kin- dergarten there are fostered habits of accuracy, attention, care- fulness, patience, perseverance, and method, — habits which can- not fail to have a powerful influence in developing the moral virtues of truthfulness, conscientiousness, industry, thrift, and self-reliance. The want of these virtues is painfully apparent in that large class of our fellow-beings who necessitate the ex- istence of our boards of charities and corrections. It is a sig- nificant fact that those who need charity and those who require correction are, in statistical tables, usually classed together. An investigation into the causes which have led these large classes to drop from the ranks of good citizenship discloses the fact that in a large majority of cases both the pauper and the criminal have untrained hands and undisciplined minds of which their enfeebled moral condition is an inevitable result. The superintendent of the reformatory prison at Elmira says that of the young criminals entering there, very few have any special aptitude for any useful work ; and further than this, the care- fully kept statistics of the institution show that nearly all are the children of thriftless parents unskilled in the arts and in- dustries of life. Mr. Dugdale, an authority on the subject, in his book upon "Crime and Pauperism," says that if the child- ren of vice and crime, born with the lowest tendencies, could from their earliest childhood be trained in Froebel's methods, these tendencies might be to a great extent overcome. That the Kindergarten does produce moral results of the most positive kind is shown in an article by Miss Lewis, in The Califoryiia for January, 1892, in which she states that an inves- tigation of the record of the nine thousand children who have been trained in the Kindergartens of the Golden Gate Asso- ciation, shows that only one has ever been arrested for crime. When we consider that thes^nine thousand Kindergarten child- ren were all gathered from the slums of San Francisco, we are 20 MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. forced to admit that the Kiudergarteu is a great moral agency. Upou this subject I quote from a published address of Mr. Hailmaun. He says: "Good Kindergarten in all its work is pre-eminently religious and ethical. Work in the Kindergarten from beginning to end has reference to the religious promise in the growth of the child. "Again at every point of the work the teacher must act in full sympathy with the child, must place himself on the child's plane, and from this, labor toward the child's (the human) ideal. If the Kindergartner sees in the gifts and occupations ends instead of means of insti'uction ; if she makes weaving, building, or folding matters of instruction, and subordinates the child to these, — she has not the spirit of Frcebel. "It has been said that we must go down to the child. I would say. Go up to the child; lift yourself if you can, to the level of innocence, of singleness of purpose, of pure and simple enjoyment of all things ; follow the child ; be led by him ; care- fully and thoughtfully seek to know the direction in which he drifts, then help him in his upward tendencies, and guard him against all that looks downward. "Again, the Kindergarten is essentially ethical. All its work must build up character, — benevolence, justice, righteousness, in every sense of the word. For this purpose its surroundings are adjusted. 'Then,' say some of the critics, 'you do not propose that children shall know anything?' Know! We want them to know vastly more than they know now ; their knowledge shall not be merely verbal, but practical, entering the pupil's very life. "If the Kindergarten has any quarrel with the school — though I cannot see that it has — it is not that the school teaches too much, but that it fails to put into the learner's life the knowl- edge it does teach." What a revolution would be wrought in the homes and the lives of the children of the present generation in this city if from this time onward their natural activities were so carefully fostered and directed that all should delight in the work of their own hands ! MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. 21 Fro-bel's wisdom is nowhere more manifest than in the pro- vision he makes for having everything done in the play spirit. The child of the Kindergarten is usually on good terms with his companions, chiefly because he is on good terms with himself ; the delight of healthy activity and the joyousness of spon- taneous play creating an atmosphere in which selfishness and ill nature do not thrive. The objection is sometimes raised that in the Kindergarten the work is made too easy for the child ; that, indeed, he is not taught to work but only to play. The objectors overlook the fact that there are purpose and method in the pla^^ of the Kin- dergarten, and that, if the activities of young children are to be directed to educational ends it must be done through their play, since to them work, as such, is hopelessly irksome. They will willingly, gladly work if they can only play that they are working, as they do in the Kindergarten, As has been said "Labor performs the prescribed task, but play prescribes for itself." Visitors in the Kindergarten often express themselves as specially impressed by the evident hap- piness and positive joyousness manifested by the children. >^o better means of social training can be devised than that wliich is involved in organized play. Children gather in a circle, dropping their own personality for the sake of sharing in the larger personality of the little community of which they are a part. Thus the conceited and aggressive as well as the timid and shrinking are led to appreciate themselves at their true value. Not long since an intelligent visitor in a Kindergarten was moved to tears on observing the self control and evident sym- pathy of a large circle of children as they patiently waited for a somewhat dull child to choose the game. Surely here was a training in good morals which is not always evident in games played by children of a larger growth. It is to be hoped that there is educational value in play, for if there is not, what is to become of our universities ? The true Kindergartner plays, atudies to play ; and it will be a happy day for the schools when the glad, free, and joyous 22 MORAL TRAINING OF THE KINDERGARTEN. spirit of true play animates all, both teacher and pupils. It is impossible truly to play with the children and at the same time to be cross and unsympathetic. Closely allied to the joy of the play spirit is the delight which the children take in the beautiful — the central thought of the Kindergarten being to secure the happiness of the children, not as an end but as a means. The indolent, thriftless, joyless man is a dangerous member of society. Let him take positive delight in his own work and learn to respect and esteem himself as the producer of that which is good and beautiful, and he becomes a bringer of happi- ness to the community, for "virtue kindles at the touch of joy." IV. Play and Work in Education.' The New Education, of which the Kindergarten is the basis, claims to be a natural system of education. These words, "a natural system of education," are familiar to our ears, and to dwell upon their meaning on an occasion like this may at first appear almost a discourtesy to the audience ; yet, in consider- ing what to say upon the subject assigned me, namely: "Play and Work in Education," I have found myself questioning their true significance, and have concluded that in the principles and ideas involved in these words we have the whole of true educa- tional philosophy and of correct educational method. Whatever is natural, in the true and highest sense of the word, is according to divine order, — an order whose conception is in infinite love, and whose fulfillment is in accordance with infinite wisdom. To look for the divine order, whether in regard to things ma- terial or things spiritual, constitutes the work of the true scien- tist ; to discover that order and to live in accordance with it is both the chief duty and the highest pi-ivilege of man. Seeking for a natural philosophy of education, we have only to inquire. How has the great Teacher educated the human race? that is, in what has this education consisted? and by what means has it been accomplished? To this inquiry, from every page of human history, the answer comes that education is development, orderly and progressive ; and confirming this truth of history, science brings from her researches, whether into the greatest or the least things of the material universe, *Read at Kindergarten Congress, Chicago, July iS, 1S93. 24 PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. the graud generalization tliat the Creator works always in or- derly evolutions. The word system means "a union of parts forming one entire whole;" the term, a system of education, implies connected and related stages of human development ; it involves the idea of the organic relation of each stage of growth to every stage which has preceded and to every stage which follows. Inquiring by what means human development has been ac- complished, we discover the universal law that all life ex- presses itself in activity, gaining through action a constantly increasing power of action. But in considering this subject other questions force them- selves upon us : What is man ? and why should he be edu- cated? What is his destiny? and what will be accomplished when his highest development shall have been reached? In answer to these comprehensive questions, revelation con- firms that which all analogies suggest, and which man in his most exalted moments feels to be true, that man is made in the image of God, and that his destiny is to become Godlike, that is, to become in finite degree what the eternal One is in infi- nite degree. From this standpoint we look down on human life in all its complexity and apparent want of continuity, and see a divine order prevailing in it; and holding fast to this central truth regarding man's destiny, we learn to see the experiences of life in their true relations and to estimate them at their true value. The activity of the divine Being is in the constant putting forth of creative power. The first announcement of the written Word is '-In the beginning God created," and from every page of that elder Scripture, the open book of nature, we learn that He is creating, eternally, and uninterruptedly. Man, therefore, made in the image of the Creator, must be a creative being. The divine Being creates, when through His infinite wisdom He gives external form and objectivity to the impulses of His infi- nite love ; man may be said to create when, availing himself of materials provided for him by the divine Creator, and making PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 25 use of diviue laws, be gives expression, through thought, to the promptings of his desires. In these words: "Man is a creative being," is contained, as in a germ, all that is involved in the new education. When and how does this creativeness begin to manifest itself? What are its later manifestations? How may it be fostered? To what ends should it be directed? and how may it be made to serve those ends ? These questions being answered, the problems of education will be solved. The first manifestation of human creativeness is seen in the unconscious play of earliest childhood ; and in the bestowment of the instinct of play, God has set upon every human being the seal of His divine Fatherhood. The child is responsive to the divine Life. At first unconscious of himself, he begins to exercise that free activity which in its ever fuller expression will make him more and more completely the ideal man. He plays innocently, joyously, spontaneously, — his play taking such form as his stage of development makes possible. To play, is the natural and appropriate business of the child. Suppose he neither plays nor loves to play ; something is wrong, something wanting ; body or mind is evidently in an unhealthy condition. The healthy child must play ; it is his way of expressing himself. What an orderly condition of se- curity and contentment was promised by the prophet of Israel to his captive people in these words: "And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the sti'eets thereof." "All voluntary activity which is prompted by natural inclina- tion and is productive of pleasure may be called play." All such activity has in it the element of creativeness and is the heaven-ordained means by which the child attains his develop- ment. How, otherwise than in the freedom and joy of play, would a child ever take the exercise requisite for his physical up-building, or be roused to the intellectual activity necessary to acquaint him with the material world ? By what other means would his imagination find exercise and all the deepest feelings 26 PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. of his heart be expressed ? Above all, how would the social in- stinct find gratification if not by means of play? In organized plays, the form which play necessarily takes when two or more play together, may be seen the elements of the highest social life, and the germs of the religious sentiment. In their plays with one another, children ai'e expei'iencing, in its beginning, the blessedness of that uniting power whose full realization will mark the highest attainment of man upon earth ; for humanity is an organism whose vitalizing energy is the divine Life, and only when each is in union with all, will the full experience and the complete expression of that Life be possible. Schiller says : "Man plays only when he is a human being in the fullest sense of the word, and he has reached full humanity only when he plaj's." If in any community no festivals were observed, no general holidays in which all hearts were thrilled by a common senti- ment, deplorable indeed would be its condition. Public wor- ship may at times sink into lifeless formality, but the- higher and truer the religious life of a people, the greater their enthu- siasm in acts of united devotion. In the Olympic Games, whose production marked the highest stage of the development of the Greeks, and which were ex- pressive, not only of their intellectual and social attainment but also of their religious ideas, we have the grandest illustra- tion which history affords, of the fact that human life, at its best, finds its true expression in the joyousness, the spon- taneity, the freedom of some form of concerted action, some play or festival whose uniting power blends all hearts in one common enthusiasm. The degeneracy of the Olympic Games may be traced in the debasing spectacles of the Roman Amphitheatre, and in their last survival, the Spanish bull-fight of to-day. It is a deeply significant fact that the Greek was an actor in the Games, — the Roman was a spectator only. Who can doubt the unifying, harmonizing and elevating power of the great festivals held everywhere throughout oiu* PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 27 couutry during the present year, — more especially the greatest of all, the World's Columbian Exposition? The play instinct of the child needs to be nourished in an at- mosphere of love and sympathy, for play involves the idea of joy and consequently of freedom. Alas, that in their thought- lessness or in their ignorance of its true significance, older people so often interfere with children's play ! Alas, that in the home it is so little appreciated ! and that even in the Kin- dergarten, we so often repress and limit, so often dictate and prescribe ! Alas, for those Kindergartners who, through fear of not conforming to prevailing school-standards, are always subject to bondage ! How much the Kindergarten needs strong women, who com- prehend the truth that Froebel's system is based upon a new conception of education, both in regard to its aims and in re- gard to its spirit and methods, — women of clear vision and of practical ability, — courageous women, who shall lead and not follow, who shall not timidly borrow standards from the schools, but who shall give to the schools, in practical form, the true, that is, the natural, and, therefore, the divine stand- ard ; for the school has to do with the play-spirit as truly as the nursery and the Kindergarten. With the passing away of the unconscious stage of earliest childhood, a sense of power dawns upon the unfolding mind, and the comparative aimlessness of the plays of infancy gives place to an activity in which means are adapted to ends, in that conscious effort which in common language we call work, but which is in reality the play of this new stage of life. Play and work, —when work is done under the best conditions, — are only different names for the same activity, the play of childhood be- coming by insensible steps the work of later years. In the marked characters of the race, in men who have be- come pre-eminent in history, there is almost always seen a close connection between the plays of their childhood and their later creations. Such men have usually attained eminence, not be- cause of the schools, but in spite of them ; they have been, in 28 rLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. otber words, self-educated through spontaneous mental action, the strength of their natural inclinations enabling them to resist the leveling and repressing influence of the prescribed routine of the classroom. Sir Isaac Newton confesses that he was ex- tremely inattentive to his studies and stood very low in the school. His biographer says of him: "It is very probable that Newton's idleness arose from the occupation of his mind with subjects in which he took a deeper interest," and relates how the "sober, silent, thinking lad" spent his play-hours in the use of all sorts of little tools, making for his school fellows, in whose games he never took part, but whom he was always anxious to please, all kinds of machines and amusing contrivances for their diversion. Lockhart says of Sir Walter Scott that he "at- tained greatness by obeying nothing but the strong bent of his native inclination s . ' ' At the head of a Museum of Natural History in one of our Eastern cities, tliere is to-day a man, who, as a boy, was re- garded as the dullard of his class. Always late at school in the morning, and idle and listless when there, regarded by his teachers with despair and by his companions with contempt, he lived in an atmosphere of unjust disapprobation which would have been fatal to all the highest and sweetest feelings of his nature, but for the intervention of a wise woman, a new teacher, who determined to find the reason for the boy's indifference to school duties. Observing him carefully, she soon found that he was always late at school because there was so much to see by the roadside and in the fields that he could not get there earlier ; and appre- ciating her opportunitj^ she always suspended school exercises when he arrived, giving him no word of censure, but asking, as a special favor, that he would tell the school what he had seen by the way. Thus encouraged, the dull boy brightened into the enthusiastic naturalist, and soon became the delight of his elders and a hero among his less gifted companions. To this happy turn in the boy's life may be traced the success of his mature years, and to the wisdom of that teacher the world PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. 29 is indebted for a scientist whose original investigations in many directions have given him an honored name among the world's great discoverers, "x/ The most urgent need of the present time is not teachers equipped with the latest devices of methodology, but teachers of sweet and sympathetic nature, unselfish and true, genial and loving, teachers who truly "live with the children" in their world of thought and feeling, and who are joyous in the delight which comes from the consciousness of the grandeur of the work committed to them, and strong in their ability to perform it in the divinely-appointed way of play. Happy the teacher and thrice happy the children whose school-work is done in the play-spirit, — the spirit of love and sympathy, of joy and freedom. The race will not reach its highest development until each individual, whatever his natural endowment, has blossomed out in the genial influence of such an atmosphere. Education has been defined as "the unfetter- ing of the creative power." How can this unfettering be ac- complished otherwise than in the joy of some congenial occu- pation? As well may we expect a garden, on which the sun never shines, to disclose the divine thought contained in all its glorious possibilities of form, of color and of fragrance, as to expect the human being to show the divine standard of the man while leading a joyless life of limitation and repression. Man discouraged, oppressed, selfishly ambitious, deprived of a worthy motive, toils. Such a man is out of the divine order, and, therefore, cannot attain the legitimate enjoyment of life or fulfill his own highest possibilities. Let no one fear that the mind of the child will lack tone and effectiveness if relieved of disagreeable and wearisome labor. See what children will accomplish when the heart is enlisted ! No toiler in mine or quarry ever exerts more physical energy in his daily work than does the boy in the pursuit of his favorite amusements. Weariness, hunger, physical discomforts of every kind are lost sight of when his heart is stirred by a strong mo- tive, when his imagination has sway in a heaven-inspired ere- 30 PLAY AND WORK IN EDUCATION. ativeuess. How buoyantly, joyfully, "man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening," when his heart is ani- mated by hope, or quickened by the inspiration of a great idea ! The world's geniuses, her poets, her artists, her inventors, have ever wrought in that exultation of delight which is the joy of the child at his play, carried forward into the experience of manhood. It is not what a man does but the way he does it that marks it as play or work, as joyful service or slavish toil. The most wearisome labors may become play when done in a spirit of love, of trust, and with a sense of companionship with the divine One. The attainment of that high state in which all toilsome labors will cease, in which all work will be play, can only be realized when a deep religious spirit prevails, when the duties of life are accepted joyfully as the highest opportunity, when the relation of this life to the life beyond is fully realized, and when, in living trust, in the exercise of the highest affec- tions, each individual of the human race feels himself to be one of the loved children of the Great Father. Toward the realiza- tion of this ideal condition of society The New Education will have much to do. Y. The Connection Between the Primary School and the Kindergarten * The question we have been asked to consider is, "How can the organic union of the Kindergarten and the Primary School be formed?" This, as I understand it, is equivalent to the question, How can such relation be established between the Kindergarten and Primary School that both shall be parts of one system of education? If such union is ever to be established, Kindergarten and school must agree as to what constitutes education, and as to the end to be attained by means of it. When this agreement shall have been arrived at, the question before us will have been answered, for, having established general principles, de- tails of methods will take care of themselves. Froebel claimed for his scheme of education that it was a system^ and declax'ed that it was the application of a law, uni- versal in its operation, whether in the world of mind or of mat- ter, a law which he called the law of unity, or the law of rela- tion, that made his system a system. A study of this system discloses the fact that it provides for the whole child, in all his relations, and for every stage of his existence. Where else, among educational authorities, shall we look for a distinctly formulated system of education? Keturning to the two essential points of agreement just men- tioned, let us consider the educational standards of the Kinder- garten and those of the school. Education, according to Fra?bel, is the setting free of the inborn powers of the individual. It is a process of develop- *Read at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., April, 20, 1S93. 32 THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN meul, not a scheme of instruction. It discloses to each human being his own possibilities, making him free and joyous in his activity, from an inner necessity. Recognizing with reverence the wisdom of the Author of our being, Froebel declared that every human being is entitled to the full and free and right development of all his inborn capabilities. Man is a complex being, sustaining varied relations, and des- tined to an immortal existence. No one of these thoughts is overlooked in Froebel's scheme. It is in this comprehensive view of education that we have a grand application of his edu- cational law. In this inclusive scheme there is nothing arbi- trary or capricious, nothing fragmentary or fanciful. The hu- man being is regarded as the child of God, to be educated for union with Him. The well being of his body is regarded as an essential basis for the best development of mind and heart. The cultiA-ation of pure and beautiful affections is regarded as inexpressibly more important than the training and develop- ment of the intellect, and the hand is deemed of supreme im- portance as a means of giving form and expression to true thoughts and right feelings. The cultivation of the social nature of the child is considered to be of pre-eminent importance both with reference to the in- dividual's future happiness and usefulness in the activities of life, and as the only foundation for a truly religious character. Froebel is intensely practical, and never fails to provide definite means for carrying out his theories. The student of his system is impressed by the fact that he not only has given to the world the highest possible educational theories, but that he also has formulated definite prescriptions for putting these theories into practical use. Has the school the same standard and does it build broadly enough to cover the foundation laid in the Kindergarten? We all know that, as a rule, it does not, and the questions, there- fore, arise. Shall the foundations of the Kindergarten be nar- rowed or shall the structure reared in the primary school be THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. 33 broadened? One or the other must be done before an "organic union" between the Kindergarten and the school can be effected. It is easy to see that the whole tendency of educational thought at the present time is toward a more inclusive and broader idea than has heretofore prevailed, and it is certain that the educational demands of the new age, in which we are living, will not be satisfied with anything less than the broadest and fullest conception of educational standards. It is most encouraging to note that the entire scheme of primary school instruction is on a broader basis and is carried on under better methods than those which prevailed twenty-five years ago. In fact, the changes in standards and methods have been so great that they may well be considered as having constituted an edu- cational revolution. A comparison of the primary schools of the present time with those of a generation ago shows the intelligent investigator that the changes are for the better, and that they are all in the di- rection of the practical application of the principles of the Kin- dergarten. Evidently what is now needed is a still further ap- plication of these same principles. Let us look in detail at some of the requirements of school education which are agreed upon by the leaders of educational thought. There is a very general demand that the child shall be recog- nized as a religious being. This subject was so fully and ably presented by Dr. Lyman Abbott a few weeks since, in one of the lectures of this course, that we will not stop to consider it, except to say that the Kindergarten idea of religious instruc- tion is not that of creeds and dogmas imposed from without, but rather that of nourishing and cherishing the religious in- stincts of chiklren to the end that they may attain a true and healthy development. What the quality of the religious thought and feeling of the Kindergarten and the primai-y school shall be, depends entirely upon the Kindergartner and the teacher. No prescribed religious forms can of themselves have any value. It is most emphatically in this realm of education that the in- 34 THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. structor must live with the children, who never fail to respond sympathetically to the teacher whose sweet and loving, and rev- erent spirit illustrates to them the religious idea. Frcebel says : — "The first groundwork of religious life is love — love to God and man— in the bosom of the family. The unifying of all the circles of life, beginning with the family, springs from love; also the love of God, and the reverence for all that is highest, springs from love, which is the means of union in the whole universe, and brings out the highest consciousness of life in the final aim. Worship, in a child, is to feel and practice loVe; hence everything is legitimate which awakens or teaches love. What is suggested for this in the 'Mother and Cos- set Songs' mothers must carry farther by their own ap])lication of the principle. In the Kindergarten we use the same means as are employed in the established divine service, — pious songs, stories and prayer ; but these must correspond to the age of the children, and must be received into the hearts we have made practically susce])tible by the service to which we have accustomed them. The producing of this susceptibility is the great point for consideration." The physical well being of the child is every year receiving more and more attention in the schools. Better schoolrooms, with better ventilation and lighting, and more breathing space, are demanded, but the schools are still far from the Kindergar- garten standard of physical culture. Every primary school should be so arranged as to provide abundant space for games similar to Kindergarten games, for no better system of physical culture for young children has ever been devised than the marches and organized plays of the Kindergarten. The pri- mary school teacher of the future will utilize the play instinct of her children, as is now done in the Kindergarten, as a means of physical culture, and will find in games, adapted to their age and development, a means not only of physical training but also of social and intellectual education as well. All the work of the Kindergarten is, or should be, done in the play spirit ; but the child's love for play does not cease the day he enters the primary school, and since the Kindergarten never will depart from the play idea, the school must neces- sarily come to it. THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AN^D THE KINDERGARTEN. 35 We already have some beautiful illusti-atious of the carrying out of this play spirit iu the primary school, and in so far as this has been done, the "organic union" between the Kinder- gai'ten and primary schools is already formed. What is prac- tically needed, both among Kindergartners and teachers, is a more thorough appreciation of the educational A^alue of play, and a more reverent and sympathetic study of childhood with reference to a thorough understanding of the best methods of fostering and utilizing the play instinct. Students of Social Science are forced unanimously to admit that orderly social relations cannot be universally established in society until every child is trained to a life of practical mo- rality in his every day relations with his fellows. These rela- tions should be, not of the negative kind produced by obedi- ence to the commands which begin, "Thou shalt not," but rather of the positive kind developed through an actual experi- ence of the joy which results from living helpfully and sympa- thetically with other children, some of whom are stronger and more capable, and others of whom are weaker and less efficient, than himself. The truth of Froebel's motto, "we learn by doing," is nowhere more emphatically illustrated than in this matter of the practical social life of the Kindergarten. The carrying forward of the same idea into the schools will necessi- tate many changes of administration. The number of children assigned to one teacher will need to be so reduced that she can know them all individually, and thereby be enabled wisely to adapt her instruction to each one according to his requirements. Such a reduction in numbers will enable each child to know all the others individually, and so to secure practical experience in a social life adapted to his stage of development, as a prelimi- nary to the larger social life into which he must enter, if he is to be sucessful in any department of activity, for only the hermit lives without social relations. The present arrangement of rows of school desks for primary school children should give way to tables and chairs similar to those of the Kindergarten, which are better adapted to the 3C THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. social idea. These furnishings make it possible for the children to sit in groups, and afford opportunity for the cultivation of sympathy, kiudness, and helpfulness, and the inculcation of ideas of justice, and are a means of the development of the spirit of joy, which children as well as older people always feel when living in the truest social relations, and without which there can be no healthy intellectual activity. It cannot be said that the attainment of the results here pro- posed is foreign to the purpose of public school education, for public schools were first established and are still maintained for the ostensible purpose of making good citizens. The failure of old methods of education to accomplish this end is admitted on all sides. Already, in the face of great obstacles, some at- tempts toward establishing conditions favorable to the promo- tion of the social idea, have been successfully made hj far- seeing teachei'S to whom all honor is due as pioneers in this great advance movement. What is needed on the part of those who direct the policy of the schools, is a realization of the transcendent importance of true social education as a means for the preservation of our po- litical, social, and religious institutions. The education of the future, of which the Kindergarten is a prophecy, will inevitably place the social idea at the centre, since education is only a pre- paration for life, and the "organic union" between the Kinder- garten and the school cannot be established until the schools are based on the social idea. In considering how to connect the Kindergarten with the school, the attention of educators has hitherto been directed chiefly to the use of industries in education, for it is universally admitted that the idea of manual training, as a means of educa- tion, was derived from Frciebel's system. In the present popu- lar movement for manual training there would be little danger that in this respect there would not be a vital connection be- tween the Kindergarten and the school, if school boai-ds, who are now demanding manual training, would provide adequate materials, and could see that in every case the teacher, who is THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. 37 to direct their use, understood the proper method of work, and the principle involved. The love of the beautiful is placed among the most important means of Kindergarten education. Beauty of form, color, tone, gesture, — all these are made use of as a means of developing the ideal character. Happy indeed are the school children whose teacher intelligent- ly and persistently employs these agencies to promote joy, peace and purity in the hearts and minds of her children. The fact that the schools are now giving to this idea more attention than ever before is evidence that they are tending in the right direction. Regarding the text books of the schools it must be said that since the Book of Nature is the text book of the Kindergarten, the or- ganic relation between the Kindergarten and the school which we are considering cannot be formed until the schools take up and car- ry forward the study of nature, in the same spirit of love and rev- erence with which that study has been begun in the Kmdergarten. It is the aim of the Kindergartner to develop the scientific mind, that is, so to rouse the love of nature at that stage of the child's life when he lives chiefly in his affections, that as he grows older he will desire to go on in the study of it. But it is not to make mere scientists that P'roebel prescribes a study of nature. He says, on page 202 of "The Education of Man," "From every point, from every object of nature and life there is a way to God. * * * The things of nature form a more beautiful ladder between heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob ; not a one-sided ladder leading in one direction, but an all-sided one leading in all directions. Not in dreams is it seen; it is permanent; it surrounds us on all sides. It is decked with flowers, and angels with children's eyes beckon us toward it; it is solid, resting on a floor of crystals; the inspired singer, David, praises and glorifies it." The Kindergarten Gifts are a primer of the Book of Nature, a means of leading the child out into the natural world as a first step toward an apprehension of truth, of which things are only symbols. 38 THE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE KINDERGARTEN. The primary schools are iu many cases taking up the study of nature. This is a step in the right direction, and it is quite certain that it will never be retraced. The educational world is moving onward and upward, and the exalted standard which Froebel has raised will surely be reached, sooner or later. When it is reached there will be for the child one uninterrupted course of education from the nursery, through the university. Froebel's motto, "Come, Let Us Live with Our Children" is not for the mother and the Kindergartuer only. The spirit of love, sympathy and happiness involved in obedience to it, should be the prevailing spirit of the schools. It is only in an atmosphere of peace and joy, of hope and trust, that good af- fections develop, and only in such conditions can there be a free intellectual activity. This leads us to the consideration of that which is most es- sential, namely : the training of teachers for primary school work. As the Kindergartuer needs a thorough knowledge of educa- tional principles and a broad outlook upon the educational field so that her work may not be a merely mechanical routine of unrelated details, so the teacher, who is to build on the founda- tions of the Kindergarten must know what has been done there and must be prepared to work iu its spirit and according to its principles. When all our primary schools are under the admin- istration of teachers possessed of these requisite qualifications, working with the cordial co-operation of parents and school boards, then, may we hope to see the "Organic Union of the Kindergarten and the Primary School." yi. Froebel s Interpretation of Nature * In the papers to which we have just listened so much has been said in regard to the place which the study of nature has in the New Education, that it would not be advisable to take time for any further reference to the subject were it not known that there are those who are alarmed lest, after all, the New Education should prove to be materialistic in its tendency. At a recent meeting of the "Kindergartners' Union of New York and Vicinity," an earnest and thoughtful gentleman, prominent in educational circles, referring to the question in which we are all so vitally interested, namely : ''What should be the religious education of the Kindergarten ?" remarked that Froebel was pan- theistic in his teachings. Certainly this is a startling assertion regarding one to whom, more than to any other man, the edu- cational world is now looking for inspiration and for direction. "We all know that many needless discussions have arisen from the misunderstanding of terms. Practically a person says what he is understood to say, and whatever thought may have been in the mind of the gentleman just referred to when he spoke of Froebel as pantheistic, his hearers could only apply to the term the meaning usually assigned to it. Looking through Webster we find the following definitions : "Pantheism, the doctrine that the universe is God, or the sys- tem of theology in which it is maintained that the universe is the Supreme God." "Pantheist, one that believes the universe to be God." "Pantheistic, confounding God with the universe." That there are pantheists in the sense here given we all *Read at a Kindergarten demonstration made by students of the Kindergarten De- partment, Teachers' College, New York city, May 27, 1893. 40 FROE BEL'S IXTERPRETATION OF NATURE. know ; there is however a doctrine of the divine immanence in nature, very generally accepted hj' devout minds of whatever creed, which sees not nature as God, but God in nature. Thompson in his sublime Hymns to the Seasons says : "•These, as they change, Ahnighty Father, these Are but the varied God, the rolling year Is full of thee." Dean Trench in his introduction to his work on the Parables says: "The world of nature is, throughout, a witness for the world of spirits, proceeding from the same hand, growing out of the same root, and being constituted for that very end." P^ntirely in harmony with this idea of nature are the teach- ings of Froebel. On page 158 of "The Education of Man,"* he says: "Man finds himself everywhere surrounded by pure works of God, by works of nature that clearly express the spirit of God." He speaks (page 150) of recognizing ''Na- ture in its true character as the writing and book of God, as the revelation of God." On page 202 he says: "From every point, from every object of nature there is a way to God." Again he says, page 154: "As in the human work of art there is no material part of the artist's spirit, and as neverthe- less the work of art as such carries within itself the whole spirit of its artist in such a way that this spirit lives in this work, is expressed by it and exhaled by it, is even breathed by it into others, where it may live, be developed, and cultivated, — as the spirit of man is thus related to the work produced by him, so is God, related to nature and to all created things. The spirit of God rests in nature, lives and reigns in nature, is expressed in nature, is communicated bj' nature, is developed and culti- vated in nature — yet nature is not the body of God. * * * As nature is not the body of God, so too, God himself does not dwell in nature as in a house ; but the spirit of God dwells in nature, sustaining, preserving, fostering, and developing nature." On page 227 of "The Reminiscences," Froebel speaks of the material world as a symbol of the spiritual world, and says : "It *Hiulniann's Translation. FROEBEL'S INTERPRETATION OF NATURE 41 is in this sense that education needs to use it for the purpose of leading the child to the ultimate cause of all things, God. On page 172 of the "Mother-play," he speaks of leading the child to a "perception of the eternal life-fountain, of the only good, God," and says "the way lies through the thoughtful, spiritual and tender consideration of nature and of the life of mankind." On page 168 he puts into the mouth of the child these words : "Yes, sweet flowers! ye yourselves Aie khid and ever-watchful elves, That comfort me when I am weak And teach me higher things to seek ; Pointing me to the God above Who made botli you and me in love." In the play of the "Dove House," the little child, after tell- ing his mother what he has seen in his walk says : "Mother, I will go out again to-morrow ; then I will tell yon about it again, and then you can make me see and hear all that the dear God says about it." But Frcebel is not merely not pantheistic, he is distinctly Christian in his teachings as the following passages show : On page 30, of "The Reminiscences" he says, "We have to open the eyes of our children that they may learn to know the Creator in His creation. 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." On page 160, he says: "All education which is not founded on the Christian religion is one-sided, defective and fruitless." In "The Education of Man," page 152, he writes: "Only the Christian, only the human being with Christian spirit, life and aspiration, can possibly attain a true understanding and a living knowledge of nature ; only such an one can be a genuine naturalist." On page 151, Frcebel says: "Every human being, as a being proceeding from God, exist- ino- through God and living in God, should raise himself to the 42 FBOEBEL'S INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. Christitiu religion — the religion of Jesus. Therefore the school should first of all teach the religion of Christ; therefore it should first of all and above all give instruction in the Christian religion ; everywhere and in all zones the school shovdd instruct for and in this religion." In conclusion, I would say that the writings of Fnebel abound in passages similar to those here quoted. YII. The Religious Nurture of Early Childhood.' "True religiou," says a distinguished writer, "-is the con- tinuous action of a whole life, a striving after God in all and everything." God is love, and we begin to find Him when we begin to be like Him, when we begin to exercise pure and holy and true affections toward Him and toward our fellow-beings. Every human being is endowed with the capacity of becom- iug religious ; what development this capacity will attain de- pends very largely upon the religious assistance the child re- ceives during his first few years. All life, whether on the ma- terial, the intellectual, or the spiritual plane, is at first feeble and requires tender and fostering care, and it would be as un- scientific to expect the child to attain unaided, a strong physi- cal development or a full and free intellectual life, as to expect him to become truly religious without careful religious nurture and training. Nurture is defined as "that which promotes growth" — growth involving the idea of orderly development by successive steps. The law of all true growth is "from within outward," and a con- sideration of what constitutes religious nurture leads us to see the importance of early infancy as the germ stage of the re- ligious life, and suggests means to be used in the promotion of that life. It is true that the infancy of each individual is shrouded in forgetfulness, but it is not on that account less important, for life is a continuous whole, and each human being is at any *Originally published in "The New Education." 44 THE KELIGIOUS NURTURE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD. given moment the product of all bis past experiences. Infancy is the time when tendencies are given, which, as they strengthen, become habits, and later on, crystalize into character. What goes into a child's life so early that it is back of memory, back in the period of unconscious impressions, is a part of his being and cannot be separated from it. Long before the period when definite instruction can be given, the child is beginning to form tlie habits of mind which make instruction possible ; his soul is being made receptive or otherwise, through the tendencies of affection and thought given to it by what it takes in uncon- sciously from the moral and spiritual atmosphere which sur- rounds it. The truth that all life springs from a definite germ is more and more clearlj' demonstrated year by year in the researches of science, through the aid of the microscope, — a truth which the educator and the spiritual teacher cannot afford to overlook in their consideration of the development of the spiritual life. jNIuch time is often lost in dealing with chiklreu by the failure to recognize the relation between the fully developed trait of character as seen in the mature man, and the germ of that trait as disclosed in the tendency of the infant mind. A thoughtful observer has said: "The poetic spirit is the foundation of all scientific attainment;" with equal truth can it be said that the development of sweet and pure and true affec- tions toward other human beings is the foundation of the re- ligious life. Not that these affections constitute religion — but if the child is to love God, whom he has not seen, he must first learn to love his parents and companions, for it is fi-om this love, as from a seed, that the true religious life of love to God springs. Self-love and self-seeking are the blight and bane of the religious life — heaven would not be heaven if there were self-seekers in it. The highest religious attainment is made when self-seeking ceases, and the first step toward giving up the self-life is taken when the child comes into loving relations with other human beings. Such relations involve the exercise of sympathy, love, gratitude, reverence, hope, jo}' — emotions THE EELIGIOUS NORTITRE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD. 45 which, if they become the habit of feeling, constitute that re- ligious susceptibility without which do religious developmeut cau be attaiued. Parents, and those who have the care of young children, would enter most reverently into loving rela- tionships with them, if they fully realized the truth that in call- ing out sweet affections toward themselves they were taking the most direct meaus of developing the religious capacity of the children. The importance of early habits may be seen if we consider that every grown-up person has a feeling of tenderness for the scenes and the memories of his childhood. Everything con- nected with that period is invested with a kind of sacredness ; and thoughts sweet and tender centre around the early home- life, even though that life were far from the ideal. It is during this period of tender receptiveness and sweet docility that the most important spiritual seed-sowing is effected. Religious impressions made at this time are never lost, and feelings are then awakened which will never die, though they may slumber for yeai's. It has been said that "the characteristics of parents nearly always determine the character of the child's religion." It is inevitable that it should be so — where else does he get his standards? If their attitude toward God is one of unvary- ing love and trust, it is apparent to the child, and he feels it in everything they do and say. They make for him the spiritual atmosphere of his first years. Happy for him if it is an at- mosphere of love, of peace, and purity ! Happy for him if he sees in his parents' daily lives a practically unselfish interest in the lives of others ! Thus will he be led to habits of kindly thought and in-acticaj sympathy toward his fellows. To en- courage children in loving deeds for others is one of the chief means of promoting their spiritual growth. They should be taught that to serve others is one chief reason why they are put into relations with them. A religious idea that does not find expression in useful activities is only a delusion. So long as it remains only a thought or a sentiment, it is practically nothing. The industries of the little child, like all his activities, 46 THE RELIGIOUS NURTURE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD. must be adapted to his capacitjs but he should early form habits of doiug good and beautiful aud useful things. Such doing is not religion, but it is one of the stones in the founda- tion on which a religious character is built. It is delightful to see how children will always respond to a call for gratitude to God when the cause for it is set before them. But it is important that they should be led to see in the works of God, the proofs of His love aud wisdom. Some one has said : "The natural world is one vast mine of wisdom ; in seeing this wisdom there is philosophy, in loving it there is re- ligion." Children cannot unaided read even the first pages of the book of Nature ; there must be the wise, loving, reverent teacher to assist them. They feel themselves so weak and help- less that they are always ready to acknowledge a higher power, and when they see that their parents and elders have gratitude to the Giver of all good, their hearts join in the feeling. Many parents are perplexed to know how to guide wisely the prayers of very young children. It is safe to say that they should be chiefly expressions of thanksgiving. If rightly directed, the hearts of children will always go out sincerely, in words of gratitude. Like their elders, they are not always wise in ask- ing. The psalmist says: "All Thy works praise Thee, O God, and Thy saints shall bless Thee" — yes, even the little saints of the nursery, if they are only shown the works of God in a lov- ing way. That there is a relation between material things and the spirit- ual truth which they embody and symbolize is felt by all great minds, and some of the profoundest thinkers of the world have given expression to this idea. Milton says : "■lu contemplation of created things. By steps we may ascend to God." Of the Great Teacher it is said : "Without a parable spake He not unto them." Much remains to be said of direct religious instruction through the use of the Scriptures and through outward forms and observ- ances, but the limits of this paper forbid their consideration. BOOKS FOR TEACHERS. PUBLISHED BY IkULTON BRADLEY CO. IN THE CHILD'S WORLD. BY EMILIE POULSSON.— ILLUSTRATED BY L. J. BKIDOMAN. This is a charming book of Morning Talks and Stories for the Kin- dergarten and Piimary School, by the well-known author of "Finger Plays for Nursery and Kindergarten," with numerous illustrations by the same artist. There are nearly fifty talks, covering a course of at least two years, and the book is handsomely bound and printed, with over 400 pages. Price, in cloth and gilt, $2.00 COLOR IN THE KINDERGARTEN. BY MILTON BRADLEY. This little book is intended to be a Manual of the Theory of Color and the Practical Use of Color Material in the Kindergarten. It con- tains the latest information to be obtained on this subject and i.s illustiated in a way that cannot fail to be helpful to all who are in- terested in color teaching. Price, paper covers, #0.25 PAPER AND SCISSORS IN THE SCHOOLROOM. BY EMILY A. WEAVER. This book is planned to give a practical and systematic course in paper folding and cutting for all grades in the public and private schools. The work begins with the simple foldings adapted to the first year in school and enlarges its scope to give cutting suited to higher-grade work. With over 200 illustrations. Price, paper covers, $0.25 A CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL SERVICE. ARRANGED BY NORA A. SMITH. This book is for the Home, Kindergarten and Sunday School and is made up of such songs and carols as have been found popular with little children. The melodies are simple and easily learned, although by good composers. Most of the songs are intended to be accompa- nied by natural gestures, such as will readily suggest themselves to the little ones. The book is printed with red margiu.il lines nnd topics. Price, paper, $0.25 THE KINDERGARTEN AND THE SCHOOL. BY FOUR ACTIVE WORKERS. This book comprises five papers, as follows : Froebel — The Man and His Work, by Anne L. Page; The Theory of FrwhePs Kindergarten Svstem, by Angeline Brooks; The Gifts and Occupations of the Kindergarten, by Angeline Brooks ; The L^se of Kindergarten Material in the Primary School, by Mrs. A. H. Putnam ; The Connection of the Kindergarten with the School, by Mrs. Mary H. Peabody. 150 pages. Price, paper covers, $0.50 ; cloth, $0.75 BOOKS FOR TEACHERS. PUBLISHED BY MJLTON BRADLEY CO. KNIFE WORK IN THE SCHOOLROOM. PROBLEMS FOR I'Ul'ILS UNDER FOURTEEN. — BY GEORGE B. KILBON. This book aims to furnish the average teacher with a course in Elementary Manual Training that can be carried on in any ordinary sclioolrooni witli the least possible expense for tools and material. The problems can all be worked out with the pocket knife, com- pass, pencil, gauge and try-square, and they are ananged in logical sequence. The book has 200 pages and 450 illustrations. IMce, in cloth and gilt, $1.00 COLOR IN THE SCHOOLROOM. A MANUAL FOR TEACHERS.— BV MILTON BRADLEY. This book sets forth the peculiarities of the Bradley Scheme for Teaching Color to the pupils of our common schools and explains the use of tlie Maxwell Disks and Color Wheel. "Color in the School- room,'" also indicates what can be done along the vaiious lines of color instruction by the use of the Bradley Educational Colored Papers, which consists of standards, hues, shades, tints, grays, black and white, comprising over 100 colors. Price, in cloth and gilt, $1.00 CLAY MODELING IN THE SCHOOLROOM. BY ELLEN STEPHENS HILDRETH. This book is a manual of instruction in Clay Modeling for the Kindergal-teu and School, based on the curved solids. There has long been a demand among kindergartners and primary school teachers for just such a book. The system of modeling outlined by Mrs. IlildVeth has the undoubted sanction of use and experience. With it any one can learn to model and any child can learn to see form. The directions are so plain that they can be followed with little difficulty. The book has numerous illustrations and 75 pages. Price, paper covers, $0.25 HELPS FOR UNGRADED SCHOOLS. A MANUAL FOR THE USE OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL. This book pays special attention to Language Work, Form Study, Teaching of Color and Number Work, and takes up the various other braiu'bes which are liable to be pursued in the ungraded school. The directions for using the inateiial emi)loye(l in connection with these studies are very plain and easily understood. The book contains 19 chapters and'l30 pages. Price, in paper covers, $0.25 PARADISE OF CHILDHOOD. REVISED EDITION.— BY EDWARD WIEBE. This work is an exponent of pure Froebelian Kindergartning, and forms the best possible foundations for the building of a complete Kindergarten education. The revised edition contains all the matter formerly used in "A Hand Book tor the Kindergarten," without any increase in price, and a paper on Kindergarten Culture, added some years since, making altogether 100 pages of text and 76 pages of lithographic plates. Price, paper covers, fl 50; cloth, $2 00 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS iniii 019 823 344 4 i . 6? Hollinger Corp. pH8.3