0^ ,oN., -^ --\.^" S. -7", ^ * ^ a'?-' 'I kindergarten i^e00enger. NEW SERIES. Nos. 1, 2, JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1877. Vol. I. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Pi OSPECTUS 1 T.iE Americanizing of Froebel's Kindergarten ...... 3 IjiriiEssioNS mape by the Cen- tennial Kindergarten . . 6 W. II. Hailman's "New Educa- tion" 10 1\Irs. Kraus-Boeltk's Kindergar- ten Training 12 l\[iss Garland's Training School 14 page Other Normal Training Schools 15 Mothers' Classes and Training OF Nurses 18 Froebel Society of London: First Report 20 Second Report 24 Mrs. William Grey's Address . 28 "If I WERE A Sunbeam" ... 30 American Froebel Society . . 31 N. B. — Another number will not be issued until the subscription list reaches 1,000 names. Please send names at once, and payment on reception of next issue, f 1.00 a year for American subscribers, 5 shillings for Europeans (post- age included). 5 CAMBRIDGE: PUBLISHED BY ELIZABETH P. PEABODY, 19 Follen Street. 1877. BARNARD'S N -_ ._JAGOGY. LIBRARY OF PRACTICAL EDUCATION. BOOKS FOR PAREXTS, TKACIIERS, SCHOOL OFFICERS, AND STUDENTS. i: \ National Pedaoogy and Library of Practical Education: 1. Studies and Conduct : Leltcrs, Essays, ond Suggestions on the Relative Value of Studies, Boots and the best Metliods of Reading, Manners and the Art of Conversation, the Acquisi- tion and True Uses of Weallli, and the Conduct of Life generiily. OC-1 pages. §3.50. 1875. The best evidence of the intrinsic value of these Letters, Suggestions, and Essays, is in the names of tlieir autliors— Addison, Aiken, Bacon, Barrow, Bi' 2 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. tor's mind and motives to accept courteous comments courteously. All personalities, in the invidious sense, are to be avoided ; though persons must needs be mentioned sometimes, in order to keep the distinction clear between accredited teachers and those who mis- lead. A certain doctrine and method of child-culture has been defined by Frobel as Kindergarten, in order to distinguish it from other methods and doctrines of child-culture, with which, however, it must necessarily have something in common ; because the moth- er's and children's pure instincts, more or less respected, have always existed. But it is our purpose to speak of what is distinctive of Frobel's doctrines and methods as Kindergarten art and science. It is an open question whether infant and primary schools, using Frobel's gifts and materials of 'occupation in a loose mechanical way, are worth having, in the absence of trained kindergartners who use them in Frobel's way ; but it is not an open question whether such schools are Kindergartens. The ground taken by the Kindergarten Messenger is, that Frobel's own works, and those of his appointed interpreters, are the ultimate standards. These are the " Mutter-Spiel und Kose Lieder," " Erziehung der Mensch," and " Pedagogicks," the two last edited by Wichard Lange, of Hamburg. The "Personal Reminiscences of Frobel," just published, contain "the last word" of Frobel, in conversations of an intimate nature with the most renowned edu- cators of his time, held during the last three years of his life. It has been asked where I get my authority to decide upon what is sufficient training in Frobel's gifts and occupations. I have claimed no authority personally ; but sim^)ly given, over my own name, a report of the standard authority, and left it to take its chance with my readers. Some fifteen years ago, I published a book on which, as I know, other so-called Kindergartens were founded, — as honestly, doubtless, as I founded the one described in that volume. When I discovered, later, that this book was mis- leading on vital points, and learned in Europe, where I went for the purpose, what Frobel's Kindergarten really was, and was persuaded that it contained a salutary revolution of educational methods, my conscience laid upon me the duty of devoting the few remaining years of my life to undoing the mischief I had done (for more than 4,000 copies of my book had been sold). Since 1868, I have been advocating what I think and feel to be regenerating truth for my country, endeavoring to " speak the truth in love." I have declared that one or two persons who had announced themselves as critics and improvers upon Frobel could not train genuine kindergart- ners. I did not even say they were not his superiors ; but I said — and say — that then they are not teachers of Kindergarten KINDERGAETEN MESSENGER. 6 art, and that those who want to learn Frobel's art and science must not go to them to learn it. Honest and earnest genuine trainers are, doubtless, of various ability. There are some of whose ability and success I have made personal observation ; and I give a positive opinion on these, and it should go for what it is worth. To those who think I am incompe- tent, weakly partial, or unworthily prejudiced, my opinion will go for nothing, and ought to go for nothing. As a general rule, I shall say nothing of persons ; but discuss methods, and describe practices, and give foreign and domestic intelligence of the progress of the Kindergarten. Elizabeth P. Peabody. THE AMERICANIZING OF FROBEL'S KINDERGARTEN. An article on this subject appeared in No. 2 of the "Ncav Eng- land Journal of Education " for this year, over the honored name of W. T. Hai-ris, Superintendent of Public Schools in St. Louis. We desire, very emphatically, to express our sympathy with Mr. Harris in this kind of Americanizing, which consists simply in a practical plan of connecting the Kindergarten with the public- school education of America, by making it, in its unadulterated form, the preparatory introduction thereto. Such Americanizing has nothing in common with that kind exhibited on the Centennial grounds under the name of " American Kindergarten ; " and which has been persistently advertised, for the last dozen years and more, as "the oldest and best Kindergarten in America," in connection with proposals to "train thoroughly in all Frobel's occupations," though the teacher simultaneously advertises a different set of gifts, " more scientific than Frobel's," and different materials of occupa- tion, — all of her "own invention," professing to have improved on Frobel's ideas, and " adapted them to the American mind " ! We have said, and still declare, that all this " invention," what- ever may be its intrinsic merits, has no title to the name of Kinder- garten, which is appropriate only to Frobel's system, carried out in Frobel's way, with the materials he invented. Mr. Harris, in a letter we received from him, dated January 4th, says, in reference to his article in the "N. E. Journal:" "The word Americanize is perhaps unfortunate. I used it for a purpose ; namely, to show what it really means. I do not believe that Fro- bel's system will need essential modifications to adapt it to our school system." At all events, the valuable little pamphlet just published by Steiger, consisting of "excerpts from official reports of t]^e pub- 4 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. lie Kindergartens of St, Louis," and entitled " The Kindergarten EXGRAFTED ON THE AMERICAN PuBLIC SCHOOL SySTEM," shoWS that Miss Blow and the teachers she has trained are thoroughly faithful to the ideas, methods, and means so carefully worked out and tested by Frobel in his fifty years of experience ; and, during the last twenty-five years, by the pupils that he set at work, and by the Baroness Marenholtz-Bulow, who has recorded his " last word " (as he called it) in her interesting " Personal Reminiscences of Frobel," which we hope soon to have in a volume accessible to every reader of the English tongue. By this book it will be seen that we shall have quite as much as we can do, for the next century, to sound the depths of Frobel's ideas, and carry out his system in application. The only modification they have made at St. Louis is " not essen- tial," and was inevitable in the circumstances, — that of making the time of entrance five instead of three or four years of age. But it was a great thing for the Board to prefix two years to the age of the children to be educated by the public funds. Gradually it will be seen, that, even at five, children have something to unlearn, which might be prevented by taking them into the Kindergarten eaiiier, unless, which is more than likely, the education of mothers and women generally shall be advanced by the difi'usion of Frobel's sys- tem, and enable them to make the nursery education more perfect than it is apt to be now, for children between the ages of three and five. In St. Louis, the age for children's enteiing primary school is seven. In Boston, which we hope will soon take a hint from St. Louis, and extend the Kindergarten into all the wards, the time of entering the primary school is fixed at six years of age ; so that, if two years were prefixed for the Kindergarten here, the children would enter at four. Some persons say, that, as half the children die before they are five years old, public funds devoted to their education would be wasted. But, perhaps, if children went to the Kindei-garten three hours every day from the time they were three years old, they would not die ! Primary schools, into which children are generally forced so young, are so deleterious to their health that it has become a general habit of the medical doctors to forbid the school to any child who seems to be ailing. And for good reason ! A long article might be written upon the injury to the muscular sys- tem, growth, and nerves of children that are subjected to unnatural restraint upon their bodily motions and their mental emotions in our crowded public primaries, where fifty-six little wild creatures are put under the rule of one teachei-, to be kept in martinet order, and to.be taught the arbitrary signs of words that they do not KINDEKGARTEN MESSENGER. D know how to use in their own talking, and with nothing legitimate to do with their hands. But the Kindergarten is found to be most salutary to health as well as to tempers; and, as such, is recommended by all physicians who have taken the pains to understand it ; and is most desirable for the most delicate children, three hours every day. The tenth of Steiger's Kindergarten tracts is entitled, " The Medical Profession recommend the Kindergarten." It begins with an extract from a paper on " Brain Culture in relation to the School Room," by A. N. Bell, M.D., which is followed by twelve resolutions jjassed by the Rhode Island State Medical Society, at one of its conventions. This tract can be had of Steiger, 24 Frankfort Street, New York, at the nominal price of 10 cents a hundred ; and fifty copies of the educational paper on " Engrafting Kindergarten upon the American Public School System," spoken of just now, may be had for fl.OO. We think that if any one in any of our American cities who ap- preciates the Kindergarten would spend $1.10 to get these tracts, and give one of each to every member of their city government, it would bring kindergartners into demand all over the country, — at least, as soon as the trained kindergartners could be supplied; for trained kindergartners are an indispensable condition. Miss Blow, who was the fountain of the Kindergarten education of St. Louis, was herself trained by a year's study with Mrs. Kraus- Boelte in 1872-73; and in her three years' work in St. Louis, be- sides teaching the Kindergarten herself, she had a class of teachers always in training; and many of the conductors of the twenty-six Kindergartens now established studied and practised under her instruction for two or three years, and most of tLc hundred volun- teer assistants were her pupils for one year. And now, so Mr. Harris writes in his letter of January 24th, " We have an excellent course of training here, both practical and theoretical. The two supervisors, who receive $800 apiece per annum, visit and inspect the Kindergartens, and give one lesson each per week to all the unpaid assistants : Miss Dozier, in the ' Occupations ; ' and Mrs. Hil- dreth, on the ' Gifts.' We are to examine their written theses, and grant diplomas after a year's service and successful study." I must extract one other sentence from this letter of Mr. Harris's. He says, in reference to the letter in the " New England Journal of Education" for Janufiry 18th, signed "Kindergartner," and dated St. Louis : " I am very sorry to see it, and I do not believe it was written by any one living here ; for it bears marks of being written by one who does not know how our Kindergartens are managed. We have 24 paid directors, 2 paid inspectors, 5 paid assistants, and 127 unpaid assistants, now at work in 26 Kindergartens in all." 6 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. IMPRESSIONS MADE BY THE CENTENNIAL KIN- DERGARTEN. The following article we are glad to rescue from the small type and transient life of the "Philadelphia Ledger:" — Among the interesting things to be seen at the great Exposition, not the least attractive to me has been the Centennial Kindergarten. Many pleasant hours I have spent there watching the little orphans, for whom kindly care has provided this beneficent training. One morning late in the summer, I remember with special delight, I walked from the Art Gallery through the Lansdowne ravine and across the great lawn, brilliant with glowing flower-beds, toward the Women's Pavilion, at the right of which is its small " annex." The sun was bright and hot on the lawn ; but the Kindergarten annex stands on a grassy terrace beneath the old trees of the Park, and there all was cool and shadowy. As I drew near the building, I heard the sweet, fresh voices of the children. They had just marched in from their dressing-room, led by their teacher, and stood in circle, singing their morning hymn. The pretty Kinder- garten room was gay with blooming plants and the music of birds. The little boys in blue dresses and snowy collars, the little girls in rose color, with white aprons, looked bright and lovely as the flow- ers on the lawn without ; and the shadows of the trees, playing on the floor through the large open windows, gave coolness and fresh- ness to the scene. When the hymn was ended, little hands were folded and little heads bowed, as all said in unison with their teacher their sh^t morning prayer. Then, singing a spirited air, they began their march, moving with evolutions that imitated, as their song described, the windings of a river. Keeping time and step, they movegayly along, till at last each of the little band stands facing its own miniature desk and tiny chair, and at the teacher's signal takes its place to begin the work of the day. The teacher asks, " Who will help me ? " Many small hands are raised ; the little aids are selected, they stand before the teacher and receive the im- plements and the materials for work. On this day it was weaving. To a little curly-headed boy of three or four years old were intrusted first the needles. With the utmost care he lays each on a certain square in the centre of each desk, for the desks are marked off" into squares of an inch size over the whole surface. Then a little rose- colored sister receives and deposits with equal exactness the port- folios, containing strips of colored paper for weaving. The teacher gives the signal, and the pretty industry begins. As the small fig- ures move, voices are heard in earnest talk with each other, and in KIKDEEGAETEN MESSENGER. 7 delighted appeal to "Aunty," as they have learned to call theiv teacher, or some fragment of song breaks out and is taken up by one after another of the little workers, until the sweet music keeps pace with the busy hands, or dies away and rises again in alternation, as work or song most engrosses their attention or delights their hearts. Meantime, not only the alcove for visitors is crowded, but every door and window is filled with beaming faces ; yet the children are unconscious of every thing except their pretty work, their merry play, their happiness in each other, and their joy in Aunty's approv- ing smile. The small mats are finished. The children have learned the name of every color they have used, have counted whether, in their weaving, they skipped one or two or three strands, and have carefully skipped the same each time, in order to form a regular figure. Thus into these little minds, by means of delightful organ- ized phiy, is infused the primary knowledge of color, of numbers, and of regular outlines, during their half-hour of weaving ; while an equal manual dexterity is developed in both hands by the ingen- iously devised process. On other days, the knowledge of solid forms and their angles is given by block-building ; and, by metallic rings, that of circles and segments of circles, with all their beautiful and wonderful combinations. The needles and the completed work being again carefully gath- ered by the little aids, the welcome luncheon basket is brought from its hidden recess. Again the small people are asked to assist, and a little girl spreads a tiny napjcin accurately on the centre of each desk. The basket is carried, and each child takes from it the bun or the sandwich that is its special share. Led by the teacher, all say together their little grace, and then, with gay, gentle talk, amuse each other Avhile they enjoy their plain repast. Now the napkins are neatly gathered, folded, and returned; and, at a signal, the chil- dren rise, place their chairs under their desks, and stand ready to march, while their teacher leads with the chant, " Follow, follow, follow me," and all the little voices respond, " We will follow, follow thee," until the large circle is again in the vacant part of the room. Then bursts out the merry strain, " Shall we show you what the farmers do ? " and every form of agricultural labor is succes- sively described and illustrated in song and action, to the perfect delight of the little actors. Other games succeed, till all have had cheerful, active exercise by means of organized, happy play ; and then, singing and marching, all are led into their dressing-room to have faces washed and hair smoothed after their luncheon and their games. At the end of a few minutes, the pretty baby proces- sion re-enters, singing, the chairs and desks are again occupied, and the teacher brings out a large stuffed bird, which draws forth the 8 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. warmest expressions of admiration. She asks what are the colors on its body, shows its shaj^e, its size, its wings, tells them where it lives, and that it is called a Blue Jay. Having heard all the facts concerning it repeated and discussed by the little auditory, she gives it to the nearest child, with injunctions to be very gentle and careful in handling it. Nothing in the morning's exercises was more beautiful or touching than the tender grace with which the jay was held, was stroked, was kissed over and over again, both by- boys and girls, its eyes, its bill, its feet, its wings, pointed out to each other, and passed from hand to hand as a treasure that could not be too carefully dealt with, until it was restored to the teacher, with expressions of intense satisfaction, from the last little pair of hands that had caressed it. The jay had been lent for the morning by the kindly Kansas neighbors ; and certainly no exhibitor could have desired for his wares more admiring examiners than the bird had found in its migration from the Kansas to the Kindergarten premises, while, by means of the friendly loan, the children had received their double lesson in natural history, and in the love and care of animals. The jay disappeared, and a large supply of fresh clay was brought in. Oil-cloth mats are carefully spread over each desk, and to each child a similar portion is dealt out. Now the little creatures are to revel in the enjoyment of making mxod pies; but, with pleasant hint and direction, each swiftly shapes his small mass of clay into a ball, and from it each evolves the form that pleases him best. Heads are laid together in sympathy over each other's work, and everywhere little voices are calling to the teacher, " Oh, I have made some- thing pretty," or " See what I have made for youP No form of work or play seemed to elicit such enthusiasm, or so to kindle thought and promote joyous talk, as this. When the balls had all been moulded into shapes, some children were found to 'have made apples, some had formed pears, one a tomato, and one a bird's nest with five eggs in it. All were creditable, and some were accurate and beautiful, and yet these little artists were all between three and seven years old. When the moulded forms had been carefully re- moved, the circle of children was again formed for their closing march and song. A lady had brought some flowei'S, and one was given to each child, while all sang together a hymn, of which the refrain was, " Thus God is ever good to me," and then all the little group lovingly kissed their hands to the donor of the flowers. Then came the song of " Good-by," and, turning with a courteous bow, and kissing their hands to the visitors, the tiny brotherhood and sister- hood marched, singing, out to their dressing-room, and the happy morning was over. KINDEEGABTEN MESSENGER. 9 Among the eager spectators at the doors and windows were many drivers of carts and shirt-sleeved laborers, attracted by the sweet singing and spell-bound by the lovely spectacle within. They saw these little orphan babies gaining habitual order, attention, cheei- ful industry, accurate knowledge, gentleness, courtesy, and manual skill, all through the means of happy play, and all before they are old enough to learn to read ; so that when the time for A, B, C, comes, they have already made acquisitions that will render the work of their school-days shorter and easier, will enable them to be more helpful to their parents in childhood and youth, and more prosperous and independent in mature years. I wondered if these laboring men thought of their own little childi'en playing in the street, in dirt and danger, learning all evil ways and all wicked words, while the overtasked mother scrubs the floor or hurries to store or market for the daily supplies ; or else, locked by her into the room while she goes to receive and to return the sewing-work on which their bread depends, to find, perha^js, when she reaches home, the dreadful results of their having played with matches or overtui-ned the stove. The baby in arms can be more securely left, or taken Avith her ; but the safety of these little ones from three to six years old is a terrible problem for the mother to solve. Did not these workingmen, looking at the Kindergarten, think what a priceless boon it would be, if, when their older chil- dren went in the morning to the public school, they led by the hand the little brothers and sisters to spend two or three hours in a pretty, airy room (fitly called a children's garden), occupied in learning all good things under tender care and guidance, and by means of cheer- ful play and song ? When the children return at noon, they bring the little ones home for the day ; but the mother has gained those precious moi'ning hours for her household work and her needful errands. Moreover, the babies bring back with them kindly, orderly, reverent ways and pretty games and songs, with which they amuse each other and brighten every thing at home. The blessing of Kindergarten training is one of the great discov- eries of our day. The rich are seeking it for their children every- where, and charitable institutions are providing it for their little orphan inmates; but in the industrious homes of our working peo- ple it is deeply needed, and would be most warmly welcomed. The guardians of our prisons and reformatory schools ask earnestly for public Kindergarten instruction as a means of averting the ten- dency to crime, by planting early the seed of good habits, and thus anticipating the deadly crop of evil sown broadcast among the chil- dren of our streets and alleys between three and seven years old. This call cannot be neglected without danger to the community, to 10 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. whose interests Kindergarten training, by heginning the work of eduGation at the foundation, will surely prove the greatest safe- guard. It is the first grade in instruction, and, like the subsequent grades, should be tlie gift of the city to its citizens ; for no system of public education can now be considered complete without it. In the West and in New England, this fact is recognized. Boston has already one public Kindergarten, and in St. Louis there are twenty- six. Attention, order, industry, reverence, unselfish consideration of others, and cheerful gayety of temper become habitual to children at the Kindergarten, as well as quickness of observation, ready use of their faculties, and thorough manual skill. To the children thus trained from their infivncy the subsequent school course is comparatively easy and short, thus repaying to the city the expenses of their earlier education. Their Kindergarten teaching carries its cheering influence into their homes, makes them better pupils in the public schools, better citizens in their future life, and supplies to the community the material for the highest class of handicraftsmen, who will rapidly advance our progress in all the industrial arts. Will not our enlightened Board of Public Educa- tion, if only as an experiment, bestow on us two Kindergarten rooms, and thus make a Centennial gift to the people of Philadel- phia worthy of the epoch which commemorates the birthday of our nation '? W. Philadelphia, Sept. 11, 1876. MR. W. H. HAILMAN. We have received from Mr. W. H. Hailman No. 2 of his " New Education," a new paper published at Milwaiakee, for fifty cents a year. We rejoice to know that Mr. Hailman, after numerous sacrifices for the object, is established at length in so important a place as Milwaukee ; where Mrs. Hailman has a Kindergarten, and he a training school for kindergartners and a lectureship to mothers. At this moment, when the success of Kindergarten at St. Louis is awakening all the other enterprising cities of the West to the ad- vantage of engrafting it on their public-school system, there is great danger of a deteriorated quality of Kindergarten getting afoot. That Mr. Hailman will be an efficient power in the West to keep the Kin- dergarten pure and up to Frobel's high tone, is indicated by the leading paragraph of the "New Education," No. 2: — KINDERGARTEN MESSENGEE. 11 " Do you remember how so-cnlled object-teaching w.is killed by the powerful machinery of the school? Object-teaching had gone out to fight machine-teaching, to infuse growing life into the work of the school-room, to arouse the child to self-activity, to teach it self-reliance, and to emancij^ate it from the mind-killing and heart- perverting thraldom which thoughtless ' schoolma'ms ' wielded over it by the aid of text-books and call-bells ; object-teaching had gone out to instruct and train children in the free and conscious use of their senses, in the power of interpreting clearly and precisely the impressions made upon the latter, in the art of translating them into precise and full formulas of language for the benefit of others ; it had gone out to train the receptive, the formative, and the exi^res- sive powers of the mind in full harmony with one another, — to render them vigorous, sound, mobile, eager to groic^ as it were. "And what was its fate? It was caught up by the wheels of the mighty machine, and crushed to fragments. A few of these were gathered up by some well-meaning but ill-advised persons, and fash- ioned into a nice little wheel, that fits the machinery and i-enders it more effective, without encumbering it. This new wheel they labelled ohject-lessons. And they succeeded in making the unwary believe that its clatter means life ; yet all the while it drowns life. " A similar danger threatens the Kindergarten, and the danger increases with the increasing popularity of the name ; nay, the facts that the Kindergarten makes use of mechanical occupations in the training of the child, and that it follows the laws of object-teaching in fostering and guiding intellectual growth, render it, perhaps, even more liable to abuse than its predecessor. " The mechanical occupations used in the Kindergarten, in addition to being easily learned by any one moderately intelligent and skilful, form also its most prominent feature for the superficial observer. The mother is proud of her darling's progress, when he brings to her some pretty things he has made. If she is thoughtless, she looks upon these as the results of the Kindergarten training, and is satisfied with these. " No wonder these mothers smile at the enthusiasm of genuine kindergartners over their work ; no wonder their older daughters consider themselves qualified to 'open a Kindergarten,' after one or two visits to one of these, and a hasty perusal of some manual; no wonder they imagine that it might be introduced in the primary schools of the city, at a moment's notice, by the vote of the board ; no wonder they conclude, finally, that it does not amount to much after all. " The true, the valuable results of kindergartening — the results that justify us in calling it a new dispensation and in speaking of its 12 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. votaries as apostles and missionaries — lie deeper. The little dar- ling cannot bring them home to his mother, wrapped up in a sheet of paper ; nor are they, indeed, visible to thoughtless parents. The truly valuable results are to be sought in the drift and tendency of his head and heart; they become manifest in his mode of thinking and feeling; they are known by their permanence and their growth. Unlike the superficial results mentioned before, they seem to be part and parcel of the child, — to grow stronger and more beautiful with the child. Genuine Kindergarten training never leaves the child : it follows the child into manhood and womanhood ; and is, next to a genuine mother, the most j^owerful factor of true woi'th ; from earliest childhood, it teaches the arts of j^leasing and enjoying, — of usefulness and happiness. To do this work efficiently, needs culture, experience, knowledge of child-nature, refinement, tact, love, energy, — exhaustless love and energy. If your kindergartener has these things, it is well ; if she has them not, — well, then you have no kindergartener, though she have gone through all the training-schools in the land. " To practical kindergarteners, especially to those who train others in the glorious work, we would say. Beware of the '■schools.'' We might, without injury to the warning, let the word go as it stands. We refer, however, more especially to the systematic arrangements of the various forms that can be obtained from certain ' gifts : ' the ' schools ' of folding, weaving, drawing, &c. Do not, by any means, neglect them ; but, at the same time, do not forget that they are tneans^ and do not transform them into ends, of your work. " The physical, mental, and moral growth of the child is the end ; its physical, mental, and moral vigor and soundness is the criterion of your work. Good work is thin'kable without a knowledge of 'schools;' bad work, with a perfect knowledge of them. The kindergartener who makes her 'schools' the end of her work has ceased to be a kindergartener, and has become a scAooZ-teacher in every sense of the word. She has been seized by the machinery, and has become a part of it. She is aiding the downfall of kinder- gartening, — preparing for it the fate of object-teaching." KINDERGARTEN TRAINING. This is the title of a valuable pamphlet, which can be obtained for tweuty-five cents from Mrs. Kraus-Boelte, 1266-1268 Broadway, New York. It contains the paper she read, July 10, 1876, at Baltimore, before the National Educational Association, '•'•On the Characteristics of FrobeVs Method, and the Prerequisites of a Kindergarten?' KINDEEGAETEN MESSENGEE. 13 Mrs. Kraus is a first authority upon this subject, — unsurpassed, certainly, by any one in her knowledge of Frobel's principles (ac- cording to the testimony of his widow, with whom she studied three years) ; she has had twenty years of great success in practice. For several years she gave her assistance, spontaneously and without price, to Madame Ronge, in London ; and all the success that the Kindergarten in Tavistock Square ever had was due to her, though no ability could prevent the disasters brought on the cause by Ronge, whose vagaries of religious doctrine and general wrong- headedness disgusted the English, and by association of ideas inter- fered with the legitimate impression made by the gifted Madame Ronge and her no less gifted friend. But, without referring to her subsequent eminent success in Eng- land and Germany, the Kindergarten at 1266 Broadway, New York, is sufficient recommendation of whatever Mrs. Kraus writes, espe- cially upon the training of teachers. We have just had pointed out to us an article, signed " Vidi," in the " Northern Christian Advo- cate " for January, " Concerning Babies," in which occurs this paragraph : — " Mrs. Kraus has now settled in America. There, as elsewhere, her mission is to plant and nourish the Kindergarten in its purity, in the profound simplicity and consummate art of nature. Of this sim- plicity she exhibits a sort of sacred jealousy ; intensely resenting showy and ad captandimi ingredients, introduced by enterprising professors who cainiot quite enter this kingdom of a little child. " The perfectly j^lain and unpretending establishment of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, near the junction of Broadway and Sixth Avenue, im- pressed me as a commentary at once on their intolerance of show and on their exalted repute, emphasizing the genuineness of both. . . . Nothing, too, could exceed in unaflected simplicity the exercises and .the manner of them; It is a sort of gospel in being ' foolishness ' to your philosophic Greeks." We entirely agree to this, and also to all that is said of the same Kindergarten in an article in the " Galaxy " of last October ; also, to all Mr. Eggleston says of Mrs. Kriege in her relation to the Kin- dergarten of America, which both Mr. Whittaker and Mr. Eggleston show to be as entirely worthy of the master as any in Europe can be. This, of course, is possible ; since childhood is the same under every nationality, and the true education of childhood must be one, in the main characteristics. "Vidi" adds: "It is true that the power to work such effects as I have partly indicated is born, not taught. But it is also certain, that those in whom it is born can propagate it by their example and instruction ; can summon and 14 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. develop kinflred spirits from among men, and can establish a stand- ard to rally our discontent and our demand. This Mr. and Mrs. Kraxis are doing, through their model Kindergarten and normal school." And that they have already done it, is proved in St. Louis by Miss Blow, who was Mrs. Kraus's first pupil in this country : and in Boston, by Miss Garland, who was the pupil of Mrs. Kriege, and not inferior in dignity of character and ability to train teachers ; indeed, has proved to have some advantages over Mrs. Kriege, by reason of previous experience in educating American girls, in intellectual and moral philosophy. Mr. Eggleston's and Mr. Whittaker's articles were both practically unjust, in seeming to imply that Mrs. Kriege and Mrs. Kraus were the 07ily fountains of knowledge on the subject in America; ignor- ing even their pupils and Mrs. Marwedel and Mr. Hailman. But they spoke only of what they knew, and gave their names as guar- antee of their good faith ; leaving to others to give their names, with their reasons for recommending others ; so that a public, bewildered by many flilse pretensions, might have some certain grounds for determining who is a reliable and competent kindergartner and trainer of kindergartners. MISS GARLAND'S TRAINING SCHOOL. It is of this school that I personally have the most intimate knowl- edge ; having been, for six years, lecturer in it upon Religious and Moral Nurture. This, necessarily, has given me an oi^portunity to know its profound spirit ; and I can testify from personal observa- tion this to be, in almost every instance during the last five years, a religious humility, which increased from the beginning to the end of their course, convincing me that they really had gained an^ insight into the sacredness of child consciousness, which interpreted Jesus's saying, " He that receiveth a little child in my name, receiv- eth mer Mrs. Kraus-Boelte's pupils have always seemed to me beautifully modest. Such brilliancy and thoroughness, inspired by such enthusi- asm as hers, could not but take all self-conceit and vanity out of any who were in a six months' daily intercourse with it : but the word humility has a shade of meaning finer than modesty; and it is this Mdiich the sincere student cannot but get in intercourse with Miss Garland, who is earnest and devout, rather than ardent and enthu- siastic, in her temperament. A life-long student and teacher of in- tellectual and moral philosophy. Miss Garland was drawn into her present work, not by the superficial, but by the profounder, bearings KINDEEGAETEN ME8SENGEE. 15 she discovered in it upon the "Education of Humanity." To spend six months with her in studying Frobel's art, even if one were never to practise it (but how can any woman live in the world without having opportunity to practise it in her daily life in some de- gree ?), is felt by all those who do it to be worth while; and some young ladies and some mothers have gone through the course for that jiurpose. Even the minds of grown-up people can be greatly cleared up and improved by practically going through the several series (or schools, as they are called) of form and formation, and putting into words the mental analyses and syntheses represented by them. Tlie children under guidance virtually go through these empirically and unconsciously in their playing ; for the action gives body to their thinking, and gradually forms their understanding through the appreciation of language they get by the conversation. Every year I get new proof that Frijbel has certainly found the method of nature, by seeing how much superior the members of the class are when they graduate to what they were when they entered, — not in mere knowledge and skill, but in insight and char- acter. Whether I recommend pupils to one or the other of these two supei'ior schools, depends on the accidental circumstances of the person inquiring. Each has its superiorities over the other ; neither has any absolute inferiorities. Either in this or in another number, I will reprint a paper of Miss Garland's on Frobel's " Law of Connection of Opposites ; Nature's Law of all Activity," which she read at her graduation, in 1872. It was printed in the June number of the Messenger of 1873, long out of print, and I have been asked to reprint it. I wish Miss Gar- land would enrich the pages of the Messenger with more of her careful thought. In speaking of this school, we must not forget Miss Weston, her pupil, who, in her long experience as primary teacher in the Boston schools, all but discovered Frobel's method, and always exemplified his genial spirit towards children. She is equal partner of Miss Garland in the training school, Kindergarten, and connecting class. OTHER NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOLS. We have already spoken of Miss Blow's training classes at St. Louis, whose loorJcs praise them ; and, now that she has gone to Europe, two of her several-years-trained pupils have undertaken the training school in St. Louis, and their purity and efficiency seems to be guaranteed by the severe tests of examination decreed by the School Board of St. Louis, whose stringent resolutions on 16 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. the subject are to be found in the three-cent pamphlet just published by Steiger, '•'■The Engrafting of the Kindergarten on the American Public-School System^'' which contains Reports by Miss Blow, by Superintendent Harris, and by several of the sub-committees. We recommend to the serious attention of the school authorities in other places this satisfactory pamphlet. Two of Miss Garland's scholars have also opened training schools, — Mrs. Ogden and Mrs. Gardner, both of them mothers. Mrs. Ogden has had long experience in object-teaching on the Oswego system ; and the energetic sacrifices she made to acquire the training in Frobel sufficiently attested the personal conviction she had of " a more excellent way " being possible for the intellectual nurture of little children. Her school, which is now part and par- cel of the Central Normal School of Ohio, at Worthingfton, Franklin County, has a summer term, beginning in the first week of April, every year ; and the village of Worthington affords the cheapest good living that is to be had anywhere, — between three and four dollars a week. This, and the summer season of the term, are recommendations peculiar to this school ; the fee for the course being, also, $100. The pupils of Mrs. Ogden attest the excellence of her school : Mrs. Holbrook, of Minneapolis, Mrs. A. H. Putnam, and Miss Eddy, of Chicago, Miss Burritt, of the Centennial Kindergarten, and the Misses Mcintosh, of Montreal, being among them. Mrs. Ogden is also crowned with the grace of humility, indicative of intellectual as of moral superiority ; and yet she is firm in the conscientiousness with which she withholds or bestows her diplomas, according to desert. Time and graduates have not yet characterized the training school of Mrs. Gardner ; but she opened it with the sympathy, and at the advice, of Miss Garland, for the overflow of applicants to her class, as she cannot undertake more than twenty-five pupils. As I give my lectures to this class also, and know Mrs. Gardner as a kindergartner, I have some opportunity of judging of this school, and have the best hopes and expectations concerning it. I also entertain the same with respect to the training class that Miss Burritt has been urged to open in Philadelphia, in connection with the Kindergarten in the School of the Friends of Race Street Meeting ; both Kindergarten and training school being the legiti- mate fruit of her success in conducting the Centennial Kinder- garten, and the very interesting explanations she was called upon to make of the method, to the thousands who thronged to see the children work and play, and remained for hours afterwards to ask questions, and be instructed by the manifestly successful kinder- gartner. Miss Burritt, previous to her study of Frobel's system KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 17 with Mrs. Ogden, was a long experienced teacher of primary school in the North-west, and a frequent teacher at those pro- tracted meetings of teachers called "institutes." Such previous experience has its disadvantages as well as advantages ; for it is immensely difficult to get the mind out of the ruts of school routine, which is apt to give a pragmatical character to the mind, and a peremptory manner, which is the extreme opposite of that " be- coming a little child," entirely indispensable to the kindergartner, whose most important teacher is the child, dealt with as the Holy Mother is described as dealing with her son, — " pondering all his sayings in her heart," even his rebuking replies to her maternal rebukes. But Miss Burritt has had a rare discipline to her mind, in the peculiar character and circumstances of that little class of orphans whom she called out of darkness into light, — the light of joyful, active life. The new training school opened in Chicago by Mrs. Putnam, Miss Eddy, and Miss Jarvis, is also another promising experiment. All the ladies are practical kindergartners, two of them trained by Mrs. Ogden. One. of these, Mrs. Putnam, is a mother, who is said to be very happy in her lectures to mothers. The peculiarity of this school is, that the main text-book is " Frobel's Pedagogicks," which is translated and read in lectures by Miss Jarvis. It would, of course, be much better if each pupil could have the text-book in English to study ; but Miss Jarvis has been disappointed, hitherto, of getting a publisher of her translation. This school has the ad- vantage of a counsellor and occasional lecturer, in Mr. Hailman, of whose training school, &c., we have spoken above. We congratixlate our friends in California on having within their borders the training school of Miss Marwedel. She had already shown her power to train, to several capable of appreciating it, in her classes at Washington, as we made personal observation ; and it was this that caused her call to Los Angeles, where, with one of Miss Garland's young pupils as assistant, she has a lovely Kinder- garten, in a Paradise of nature, among orange groves and vine- yards, and with a horizon of mountains jewelled with color dur- ing, the whole year. We were surprised to hear that her training class was not overflowing, we had heard so much of the desire for competent kindergartners in California. Does "distance lend enchantment to the view " ? We learn, by letters from Indianapolis, that a great pressure is brought upon Miss AHce Chapin, who has had a Kindergarten there the last two years, to open a training school. This lady, highly gifted by nature for the work of education, has a corresponding reputation in the West, where she has taught for many years. Three 2 18 KINDERGAHTEN MESSE:N^GER. years ago, being convinced that Frobel had initiated a vital reform, she came to Boston, studied and graduated at Miss Garland's Train- ing School. We had some opportunity of personal acquaintance then ; and, on one occasion, heard her explain the system to a company of inquirers, with great felicity, illustrating by " the Gifls," and haye corre- sponded with her since : and it is our judgment that she should do as she is urged, and has herself a desire to do, and open the desired training school ; especially as the State Superintendent of Educa- tion believes that it will hasten the adoption of the Kindergarten as the preUminary step to public primary education in Indiana. MOTHERS' CLASSES AND TRAINING OF NURSES. We shall have to defer to another article, perhaps to another number of the Messenger, much that we have to say and propose with respect to training for mothers and nurses. Mrs. Kraus has always had a mothers' class, and attributes much of her success to the co-operation it has insured of the mother and kindergartner. Mrs. Aldrich has one in Florence ; and we shall take the first opportunity to publish her opening address to it, which we have persuaded her to let us have just as it was first written and spoken. The meetings are weekly, and of ever-increasing interest ; and the mothers get the most instructive illustration of her suggestions by their attendance, two at a time, to assist her in her baby class of tlie Florence Kindergai-ten, which is the most sympathetic and perfect management of little children we have ever had the happiness to see. In Washington, D. C, Mrs. Louisa Pollock has a school for train- ing nurses expressly, which began in a course of lectures to mothers; one of whicli we had the pleasure of attending last spring in Wash- ington, and at her request addressed the crowded audience, to urge upon the mothers to continue to patronize the lectures ; in which we also recommended very earnestly that she should keep up the lec- tures, and open a regular training school for nurses ; for her motherly experience and genius had evidently opened her eyes to Frobel's wisdom, as it is displayed in his " Mother-play and Cossetting Songs," which is translated and ready for publication in English, and we hope will be published by Steiger before long. The four preceding articles read like a series of advertisements. They are written without the knowledge of the persons spoken of, and in answer to most importunate inquiries that come to us, in nearly every post, for the names of the reliable kindergartners and KINDERGAETEN MESSENGER. 19 training schools ; the standard of judgment, Frobel's own works, being at present locked up in German. It is this unanswered cry which calls imperatively for a society, such as they have in London, for the promotion of Frobel's system, with a board of examiners to register the names of the experts and adepts, and having a fund available for giving scholarships to the gifted and qualified who have no money. Many of the most valuable of our kindergartners have begun their work under the burden of debt, when they need all their spirits for their daily preparation. The daily duties, how- ever delightful, require an unbroken strain of attention, to connect into a whole, and combine into unity the upspringing fancies of the children, and immediate rest and recreation is necessary for the kindergartner after the three hours' session ; or health and elas- ticity of mind will be lost. Above all things she should have to do no other work for her living. Preliminary to announcing the plan for such a society, of which we have the nucleus, we will give the reports of the London society, whose objects are the same, and which, in two years, has done more for the cause in Great Britain and Ireland than had been done for the previous twenty-five years. This comes of the quality of the names of the oflicers and first members of the society. Miss Mary Beedy says, in a recent article in the "Boston Daily Advertiser:" "The Princess Louise is the nominal head of the Woman's Educa- tion Union ; but Mrs. Grey has, from the first, stood as the repre- sentative and working head of this organization, whose centre is London, but whose affiliated committees are found in all the larger towns of the kingdom. It is not too much to say of Mrs. Grey, that no man or woman connected with the educational work in England is more widely known, or has a larger share of public confidence." Mrs. Grey is not only the Hon. Organizing Secretary of the Woman's Educational Union, but the Vice-President of the Lon- don Frobel Society also, of which her sister. Miss Shirreif, is Presi- dent, who is also Secretary and one of the editors of the " Journal of the Education Union," and therefore is able to insert therein the reports of the Frobel Society, which we give below. We are glad to learn that the editor of the " New England Journal of Education " has the whole speech of Mrs. Grey, of which we give but an extract, and proposes to print it in his Kindergarten Department ; and we wish to express here our great gratification that he has printed the whole of the paper read by Mrs. Kraus-Boelte at the Baltimore Convention, to which we have alluded in a pi-eceding article. It is an all-sufficient antidote to any thing on this vital point, that has ever appeared in its columns before, to which we have made objection. 20 KINDEBGAKTEN MESSENGER. ifforeign 3!nteU(gence. FROBEL SOCIETY OF LONDON FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE KINDERGARTEN. FIRST REPORT. The Frobel Society for the Promotion of the Kindergarten System had its origin in some discussions held in the autumn of 1874, by a few leading Kindergarten teachers, who felt that the time had arrived for forming in London a centre of communication among all who are interested in this work. Various causes had combined to give a new impulse to Frobel's educational methods, the effects of which were shown by demands for trained teachers from many quarters, and inquiries of a theoretical and practical kind as to the character of the system. In order, then, to meet the recently awakened interest, and also for the purpose of securing for teachers the advantage of mutual help and advice, the present Society was planned and constituted. A preliminary meeting was held at Miss Doreck's, 63 Kensington Gardens Square, on November 4th, at which its basis and some of the proposed rules were discussed ; and a circular letter was sent to many persons occupied with educational objects, whose co-operation it seemed desirable to obtain. The answers to this letter expressed considerable sympathy with the aims set forth in it, so that a good number of members was at once enrolled. At a subsequent meeting, held on December 1st, which was considered to be the opening meeting of the Association, a com- mittee was appointed, consisting of five members ; viz., Miss Doreck (who was, at the same time, elected President of the Frobel So- ciety), Miss Heerwart, Madame Michaelis, Professor Payne, and Miss E. A. Manning (Treasurer and Secretary). The methods agreed upon for carrying out the aims of the Society were the fol- lowing: 1. Lectures, discussions, and public meetings. 2. Publica- tions, including translations and articles in periodicals. 3. Specimen illustrations of Kindei-garten work. 4. A register of Kindergarten teachers. 5. Correspondence with similar associations. 6. The establishment of a model Kindergarten. 7. The formation of train- ing classes. The annual subscription was fixed at from 5.^. upwards; and it was resolved to hold monthly meetings for business, and for discussing some special subject, on the first Tuesday of every month. The Frobel Society has now existed for half a year, and the Com- mittee present the following Report of its earliest j^roceedings : At KINDERGABTEN MESSENGEE. 21 the monthly meetings,* presided over by Miss Dorcck, several valu- able papers and addresses have been read and delivered, which have led to useful discussions. The first subject chosen was a Com- parison of Frobel and Pestalozzi. Professor Payne opened the debate; dwelling on the points of similarity and of ditference between these two great educators, which points were discussed and enlarged upon by succeeding speakers. At the next meeting. Kindergarten Literature was the subject. Miss Heerwart gave a sketch of the various books, pamphlets, and magazines, in German, French, and English, that have appeared upon the Kindergarten system since the ideas of Frobel were first carried into practice in the training of infants ; Madame Michaelis also contributed notices of books ; and many of the works referred to were produced on the occasion. Mr. Alexander J. Ellis and Mr. Coghlan, of the Home and Colonial Training College, raised the question of the desirability of preparing a good English Guide, either original or translated, — the majority of Kindergarten books being at present in German. At the third meeting, one of the Kindergarten occupations. Paper-cutting^ was described and illustrated by Miss Heerwart. The fourth meet- ing had for its subject The Connecting of the Kindergarten and the School. Two papers were read : the first by Miss Doreck, in which she insisted on the importance of carrying on in the school course the principles of harmonious development which so specially charac- terize the Kindergarten methods, and showed how each study might be treated in accordance with those principles. The second paper was contributed by Madame de Portugall, of Mulhouse, and was accompanied by a valuable time-table, which proved, from the writer's own experience, how successfully the school subjects may be interwoven with Kindergarten occupations as the child advances in age. At the fifth meeting, the subject discussed was Heading^ and the Preparation for it in the Kindergarten. It was shown that the child's senses become sharpened and its observant powers quickened in the Kindergarten, so that reading is very easily ac- quired when the right age for it comes. Various methods of teach- ing reading were discussed, and the debate was adjourned to the next meeting, when Mr. Meiklejohn took part in it, and Mrs. Merrington explained the system invented by herself. After the discussion on Kindergarten literature, the Committee prepared a list of the publications likely to be most useful to teach- ers, which list appeared in the " Women's Education Union Journal." It was afterwards printed separately, and has, it is hoped, proved of value as an aid in selecting suitable books. A Translation Committee was also appointed, consisting of Mrs. E. Berry, Miss Mary Gurney, and Mr. and Mrs. W. Gurney, and the 22 KINDEKGAETEN MESSENGER. actual Committee, for the purpose of preparing an English Guide for Kindergarten teachers. The importance of training children's nurses, and instilling into them Frobel's educational principles, having been discussed by the Society at one of its meetings, it was decided that it would be de- sirable to arrange some weekly classes, at a low fee, open to any who might care to attend them, but on subjects specially adapted to the requirements of nursemaids. It is lioped that these classes will be started next autumn, in the rooms of the College for Men and Women, 29 Queen Square. During the last six months, the objects of the FrSbel Society have been promoted in various ways by the work of several of its mem- bers. At the request of the Committee of the Nottingham Kinder- garten, Professor Payne gave (April 27) a lecture on Frobel and the Kindergarten. It was numerously attended, nearly five hundred persons being present; and a lively interest was excited, which was subsequently maintained by a correspondence in the " Nottingham Review." Miss Heerwart held meetings in Janujary at Derby (in connection with the Board Schools) ; and at Oxford, in the New Museum, when there was a crowded audience, and the Master of University College took the chair ; April 1st, at Leeds, by invita- tion of the School Board ; April 9th, at Miss Pipe's School, Clapham Park ; and. May 25th, at the Weigh House Chapel, to a Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Society. Also, last December, at Croydon, Miss Heerwart addressed a meeting convened by Mrs. E. Berry. On most of these occasions there was an exhibition of the occupations, and a model lesson as well as a general explanation of the system. Another such meeting was held on February 6th, at the Stock- well Training College of the British and Foreign School Society, whose Secretary, Rev. Alfred Bourne, has taken a most active interest in the spread of the system ; and, by Mr. Bourne's invitation, the members of the Frobel Society were invited to Stockwell Col- lege, on the evening of April 21st, to celebrate the anniversary of Friedrich Frobel's birthday. These public occasions have helped to extend a knowledge of what Kindergartens really are, and to render them appreciated by parents. With regard to one important point — the training of Kinder- garten teachers — for which, till lately, there had been few oppor- tunities in England, it is satisfactory to be able to state that the Committee of Stockwell Training College have established, rmder Miss Heerwart's direction : 1. A training class, which at present numbers eleven young ladies. 2. A class of pupil teachers, also numbering eleven. 3. A weekly class of teachers and mistresses, KISTDERGARTEX MESSENGER. 23 numbering six, and a model daily Kindergarten in which there are eighteen children, as well as an extra Kindergarten on Saturdays open to visitors. The need of training clas.ses is shown by the fact that numerous applications have been received, and are constantly being received, for trained teachers. Unfortunately, few of the applications can yet be responded to ; and it is most desirable that more students should present themselves for training, in order that this demand from so many quarters — a demand which is likely to increase — may be effectively supplied. The Manchester Kinder- garten Association, which has existed for some two years, also pro- vides opportunities of training for students, and has lately opened a middle-class Kindergarten under the direction of Miss Snell, so that theory and practice may be learned siravxltaneously by the students. Another model Kindergarten has been established at Croydon, which is conducted by Madame Michaelis. Here, too, training is cai-ried on. There are in it at present nineteen children, and it is thought that a second Kindergarten might succeed in another part of Croydon. Madame Michaelis has also given courses of lessons at Kensington, for the benefit of the creches in that neighborhood, and has commenced a weekly Kindergarten, at Campden Hill. Existing Kindergartens have been lately increasingly attended; and the Committee hear with satisfaction that School Boards, and the managers of elementary schools generally, are endeavoring to bring the Kindergarten element into their schools. Under the London School Board, Miss Bishop has given a course of lessons to the head and assistant mistresses, which were well attended. The Council of Education at Liverpool are making vigorous attempts to spread the system ; while at Leeds, greatly through the exertions of Mrs, Buckton, one of the School Board schools has been arranged as a model Kindergarten, under a German teacher. The General Association of Church School managers and teachers have invited Professor Payne to attend their third annual congress, which is to be held on the 25th and 26th June, at Liverpool, and to read a paper leading to a genei-al discussion of the Kindergarten, its prin- ciples, &c., and the advisability of introducing it as part of the educational system pursued in Church schools. In some of the Training Colleges, also, a fresh impetus is noticeable ; so it may be hoped that after a while Frobel's principles will be extensively adopted in the early stages of education for children of the lower classes. The Committee desire to express their thanks to the editors of' the " Women's Education Union Journal," for the cordial manner in which they agreed to insert reports of the proceedings of the Fi-obel Society. 24 KINDERGAKTEI^' MESSENGER. The number of members is now about eighty ; and among them is the widow of Frobel, who, on being informed of the existence of the Society, expressed her readiness to join it, and her earnest wishes for its success. The Committee have at present thought it unadvisable to make any special appeal to the public on behalf of the Society, because of the limitations to the movement imposed by the want of trained teachers. On two or three occasions they have called attention to the subject of Kindergartens in the newspaj^ers ; but they feel that in this very early period of the life of the Society it is better to work on without much publicity, at the same time taking any avail- able opportunity for making the merits of the system known. They consider that the chief aim of all interested in Kindergartens should for a long time be the training of teachers. This was from the first taken up by the Manchester Kindergarten Association ; and the Committee are most anxious to join with that Association in arranging a suitable standard for examination, as well as to en- courage all efforts in the direction of good training. They would, in conclusion, urge upon the members of the Frobel Society, that one most effectual way by which they may promote its objects is to make known the opening that exists for Kindergarten teachers, so that more and more students may present themselves for preparation. The time ought not to be far distant when a Kindergarten will be a frequent instead of a rai-e sight, and when the first years of the educational process will be usually ordered in accordance with Frobel's harmonious principles. The "Journal of the Women's Educational Union," for Dec. 15th, 1876, of which Miss Shirreff is one of the editors, contains the Second Report of the Frobel Society, which is a separate organiza- tion from the National Union toe Improving the Education OF Women of all Classes, of which Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lome, is President ; but Mrs. William Grey is the Hon. Organiz- ing Secretary, and Miss Shirreff the Hon. Secretary, — these noble sisters being, perhaps, the most important working members of both societies. The following extracts from the Second Report of the Frobel So- ciety present important considerations to the American friends of Kindergarten : — An examination of students of the Kindergarten system will be held in London, July, 1877, conducted by examiners appointed by the Committee of the Frobel Society. KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 25 Those students who satisfy the examiners will receive first or second class certificates of their qualification to become Kindergarten teachers. SUBJECTS OF EXAMINATION. I. TJieory of Education, — Its aims and methods. 1. Physical, including the training of the senses. 2. Intellectual, Cultivation of the reason, judgment, and imagination, &c. 3. Moral and Religious. — Application of educational principles to the various stages of childhood. History of Education. II. Theory of Fr'6he,Vs Kindergarten System. — 1. Principles of his system. 2. Life of Frobel. 3, The occupations of Frobel in regard to their educational value, their order, and their connection. III. Practical Knowledge of the Occupations. — Candidates will be required to produce the course of work that they have done in each of the occupations, and to execute work in two or more occupations in presence of the Examiner. 1. Twelve Ball Games. 2. Second Gift, 3, 4. Whole course of Third and Fourth Gifts. 5, 6. Fifth and Sixth Gifts. 7. Planes of Wood : Squares and Triangles. 8, Paper-folding, whole coui'se. 9. Paper-cutting, whole course, 10. Paper-plaiting: Simple and mixed rules; Inventions; Combinations of color. 11. Paper- twisting, 12. Plaiting sticks. 13, Stick-laying: Objects; Sticks of one and of diflerent lengths. 14. Pea-work: Simple and ad- vanced geometrical forms and objects. 15. Metal rings and Thread- laying. 16. Drawing : Frobel's Linear Drawing ; Inventions ; Freehand Drawing. 17. Pricking: Course based on Drawing; Inventions, 18. Sewing: Whole course and Inventions, 19. Paint- ing : First course and Inventions. 20. Modelling. See list of Frobel's Systematic Course, by Fraulein Heerwart, published by Myers, 15 Berners Street, W. IV. Kindergarten Games. — Their nature and classification. Execution of the Games. Simple gymnastic exercises. V. JIuG'ic. — Elements of harmony. Singing from sight and from memory. Accompaniment on the piano (optional). VI. Art of Relating Stories. — Educational use of stones. Prac- tice in the art. VII. Elements of Geometry. — Definitions. Application of geometry to the Occupations, especially to building, paper-folding, and Frobel's drawing. VIII. Science. — 1. Elements of Physics, 2, Elements of Botany. 3. Elements of Zoology and Natural History of Animals. 4. Ele- ments of Physiology and of Hygiene. IX. Practice in Teaching. Candidates will be expected to have 26 KINDEEGARTEN MESSENGER. had not less than six months' practice in class teaching of young children, and to give a lesson in the presence of the examiner. The Frobel Society was formed in December, 1874, for the pur- pose of promoting, by various means, the spread of Frobel's Kinder- garten system in England. The Committee issued their first report in June of last year, and they now present a second, at the com- mencement of the third year of the Society's action. The work that has been done in this interval of eighteen months may be conveniently classed under four heads : 1. Lectures and discus- sions. 2. Examination of students. 3. Classes. 4. Publications. And a few other points in regard to the Society will also -be^ referred to : — 1. The Society has held monthly meetings, on the first Tuesday of every month (excepting in the school vacations), for the reading of papers and discussions. These meetings have been well attended, and the subjects have been of practical interest to Kindergarten and other teachers. The following is a list of the papers and addresses : Oct. 4, 1875, The Physical Education of Young Chil- dren in connection with the Kindergarten: Dr. Roth. Nov. 2, Kindergarten Games and Music : Madame Michaelis. December 7, at 37 Norfolk Street, Strand, The Work of the Frobel Society : Miss Shirreff, on the occasion of her being chosen President. Feb. 1, 1876, The History of Kindergartens: Friiulein Heerwart; and, the same evening, Kindergartens visited in Germany and Italy : Miss Lord. March 7, The Law and Relation of Contrasts, as illustrated in the Kindergarten Occupations : Madame de Portugall. April 4, Vocal Gymnastics for Children : Alexander J. Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. May 2, The Kindergarten viewed as the Basis of a Reform in Education : W. H. Herford, Esq. (of the Manchester Kindergarten Association). June 13, A Sketch of the Life of Frobel : Miss Shin-eff. October 3, Order and Discipline in the Kindergarten and the School : Miss Bailey. November 7, A Defence of Frobel's System : Madame de Portugall. A conversational debate has followed the reading of these papers, and the meetings have afibrded convenient opportuni- ties of intercourse for those who are interested in Kindergarten work. Some drawing-room meetings have also been held in the past year, by means of which interest has been excited as to the nature of Frobel's methods. 2. From the first, the Committee have been anxious to present a standard to Kindergarten students who intend to become teachers of the system. While they were fully aware that many of the qualifications of a Kindergarten teacher are not such as can be tested by an examination, they yet felt that it might be of use to KINDEBGAETEN MESSENGER. 27 indicate certain indispensable lines of study, and to test proficiency in these ; and, especially at the present early stage of the introduc- tion of the system into England, it seemed most important to bring into prominence the need of preparatory training, and to encourage an earnest devotion of time and study to the work to be engaged in. The Committee, therefore, arranged a syllabus of sub- jects in November, 1875 ; and an examination was announced to take place in July, 1876, if twelve candidates should present them- selves beforehand. This number was exceeded, and the examina- tion took place in the rooms of Stock well College, July 18-22. The examiners were Madame de Portugall, Inspector of Infant Schools in the Canton of Geneva ; Miss Chessar ; and Dr. Frances E. Hog- gan. Certificates of qualification to become Kindergarten teachers were awarded to the students that passed. . . . Not less than six months' previous jiractice in class teaching of young children is insisted on for all candidates. Since the last report of the Committee appeared, two great losses have been sustained among their own body, by the death of Miss Doreck, the first -President of the Society, and of Professor Payne. Miss Doreck was one of the founders of the Frobel Society ; and was, as is well known, a warm supporter of this as of many other educational movements. Professor Payne had, from the beginning, shown hearty sympathy with the Society, and on many public occasions advocated Frobel's ideas. The office of President being vacant through Miss Doreck's death. Miss Shirreff was elected, last December, in her place; and Mrs. William Grey has lately been appointed Vice-President. The number of members of the Society has been steadily increasing, and has reached nearly 150. The Committee desire to call attention to the Kindergarten Col- lege and Practising School, 21 Stockwell Road (under the auspices of the British and Foreign School Society), conducted by Friiulein Heerwart ; where a thorough course of training, including practice, can be obtained. At present there are sixteen students in the Col- lege; and the new term will commence January 15. Students can live at a neighboring boarding-house. Madame Michaelis prepares students in connection with her Kindergarten at Croydon ; training is also carried on by Miss Sharwood and Miss Sim, at the Girls' College, Southampton, and by some private teachers, as well as under the direction of the Manchester Kindergarten Association. It is a satisfaction to the Committee to be able to report that a general interest in Frobel's System is spreading widely in England. For all classes of children. Kindergartens are in request. Elemen- tary-school teachers are beginning to understand the value of this early training; and in several higher schools testimony is now 28 KINDEBGAETEN ME8SENGEE. borne to the greater ease with which children engage iu school- work, if they have spent two or three happy years in a Kinder- garten. Were a greater number of trained teachers available, the many openings that already present themselves might be taken advantage of all over the country. In consideration of these facts, the Committee make an appeal to the public for more funds, in order to carry out the different objects which they desire to further. Last year, they did not feel justified in making such an appeal, as their work was still so new and undeveloped. Now, however, the demand is clearly shown for various kinds of special action in the promotion of Kindergartens. The establishment of a model Ivindergarten is one of the objects that the Committee have in view. They desire to fouhd scholarships for students, and to undertake the translating and publishing of more books on the system. The expenses con- nected with the Annual Examinations and the general working of the Society have also to be met. For these objects, specially or collectively, subscriptions will be gratefully received by the Treas- urer,— 35 Blomfield Road, Maida Hill, W. In conclusion, the Committee express their full conviction that Frobel's system, when applied by wise and cultivated teachers, affords an invaluable basis for the development of little children ; and they continue their endeavors, encouraged by finding that, the more fully that system is known, the more highly it is appreciated. Mrs. William Grey, who took the chair in the absence of the Presi- dent, Miss Shirreff, then delivered an address on the objects of the Society ; commencing with a brief recapitulation of the history of the Society, which was founded by the joint efforts of the late Miss Doreck and Miss Heerwart. Mrs. Grey went on to say the first of its objects is to diffuse the knowledge of Frobel's system. Of late, Kindergartens have been coming into fashion ; but of nothing can it be more truly said that the same name covers widely different things, and there are Kindergartens and Kindergartens as widely different as a geometrical problem from a Chinese puzzle. In all will be found little children handling balls, plaiting paper, laying sticks, and joining in games and singing : but in the one all these different occupations will be found co-ordinated parts of a profoundly philo- sophical system ; in another, they will be no better than a mechanical kind of play, having no distinct bearing on education at all. In the real Kindergarten, as Frobel conceived it, each of these apparently trivial games and occujDations has its special educational value. Each is addressed to the gradual and healthy development of some part of the child's nature ; and through them the child is learning KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 29 not only how to ixse his own faculties as tools, but something of the conditions under which he must use them, — of his relation to the world around him, and to the human beings among whom he is to live. It is clear that, for such a system as this, teachers are re- quired with sufficient culture and grasp of thought to master and apply the principles on which it is based ; and the second object of the Frbbel Society is, therefore, to aid the training of teachers. To keep up the standard of efficiency, it has instituted examinations of Kindergarten teachers. The first of these was held last July, at which fourteen out of sixteen candidates passed and received certifi- cates : seven first and seven second class. Six out of the seven who passed first class were trained by Miss Heerwart, at Stockwell Col- lege. The Society has also opened classes, under experienced teachers, to aid students of the Kindergarten system ; and appeals to the public for funds to establish a model Kindergarten for chil- dren of the lower middle-class in London, too poor to pay a re- munerative fee, which should also serve for the training of teachers. The classes can but supplement other instruction ; but practice in the Kindergarten itself is absolutely indispensable for efficient training. Mrs. Grey went on to show that Frobel set before him- self other objects, Avhich must therefore be included in those of the Society bearing his name ; «.e., to help mothers, both by teaching them, through the Kindergarten, that which Nature does not teach them, — the best methodsof managing children at home, — and also to prepare young girls for their future vocation. In aecoi-dance with this view, the Frobel Society desire their classes to be attended, not only by those who intend to become professional teachers, but by young women, whether married or unmarried, who might learn there what may be truly called a woman's natural profession, — the care and management of children. In other ways, Frobel wished to help the heavily burdened mothers of families, by ofiering them in the Kindergarten a safe nursery for their little ones. Nor is this less wanted for the rich than for the poor ; for the children of the rich are left, for the greater part of the twenty-four hours, under the care of one or more women of the uneducated classes, who form the society in which the child lives, and from which it imbibes its earliest associations. Mrs. Grey had in another place advocated the nursery as the only department of actual domestic service ladies could enter ; and if ladies, not in name only but in spirit, would train themselves under Frobel's system for the duties of nurses, the result would be a real benefit to society, and rescue the children of the rich from entering the school-room, or even the drawing-room, with as much to unleai-n as to learn. In conclusion, Mrs. Grey made an urgent appeal to each and all present to exert themselves to 30 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. increase the at present very small means of the Society in influence and money, by bringing in new members, and helping to make its principles better understood, and the educational value of the true Kindergarten, the child-garden and child-culture, more generally accepted. IF I WERE A SUNBEAM. Song. — Altered for the Kindergarten. If I were a sunbeam, I know what I'd do ; I'd seek the white lilies The wet meadows through. I'd steal in among them, Soft light I would shed, Until every lily Had lifted its head. If I were a sunbeam, I know where I'd go ; I'd visit the hovels Made gloomy by woe. Till sad hearts looked upward, I'd shine and I'd shine ; Then they'd think of heaven. Their sweet home and mine. Are you not a sunbeam, Whose life is so glad ? With radiance far brighter Than sun ever had ? Since God has so blessed you. Go ! shed rays diYine ! Let love be the sunbeam. With which you will shine. KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 31 J^omt^tic gintelUgence. AMERICAN FROBEL SOCIETY. One reason for publishing this introductory number of the new series of the Kindergarten Messenger before obtaining the thou- sand subscribers mentioned in my postal card. as an indispensable condition, is to interest the public in an American association of a kindred character and objects to the London Frobel Society, of which we give the first two reports. The American Frobel Society originates, as the German Allge- meinen JEzziehtingsverein, the English Manchester Association^ and the Ziondon Frobel Society have done, in convictions of duty, on the part of those who know what Frobel's system is, to jjrotect it fi-om misrepresentation of the principle, and consequent deteriora- tion of the method. And this is to be done here, as it is done in Europe, by the Society's setting up a standard of qualification, appointing competent exam- iners, and keeping a register of accredited kindergartners, under the authority of names of a certain quality and prestige gathered into a society. The recent engrafting of Frobel's Kindergarten on the public-school system of St. Louis is creating a demand — rapidly increasing in the whole country — for kindergartners ; which, if it is not met with by a supply of those thoroughly educated in the system, will call out mere mechanical imitators, who will defeat the whole purpose of Frobel for decades. We know, by the so-called American Kindergarten Training School set up on the Centennial grounds, over against Miss Burritt's faithful exhibition of a real Frobel-Kindergarten in operation, that the nominal authority of Frobel may be claimed for a very different thing, which ignores the whole plan of leading the activity of chil- dren to accomplish their innocent desires, according to the law of polarity, or connection of ojiposites ; which alone can develop the human mind in correspondence with the manifestations of the Divine mind, in the several departments of material nature. At the first mention of the exigency of the situation, Mrs. George R. Russell, of Boston, volunteered to pay down $100 to begin a fund. Mrs. Louis Agassiz, and the two daughters of Mr. Agassiz, Mrs. Higginson and Mrs. Shaw, Mrs. Professor Gray, of Cambridge, Mrs. Augustus Hemmenway, of Boston, Mrs. M. R. Fox, of Phila- delphia, and the venerable Daniel Austin, of Kittery, Maine, fol- lowed her example, with donations. But it was determined that all who would give as much as $25 should be accounted Life Members, and, with certain Honorary Members, — among whom are to be 32 KINDERGARTEN IHESSENGER. named the principal trainers of kindergartners, — and some otlier distinguished persons, should be notified to meet, at some convenient place, on the next 21st of April (Frobel's birthday), and make a formal organization ; the donors voting for the Treasurer, and all voting for an Executive Committee. The subscribers to the Kindergarten Messenger, which is to be the organ of the Society, by virtue of the dollar they giA^e for it, will be considered Yearly Members, but have no vote, — this privi- lege being reserved to the Honorary and Life Members. Between now and April 21, all friends are urged to use their influence to procure Life Members to the Society, and to fill up the subscription list of the Kindergarten Messenger, whose editor will provisionally receive the promissory notes and names, until April 21. The reports of the National Commissioner of Education show, that, in addition to all the public appropriations in the United States for education, and of all the money paid for education out- side of the public funds, from ten to twelve millions are given away every year by donation and bequest of individuals for this interest, and often put into the hands of trustees, to be used at their discre- tion. No instance is given of its bein'g used to promote the earliest education, — to water the root, on whose health and perfect growth the whole mighty tree depends, for the " leaves that are for the healing of the nation." Our Society hopes that our fund will catch some of this munificence. The first use to be made of the fund is, to enable the Society to influence leading publishers — by guaranteeing them against loss — to venture the publication of the four volumes that constitute the Standard Library of kindergartners; viz., translations of "The Personal Recollections of Frobel," by Mad. Marenholtz-Biilow ; " Frobel's " Mother Play and Cosset Songs ; " Frobel's " Education of Mankind;" and Frobel's " Pedagogicks " (posthumous). Already Mad. M. Bulow's "Education by Work, on Frobel's Principles," has been published by the private liberality of R. Bingham, Esq., Camden, N. J., Patron of the Philotechnick and Pantographic In- stitute (whose pupils were the printers and binders of it). This last book is of great importance for educating the public to an appreciation of the wide bearings of Frobel's Kindergarten: giving an account of the work-schools, school-gartens, and youth-gartens growing out of it; and being a treatise on the place of recreation, not only in education, but in the healthy life of adults ; handling the subject more profoundly than has been attempted before by any writer since Plato. The ultimate aim of the fund is to provide free scholarships for training qualified candidates needing aid. BAMARD'S EDDCATIOI^AL PUBLICATIONS. Th« following TreathSB hure all appeared as separate; articles in Barnard's American Journal of Education. Any Book or Pamphlet on the list »IU ba sent bj mail, poataffc paid, on roceiving the price in postase stamps or money order. On orders of ^20 a discount of 20 per cent, will be made, AddreM U. B., Post Office Box V, Uartford.Conn. January, 1876. PBICB. I ^BICB Barnard, Henry, Educational Activity ,8.50 Address to the People of Connecticut, 1838. , . . 25 Common Schools in Connecticut, lt-3S-42..'. .. 1.00 Public Schools of Khode Island, 1843-49 3.50 Higher Education in Wii^consin and Maryland 50 U. S. Commissioner of Education 1867-8 5,50 Special Report on District of Columbia 5.50 Special Report on Technical Education 5.50 Special Report on National System^ 5.50 Conn. Common School Journal, 188~^-424v. each 1.95 Educational Tracts, Number I, -XII., eacn 25 Journal of R I. Institute 1845-49 3v 1.25 Documents on Popular Efluca'ion, I. -IV., each 1.00 American Jour, of Erlucaiion, 1&55-73. 24v.,each5.00 do. International Series, 1874-5, Iv 5 00 General Index, with the Volume Indexes., . 2.50 Education in Europe in 1854 1.50 National Systems of Education, lOv,, each 5 50 Elementary and Secondary Schools, 4v., each,. 5.50 I. The German States 5.50 II, Continental Eniopean Staus 5.50 in. Great Britain 5.50 IV. American States 5.50 Superior Instruction— jEiii^iow o/'1875, 2v 7.00 Part I.— Historical Develojjment 2.50 1. The University— Authorities 25 2. Do. in Greece, Alexandria, and Rome 50 3. Christian Schools— Cathedral and Abbey.. 50 4. Teaching Orders of the Catholic Church.. 50 5. MediiEval Universities (5'az'ig';/)/) 50 6. Universities— Past and Present (Z>o/;ira5'«r.) 50 7. Universities and Pihtechnic Schools 25 8. The Collepre in Universities .. 25 9. American College & European University.. 50 Part II. — Superior Instruction as Organized .5.50 1. Germany and Switzerland 3.50 2. France. Italy 1.00 3. Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Nor'y, Swen 50 4. Russia, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Portugal.. 50 5. England, Scotland, and Iri land 1.00 6. American States 1.00 Piofessionaland Special Schools, 5v., each 5.50 1. ScieHce and National Imlustrlea 5,50 Ditto Great Britain 2.50 Ditto United States ,3,00 2. Military Schools and Education 5,50 3. Normal Schools and Professional Training 5.50 4. Female Schools and Education 5.50 5. Reformatory and Preventive Agencies 5.50 Supplementary Schools and Agencies 5,50 jiducatio.nal Biography, 6v., each 3.50 American Teachers, with 21 portraits 3.50 do. do, second i-eriis, 30 portraits 3.50 Benefactors of American Education 20 port's 3.50 German Educational Reformers and Teachers 3.50 English, French, and other eminent teachers.3,50 Swiss Teachers and Educators 3.50 Tribute to Gallaudet, and Deaf Mute In8truction2,50 Ezekiel Cheever. & the Free Schools of N. Eng. 1 00 Armsm( ar, — a Memorial of Samuel Colt 5.50 School Codes — State, Municipal, Institutional 3.50 School Architecture, with 500 illustrations 5.50 Practical Illnstrations 1.00 Object Teaching, Oral and other Meth. of Inst. 3.50 American Pedagogy, Principles and Methods.. 3.50 English Pedayoyy. " " ..3 50 do. Sf^rotii'/ Series. ..3.50 German Pt dagoj^j-, " " . . 3.50 French Pedagogy, '.* " ..3.50 Swiss Pedagogy " " ..3 60 Educational Aphorisms and Suggestions 3.50 Studies and Conduct 3.50 Educational Associations— National, and State 3.50 Connecticut Educational Institutions 3.60 Connecticut School Fund— Historical 25 Common Schools, as they were before 1800. 1,00 do. in 1870 1.00 Compulsory School Attendance 1,00 Constitutional Provision respecting Schools 25 School Status of Freedmen & Colored Children 1,00 Providence Schools, Documentary History 5o Hartford Public High School, Eir'ly History . , .- 25 Teachers' Institutes, Contributions to History. 25 ABC Books and Primers 25 A B C-Shooters, and School Life in 15th Century. 25 Abbenrodb, Teaching History and Geography.. 25 Academies of New England 25 AcQUAViVA, Ratio et In-titutio Stndlorum 25 Adams, J. Q., Normal Schools, Schools of Silesia 25 Adult and Supplementary Schools 2.i Agassiz, L., Educational Views 25 Agricola, R., School Reform in the Netherlands 25 Akr'itd, E., Improving a Facory Population... . 25 Albert, Prince, Science In Etiucation 25 Alcott, a. B , Schools as tliey were 50 Alcott, Wii-liam a.. Memoir and Portrait 50 Slate and Biiick-board Exercises 25 Andrews, S. J., The Jesuits and their Scheols.. 25 Andrews, Lorin P., Memoir and Portrait 5o Anglo Saxon Language in Study of English 25 Anhai^t, System of Public Instruction 25 Anselm, and other Teachers of the 12th Century. 25 Aphorisms on Prinnples and Methods of Ediic'n2.50 Arabic and Mohanim-dau Scliools 25 Aristotle, Educational Views 25 Arithmetic, Methods of Ti aching 25 Arnold, Matthew, Public Schools in Holland. 25 Secondary Scnools in Prussia 50 Arnold, Thomas K., Memoir and Portrait 50 Arts and Science, Schools of 5.50 Ascham Roger, Memoir, and the Schoolmaster.. 50 AfHBURTON, Lord, Teaching Common Thinas.. 2.1 Austria, Public luBtrncton— Primary & Secondary 50 Military Schools and Education 25 Technical Schools 25 Bathe, A. D., National University 25 Bacon, Frantis Lord, Memoir and Influence... 25 E-say on Education and Studi' s .. . 25 Bacon, Leonard, Memoir of Hillhouse 25 Baden, System of Public Instruction 25 Technical Schools 25 Bailet, Ebenezer, Memoir and Portrait 50 Barnard, D. D., Right of Taxation for Schools. 25 Barnard, F. A. P., College Improvements 25 Elective Studies in College Coiu'se 25 Barnard, J. G., The Problem of the Gyroscope. 25 Barrow, Isaac, Studies and Conduct 25 Baskdow, Memoir, and the Philauthropinuin.... 50 Bateman, N., Educational Labors and Portrait.. 50 Bates S. P., Memoir and Portrait 50 Liberal Education 25 Bates, W. Q., Tiainiigof Teachers 25 Bavtria, System ot Public Instruction 25 Technical Schools , 25 Beecher, Catherinr E., Educational Views.. . 25 Belgium. System of Public Instruction 25 Techuicil and Special Schools 25 Bell, Andrew, Memoir and Educptional Views 50 Benedict, St., and the Benedictines 25 Benekb. F, E., Pedasogical Views 25 Berlin, Educational Institutions 25 Bilile and R. ligion in Pablic Schools 25 Bingham, Caleb, Educational Work 25 Bishop, Nathan. Educational Woik and Portrait 50 Blockman, Pe-talozzi's Labors 25 Boccaccio, and Educational Relorm in Italy 25 Bodi.eigh, Sir Thomas, Studies and Conduct. ... 25 Booth, J., Popular Education in England 25 Bo'-ton, Educational Institutions 50 Botta, v.. Public Instruction in S-irdinia 25 Boutwell, George, Educational Wi.rk 50 BowEN. F., Mt-moirof Edmund Dwiizht 50 Brainerd, T., Home and School Training In 1718 25 Brinslt, J., Ludus Literarius, 1627 25 Brockett, L. P., Idiots and their Training 25 Brooks, Chas.. Educational Tork and Portrait. . 50 Brougham, Henrt Loud. Educational Views... 25 Brunswick, Sjs'em of Public Instruction 25 Buckham, M. H.. English Language 25 Buckingham, J. T , Schools as they were In 1800 25 B cklet, J. W., Teachers' Associations 25 Burgess, George, Religion in Public Schools. . . 25 Burrowes, T. n., Memoir and Portrait 50 History of Normal Schools in Pennsylvania.. . 25 Burton, W., District School as it was 25 Bushnell, H., Early Training, Unconscious Influ. 25 BARNARD'S EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATIONS. PRICE Brooks, Edward, Mernoir and Portrait 50 Cady, I. F., Method of Clas^ic.U Instruction 25 (JaldekwouDiH., Teaching, Its Ends and Means 2'i Caldwell, <;., B aicadoi! in Nurth Cdrulma 25 Cain:)rid,'e University. The Undergraduate 25 Camp, D. N , Memoir and Por rait 50 Calkins, N. A., Object TeMChiusr 25 Caultlb, Thomas, University Studies 25 Letter on Reading 25 Carter, James G., Memoir and Portrait 50 Esfay 25 Hints on Self Culture... 25 CuATHAM, Lord, Letters to his Nephew 25 CuEEVER, EzEKiEL, & Prde Schools of N.England 5i) CuESTBRPiELD, L'iRD, Studics and Couduct 25 Choate, Rupus, Books and Reading 25 Christian Schools, Earliest Established 25 Cities, Systems of Public Schools 2.50 Clarke, H. G , Principl's & M ides of Ventilation 25 Clark T. M., Edncition lor the Times 25 Cogobshall, W. J., Ohio System of Pub. Schools 25 CoLBURN, Dana P., Memoir and Portrait 50 Coi.BURN, W., Educational Work, and Portrait.. 50 Cole. D., Method of CI issical Education 25 CoLET, J., Educational Views and St. I'^aul ^c*! 'ol 50 CoLMAN, Henry, Agricultural Schools in France 25 CoMENius, A.. E'lifational Labors and P. inciples 50 Colleges, Origin and Use in Universities 25 College Code of Honor 25 Competitive Esamlnadons for Public Service.. 25 Coiidnct — Susrgestions bv E'ninent Men 3 50 Connecticut, Ednratioiial In^^titutions..., 3.50 Conversation. — Suirgestioiis by Bacon and others 25 Conversational Method 25 Corp'iral Punishment — Barbarism of Discipline.. 25 CouTTS, Vliss BaiiDETT. Prize Scheme for Girls. 25 CoWDERY, M. P., Moral Training in Pub. Sih'ols 25 Cowley, A., Plan ol Philosophical College, 1662 25 Cowper,Wm., The Tirocinium. Review of Schools 25 ruABBE, Geo,, Schools of the Borough 25 Crime and Education 25 CURRiE. James, Methods of Early Education.. .. 25 Dana, J. D., Science and Scientific ?*chools 25 Dawson, J. W., Nit. Hist, in its Educat. Aspects 25 T)at, Henry N., English Composition 25 Deaf Mute Institutions and Instruction 25 DsLaSalle, A., Memoir & the Christian Brothers 50 Denmark, Public Instruction 25 DeQuincy, Smdies and Conduct 2"i Leiters on tiie Art of Conversation 25 DeMe rz, M., Colonies for Juvenile Offenders 25 Dickinson. J.W., Philos. & Methods of Teaching 25 DiKSTERWEG, Memoir 25 Catechism of Methods of Teaching 50 School Discipline and Plana of Instruction.... 25 Intuitional and Speaking Exercises 25 DiNTER, G. P., Memoir 25 Disraeli, B., Studies and Conduct ;. 25 DixoN, W. Hepworth. — Swiss Schools in 1870... 25 Doanb, George W., The State and Education... 25 DOllinger, Universities, Past and Present 25 Dominic, St., and the Dominicans 25 Donaldson, James, Edu. in Prussia and England 25 Drawing, Methods of Teaching 50 D0AI, A,, German Schools in the United States. 25 DacPETiAUX, Agricultural Reform Schools 25 DuFPiBLD, D. B., Education a State Duty 25 Dqnn, H., Methods of the B iniugh-road Schools. 25 ) >URFEE, Job, R. I. Idea of Government 25 DaRUY, Secondary Special Schools in France.. , . 25 D tpanloup, S udious Women 25 DwiGHT, Edmund, Memoir and Portrait 50 D WIGHT, Timothy, Memoir 25 Aca»lemy at Green Farms 25 Yale College in 1814 25 Educational Biographies, with Portraits of over 100 Eminent Teaehers, Educaors, and Ben- efactors of Educators, eacn 50 Educational Tracs, Numbers I. -XII , each 25 Edu. Documents for Gen. Circulation, I. -IV. each 1.00 Education and the State , 25 Education Defined 25 Epwards, Richard, Memoir and Portrait 50 Normal Schools 25 Ely >T, Sir Thomas. Tue Governour 25 K.merson, Geo. U. Educat. Labors, with Portrait 50 Meinoria on Normal Schools, 1837 25 Moral E'lucat on , 25 England, Elememary Schools and Methods 3.50 Public or Endowed Schools 25 Navigation Schools 25 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge 50 Military Schools 25 Scientific and Technical Schools 2..^0 English Estimate of Swiss Public Schools 25 P.iblic Schools of the United States -... 25 English Pedagogy, First Series 3.50 Second Series 3.50 Ekam08, Memoir and Educational Works 50 Classical Studies 'io Ernest the Pious, Educational Works 25 European Estimate of American Schools 25 Everett, E , Educational Views, and Portrait... 50 John Lowell and the Lowell Lectures 25 John Harvard and his Benefaction 25- Uses of Astronomy 25 Address on Normal Schools, 1839 25 Everett, W., The Cambridge System of Study. 25 Pairchild, Coeducation of the Sexes 25 Kelbigek, J. J., Educational Labors in Austria.. 25 Pellenberg. Memoirand Principlesof Education 25 Felton, C. C, Memoirand Portrait .50 Characterist c- of American Colleges 25 Female Schools and Education 5.50 Fenelon. Memoir and Female Education 25 KicHTE, J. H. VON, Frobel's Eductional System. 50 Fliedner, Ins. for Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth *^5 Forbes, E,, Educational Uses of Museums 25 PowLE, W. B , Memoir and Portrait 50 Fowler. W. C, The Clergy and Common Schools 25 France, System of Public Instruction 2.50 The Univers ty of Purls 25 - The University of France 25 Technical and Military Schools 3.50 Specia. Secondary Schools 'iTt French Teachers and Pedagogy 3..5i Krancis, St.. and the Franciscans 25 Pranke, a. H.. Educational Views and Labors. . 25 Franklin, B-.. Maxims of Poor Richard 25 Frederic the Great, as School Reformer 25 School Codes of 1764 25 Free Schools of New England, Historical Data.. 25 French Schools and Pedagogy 5.50 H'roebel, The Kindergarten System 25 Froudb, University Studies 25 Fuller, Thomas, The Good Schoolmaster 25 Gallaudet, Thomas H., Memoir and Portrait.. 50 Plan for a Teachers' Seminary in 1824 25 Gammell. W., Memoir of Nictiolas Brown 25 Garfield. James A.. Education a National Duty 25 Gaston, William, Advice to College Graduates. 25 Gerard-Groote, and the Hieronvmians 25 Germany, National System and Pedagogy, 5v. "\ Primary and Secondary Schools 5 50 Technical and Military'Se>iools 3 50 Universities. Gymnasia, & Polytechnic Schools 3.50 Educational Reformers— Ratich,Comenius, etc. 3.50 Modern German Pedagogy 3.50 Gesner, J. M., Educational Views 25 GiLMAN. D. C, Scientific Schools 25 Gladstone, W. E., Educational Views 25 Goethe, Educaritmal Training and^Views 25 Cultivatifm of Reverence 25 Goldsmith. Oliver, Essay on Education 25 Goodrich, S. G , Schools as they were in 1800. .. 25 Goodrich, W. H., Plea lor Extended Education. 25 Gottingeu University 25 Gould, B. A., The American University 25 Graser, System of Instructio'i 25 Greece, Ancient, Schools and Education 25 Greece, Modern, Sy.^tem ol Public Instrnction. . . 25 Greek Language, Subject of School Study 25 Greene, S. S., Object Teaching 25 Educational Duties of the Hour 25 Gregory, J. M., The Problem of Education. . 25 <4riscom, John, Memoir and Portrait fO Guizot, Ministry of Public Instruction in France 50 Gulliver, J. P., Norwich Free Academy 25 The above Treatise-^ have all appeared as separate articlea in Baruard'a American Journal of Education. Any Book or Pamphlet on the Liat wiU be lent by mail, poBtage paid, on receiving the price in postage atftmpa or money order. 8n orders of $20 a discount of 20 per cent, will be made. ^ Addreta H. JB., Pott Offict Box V, Hartford, Conn. January, 1875. BARNARD'S EDUCATIONAL rUBLICATIONS. Hale, Sir Mattttew, Studies and Conduct 25 Hall, S. R., Educitional Labors and Portrait.. . 50 Hasiann, .f. G., Pfdau-otjicul Views 25 Haiul. S M., Scbool Diccial Occupations of Womeh... 25 Jarvis, E., Misdirerted Education and lui-anity. 25 Jerome, St., Education of Daughters 25 Jesuits, Society and Schools of the 25 Jewell, P. S., Teaching as a Profession 25 Johnson, Samuel. Educational View s 2 Johnson. W. R., Educatioiml Labors, & portrait 25 Julius, Dr., Norinal Schools in Prussia 50 Keejjan, p. J., Organization of Irish Schnols 25 KiNDERMANN. School R^lorm ill Bohemia 25 Kingsbury, John, Mpiuoir and Portrait 25 Knight, Charles. Ec nomical Science 50 Kirkpatrick. E., Education in Greece & Rome. 25 Key, Joseph. Pru-i-^ian Schools 50 Krijsi, Life and Educational Labors 25 Lalor, J.. Nature and Objects of Education. . . . 25 Lancaster, Jos., Memoir and Monitorial Schools 25 Lawrence, A., and Lawrence Scientific Scho.d. . 25 Latin Lingu>ige, Methods of Teaching 50 Leigh, E., Iliiteracy in the Unit' d States 25 Luwis, Dio. The New Gymnastics 25 Lewis, Samuel, Memoir and Portrait fO Lewis, T., Methods ot Teac it g Gi e"k and Latin 25 LiNDSLEY, Philip, Memoir Hiid Portrait .50 Locke, John. Thoughts on Education 1.00 Lonqstreet, Schools as they were in Georgia. . . 25 Lothrop, S. K., W. Lawrence & N.E. Academies 25 Lowe. Robert, University Studies 25 Lowell, John, and the Lowell Lectures 25 LuTUEK, Martin, Memoir and Views on Educat. 50 Lyon, Mary, Principles of Mt. Holyoke|Semiuary 50 Lttton, SirE. B.. Studies and Conduct 25 Money, its Acquisition and Uses 25 Lycurgus, and Spartan Education 25 Lyell, Sir Charles, Physical Science in Educat. 25 Macaulay, Lord T. B., Educational Views 25 Mansfield, E. D., Military Acad, at Wes' Point 25 History of Nation.'il Land Grants to Ohio 25 Marcel, C, Conversational Method in Language 50 March, F. A., Study of English Language 25 Makia Theresa, E lucational Reforms 5 Marion, General, Free Schools for Republics.. 25 Mann, Horace. Memoir and Portrait 50 Lectures and Reports 5.50 Teachers' Motives 25 Professional Training of Teachers 25 College Code of Honor 25 Fourthof July Oration, 1842 2.5 Manual Labor in Education 25 Mason, Lowell, Memoir and Portrait .50 Mason, S. W., Phytical Esercisf s in School 25 Masson, D., College and Self-Education 25 Milton's Home, School, and College Education 25 May, S. J.. Educational Work, with Poi trait 50 Mayhew, Ira, Educational Work with Portrait. 50 McCrie, Dr., Universities of Scotland 25 McElligott. J. N., Debating in School Work... 2.^ Meierotto, Method of Teaching Latin 35 Melancthon, p.. Memoir and Eiiucatioiial Work i Mettrey Reform School, Rise and Progress 25 Mill, J. S., University Studies 25 Milton, John, TrRclate on Education 25 Home, School, and University Training 25 MoLiNEU^x, E. L., Military Exercises in Schools. 25 Monitorial System and Method 25 Montaigne, Educational Views 25 Montesquieu, Edncation-il Views 25 More, isib Thomas, Educaional Views... 25 Morrison, T.. School Management 50 Mulcaster, R.. Positions and Elementaire 25 Murray, J. N., English Policy in Irish Education 25 Music, Method for Common Schools 25 Nbander, M., Educaiional Views 25 Newman, University Education 25 NiEBUHR, Method of Philological Study 25 Niembyer, Aphorisms (othor German Educators) 2.50 Nissen, H., Public Schools in Norway 25 Northend, E., Jlemoir and Portrait 50 Normal Schools and Teach. Sem., Ed. of 1854. 2.00 Norwich Free Academy 25 Oberlin, J. F., Educatioral Work 25 Object Teaching, and other Methods 3.50 Oral Methods 50 Olmstead, D., Memoir and Portrait 50 Democratic Tendencies of Science 25 Timothy Dwight— a Model Teacher 25 Overberg, B., Educational Views .. 25 Owen, R., Educational Views 25 Oxford University in 187:M 25 Page, D. P., Memoir and Portrait -'0 Pouring In and Drav\ing Out Methods 25 Paris, The Old LTu versity 25 Superior Normal School 25 Polytechnic Schools 50 Parr', oamuel. Educational View-^^ 25 Partridge, A., Eituoitional Work and Portrait.. 50 Pattison, Prussian Normal Schools 25 Payne, Joseph, Science and Art of Education.. 25 Peabody, Gesi ge. Educational Benefactions. .. 25 Peirce. B. K., R •>orinat»ry for Girls 25 Peirce, Cyrus. Memoir and Portrait 50 Pestalozzi, Memoir and Portrait 150 Leonard and Gertrude 1.00 Evenins Hour of a Hermit 25 Pestalozzi, and Pestalozzianism 3.50 Pestalozzi, Fellenberg and Wehrli 25 Petrarch, Dante, and Boccacio 25 Petty, Sir W., I'lunof a Mechanical Co lege, 1647 25 Phelps, Almira L., Memoir and Portrait 25 Phelps, W. F., Memoir and Portrait 50 The atjove TreatUea have all appeared as separate articlca ii Bent by mail, poatage paiU. on receiving the price in postage stamps Addrttt H. B., Poat 0£ict Box O. Hartford, Conn. Karnard'g .^ >r money ordei Journal of Education. Any Boob or Pamphlet on the List will b« On orders of $20 a discount of 20 per cent, irill be made. January, I87&. BARNARD'S EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATIONS. Payne, a., The Science and Art of Education. . 25 Philbkick, John D., Memoir and Portrait 50 Worlt lor the National Teaciiers' Afnociation . 2.5 Rc-port on Boston Public Schools', 1874 50 Platter, T., School Life in t he 15tti Century 25 Plutauch. Educational Viewp 25 PoMBAL, Marquis, Educa. Worli in Portugal.. . 25 Port Royalists, Educational Views 25 Porter, J. A., Plan of an Agricultural College.. &5 PoKTKit, Noah, Prize Essay on Sclio.il Reform . . 25 B.iriiard'8 Educational Activity in Conu. & R. I 50 Portugal, System of Public Instruction 25 PoTTEiJ, Alonzo, Memoir and Portrait....' 50 Coiisolifiatiou nf American Colleges 25 PoT PER, E. H., ReliL'ion ill Public Schools 50 Pouch liT, M., Freud View of Ger. Uuivereitiea 25 Pru-sia, System of Public Schools 3.00 1. Pnmiry Schools 50 2. Secondary Schools 50 3. Universities 50 4. Technical Schools 50 5. Military Schools... 50 Public Schools, Official Exposition in 185f) 50 Quick, E (ucational Re'ormers— Jacotot 25 QaiNTiLiAN, Educational Views 25 Rabelais. Educational Views 25 Ramus, Pbtkr Mom >ir and Education il Views . 25 Rand.\ll, Henry S.. School Libraries 25 Ranwall, S. S., .Memoir and Portrait 50 Rapuall. M. L., Education among the Hebrews 25 Ratich, Educational Views 50 Rau.mer, Karl Von, German Universities 2.50 Early Chil ihood 25 Methods of Teaching Litin 25 Methods of Teaching Arithmetic 2.t Ph> seal Education 25 Education of Girls 50 Educational Revival in Italy 25 Progressives of the 17th Century 25 Ratich, C menius and Bisedow 1.00 Loyola and Schools of the Jesuits 25 Raumer, Rudolf, Instruction in German 25 Ravaisson, F., instruction in Drawing 25 Reformatorv and Preventive School & Agencies 1.50 RENAN,E.,G(-rman viewsof French Education.. 25 Rendu, E.,Prus8'an & French School Expenses. 25 Reuchlin, and Education in the 16th century 25 Rhode Island Institute of Instruction 25 Richards, W. F.. Manual of Methods 50 RiCKOFP, A. J., Memoir and Portrait 50 Rit-OKE, Phil isophy of Early Education 25 RiDEK, Admiral, Navisatum Schools for England 25 Ross, W. P., Catechetical Method 25 Rousseau, Memoir and EfUicaii nal Vijws 25 RoLLiN, Charles, Education of Youth 50 Russell, Scott, Technical UniversiiyforEngland 25 Systematic Technical Ediicatiim 25 Rus,-.ELL, William, Memoir and Portrait. . . 50 Normal Trainii.g 1.50 Leual Recognition of Trachiugana Profession 25 Russia.— System of Public Instruction 25 Military and Naval Education 25 Universities 25 Rterson, Edgertun, Memoir and Portrait. 50 Saviijny, Universities of the Middle Ages 60 Saxony, System of Public Instruction 25 Secondary and Superior Instruction 25 Technical and Special Schools 25 Saxon Principalities, Public Instruction 25 Sarmiento, Memoir and Portrait 50 The Schoolmaster's Work. 25 Sctiool Architectui^e, Revised Edition,with 500 IlL 5.50 School Architeciure. Practical Iliustratious 1.00 Do. Ruial and Un (graded Schools 50 Do. City and Graded Schools 1.00 Do. Primary and Infant Schools 50 Do. Publiclligh Schools 50 Scotland, System of Public Instruction 50 Secondary Schools and Universities 1.00 Seelby. J., Cambridge System'of Esaminatlors 25 Seguin, Treatment and Training ot Idiot- 25 Seton, S. S., Schools as they were CO Years Ago 25 Sheldon, E. A , Object Teaching 25 SiiKNsTONE, W , The Schoolmii-tress 25 SiLjsTROM, P. A , American Schools 25 SiMONsoN, L., (^ adet System in Switzerland 25 Smith, Elbkidge, Norwich Free Academy 25 Spencer, Herbert, Thoughts on Education 50 Tbo above Treatises have »1! appeared as separate articles in Barnard's American Journal of Education. Any Book or Pamphlet on the List irill tf cent bv mail, postage paid, on receiving the price ia postage atamps or money order. On orders of $20 a discount of 20 per cent, will be made. AMrets H. B., Puat Office Box U. Hartford, Conn. January, 1875. Sottthey, Robert, Home Edncation 25 Dr. Dove, and the Schoolmaster of Ingltton. . . Su Sprague, W. B., Influence of Yale College 25 Spain. System of Public Instruction 25 SpuRZHEiM. Educational Views 25 Stanley, Lord, Lyceums and Popular Education 25 State and Education— The American Doctrine. . . 25 Stearns, E., Early History of Normal Schools.. 25 Stow, David, Gal lery Training Lesson 25 Stowe, Calvin E., Memoir and Portrait 50 Teachers' Seminaries 25 ''turm, John, Educational Views 25 Sullivan, O., Teaching the Alphabet 25 Sweden and Norway, Public Instruction 25 Swett, John, Educational Labors and Portrait.. 50 Swift, Jonathan, Manners and Conversation. . . 25 Switzerland.— Public Instruction in each Canton 1.50 Military, and Cadet System 25 Sybel, H. Von, The German University 25 Tainsh, E. C. Prize Essay on Education & Crime 25 Tappan, H. p.. Memoir and Portrait ., 50 Educational Development of Europe 25 Tarbox, J. N., American Education Society, 25 Taylor, Henry, True Uses of Wealth 25 Text Books, Catalogue of 1.00 Thayer, Gideon F., Memoir and Portrait 50 liCtters to a Young Teacher 50 Tillinghast, Nicholas, Memoir and Portrait. . . 50 Town, Salem, ^chool8 as they were 25 Trotzendorf, Educational Views 25 Tubingen University 25 Tucker, George, Educational Census of 1840. . . 25 Turkey, Schools and School Code - 25 T YNDALL, Science in Education 25 Unconscious Influence— Bushnell 25 Unconscious Tuition — Huntington 25 United States, Systems of Public Instruction 5.50 Common Schools as they were about 1800 1 .00 Common Schools in 1870 1.00 "^ Colleges and Universities 1.00 M ill tary and Naval Schools 1.00 Normal Schools 3.50 Universities and C. lieges 5.50 University Life— Past and Present 50 Deposition, Pennalism, Landmannschaften.. . . 50 Tripos, Praevaricator, Terrse Filius 50 Vail, T. H., Methods of UfingBooks 25 VASi"AR, M., Memoir and Portrait 50 Vehrli, J., Industrial Element in Schowls 25 Ventilation and Warm'ng of School houses 25 Vienna, Educational Institution- 25 Vives, L., Memoir and Educational Views 25 Wadsworth, James S., Memoir and Portrait 50 Washington. Gkorge, Rules of Conduct 25 National Edncation 25 Wayland, Frances, Memoir and Portrait 50 Intellectual Education— Instil ue Address 25 Webster, Daniel, Educational Views 25 Webster, Noah. Educational Views 25 Wells, W. H., Memoir and Portrait 50 Methods in English Grammar 25 West Point Military Acadj-my 25 Whately, a.. Annotations on Bacon's Essays... 25 W^HEWELL, W^, Edncitional Views 25 White, E.E.,NorLiiHl Schools for Ohio 25 National Bureau of EM ucation 25 White, S. H., National Bureau of Education 25 M'lCHERN, T. H. German Reformatory Schools.. 50 WicKERSHAM, Education 1 Work and Portrait. . . 50 Education in Reconstrnctien 25 WiLLARo, Mrs. Emma, Memoir and Portrait 50 Wilson, J. M., Science in Rugby School 25 William of Wykeham and St. Mary's College.. . . 25 WiLLM, J.. Teachers' Conferences and Libraries. 25 WiMMER, 11., Special Schools in Saxony 25 Public Instruction in Dresden 25 Wines, E. C, Memoir aid Portrait 50 Winterbotham, W., American Education in 1796 25 WiKT, William, Professional Studies— Law '26 Wolf, T. A., E bicational Views 25 WoTTON, Si.i Henry, Educational Views 25 Wurtemberg. Sy^teiuof Publiclustruction 25 T.chnical Schools 25 Woodbridge, W. C, Memo'rand Portrait 50 WYKKHAMaedSt. Mary College 25 Young, Thomas, Manual for Infant Schools 25 Zurich, Cantonal School Code and System 25 Federal Polytechnic University.. 25 BARNARD'S AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. The American Journal of Edtjcation — from 185G to 1873 — comprises 24 Volumes (20,000 octavo pages), with 800 wood-cuts of structures for educational purposes and 135 portraits of eminent educators and teachers. Price, $130 in cloth: $133 in half goat; Single Volume in cloth $5.00, in half goat $5.50. Cmrent Volume in fom* numbers {International Scries), $4.00; Single number, $1.25. INTERNATIONAL SERIES. The International Series of the American Journal of Education will consist of three volumes ot at least 800 pages each — and will be devoted to the completion (as far us practicable) of subjects i>reseiited in the previous Series, and a HistoHeal Survey of National Systems, Institutions, and Methods of histruction in the light which tho former volumes of the Journal may contribute, and the material brought together by the International Exposition of 1870 at PJriladelpliia is expected to furnish. Each number will contain 200 pages, and the three volumes will be illustrated by three Portraits from steel jjlates, and one huncb'ed wood-cuts. Tke Abierican Journal of Education for 1877 (Volimie II. International Series) will bo published quarterly: viz., on the loth January, April, July, and October. Terms : For a Single Copy of the four consecutive Numbers in a year, $4 00 For a Single Number, - - - - - -125 All subscrijjtions payable in advance. All communications relating to the Jour^ial and other publications of the Editor may be addressed to HENRY BARNARD, P. O. Box U, Hartford. Conn. Prof. Quick, author of Educational Reformers, in an article in the English Monthly Jom-nal of Education for July, 1875, writes : Thoso v/ho Imow the wealth of German psedeutical literature often lament the poverty of our own. But many a man has hunted for his spectacles whUe they were on his forehead; and many a reader in this country has groped about in the twilight of a foreign language for what ho might have seen in the broad daylight of his own. . . Indeed, tho history of education and treatises upon everything connected with education may bo read without having recourse to any foreign hterature whatever. This will no doubt seem very startling; but we can assui-e our readers tliat we are not spealdng without book, or indeed without the very books we are talking of. . . Wo have before us the chief educational works that have been published in the United States, and we find that we already have a large educational literature in our ovira language. A great deal of this literature owes its origin to the energy and edu- cational zoal of one man, the Hon. Hemy Barnard, v/ho was the first "Commissioner of Education" in tho United States. Many years ago he formed "a plan of a series of publications to be issued monthly or quapterly and devoted exclusively to the History, Discussion, and Statistics of Systems, Institutions and Methods of Educa- tion in different countries." Tliis plan he has carried out on a grand scale, and we now have his "American Journal of Education" in 24 volumes of seven or eight hundred pages each. An index to the whole work will be published shortly, and tho titio raignt then very fitly be changed to Barnard's Cyclopcedia of Education. This great work, however, can never be generally accessible to the majority of students. Tho price alone (£30) must exclude it from private libraries. But it may be ccnralted at public libraries, at the British Museum e. g. , and at South Kensing- ton, aiid it is a mine which may be very profitably worked by the editors of Educa- tional J ournals in this country. But it io now no longer necessary to purchase the whole of the "American Journal" in order to get particular papers in it. Dr. Barnard has lately issued a groat number of these papers as separate publications. To show what stores of liter- ature already exist in English wo publish the list ((300 titles) at the end of this nmnber. Prof. Hodgson, Edinburgh University, one of the most practical and vigorous educators of tho ago, in an Addi'ess before Tho Educational Institute of Scotland in September, 1875, spoke of the want cf a History of Education in the English Lan- guage, but in a prefatory note to the pamphlet edition of the Address adds : Since this Address was printed, my friend Mr. Quick has called my attention to Dr. Barnard's American Jou7~ncd of Education , which really contains, though not in continuous form, a History and, it may be said, an Encyclopaedia of Education. Papers extracted from it, to the number of six or seven hundred, may now be pur- chased separately. A list of these is published at the end of the Monthly Journal of Education for July last. [Dr. Barnard, it is understood, will in 187(t-7 issue a con- tinuous and comprehensive History of Education, more complete so far as British and American Systenis and Institutions are concerned than Raumer, Fritz, Scbmid, or Palmer.] " December, 1875. 1 CO ^ :S> T ss 55 ^ OD ■ij ^ «0 * ^ S '^ C^ Oi S cS> •♦o <4J <5i S^ •oi 5^ •K. f»>i O ^>^ •io •tw •t^ ?^ oc g ^ « S^ ■ii ^ »< c*. to •%J "ii o g^ •3 o«o r< ^ 145 "43 ^ tO -to "^ =0 to 5^ r< ^ p CO s to 1^ CO )^ ■Si 10 to .^ CO >^ Is CO ^< to p ^ < ^ c ^0 ^ "s^ f»o PW «o (O n H ^ ^ m s:; B^intitrgarten J^es^enger, NEW SERIES. Nos. 3, 4. MAKOH AND APRIL, 1877. Vol. I. TABLE OF CONTENTS. a kindergartners' festival. . Fkobel's Birthday What Books shall, we Kead ? No. I Why a Personal Traimng, and NOT Books merely, is neces- FOR KlNDEKGAKTEN ArT . . 36 44 PAGE Mothers' Unions 48 Is Child's-Play TkiflingV . . 54 Christmas at the Kindergarten 55 Easter Festival 58 Buttercups and Daisies ... 59 Foreign Intelligence .... 60 Domestic Intelligence .... 64 Terms. — $1.00 a year for American subscribers, 5 shillings for Europeans (postage included). CAMBRIDGE: PUBLISHED BY ELIZABETH P. PEABODY, 19 Follen Street. 1877. E. Steiger, 22 & 24 Frankfort Street, New York. KINDEEGAETEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATION MATEEIAL. The most complete assortment, and the largest stock. — Superiority of goods acknowledged by the International Jury at the Centennial Exhibitior and by Kindergartners and School Boards all over the country. 1P^ The St. Louis and other Public Kindergartens are supplied wit Material, on contract, by E. Steiger. — Special attention is invited to: Frcebel's KiDdergarten Occupations for the Family. Boxes No. 1 to 10, each with Material, Designs, and Instruction. Price 75 Cents each. in English, German, French, etc. Kindergartea Tracts.— catalogues gratis E. STEIGER, 22 & 24 Frankfort Street, NEW YORK. Education by Work according to Frobel's Principles. Trans- lated by Mrs. Mann and Professor No a, from the German of Baroness Marenholtz-BUlow. Printed and bound by the pujDils of the Philotechnic School, on Market Street, Camden, N.J. This book is at A. Williams & Go's., Washington and School Streets, and in many bookstores. Also, by enclosing a dollar to Rudolphus Bingham, Gooper's Whaif, Gamden, N.J., it will be sent post paid. It was at this generous gentleman's private cost that it was printed. " This book is of great irajjortance for educating the pub- lic to an appreciation of the wide bearings of Frobel's Kindergart^i, giving an account of the work-schools, school-gardens, and youth- gardens growing out of it ; being a treatise on the place of Re- creation, not only in education, but in the healthy life of adults, more profound than any thing on this subject since Plato." Kindergarten Messenger. Bt\\y Series. Nos. 3, 4. MARCH AND APRIL, 1877. Vol. I. A KINDERGARTNERS' FESTIVAL, In Honor of the Birthday of Freidrich Frobel, will be celebrated Saturday, April 21, at Dr. Bartol's (the West) Church, Cambridge Street, corner of Lynde, Boston. Depot and West-end cars pass or go near it. Exercises begin at 11^ o'clock. Order of Exercises. 1. Chant, by chorus of kindergartners : "Whosoever reeeiveth a little child in my name, reeeiveth me." " Except ye be converted, and become as a little child, ye sliall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven." " Woe unto him who ofFendeth one of these little ones; for their angels behold the face of our Father in heaven." " Suffer little childien to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 2. Sketch of the life and life-work of Freidrich Frobel. 3. Report of the objects and officers of the American Frobel Society now in process of organization. (The organizing members of the American Frobel Society are the Rev. Daniel Austin, Kittery, Maine ; Mrs. Louis Agassiz, Mrs. Professor Gray, and Miss E. P. Peabody, Cambridge ; Mrs. George R. Russell, INIrs. Augustus Hemmenway, and Mrs. Ida Agassiz Higginson, Boston ; Mrs. Pauline Agassiz Shaw, Brookline ; Mrs. Mary Fisher Fox, Philadelphia ; Mr. William Tliaw, President of the Pennsylvania R. R. Company, Pittsburgh. They organized at the house of Mrs. G. R. Russell, April 6th, making donations from twenty-five to one hundred dollars ; twenty-five dollars being the ininimum for Life members, who alone, with the officers they choose, will be voting members of the Society. Mrs. George B. Loring, of Salem, was added April 7th ; and the editor of the Kindergarten Messenger will receive the pi'omissory notes of any others who may sympa- thize in the Society's object, of securing the system against deterio- ration by its Register of properly educated kindergartners.) 4. Voluntary addresses from the audience. Rev. Dr. Bartol and other gentlemen have promised to speak. 5. Amen fi'om Haydn's Sixteenth Mass. 34 • KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. FROBEL'S BIRTHDAY. In the " Reminiscences of Frobel," which are soon to be issued hj one of the leading publishers of Boston, in a volume, an account is given of the last birthday he celebrated on earth (April 21, 1852). The pi'ohibition of Kindergarten in the state education of Prussia by the reactionary government which had succeeded the uprising of 1848, because it suspected this new education to be the germ of democracy, had recently taken place, and given quite a shock to Frobel, who knew himself to be utterly guiltless of any political designs whatever; for he was wholly sceptical of the power of political forms of any kind to produce either liberty or order, — which, by the way, he considered to be one and the same thing ; he thought they could only come to flower and fruit after a vital social action and life should have produced a new growth of men. He said to the Baroness Marenholtz-Biilow, in their first chance interview of 1849, when they were speaking " of the disappointment of the noble hopes that had sprung up during the movements of 1848, the mistakes and faults of both parties, and the general failure, neither party being able to bring about the desired amelioration : " " We cannot tear the present from the past or from the future. The renewing of life which the future demands must begin in the present. In the children lies the seed-corn of the future." He was a conservative, not a destructive, reformer. " That which follows is always conditioned by what goes before," he said: "the new creation must ever come first out of the old ; therefore the historical tradition must ever be respected. Nothing comes without struggle. Great storms create nothing : they only clear the air. New seeds must be planted in the ground to germinate and grow, if we would have the tree of humanity blossom. We must, however, take care not to cut away the roots, as the destructive element of to-day is liable to do ! " At this time, Frobel had come to feel that his part in the great work of the education of man was only that of preparing the ground and seeding it, and had reconciled himself to dying with his great idea yet unembodied ; sure, however, that in due time it would be. But the energetic friendship of the baroness, who brought him into personal relation with the ducal families of Meiningen and Weimar (the most liberal-minded and cultivated princes in Eui'ope), and (what was more important) introduced him to the princes of thought, Diesterweg, Kiihne, Hiccke, Varnhagen von Ense, the Minister of Instruction in Prussia, &c., — who, all beginning in scepticism, be- KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 35 came, by conversation with him, converts, and warm advocates of his idea as a profounder one than had before been reached, — had, in the com-se of three or four years, kindled in him the hope of seeing the institution of his system in the public system at once; which, he believed, would complete the social liberation of Germany, and, by the peace of divine law, bring about "unity of life " therein. His charming life in Marienthal, his second marriage, the success of his " Festival of Childhood," a general convention of teachers that was planned to which he was respectfully invited, were all good omens. For a little time, he could not acquiesce in the disappointment, and endeavored to have the rescript taken back, by showing there was no ground for its pretext ; and he even wrote a letter to the king. But when he found all was in vain, he exclaimed, " If they will not recognize and support my cause in my own fiitherland, I will go to America, where a new life is unfolding itself in freedom, and a new education of man corresponding with it will find a footing ! " But he was seventy years old, and this thought could hardly take action in his person. He soon fell back, with pious resigna- tion, on his fixith in his system as an ark of divine truth, and that no upholding by Uzzah hands was necessary. It was soon seen how futile the rescript was. It could not prevent private Kinder- gartens springing up in Berlin itself, which would more freely and fully exemplify his system than state schools could do ; and atten- tion was drawn to the subject by this A^ery government act, which insured a fovorable consideration of it by the most liberal and thoughtful minds. At the convention of teachers, the government decree did not prevent the whole body from receiving Frobel, by rising from their seats when he entered ; and all his friends, old and new, rallied round him to celebrate his birthday immediately afterwards, of whose beautiful and heartfelt rites a lovely account is given in the " Reminiscences." All clouds thereafter passed away from the firmament of his mind ; his sun went down, also, on midsummer day in the sweet glory of a beautiful sunset, in which they turned out their purple and golden linings to his eyes ; and every thing he said evinced his faith that all was well, — that he had finished the work that was given him to do, and was about to ascend to our Father in heaven, from which height he should see the end from the beginning. Twenty-five years later, April 21, 1877, there will assemble, in perhaps the most cultivated city in America, some of the most en- lightened citizens of tlie United States, to complete the organization of an American Frobel Society, whose objects were so fully stated in 36 KINDERQAflTEN MESSENGER. our last Messenger ; and we trust that after the memorial services shall have given the audience, that we hope will assemble, some idea of the infinite importance of the wcfi-k that the Society has undertaken to do, we shall add to the number of Life-members, and bring the subsci'iption list of the Messenger up to a thousand subscribers. The Life-members subscribe what they please, so that it be not less than 125.00, and will choose their own Treasurer and other necessary officers ; and with these officers, as voters also, will ap- point the examiners, who shall give certificates of competency, entitling the receivers to a place in the Register of Trained Kin- dergartners, which will be published in the Messenger. WHAT BOOKS SHALL WE READ? No. L As soon as people become interested in the idea of the Kinder- garten, or get a glimpse of its character, the first demand is for hooks. This is legitimate : and the demand must be supplied, although it is certainly true that books cannot teach what a Kindergai'ten is, as observation of a genuine Kindergarten in operation does ; nor still less can books make a kindergartner, as my own and a multi- tude of other experiments have proved again and again. But there are some books that can educate the public into a fair conception of what ought to be expected and required from a kinder- gartner worthy of the name. Steiger's Kindergarten Tracts. — Fifteen of these tracts can be obtained gratis from Mr. Steiger, for the asking and an enclosure of a three-cents postage-stamp ; and, although individually so short (two, three, and seven pages long), they regally touch the octaves of the whole matter, and are the very best means of introducing the subject to those ignorant of it; or, at least, the next best means to the careful observation, for a day or week, of a Kindergarten in operation. One of the shortest of these tracts is the recommenda- tion of the Kindergarten on account of its good relations to bodily health ; and contains the favorable testimonies of Dr. A. G. Bell, and of the Medical Society of Rhode Island. This is No. 10 ; and fifty of them can be bought for five cents ! No. 5 is an extract from the Lecture to the College of Preceptors in London, by J. R. Payne, Esq., an eminent critic and educator, KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 37 ami Professor of the Science of Education ; in which extract he imagines Frobel observing children at play, and deducing the prin- ciples of human growth therefrom, and the use that can be made of play for education. This answers, once and for ever, the question of whether child's-play is the best means of securing a harmonious development of the instinctive nature, and precludes numerous cavillings upon the truth and issues of the method. Fifty of these can be had for twenty cents : and we always advise young kindergartners, when they go into a town to set up a Kindergarten, to procure fifty of them, and fifty of Nos. 9, 10, and 14 ; and send them to all the principal inhabitants of the town, especially if they are parents. No. 9 is a lecture of Miss Blow's to the Normal School of St. Louis: and is a succinct consideration, first, of the orderly use of Frobel's six " Gifts " for developing the mind into habits of ac- curate analysis; and, second, of the use of the " Occupations" to give the Law of synthesis, which is one and the same in all the varieties of work, whether to the end of use or beauty. The reader sees that the kindergartner, who is to guide the child genially in his playing with the gifts and in his manipulation of the materials, must understand the abstract laws of analysis and synthesis; but the children learn these as processes only by industrial experiences. To them, therefore, it is play ; but play that lays the foundation for the intellectual exercises that constitute the human understand- ing, as the teacher needs to see. It is all so simply stated that the common sense sees the principle. It saves the kindergartner a great deal of talking, to be able to put into the hands of an inquiring parent this pamphlet, when he asks what use is it to the mind to play with these gifts year in and year out, and make these pretty things ? How is it preparing him for scientific observation, and for doing the work of the world ? No. 14 is an address of Karl Frobel to the English Manchester Society, at the inauguration of the training school for kinder- gartners. It shows that the Kindergarten is not intended to give scientific knowledge ; but rather to develop the power of receiving knowledge, and using it in the most profitable manner after it is attained. He says the proof of the good Kindergarten is to be found in the primary school that follows it. It very satisfactorily answers the question constantly put, Will not the Kindergarten make the school discipline more disagreeable and harder ? It shows that, on the other hand, it needs must make it more intelligible to the child, and therefore more agreeable and profitable ; that is, if 38 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. the school has any order, and any thing to teach. Children in the Kindergarten learn to love order for its fruits of beauty and use ; and to love to learn for the sake of knowing, and not for the sake of self-display or any extrinsic end. No. 12 is a pretty story suggesting the relation of the fjinciful play with the materials, to the development of artistic genius, to whose instincts it gives practical culture. Fifty of these can be had for ten cents. The note to No. 12, and the whole of No. 15, which is entitled Frobel's " Kindergarten Education, especially nec- essary in orphan asylums, &c., where there are no natural mothers," show that Kindergarten culture is a most feasible and effectual way of exercising charity to destitute children, and of employing the benevolent energies of those who have leisure and a sense of duty. No. 13 is quite a manual for young mothers and nurses ; showing them how they can amuse little babies in such a way as not to rasp their nerves, or stimulate their perceptive faculties too much, while the child is not left to sink into apathy, oi- confused and bewildered by too many objects, but is led along by soft transitions and repe- tition of impressions. Perhaps not quite enough is said in this tract about the desirableness of stopping at each step, and reiter- ating the present exercise and the past ones, till they are so defined that memory is spontaneous. We prevent the develop- ment of memory in children by accumulating disconnected impres- sions, none of which have been repeated often enough to stimulate that effort to retain impressions which we call attention, and which changes passive impressions into active perceptions, making a step towards their being remembered. No child should be called upon to remember; for memory is not an act of the will, any more than taking impressions is. It results involuntarily from the definiteness and vividness of perceptions. The memory of perceptions is the basis of both the understanding and of the fancy. Fancy is a wild play of will force among remem- bered perceptions, making combinations that are not found in nature. Understanding is a voluntary comparison of things with each other, and connection of them in the order of nature ; also, the connecting of inward states with outward things by the intermedium of language. Light shows things in their relations; reason sees things in their relations. This tract, which is called " Advice to Mothers," brings within a few pages suggestions for exercises that are to extend over years, — at least two years, — during which the impressions of the forms and motions on the eye are associated with impressions on the KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER, 39 ear of the Avords that express these forms and motions; and the chikl is developed into individual consciousness by the mother's or nurse's playful talk with it. I should always advise a kiuder- gartner to keep this tract on hand, to give to the mothers who have infants. Fifty of them can be had for twenty cents. The other tracts are mostly descriptions of visits to Kinder- gartens, whose value is that each visit described was a real one. There are also one or two descriptions of Kindergartens in general, noting those characteristics which belong to all of them. I liave dwelt on these tracts so much at length, because they are adapted to the needs of all kinds of readers, especially to those in need of time to read^ and because they are so cheap. The whole set costs only a postage-stamp ! and a dollar will buy fifty of each of the most important; namely, the 5th, 9th, 12th, IStli, 14th, and 15th. " HailmwCs Kindergarten Culture.^'' — This book only costs seventy-five cents. Its first chapter is an admirable essay, show- inof that the leadino; idea of the education of a human beinsr should be the perfect development of his nature ; and a secondary idea, though not one to be lost sight of, his use as a member of society, or as an instrumentality for getting his own living. This is admirable reading for a kindergartner and parent. The second chapter describes how the mother should use the gifts in the nursery for the child's development. The third chapter is on the movement-plays ; which are spoken of as the work of the Kin- dergarten, because to play them requires numbers. In 1827, Frobel proposed that the gifts should be used at home in the nursery, and by the mother only. But, during the next thirteen years, he learned that it was impossible for the mother, with her complex cares, to use the gifts at home in a sufficiently ordeily manner to give a regular development; and, therefore, in 1840, when he invented the Kindergarten to take the children out of the nui'sery for several hours of every day, he relegated the playing with all the gifts, except the first one, to the Kindergarten, to- gether with the movement-plays. But there are instances in which it is impossible for children to go to a Kindergarten ; and the mothers of such will have great comfort in Mr. Hailman's beautiful little book. Mothers so situated will also get aid from Hoifman's " Kindergarten Toys^'' a book sold by Steiger for twenty cents. " Education by Work on FrdbeVs Principle^'' — This book, published in Germany in 1860, was the most effective means of 40 KINDEEGARTEIi MESSENGER. spreading Frobel's Kindergarten in the other countries of Europe, by unfolding the relations and scope of its law of play, in society past, present, and future. The preface shows the relations of the labor question with the educational question. Ch. I, Relations of Kindergarten play to serious work. Ch. II. suggests practical arrangements for intro- ducing Kindergartens. (This does not in all respects apply to America, where conditions are more favorable for universalizing this institution.) Ch. III. The Education of the Kindergartner, and the Wisdom of Mothers. Ch. IV. treats of an intermediate class connecting the Kindergarten proper and the primary school. In this class children are taught to read, and the play of " Occupa- tions " takes on a decidedly artistic character. Ch. V. The Kinder- garten method, carried into the industrial schools, makes the work educate, because it is done not mechanically. Ch. VI. gives the true place of recreation, by means of school and youth gardens. These two chapters (v. and vi.) ai-e full of original views, which should claim the consideration of all the leaders of education, and all dii-ectors of society ; especially in this country, which is in all the fluidity of youth, and may so shape its social institutions as to form a higher type of manhood in the masses, and lay a foundation in social for political equality. Ch. VII. considers and disposes of the several and contradictory objections made to Frobel's Kin- dergarten, which always spring from ignorance of it, or from having seen a spurious or unskilful teaching. These seven chapters have been translated and printed, at the cost of a private gentleman, by the pupils of a private school in Camden, New Jersey, Avho set up the type, printed, and bound it themselves; and it can always be obtained, post paid, by enclosing a dollar to Mr. Rudolphus Bing- ham, Cooper's wharf, Camden, N. J. This gentleman, without any knowledge of Frobel, woi'ked out in his own mind the conception of an education addressing the senses of children ; objective in its means as far as possible, and engaging the self-activity of the young by an exercise of the me- chanical powers, which is spontaneous in children. He saw that, if not employed to useful ends, these powers become sources of disorder; and disorderly action has a disastrous intellectual as well as moral effect ; while action to a useful, productive end is always (especially if it is willing action) a positive discipline and culture of the intellect. Fortunately, Mr. Bingham found a gentleman, an Englishman, who had been a pupil at the University of Jena, and who had sympathized with the movement in Germany towards industrial education, — which was one effect of this very book, among other causes, — and who had obtained a glimpse of its KINDERGARTEN JIESSENGER. 41 principle from hearing its title. This gentleman was happy to open a private school in Camden, with a morning and afternoon session : the morning one to be devoted to book knowledge, but in which the objective principle was used, not only to teach the sciences, but also to initiate the teaching of Latin, Greek, French, German, &c. ; and the afternoon session was devoted to mechanical arts, — printing, binding, plaster casting, drafting, &c., — for which Mr. Bingham largely afforded the apparatus and material. This school has proved a success. The book knowledge obtained is more rather than less than in schools which devote the whole time to it, and the work is done with the greatest ardor. It uses up that tendency to motion and play which, when left wild, issues in disorder and destructiveness. The variety of work to be done gives that opportunity for change which prevents tediousness and disgust ; and the freedom to choose their work does not preclude, but rather insures, the most fervent industry, and sufficient per- severance to bring results which cherish self-respect and pre- clude frivolity. The ages of the children range between ten and eighteen. At the Centennial Exhibition, some maps, and some charts illus- trating scientific classifications wei-e exhibited among other of their productions; and the scientific charts attracted the attention of the French Commissioners, who ordered a complete set of them to be made for France. When I visited the school last summer, I found the children (boys and girls) very earnestly engaged in executino- this commission ; more excited by the compliment to their work than by the money which would be paid for it, though that was to be divided among them. I found Mr. Bingham had their pi-oduc- tions sold to pay the cost of the materials ; and, when any money was left, the little workers were j^aid wages. Mr. Bingham told me that objection had been made to that fea- ture, and it had been said that it would cultivate mercenary char- acter before it was time. But he said he did not find that it had that practical effect. The children were very generous with the money they earned, enlarging the scope of the work by getting better material for it. Many of the boys, wTiose parents could not afford to pay, paid for their own tuition and books. To one boy of sixteen years of age had been credited in one year nearly a thousand dollars ; and he was one of the best scholars in languages and science. If the chil- dren devoted a less number of hours to book study than in other classical schools, they more than gained the difference by their more complete attention while they were studying, and the more method- ical way they studied, from their having gained methodical habits 42 KINDERGARTENS' MESSENGER. in their working hours. It was evidently the metliod of nature to have objective and physical action lead mental action during the child era ; and then mental action would lead physical action in the maturer age. Mr. Travelli, the enthusiastic advocate of the Frobel education, visited this school last summer, and was surprised to see how much of Frobel's plan had been anticipated by the general benevolence and fine common-sense of Mr. Bingham ; and told him that he needed nothing but a Kindergarten underpinning to his school, and its " jirinciple of all activity" apprehended and applied from inflincy, to make his institution perfect. He spoke to him of this book, , which he knew to be lying in manuscript in sore need of a pub- lisher. Mr. Bingliam recognized the title as of the book Mr. Moore had spoken of, and said he should like to see it. When I sent it to him, he replied that he would let his boys print and bind it; furnishing the material in the fxith that I and other friends of the cause would advertise it by reviews, newspaper notices, &c., so that he might sell enough to pay its cost. Pie has given away half the edition. It can always be obtained, post paid, by addressing him and enclosing a dollar. A. Williams & Co., of Boston, and booksellers in the principal cities of the States, frequently have it on sale. It is the only work that discusses at large the true principle of recreation ; the place of it in all healthy life of young and old ; and the indispensableness of it, followed out in Frobel's w^ay, to the harmonious development and perfect education of the human being. Practical Manuals. Praxis. — The desideratum for a long time has been a sufficient guide to the practice of the Kindergarten ; for Rouge's " Guide " and Wiebe's " Paradise of Childhood," have both been found disappointing. Hence we rejoice to see that Mr. Steiger has published the first section of an " Illustrated Hand- book designed for the Self-instruction of Kindergartners, Mothers, and Nurses," by Maria Kraus-Boelte and John Kraus. Better than any words of ours is the Preface, which we copy entire : — " This ' Kindergarten Guide ' is the result of twenty years' ex- perience in the Kindergarten in Germany, England, and America. " When the first chapters of this book were written, the authors had in view the preparation of a smaM hand-book, solely for the use of the mothers who visited their 'Mothers' Class,' and who repeatedly requested the publication of the lessons and lectures there given. " This plan Avas, however, entirely changed, and the enlargement of the work rendered necessary, by the desii-e for information which KINDERGAKTEN" MESSENGER. 43 was very generally expressed, alike by persons visiting the Kinder- garten and by interested inquirers. "The pupils of the Training Class conducted by the authors desired a manual which should aid them in their work, following out the course of teaching and training with which they had become familiar ; letters were received from all parts of the land, but espe- cially from mothers who were far away from any Kindergarten, asking for advice and instruction, and needing information minute enough to supply the place of personal observation; many of the nurses who, by attendance with the children at the Kindergarten, had qbtained such partial information as circumstances permitted, manifested both interest in and appreciation of the work, and became desirous of wider knowledge as to the proper treatment of children, and the means of making the nursery more and more attractive ; teachers and principals (male and female), Sister^ of Charity and other orders, inquired, both personally and by letter, to what extent Frobel's occupations miglit be introduced into the schools, asylums, and institutions under their charge ; and, finally, many j^ersons, superficially or imperfectly trained as teachers in so-called Kindergartens, becoming dissatisfied with their prepara- tion, honestly confessed this fact, and asked for the means of obtaining, by the aid of some book on the subject, a better under- standing of Kindergarten instruction, based upon the teachings and methods of Frobel himself. " These numerous and urgent requests for increased information, therefore, induced the authors to enlarge the plan of their projected work ; and now this book is offered to all interested in the Kinder- garten, as one which endeavors to meet, in some measure at least, these repeated demands. It is to be hoped that the book, as a result of much earnest labor bestowed upon it, will convey, to those who attempt to follow its directions, most of the help and assist- ance needed. "Of one things ihe readers of this 'Guide' may be assured; viz., that from it they may obtain the genuine praxis of Frobel, de- veloped, it is thought, in the light of his ideas. The attempt has been made to render it all that such a guide should be, as an aid to mothers, kindergartners, and nurses, and to all who have the hap- piness and careful training of the children at heart. Especial attention is invited to the final chai:)ter, on the spirit and manner of story-telling and of talking and playing with the little ones. The information it conveys, and the suggestions it oflfers, may be alike interesting and instructive to all who are intrusted with the daily care of children. "Inasmuch as the result of right ts-aining becomes every day 44 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. apparent in the development and progress of the children under their charge, all thoughtful persons who are earnestly engaged in Kindergarten education will be repeatedly surprised at the new channels of pleasing instruction which are opened before them, and at the rapid advance of the children themselves in intellect and knowledge, as well as at their harmonious physical development. "It must be borne in mind that it was the intention of Frobel, that his system of educational development should be continued beyond the Kindergarten age of the children. His labors, there- fore, were not confined to the Kindergarten alone, which was but one of the several features of his new and peculiar system. " The benefit of FrobeFs educational idea will completely be appreciated, only when it shall have been applied to every stage of educational progress, — when, in fact, the Kindergarten is con- sidered but the preparation for a higher education based upon the same fundamental principle ; a system which will permit each pupil to manifest his own individuality freely and without restraint, and allow the fullest scope to his talents, tastes, and tendencies. " The course which is to be pursued after that of the Kindergarten has been concluded, is indicated, or at least hinted at, in the dif- ferent gifts and occupations, in each of which the mere playful work is to be gradually superseded by actual, j^ractical work. "The careful student will find that Frobel's method furnishes the starting-point for each science and for each profession. " In conclusion, the authors will not fail to say expressly, that even the most earnest study of this book, or of any other book, will never enable a person to undertake successfully the management of a Kindergarten, — any attempt to do this must prove unsatis- factory. Nothing short of a thorough understanding of the system and its philosophy, nothing less than the attainment of a certain manual dexterity, and a practical knowledge of many other appar- ently unimportant matters — all of which can only be acquired by goino- through a full course of instruction in a training-class — are in addition to natural aptitude, necessary for a person who desires to become a successful kindergartner." The Authors. New York, February 22d, 1877. WHY A PERSOXAL TRAINING, AND NOT BOOKS MERELY, IS NECESSARY FOR KINDERGARTEN ART. Because the Kindergarten is understood, by those who have looked most deeply into it, to be an ideal miniature world for chil- dren to expand in, morally even more than intellectually; and KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 45 this is an idea which does not come naturally to the minds of this generation, except in rare cases, but needs careful inculcation. Education has been so long regarded as only instruction, that even the advanced educator (advanced in years and experience) seldom looks upon it practically in any other light, and makes it his great object to insure the greatest amount of acquirement, instead of the greatest amount of original thinking, in his pupils. And this he does in spite of the fact, which he must have gained from observation and from his own experience, that much that is taught is soon forgotten, because not correlated justly with the general life of the student. The pupils of the Kindergarten training school are made to feel, above all other things, that they are influencing the very souls of their little ones by the manner in which they teach even the purely intellectual processes of arithmetic and geometry, which are the basis of much of the instruction given in a Kindergarten by means of the occupations. Precision of perception and thinking^ that is, comparison of pro- portions and fitness, are the activities of mind evoked from the children by their occuljations of building and stick-laying, paper- folding, &c. ; and the very words used have a moral element in them, — straight, right, perpendicular, horizontal. Accuracy of statement, obedience to direction, — in their weaving and sewing, as well as in the building, — give them the sentiment, as well as the intellectual idea, that every thing has its conditions. If a child says, " Oh ! I think it will do," there is a fine opportu- nity to teach it to see that nothing will " do " but the right thing and the right course. This is vastly more important than the per- fection of the article to be made. The bit of paper or card- board is of trifling importance : the manner of using it is of the highest importance. " If you leave it so, it is not pretty, — it is not worth any thing, because it is wrong and ugly," is all, perhaps, that can be said to the tot of three years old ; though this should never be said lightly, for fear of discouraging effort. To the child of four, a more advanced view can be given. " If you leave it so, then you have not learned any thing, and can't do any better the next time. We must not leave it till it is all right. And, if I do it for you, then it will not be your work : it will be my work ; and you cannot take it home, if it is my work. Mamma wants to see her little boy's work, not ray work. When you can do it right, all yourself, then you can take it home. No matter for the mistakes. Mistakes always teach us something; and you can try again." The desire to take things home is so 46 KIXDERGAETEN MESSEXGEK. strong, that it requires .all the sturdiness, all the 7'eligious principle^ of the teacher to resist it. Indeed, she needs the careful training to cultivate her own principles. Principle is not as it should be, and would be in a person educated carefully on Kindergarten prin- ciples, — an active, every-day guide to most people. Expediency is the evil spirit that overrides it in woman's daily domestic walk, as well as on man's exchange. It is charitable to excuse others for moral delinquencies, for we must take into consideration the evil influences to which character is exj>osed in a world in which we see so much evil; but we must not be charitable to ourselves, — *we must exact every thing of ourselves that the most severe ethi- cal thinking can evoke from our consciences. Then only shall we be fit to guide and train the consciences of children. Children are exposed to terrible evils in this direction. Kind-hearted servants (taking them at their best) are a snare to children's consciences, in those higher circles of life where so much care of them is given up to hirelings. In the child's hearing, they soften the testimony to "naughty behavior," as the experiments of children are unjustly called ; which reacts upon the child corruptingly, and teaches it to excuse and deny its own acts. Sei'vants often misrepresent, ex- plicitly to shield themselves, and enlist the secrecy of the children by threats and promises. Then, the injustice and unreasonableness of accusations create the attitude of self-defence in many children, and confound their sense of justice. The fear of punishment de- moralizes them. It is only in a perfectly free community, such as the Kindergarten can be made, where transgressions from the rules of politeness to one another and to the teacher are usually the gravest misdemeanors (the word " naughty " should never be used for these things), and whose avoidance excludes selfishness, that is at the root of most evil, that children act naturally. Where they act naturally, and are not judged, peremptorily sentenced, condemned, and punished condignly, but only questioned and made to look at themselves calmly, they are the first to condemn themselves, — the surest test that love of truth and justice are attributes of the soul of man.- A reverent teacher of childhood, who has by precept been taught to respect it and handle it with fear and trembling, will hesitate to judge a child, — will wait a little if bafiled in its management, and take time to consider what should be done to meet the case. A mother has such an inward sense and organic understanding of her child, — that is, if she has kept the care of it in her own hands, — that she knows its good propensities, and can balance them against the evil ones better than any one else ; and thus, if she is a true mother, is her child's best educator. The teacher KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 47 must learn this theoretically before she is fit to take the mother's place; and only by knowing it theoretically, is she preijared to add to her knowledge by experience. In regard to the intellectual jjart of the training, the order of the cultivation of the faculties is a science which every educator needs to study before daring to take up the profession. The proper sequence, even, of the occupations of the Kindergarten, and the mode of teaching the children how to apply the law of the " connection of opposites " is of the utmost importance ; and must be learned with wide-awake uund, else the meddling of the kin- dergartner with the children's development will be injurious rather than beneficial. Those who study the science intelligently — and it is the science, of mind they study, or it is nothing — feel more and more, as they go on, how important the instruction of the training school is. It carries them into regions of thought that they have perhaps never been introduced to by any experience of their lives, even if they have acquired a great deal of book knowledge. It is a' frequent expression with such students, that they never before knew what life meant, or Avhat they were made for. Young mothers often have this feeling when they find themselves with the responsibili- ties of the motherly duties, and are utterly at a loss what to do. They then for the first time realize their ignorance, and are dis- mayed at it. A mother of five children recently made the remark, while con- fiding some of her difficulties in management to an elderly friend whom she had not seen for a long time : " I have been so situated that I could not consult any one. I have always hoped I should have a good opportunity to talk with Mrs. , who has such a wonderful way with her children. They are always good ; she has very little trouble with them. But I am perfectly baflied by my little girl ; she is old enough to be patient with the other children ; but she is not." Further conversation brought out the fact, that this oldest child (of nine years) was pent up a great deal of the time with four little children, all clamorous for play and help, and somewhat ex- cited by her irritability. AlsOj it transpired that the child was in the midst of some difficult teething, — was subject to sudden fever- ish turns, loss of appetite, and languor, though finely developed in limb and flesh. The suggestion was made that this state of health probably accounted for the defects of temper, and the want of forbearance and apparent selfishness that had come over the child. The relief to the mother's heart was almost painful to see, though, of course, 48 KINDERGAKTEN MESSENGER. pleasant to see also. But she evidently bad despaired of her child before ; and now her hopes revived, and she returned home resolved to protect lier from the annoyance of the younger children, and to sympathize with and pity her for her uncomfortable feelings, in- stead of finding fault. All mothers would be benefited by study of the science of Kin- dergai'tens, before assuming the duties of parents ; and the time will unquestionably come when it will be made a j^art of necessary education for all women. MOTHERS' UNIONS. Before the Kindergarten Messenger was thought of, its editor addressed an open letter to parents, proposing that in every town an informal, inexpensive society should be formed by some inter- ested mother, to read and converse on the subject of the Kinder- garten. It was suggested that the "Circular of Information" published for the month of July, 1872, by the Bureau of Education at Washington, should be the first book read and discussed, as it could be procured gratis by asking for it. One union was formed at Montclair, N. J., which resulted in establishing a Kindergarten and calling a teacher ; while one of the ladies went to prepare her- self, under Mrs. Kraus-Boelte, to keep it, who is now in the full tide of successful experiment. The " Circular of Information " has long since been exhausted ; but the tracts and books mentioned in the article of this number, " What Books Shall we Read ? " together with the Kindergarten Messenger itself, would supply topics enough to every monthly meeting to make a good beginning ; and the result of all such attempts would be, like that in Montclair, to make a Kinder- garten felt to be the first necessity, of life, and, where one was already established, to insure understanding, sympathy, and co- operation with the kindergartner. Frobel's idea of education included women and children. It was the education of mankind that he treated in his first great work. In this education of mankind by God, all the members mutually educate each other, children unconsciously, and the adult generation consciously ; and, there- fore, on the latter rests the moral responsibility. Frobel opens the meaning of all Christ's words touching childhood, as every profound student of his system finds ; and hence those expressions so constantly made in the training schools : " This is a new world to me ; " " Life is more interesting than I had ever imagined ; " " One seems to be born into another world ; " "I seem to be learning for the first time in my life ; " " This is self-education ; " " Who is sufficient for these things ? " KINDEEGAETEN MESSENGER. 49 A similar effect is produced in an earnest mothers' union, and especially in a mothers' class. But it is not every good kinder- gartner that can be at the same time competent to lead a class of mothers. Mrs. Kraus-Boelte and Mrs. Aldrich are unquestionably of exceptional power. The interest of the class in Florence in- creases with every meeting. We are permitted to print a few of Mrs. Aldrich's written notes, which indicate the spirit and purpose of the Mothers' Union of Florence. MES. aldeich's inteoductory remarks at the first mothers' MEETING IJSr FLORENCE, MARCH, 1876. The great thought that presses upon us at all times, and in an especial manner now, is. How shall we best serve humanity? — how lighten the heavy burdens, and prevent the spread of crimes ? I do not mean so much those crimes for which prisons are made. They are ultimate outgrowths : between them and our work rolls a vast sea of fjilse living. Unfair dealing, trusts betrayed, and hearts broken, — these all lie close to our doors, and too often do not wait for an invitation to enter and sit at our hearths and tables. There certainly is a remedy for all this evil : there is truth enough, justice enough, love enough in the world to right all the wrongs; and no one of us can afford to live on without asking — and answering, too — the question. What can I do to lessen the wrong and inci'ease the right ? So much money, time, and thought are already given to reform criminals that our eyes are led in the direction of the multitude ; but, since no apparent results come from what has been done, it is wise to ask ourselves if some important steps have not been over- looked. Look for one moment at the way the work of education is done. Our children are sent into the public schools at an early age, with no systematic training of heart and mind, to resist the current that sets in at that point to bear them on to manhood and woman- hood. And what are the stopping-places, — the wayside inns where they may stop and take in refreshment that shall lurnish nerve and sinew to the moral nature, and kee]} its growth equal Avith the intellectual ? It is nearly impossible for ns who are parents, really to fear that our boys and girls will grow up other than true men and women. But, dear friends, look at society, from men in the highest business and social circles to the poorest walks of life, and let us try to remember that very many of those who have so sadly failed to realize their own or their parents' expectations, were once little children like ours, and in just such homes as we give our boys 4 50 KINDERGAETEI^ MESSEXGEB. and girls ; and they went out to then' life-work apparently just as clean and wholesome as we expect our children to be. But there was something lacking. And shall we not seriously inquire where the rock is upon which they stumbled and fell, and if we are not repeating the mistakes of their education ? If you build a house, do you give the foundation little or no attention, and say, " When the building is up far enough to show, I will see that good material is supplied, and the work well done " ? Do you not rather say, if you want your building permanent and safe, " I will put in the very best foundation ; the quality of the work and the material shall be right " ? If you do otherwise, you do not claim any superiority for your building. Or, to use a better illustration, you do not buy a choice plant, with its tender green just appearing, and put it with indiiference into the ground, and say, " When it is grown larger, I will take care of it " ! If you wish to plant an orchard, and exi^ect to get the best results, do joxi not make the soil very mellow, and set the young trees with the greatest care, knowing that any neglect now can never be made up ? When the gardener puts seeds into the ground, you all know with what care he watches the aj^pearance of the first tiny leaf. He gives each plant room, light, air, and water, conscious that a single day's neglect will be injurious, perhaps fatal, to the tender plant. It is transplanted from time to time, the conditions of soil and atmosphere kept right, — and all with a knowledge of its needs' that is partly instinct ; and you are sure that there is hardly a possibility of its producing any thing without this care. Shall we not work and judge as wisely for our darling little children ? Be- cause we love their pretty, winning ways, and almost iresistible caresses so much, shall we forget that these, with their petulant, arbitrary, or shrewd performances, so cunning and attractive now, are the germs of their future characters, and that they need the most watchful care lest even the good seeds become crowded by each other, choked by weeds, or weak from want of moral air and sunshine ? You must furnish surrounding soil and atmosphere for a child's growth as much as for a plant's; and the moral growth is controlled by surrounding influences just as much as the physical. You would not j^ut a tender rose-bush into the ground anyM^here you chose, because it would give you pleasure to see it grow and blossom just there, and reasonably expect it would do so ; but you must furnish place and surroundings that will give the best chance for its growth ; and it must be done now, even before the leaves appear. Perhaps you will think that, as you love the child better than anybody else can, and too well to do any thing but what will make KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 51 it happy, it surely must be better off Avith you than with anybody else. That Avould be true if it could have but one place and one element in which to develop. Home and love are first and best. But, the moment your child sees the world, it begins to assimilate from its new surroundings; and its little self is made up from tnese outward elements just as surely as its body is made from the food given it. The life of your little boy or girl must be one of conflict. Your love cannot make it otherwise. You would gladly fight its battles and bear its griefs ; but you cannot. It often must grope alone, and fall, or struggle, and win. WiW you not begin to-day to guide its little feet and strengthen its little hands, by giving it such surroundings as, becoming assimilated atom by atom into its tender growth, will give completeness and power? When you watch the hours with such precision, and are so careful to get the purest milk for your tender, j^recious baby's food, you do not expect that one day is going to determine his growth : yet you are as careful of each cup of milk, and each piece of bread, as though it would turn the scale in his favor or against him ; and you want to give the freshest air, the briglitest sunshine, and the clear- est water, as well as the choicest milk and bread, to your darling. All these go to feed the body, and are but types of what the heart and mind of your child must have, in order to grow in symmetry and beauty ; and they must have it early. Just as you give the greatest care to its earliest physical food, so whatever you want to be most permanent in its moral nature must be given at first ; and there must be thought, plan, system. You all know how difticult — almost impossible — it is to give variety and method to the occupations of your little ones at home : there are so many demands that must be met before the mother can give time or thought to a regular course of develop- ment, even if she feels keenly the need and has the skill to execute. Perhaps the materials are not at hand for the work. There must be a community with others, to meet and dispose of all the different phases of child-life. And now we come to the practical matter. If so little can be done to redeem us who are grown up from the errors and follies which seem to cover almost the whole earth like a garment, and so much when the mind and heart are forming, what shall we do in- dividually, and what as a community, to elevate the tone of public morals, — to make it easier for men and women to be true in all their relations ? Certainly, little that will bear fruit to-day : but nature waits for her results ; and so can we, if we are only sure it is God's field in which we are sowing this seed. If we have chil- dren, let us not wait till by and by to give direction and method to 52 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. theii* development ; but give them an earnest, active, real babyhood, making them feel the dignity of living right in their to them all- important — although we call it baby — world. Then the childhood that follows infency will certainly have a better chance of being rounded out into that completeness which shall forbid a disap- pointed and disappointing manhood or womanhood. You will say, " There are so many hereditary taints and inevitable surroundings that for many it is hopeless and for all hard." Yes: this is just the current we are to meet and, if possible, stem, — not merely in our own children; and we will begin now. If the children of the whole generation have inherited that which we deplore, so much the more they need all the helps they can have ; and they will be less likely to falter or fall in the life-race, or transmit their inherited weaknesses to their children, if we fortify them in the best way we can. There is no better soil in which to sow the seeds of this new light than in Florence. Your years of liberal thought ought to have made receptive and reflecting minds. If ever there was inspiration, I believe it was when Mr. Hill took the little children of Florence into his loving thought, and made a way open for them to grow and expand in Kindergarten atmosphere. Perhaps you will think it is only an experiment, and the difiiculty of having a true founda- tion laid makes it still a problem. But, dear friends, whether it shall prove a failure or not lies with you. This new thought of taking the child in its babyhood, and planting then and there the seeds, or developing those already sown, so as to make a true man- hood and womanhood, is a great thought for us all ; and it must be perfected here, as in all other places, by the earnest co-operation of the parents. True kindergartners are not easy to find, because the workers are yet few, and many of us, half seeing the light, have mistaken our calling ; but watch, work, and wait, never ceasing your efforts till you have secured this great blessing for Florence. If we do our duty, and work out this great thought thoroughly, it will not only enter into your homes and leave a blessing, but be an example and encouragement to other places. REMARKS AT A SUBSEQUENT MEETING. There is one form of expression we mothers use so much to our children that it has become as second nature, if such a thing can be : it is the imperative, " Don't do that," putting our wishes in the form of command. We may preface it with " darling : " it still is a command, instead of request or suggestion ; such as, in polite society, we should use to a friend or acquaintance. KIKDEEGARTEN MESSENGER. 53 Perhaps you will I'eply, " The child must be taught every thing." Very true ; and so much the more should we guard every word, lest we teach him more than we are aware of doing, and what we would gladly undo when it is too late. If we are the child's superiors in size, strengtli, and knowledge, he is our superior in innocence and sensibility ; and, even if we believe that our innocence has ripened into virtue, and so is able to resist little shocks, and our sensibility become quick with intelligence to ac- cept what is right and true, and with readiness to perceive and meet the needs of others, then shall we perceive that these sensibilities in the child are tremblingly alive to every breath, and tliat our words, looks, and tones make the sunshine or shadow of its life. And we all know what the shadow of a leaf will do upon an apple when it is ripening, and how beautiful the color which the sunshine has given in contrast with the spot which the leaf's shadow has made. "We sometimes must judge for our children, and often direct their activity. The former should be done with a decision from which there is no appeal, — providing^ ahoays^ toe are sure at the time that we are right ; and the latter, in such a tentative manner as to lead the children to think for themselves, and not take the responsibility from them by using the form of command that leaves them noth- ing but obedience ; which is too important a habit to be hazarded by demanding it too often, or at times when the child's individuality should have play by our allowing him to act for himself freely. Of course, it is important that we do not expect the child to judge of matters beyond his comprehension, any more than that we demand of his body tasks beyond its strength, or exj^ect him to decide intellectual questions to which he cannot reach. If a child is surrounded by such things as are suited to his capac- ity of perception, and has an atmosphere of loving fellowship and helpful sympathy, such as a true Kindergarten affords, for a part of each day (and it should be the early part, so as to give direction to, and food for, the later hours), there will be little danger in allowing him to think out for himself the little problems of ex2:)erience, never interfering, by advice or suggestion, when it can be avoided ; be- cause all such direction is, to say the least, as unnecessary, if not harmful, as it would be to be always bending and pruning a plant. You can get a peculiar and fantastic shape by such pruning ; but no one claims for it the grace and elegance of natural growth. If a plant in our window-garden bend towards the light, it is be- cause it loves the sunshine, and turns instinctively from the shade behind to revel in the glorious sunlight, which you cannot give on both sides of the plant, because of the necessary limits of your man- 54 KUS^DERGAETEN MESSENGER. made garden. Can we not take a hint from this, and try to place our little soul-plants in such a position that moral sunshine and life shall come to them ; not on one side only, but surround them in such large measure and rich quality that they can grow vigorous and erect, without the limitations which constant repression pvxts about them ? You can only govern children aright, when you teach them to govern themselves by giving reasonable conditions for it. IS CHILD'S-PLAY TPJFLING ? In" the " Reminiscences of Froebel," there is an elaborate account of a Festival that he held at the Castle of Altenstein, in the sum- mer of 1850, which was conducted by himself, Middendorff, and his class of kindergartners ; and took in not only all the children of the village whom the latter gardened daily under his eye (applying the instructions he gave them in abstract form), but also all the children of all the neig-hborinf;: villacjes. Play, fanciful pla}', is the religious service of childhood, uncon- scious of its own character and developing effect on the mind and morals, — provided children are played with by those who con- sciously conduct it in such a manner as to keep the children loving and joyous. The joyousness is the responsive smile of the soul to the " face of the Father which their angels behold ; " therefore healthy for heai't and mind as well as body. The responsibility rests with the kindergartner to foreclose or compose those little aberrations from order that interrupt the per- fect ideality of the play, especially those of a social and moral kind. If she does her duty, she draws the children into an obedience to the laws of courtesy and beauty, in which their own s,ense of respon- sibility germinates. By almost insensible gradations, the creature of instinct will — all things about it " drawn from May-time and the cheerful dawn ; advancing shape, an image gay" — be changed into " a being breathing thoughtful breath, and yet a spirit still, and bright with something of an angel light." But the first phase predomi- nates — the second scai-cely dawns — in the Kindergarten. It will become the daylight of reason in the school era. But a long childhood, provided it is a joyous, hearty,' playful childhood, is the desideratum. It is one of the hardest things to get the grown-ujD to theorize rightly about play. The theory generally is, that play is the dissi- pation of the mind, not its fullest life. But at the festival at Alten- stein, where the play was perfect, because Froebel and Middendorff and the kindergartners played with the children, the spontaneous KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 55 expression of the crowd of peasants who were watching tlieir chil- dren was most impressive ; and a hidy, one of the guests, from the neighboring Baths of Liebenstein, who was looking on with stream- ing eyes, said, "I never saw any thing that touched me so much. It seems as if I were in church, it makes me feel so devout." "Yes," replied Frobel; "that is the characteristic power of J'lay. It elevates and makes blessed both the children and tlie grown-up. Perfect human joy is also worship; for it is ordained of God." This seems perhaps a long introduction ; but we wish to have the moral value of the following extracts considered seriously. Is it not moral education ? Christmas at the Kindergarten. (From the Nashua, N.H., Newspaper.) The children of Miss Held's Kindergarten observed their third Christmas festival, yesterday, at the Historical Society's rooms in Telegraph Block. As usual, the occasion was well attended, and every thing indicated a growing interest in Frobel's system for the educa- tion of little children. Over forty little ones were promptly on the ground by three o'clock ; and their ranks included not only the pres- ent pupils, but past graduates as well, and not a few expectant pupils who are anxiously awaiting their third birth-day, when they too can be admitted to the social games and joyful occuijations of the merry circle. Through the kindness of the ladies of the Episcopal Society, they were permitted to assemble in the Hall until the doors of the Kindergarten should be opened ; and the time of waiting was occupied by the children in their delightful Kimlergarten games, accompanied with songs both in English and German. Finally, at the appointed time, the doors were opened ; and the children, hand in hand, marched in, singing their beautiful " River Song." The windows were dark- ened for the occasion ; and on a handsome fir-tree in the middle of the room were burning a multitude of wax tapers, amidst festoons of colored chains made by the youngest children, apples of silver and gold, and the numerous presents. The children, in an orderly man- ner, arranged themselves in a circle about the room, while their elders, standing behind them, had an opportunity to witness their pleasure and sur{)rise at the striking tout ensemble. After sufficient time had elapsed to enable all to examine the interesting work of the children, without any ceremony or formality each little one was allowed to pick off his own work from the tree, and present it to his parents or other friends. The weaving, embroidery, perforated and other work, was made into many useful and interesting gifts, which enabled the infants to play the role of benefactor to their 56 KINDERGARTEN MESSEXGER. j)ai'ents. Next to the large collection of beautiful little cliildren, this was the most interesting feature of the occasion, — the inculca^ tion of the habit of generosity. For weeks the little fingers had been busy, not for themselves, but for those they love ; and they came together not to receive presents, but to bestow them. All this is not without a purpose ; for in the system of Frobel the formation of character occupies no secondary place. It was also noteworthy that no exhibition was made of the children themselves. This is also according to Frobel's plan, and is a feature of the system most earnestly to be commended. It is a blessed thing that our children can begin their education and yet remain children, — hearty and healthy, full of natural and spontaneous impulses for right action ; that a method has been devised by which, in the salutary atmo- sphere of the Kindergarten, the child may grow morally and men- tally, developing his taste and acquiring manual dexterity and skill without being forced to go through any parrot-like performances of mere memorizing, and without becoming senseless puppets moved only when some older j^erson pulls the string. The increased inter- est in the Kindergarten, and the growing appreciation of its methods wherever they are properly exemplified, furnish another instance of the avidity with which the American people seize hold of a good thing, and quickly appropriate it as their own, when once it is made known to them. The time is not far distant in our country when no young lady's education will be regarded as complete, until she has become familiar with the principles of primary instruction as taught by Frobel ; and every exhibition of the results of his teaching like that witnessed yesterday by so many cultivated women and thought- ful mothers serves to hasten that time. [From the " Cincinnati Gazette " of December 22.] Last September Miss Mellick, of New York, started a Kinder- garten in the rooms of the Wesleyan College. On Wednesday afternoon the Christmas exercises of the class were Avitnessed by the mothers and invited friends of the little ones. It was in the College Chapel, which had been cleared of chairs and settees for the purpose. In the centre of the floor, on a low table, stood a Christmas-tree, hung with the customary decorations ; its foot being surrounded by little toilet articles, card baskets, cornucopias, and the like, made by the little ones during their instruction hours, and designed, as it afterward appeared, as gifts to the parents. Miss Mellick came in ^t the head of her class of twenty-five toddlekins, aged from three years to seven, shortly after three o'clock ; and, apparently all unmindful of the scores of interested spectators, KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 57 joined with them in a number of games which form a part of the Kindergarten system of instruction. Simple as they were, the games compelled attention and provoked thought, which in every instance developed admiration for their ingenuity in construction and design. Nothing appears to be done without teaching a lesson ; and doing it, too, the more indelibly because unconsciously. The attention of the children seems to be centred on the games ; but all the time subtle influences are exerting themselves on their plastic minds. The distinction between teacher and scholar is gone. Miss Mellick joins in the games, and with as much evident enjoy- ment, too, as the most playful chick in the lot. There is no dread of her in the minds of the children ; but only loving trustfulness and confidence. A description of the games, could not convey an idea of all' that they are calculated to teach: this can only be learned from observation. Music accompanies all of them; and it was decidedly interesting to hear half a dozen simple melodies sung by such young voices, and sung, too, in time and tune. One game tested the courage and individual ability of the little ones. A verse was sung by all, save one; while she, representing a little bird flying across the sea Avith a letter (the sentiment of the little song), ran around the circle, and, when the last word was reached, knelt before one of the singers, who then repeated the verse alone. Little pipinof voices they were, but not a single failure to go through the ordeal. The closing performance was a march around the Christmas-tree, and a distribution of the presents by the children to their parents ; and this was very evidently the most enjoyable feature of the after- noon to the children, as well as to the spectators. " I worked so hard ! " said a wee thing, as she laid an offering on her mother's lap, and received her fond kiss. " Take it home, mamma, and show it to papa," and away she scampered to join the circle surrounding the tree ; and this scene was repeated a score of times, until the chapel appeared to be lighted up with the radiance from happy faces. [From the " Cincinnati Daily Enquirer,'! Dec. 31, 187G.] One of the most flourishing things connected with the flourishing Cincinnati Wesleyan College for Young Women is its Kindergarten, under the able direction of Miss Mellick, of New York. Her cheer- ful rooms have been filled since the opening of the semester with " wee todlin " representatives of the best West-end families. Every chair was taken, and four beyond the number allowed were pressed upon her by parents who were in love with Frobel's system. Many previous attempts to introduce the Kindergarten in Cincinnati have failed, and the reputation of the system suffered in consequence; 58 KINDEEGARTEN MESSENGER. but the chief fault, doubtless, lay in the instructor. Miss Mellick has had every advantage of location, — Wesley Avenue being one of the finest streets, and the Wesleyan College one of the most impos- ing and complete edifices, in a thickly populated portion of the city ; and of appointments, — her suit of rooms, bright with pictures, flowers, and sunshine, exactly adapted to the health and pleasure of her precious child-plants. Yet all these ai*e only minor accessories. The strength of the Kindergarten is Miss Mellick. Trained with unusual care in Madame Kraus-Boelte's Kindergarten Noi-mal, she thoroughly imderstands every thing, great and small, about the work. She clearly sees, beneath the pleasing exterior of games, gifts, and occupations, the beautiful pattern of discipline and culture that the young lives are, all unconsciously to themselves, made to assume. . . . What we have begun this article for is to express the unqualified pleasure we experienced yesterday afternoon in witness- ing the closing exercises of her Kindergarten, preparatory to the holiday vacation. We found the parents and many friends of the little ones assembled in the College Chapel, the seats of which had been so arranged as to leave a large central space for the use of the Kindergarten. Surmounting a table in the centre was the conven- tional Christmas-tree, handsomely decorated, and hanging full of the most inviting toys. The table was covered with the curious and beautiful work of the children — wall-pockets, card-receivers, cornucopias, &c. After going through with several characteristic and exhilarating games, the children raised the sweet Christmas song, beginning : — " Gather 'round the Christmas-tree," suiting the action to the word, — altogether forming a picture not soon to be forgotten. Then, carrying out the Christ-like idea of the festi- val, that " it is more blessed to give than to receive," each child took the presents her own hands had wrought, and, seeking her mother, gave them to her, with love and delight beaming from her little face. It was so unexpected, so tender, so sweet, that nearly every eye was sufiTused with tears, not of sorrow, but of maternal joy. Then, having left Miss Mellick a fine assortment of new toys for the orphans at the Home, they marched, keeping time with the music, to the reception room, and their entertainment was ended. All present expressed unbounded gratification. Easter Festival. Mrs. Kraus-Boelte writes from New York: "The Kindergar- ten and training class were yesterday closed for the Easter holi- days, with a beautiful childlike and characteristic festival of the KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 59 Easter eggs. Ninety-six eggs were dyed and painted, with the help of" several lady friends, — some of them so exquisitely done with land- scapes, flowers, butterflies, that one could not but regret to have these little master-pieces of art on so brittle a thing as an egg. Two duck eggs wei-e prejiared for Mr. Kraus and myself. Mine was ornamented with a lady's hand, swinging a ball; Mr. Kraus had the Second Gift, and both had the inscription, ' Come, let us vi^ith our children live.' " I had prepared two baskets for the eggs, ornamented with the national colors ; and with cotton wool I had made a white hare, — the Easter hare, dressed up as a little woman, also in the national coloi's. The Kindergarten, after being opened with one of our cus- tomaiy little prayers and songs, was commenced by my telling a story about the Easter hare. I wish you could have seen the atten- tive, eager, joyful, young faces, — and also the thirty-two ladies of the training class listening with the same interest as the little ones, for they were all invited. Our room is so large that they are all welcome to come daily. "After the story, the children finished some Easter crosses, which all had prepared for their ])arents. At lunch time Mr. Kraus intro- duced the hare, and I brought in the eggs. It was a beautiful quar- ter of an hour, which I shall not forget soon. After luncheon, we marched with the song : — ' Johnnie must be up and doing ; He shall learn a trade,' &c. " Then, when they were all seated again, the children received large squares of paper of the six colors (of the balls) ; and, by fold- ing these and blowing into the forms, the children made their own Easter eggs. The ladies meanwhile cut out some baskets, and the eggs were placed within them ; and some children were so indus- trious that they filled two nets or baskets. And then, after some appropriate games and a good-by song, all went home." BUTTERCUPS AND DAISIES. Buttercups and daisies ! Oh, the pretty flowers. Coming in the spring-time To tell of happy hours ! While the trees are leafless, While the fields are bare, Buttercups and daisies Spring up everywhere. 60 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. What to them is weather ? What are stormy showers ? Buttercups and daisies, Are they human flowers ? He who gave them hardships And a life of care, Gave them likewise hardy strength And patient hearts to bear. Welcome, yellow buttercups, Welcome, daisies white ! You are in my spirit A vision of delight ! Coming in the spring-time Of sunny hours to tell, — Speaking to our hearts of Him Who doeth all thhiajs well. foreign 31ntelUgcnce, We copy from the " Journal of Education," published at 9 and 10 St. Bride's Avenue, Fleet Street, London, E. C, the two following paragraphs, and an impromptu lesson in Kindergarten drawing, given by Madame de Portugall at a primary school in Geneva. Pictures. — Kindergarten teachers find pictorial illustration very helpful, and those who do not know the Children's Picture Roll (Partridge, 3s,) may be glad to have their attention called to it. It contahis a collection of large, clear engravings, one for every day in the month, to be hung on the room wall; and is so arranged that all can be exhibited in turn. The subjects are taken from good painthigs or photographs ; and represent ordinary incidents of child-life, picturesquely rendered. Among the most pleasing are " Hazel Dell," — Mary gathering nuts ; " Is the Rain over ? " — children sheltered by corn-sheaves; "Very Tired;" and " Bessie at the Spring." Below each picture there are a few words of descrip- tion, which may serve as the ground- work for a story; the children will delight to hear the suggested circumstances enlarged upon, and will thus receive new imjjressions of life. A companion picture roll, consisting of animal subjects, can also be well recommended for the Kindergarten or the nursery. A Kindergarten Lesson (in drawing). — Having passed some weeks in Geneva this summer, I had the privilege of accompanying Ki:NrDERGARTEX MESSENGER. 61 the celebrated kindergartner, Madame de Portugall, who was re- cently appointed Inspectress of Infant Schools, on some of her inspecting tours in and around the town. The effort that is being made to introduce the Kindergarten method of teaching into these schools greatly interested me ; and I think that a sketch of one of the lessons given by the Inspectress may be useful to those of your readers who know enough of Frobel- teaching to distinguish between a simple doing of certain things, and a doing of them in the spirit of Frobel. The school in question consisted of a score of peasant children, whose average age might be four years. The mistress was giving a linear drawing-lesson as we entered, or rather, she was trusting that the horizontal, vertical, and oblique lines she had traced on the board would be a sufficient guide for the children's employment of twenty minutes or half an hour. The Inspectress said a word or two about the children understanding what they were doing ; whereupon the mistress, with that confidence which is so charac- teristic of a superficial acquaintance with a subject, put several questions as to the names of the lines. These were more or less correctly answered. But in the mean time the Inspectress, with her deei:)er knowledge of child-life, had gauged the ages and stages of development of the little ones before her, discovered their particular need, pitied their gravity, and prepared a lesson. They were made to clean their slates, sit square, show their right hands, hold their pencils, and perform sundry little introductory exercises adapted to establish the necessary relationship between teacher and taught. Then began quite a little drama. Three very erect little girls appear on the black-board (let no one dream they are any thing but vertical lines) : " Look," she said, " how straight they stand ! not too close, otherwise they could not do their gymnastics ; not too far off, or they could not hear each other speak. Who would like to draw these three little girls ? " Of coui'se they all do. One boy makes the head of one of his little girls touch the roof, — " how very uncomfortable ! " Soon, however, there are three very respectable strokes on every slate, and the pencils are laid down. All glances are directed anew to the board, where appear, at a little distance, so as to form a distinct group, three little boys. " The boys want to come to school too, and see if they can hold themselves as well as the girls. Qu'en pensez vous ? " The children smile, and are delighted to receive jDcrmission to draw the boys. Again a j^ause. " Now, see : the girls have been standing straight up a long time. They are quite tired, and want to go home to their mother, and have 62 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. some supper, and go to bed. See ! here they are lying quite straight down : . And the boys must rest too : Let us put tliem all underneath each other, like the little beds on a ship. The next morning the little boys got up, and went to school at the usual time ; but the girls were so tired tliat they overslept themselves, and are nearly too late, so they begin to run. Can you run? Who will come and show me how? See! we are not so straight when we run : we lean forward. Let us make our thi-ee little girls leaning so as to run ; then they will get to school before the bell rings. And look ! the boys have got to school already ; but they miss the little girls, and they say, ' Let us run to meet them.' Here they are meeting each other : / / / \ \ \ Now they can all run to school together: \\\\\\ — three boys and three girls. How many children does that make? One day these six children were invited to a grape gathering; but they could not reach the fruit, because the grapes were growing high up. So the papa had to get the big ladder, and climb up, and throw the bunches down, whilst the children held the basket. Look ! I will make a ladder. How many steps has it ? Who can make a ladder with seven steps ? It must be straight up against the wall, or the poor papa will tumble down and break his legs." Need I say that this ideal ladder might be seen on every slate, with the six children standing near it? One little boy even made two somewhat elabor- ate figures, which he assured me were the papa and mamma. The zeal of the little ones under this skilful guidance of their powers touched me very much, when I contrasted it with their former indifference. There had been so much doing ; so little of any thing like warning or injunction. No word about combining vertical with horizontal lines; and yet, by means of that little ladder associated with such pleasant ideas, they had unconsciously climbed over this difficulty, and others besides. They had mastered the task whilst their thoughts had been busy with something beyond the task. The skill of an experienced and cultured mind had reached the level from which it was possible to raise these little minds above the consciousness of effort. Is not here a grand lesson for all teachers of young children ? Note by the Editor of Kindergarten Messenger. It will be observed that this lesson was not given in a Kinder- garten, where the children's creative principle had been developed by the plays with the gifts ; but in a primary school, where the KINDERGAKTEN MESSENGER. 63 children are regarded, not as powers^ but as passive recipients, capable of nothing but iniitatwe activity. It does suggest how much the primary teacher would gain in vivifying the children, if she should adopt that one principle of the Kindergarten method, — to sympathetically engage the child's fimcy in imitating ; and merely this is doubtless what Madame de Portugall intended to do. But had she been giving a lesson in drawing in a Kindergarten, where the children had been already developed into habits of free activity, she would have led the children to invent the ladder by a series of questions somewhat of this kind ; viz., " Can the papa get up that high wall without something to climb up on? What is that tiling by which people climb up on walls, or high houses, or high trees? Can you make a ladder for the papa to climb on ? How many steps shall it have? What kind of lines will make the steps, — those going up and down, or those that go right and left ? Can you draw seven steps? (and when they say they have done so, you also can di'aw seven short horizontal lines on the blackboard for the steps, by which they can correct their own work.) Now, what kind of lines can we draw to connect the steps together? " Very like the answers to some of these questions would involve collateral conver- sation; and it might take a good while to get the ladder drawn. Do you say it takes too much time to go on in this way ? But is there any hurry f In a Kindergarten, every thing should be done leisurely ; because perfect development is the object, not to get things done rapidly. Perfect, thorough growth is the work of the Kindergarten, in which the children can find all their faculties, and especially exercise the leading faculty of the human being, — the self- derived (under God) inventing faculty, which our hurried, peremp- tory method of teaching passive recipients, overlays and extinguishes. Let those who have eyes to see, looh at this vital difference between teaching children to imitate and invoking them to originate? The last is the method of the kindergartner, some of which can be imitated by a good primary teacher. But this partial adoption and its good effects must not blind people to the superiority of adopt- ing the whole method, exclusively, for children too little to go to even a primary school, on whom a more vital good can be bestowed, — a quickening. Children must be quickened, before they can grow. To quicken and aid growth is the highest thing that can be done, and is done only by the kindergartner's concurring with God, whose presence and laws she must recognize. 64 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. J^omt^tic gintelligence* Mr. W. N. Hailman says, in a letter dated March 31, — "I am in St. Louis, inspecting the kindergartens. They are beautiful. It would do your heart good to see this great work of Miss Blow, whom I consider the greatest apostle of Frobel in the United States, next to . I shall write letters to the Chicago ' Inter- Ocean,' describing my visit, in the hope of raising more Miss Blows." A LETTER from Scranton, Pa., says : " The little Kindergarten here is a source of great satisfaction. Being in the house where I reside, it gives me a pleasant opportunity to be a frequent, quiet observer. .... To me it is an ever-increasing wonder and delight to see what may be done for the infant mind. Miss Knight loves her work, and is a very successful teacher. Oh, that more could see the value of such methods in the child's tender year ! " The youngest of our household — two and a half years old — con- siders it her privilege and right to spend some time every day in the Kindergarten. From some natural slowness of the action of the organs of speech, she does not talk yet ; but comprehends, ami makes herself understood perfectly. It is very lovely to see her join the rest in all their games : giving all attention, and never making a mis- take, doing just what the rest do, and keeping perfect time in march- ing. She has also quite an idea of fonn ; amusing herself for a long time at a blackboard that is Jiot marked in squares, and quite sur- prising us by regular foi'ras ; the square being her chief aim, and frequently quite correct. " The Kindergarten is a blessed gift to the age and mankind ; and could all children of the present time be brought under its influ- ence, the i-esults could not be estimated. They are truly incalcula- ble." E. A. S. Miss Peabodt's lectures on the religious and moral nurture of of children in the Home and Kindergarten, which she delivers every year in Miss Garland's school, she is repeating to Mrs. Gard- ner's training class, and mothers, and others, are also admitted." During the last week of April, and first week of May, she will repeat them to Miss Burritt's training class in Philadelphia (and others will be admitted there also). Miss Peabody's printed lec- tures were a part of this course. The one on the Nursery is the proper introduction to the course. The Kindergarten Guide. An illustrated Hand-book designed for tlie Self-Instruction of Kindergartners, Motliers, and Nurses. By Maria Kraus-Boelte and Joliii Kraus. The Kindergarten Guide will be published in 8 Numbers, viz.: No. 1. Tlte First mid Second OZ/Ys. With 50 illnstratious. In Paper, 35 Cents; in Cloth, 65 Cents.— No. 2. T7ir Third, Fourfli, Fifth, and Si.rth <,•(//.«.— No. 3. The TiihJets.—Ho. i. Iiinf/-l(njiiif/, Sficl:-lai/iiii/, Sldt-interlarhiff, Conncvted Slat, Thread Gatne.—Ho. 5. Drna'inf/, Ferforntituf, Seii'iiiff.—'So. G. PajH'r-foldituff, Faper-rattinij and I'aper-nionnting, Jt'erivinff, Faper-inter- tu'initiff.—'So. 7. I'eas-(Cork-) Work, Mo'leliiiij.—'Ho. H. Stories, Music, Games, Conversatioiial Lessons, Discijdlne, Care of Vlants and .tninials, etc. Numbers 2 to 8 will be issued as fast as possible, each selling separately. Moral Culture of Infancy and Kindergarten Guide. By Mrs. Horace Mann and Elizabeth P. Peabody. CONTEKT.S:— I. Kindergarten: What is it.' II. Rooms, etc. III. Music. IV. Plays, Gymnastics, and Dancing. V. The Kiudergartuer. VI. Kindergarten Occupations. VII. Moral and Religious Exercises. VIII. Object Lessons. IX. Geometry. X. Readiug. XI. Grammar and Languages. XII. Geography. Xm. The Secret of the Power. XIV. Moral Culture of Infancy.— With Music for the Plays. Cloth, $1.25 Frabel's Kindergarten Ocatpations for the Family. Ea"h in an elegant and strong Paper Box, containing Material, Designs and Instructions. & $0.75 1. Stick-Laying. — 2. Net-ivork Drawing. — 3. Per- forating Pricking\ — 4. Weai'ing 'Braiding . — • 5. Embroidering. — 6. Cork or Pias Work. — 7. Plait- ing (Interlacing Slats). — 8. Ring-laijing. — 9. Inter- - twining Paper. — 10. Cutting Paper. Karl Fra'bel. Elements of Designing on the Developing System, for Elementary School C/asses and for Fami- lies, i Parts, each containing 24 isages ruled in squares, with designs and space for copj'ing. Each part, in paper, $0.35 W. N, Haihnan. Kindergarten Culture in the Family and Kindergarten : A complete Sketch of Froebcl's System, of Early Education, adapted to American In- stitutions. Eor the use of Mothers and Teacher?. Illustrated. Cloth, $0.75 Heinrieh Hoffmann. Kindergarten Toys, and how to use them. A practical Explanation of the first six Gifts of Frcebcl's Kindergarten. Illustrated. Paper, $0.20 Kindergarten Tract.*. Steigek'.^ No. 1. What is the Purpose of Kindergarten Education^ — 2. SBaS ift ter 3"-'Cif tcr STinterjavtcn-CJrsielniiui? — 3. What is a Kindergarten? or Froebel's System of Edu- cation briefly explained. — 4. 2Bng ift cin Sinbergavtcn ? Surje iJavftcltuiig beg gvLiBerfi^ea SvftemS. — 5. Frmbel and the Kindergarten iSystem. (Extract from a Lecture by Prof. Jcs. Pavne.) — 6 What I think of Kinder- gartens. (From the Herald of Health A — 7. Kinder- garten. (From the N'. J'. Weekly Tribune.) — 8. A Day in the Kindergarten of Fraulein Held, at Nashua, N. h. — 9. The Kindergarten. (An Address by Miss S F,. Blow.) — 10. The Medical Profession recommend the Kindergarten. — 11. The Christmas Kindergarten. (A Letter by the Rev. J. S. Travelli.) — 12. The Rose Window. — 13. A few Words to Mothers on Froebel's First Gift for Babies. —14. Fricdrich Frcebel's Develop- ing System of Education. (A Lecture by Kakl FRffiBEL.) — 15. Frcebel's Kindergarten Education especially neces- sary in Orphan Asylums and similar I nstitulions where there are no natural mothers. (Account of a visit to the N. Y. Foundlmg Asylum by Elizabeth P. Pf.abodv.) One copy of each ot the above Tracts will be sent gratis on application ; additional supply for distribu- tion furnished at low prices.' — Packets of complete sets of the 15 Tracts will be mailed upon receipt of 5 Cents per packet. The Kindergarten engrafted on the American Public- School System. Extracts from Official Reports on the Public ELindergartens of St. Louis, Mo. Paper, $0 03 Aiiff. Ka-hler. Kindergarten Education. — Part First. The Kindergarten as a Separate and Independent Edu- cational Institution. Part Second. The Cliild and its Education. — Tlie Means of Education and tlieir Appli- cation. In Press. Alma X, Krietfe. Rhymes and Tales for the Kinder- garten and Nursery. Collected and revised. With introductory remarks on the value and mode of telling stories to children. Paper, $0.50: cloth, gilt edges, $1.00 Matilda H. Kricfje. The Child, its Natxire and Rela- tions. An Ehicidation of Frcebel's Principles of Edu- cation. A free rendering of the German of the Baroness Marenholtz-Buelow. On tinted paper. Cloth, gilt top, $1.00 (The New Education.— The Child's Being. — Its Re- lation to Nature, Man, and God. — The Child's Mani- festat ons. — The Child's Education. — Froebel's " Mother's Cosseting Songs." — Fundamental Forms.— Reading.) Matilda If. Krieffe. Friedrich Frcebel. A biograph- ical Ski Ich. With portrait. Paper, $0.25; cloth, $0..50 Henrietta Noa. Plays for the Kindergarten. Music by Ch J. Richter. (Tlie Text of the 19 plays is in both English and German.) Stiff cover, $0.20 Joseph Payne. Frmbel and the Kindergarten System of Elementary Education. Paper, $0.15 fTosejtU Payne. The Science and Art of Education (A Lecture), and Principles of tlieScience of Educa- tion, as exhibited inAhe Phenomena attendant on tlie unfolding of a Young Child's Powers under the In- fluence of Natural Circumstances. Paper, $0.15: cloth, $0.40 Eiizaheth P. Pcabody. Lectures on the Nursery and' Kindergarten. No. 1. Education of the Kinder gartner. Paper, $0.25 No. 2. The Nursery. Paper, $0.25 Plays and Songs for Kindergarten and Family. Col- lected and revised by a Kindergartner. Paper, $0.75 JoJiannes a,nd Sej'tha Roncfe. A practica, Guide to the English Kindergarten, for the use of Mothers, Gov- ernesses, and Infant-Teachers, being an exposition of Froebel's System of Infant-Training, accompanied with a great variety of Instructive and Amusing Games, and Industrial and t}ymnastic Exercises. With numerous Songs set to Music and arranged for the Exercises. With 71 lithographic plates. Cloth, $2.1o Ed. Wiehe. The Paradise of Childhood. A Manual for Self- Instruction in Friedrich Frabel's Educational Principles, and a Practical Guide to Kindergartners. In 4 parts. Paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50 E. STEIGER, 22 & 24 Fxankfort Street, NEW YORK. 'IS "^ 6 r< ^ ^ S^ »o "^ o ^ '^^ ^ .1 I Is '^ 5^ HO ■^ § •^ -<; ^ '^ 'Si '^ 1^ S5- ^ Si s § t^ '^ •^ B^inbergarten jWessenger. NEW SERIES. Nos. 5, 6. MAY AND JUNE, 1877. Vol. I. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE What was Frobel's Discovery V 65 The Festival, OF Frobel's Birth- day 68 American Frobel Society ... 71 j\[k. Henry B. Atherton's Letter 73 Rev. R. Heber Newton's Letter 74 Miss Macdaniei/s Letter ... 76 Song for the Kindergarten . . 78 The First Series or Kindergar- ten Messenger 79 page Frobel's Law of Contrasts, and their Connection 80 Mrs. Ploedterll's Paper, read AT the German Teachers' Convention at Hoboken, Au- gust, 1872 85 Who shall become a Kinder- gartnerin 89 Foreign Intelligence; Miss Blow's Letter 93 Terms. — SLOO a year for American subscribers, 5 shillings for Europeans (postage included). CAMBRIDGE: PUBLISHED BY ELIZABETH P. PEABODY, 19 FoLLEN Street. 1877. ^- E. Steiger, 22 & 24 Frankfort Street, New York. KINDERGAETEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATION MATERIAL. The most complete assortment, and the largest stock. — Superiority of goods acknowledged by the International Jury at the Centennial Exhibition, and by Kindergartners and School Boards all over the country. U^F" The St. Louis and other Public Kindergartens are supplied with Material, on contract, by E. Steiger.— Special attention is invited to: Frcebel's Kindergarten Occupations for the Family. Boxes No. 1 to 10, each with Material, Designs, and Instruction. Price 75 Cents each, [KliiKlerg-arteii IE*vi.l>lieatioii.s in English, German, French, etc. Kindergarten Tracts.— Catalogues gratis. E. STEIGER, 22 & 24 Frankfort Street, NEW YORK. Education by Work according to Frobel's Principles. Trans- lated by Mrs. Mann and Professor No a, from the German of Baroness Marenholtz-Bijlow. Printed and bound by the pupils of the Pliilotechnic School, on Market Street, Camden, N.J. This book is at A. Williams & Go's., Washington and School Streets, and in many bookstoi-es. Also, by enclosing a dollar to Rudolphus Bingham, Cooper's Wharf, Gamden, N.J., it will be sent post paid. It was at this generous gentleman's private cost that it was printed. " This book is of great importance for educating the pub- lic to an appreciation of the wide bearings of Frobel's Kindergarten, giving an account of the work-schools, school-gardens, and youth- gardens growing out of it ; being a treatise on the place of Re- creation, not only in education, but in the healthy life of adults, more profound than any thing on this subject since Plato." Kindergarten Messenger. BzXm Series* Nos. 5, 6. MAY AND JUNE, 1877. Vol. I. WHAT WAS FROBEL'S DISCOVERY? Truly a hitherto luiknown world for the educator! Frobel saw- that the child was a moral being, capable of a balanced moral development, — a heart that was in full sensibility, and a will in full force ; and that the latter must be trained to give peace to the former, by a wisdom which was non-existent in the individual child, but to become his by inspiration of Divine Providence through the medium of human providence. Frobel discovered what was the first thing to be done for the child ; and that the responsibility, at the earliest age, rested primarily with the educator, on whose fidelity and measure of wisdom the child was absolutely dependent. And this discovery of method rested on discoveries that resulted from a new analysis and observation of the phenomena of the child'^s nature. He was the Columbus of a new interior world. He studied the child as Bacon proposed to study nature, — by asking questions, and ob- serving the phenomena that answered his questions. So he was the first, if not to discover the process of life, at least to formu- late this process. He saw that nature made her first impressions on a sensibility which thrilled to every one of her particulars ; and in this action and reaction without intention, were developed organs of percep- tion that acted intentionally, because the impressions that had been made were agreeable ; and, by dint of repetition, these percej^tions became memories, and these memories, in their turn, when agree- able, became conceptions, and were combined by the wild free-will into fancies, that often defied nature's order. But conceptions might be so brought into the order of nature as to develop under- standing, — that is, a conformity of the thoughts to nature ; for " the laws of thought are in things," as Mr. Carroll Everett says. " If you would study intellectual science," said Mr. Emerson, in one of his unpublished lectures, " you must study natural history. Every law you deduce from the phenomena is a principle of the mind." " And 66 KINDEKGAETEN MESSENGER. every law of nature is a law of education," said Frobel, who dis- covered that this process of life never went on with normal perfec- tion without human intervention, carefully calculated. In the first place, it requires human providence to put the child into such circumstances and environment that impressions shall be received by all the senses definitely, and in due proportion ; and that they should not be too continuous nor too desultory, so that the organs should be just enough stimulated to awaken voluntary or intentional perception. The exercise of fancy, as well as the forma- tion of the understanding, also needs the sympathetic action of l^ersons putting into words the fancies or thoughts, or associating them with gestures. The importance o^ words for the development of the understand- ing can be seen, inversely, in the fact that the deaf and dumb have such a limited unfolding of faculty, until they learn to symbolize thought by words. It may be said that Frobel, certainly, did not discover the fact that the child needs to be educated by the intervention of others : not the general fact, certainly ; for all systems of education pre- vious to Pestalozzi, and even now prevailing, exhibit too much human intervention ; the common mode being to take for granted that the child knows nothing by intuition or personal observation, and that all his knowledge is put into him by others' words. But Frobel discovered, that, while human intervention is necessary, it is only effective of education when it respects the free self-activity, and takes care not to discourage or bewilder or paralyze it by im- pertinent teaching. His new word is, "Man is a creative being, whose destiny is to live with God, concurrent in will, love, and action ; " and therefore his characteristic motto or precept is, " Let us live with our children." To live with the children is the new pre- cept : to live for them is what most men and women do now ; working to get them food and clothing, and what they call advan- tages of education. But to live with them means to enter into their imagination and thought, and their earnest play upon nature and with each other; catching their spontaneity, and giving to them, in return, a directing knowledge, which shall enable them to accomplish what they undertake to do, and insure those ends of beauty and use for which they blindly strive, and so often miss. Yes, Frobel's idea of entering into and concurring with children in that era of their life when moral responsibility and intellectual activity are dawning, and the heart is their whole inner being, — I.e., love of enjoyment, love of causal activity, love of love, — that is a discovery. It is the human heart which is the tree of life, whose fruits make immortal, and which, in our mortal life, is set KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 67 over against the tree of death ; which, if eaten first, will neutralize the poison of finite knowledge. It is the human heart which Christ declares to " behold the face of the Father in heaven " in its childish innocence, before it has knowledge of the not-me of nature. It is the human " heart ke])t diligently " " out of which are the issues of life" everlasting. Only when the mind is instructed and cultivated in subordination and subservience to the heart, shall we have an unfallen or a redeemed humanity. Only heart education is moral education. It comes neither by the hearing of the ear, nor by the seeing of the eye, nor by the logic of the mind ; but only by exercise of the social sentiments of kindness, justice, magnanimity, self- denial for others' sakes. To develop moral character, there must be social action, whose consequence is knowledge, — not proper to the life that crawls on its belly and eats dust, but which leads through nature up to nature's God, — a knowledge proper to man " with uplifted front and eye sublime." All educators agree, that, without moral education, no education is complete. But Frobel alone has placed it in the fore-front, and shown loving to be the blossom which is to pi-ecede knowing ; nourishing and protecting the seed of the fruit which is the wisdom of Love, the final cause of being. While we were writing the above paper, a friend brought us this extract, from Youmans' " Demands of Modern Culture : " — What Mr. Wyse wrote, twenty-five years ago, remains still but too true. He says, " It is, unquestionably, a singular circumstance, that, of all problems, the pi'oblem of education is that to which by far the smallest share of persevering and vigorous attention has yet been applied. The same empiricism which once reigned supreme in the domains of chemistry, astronomy, and medicine, still retains possession, in many instances, in those of education. No journal is kept of the phenomena of infancy and childhood ; no parent has yet registered, day after day, with the attention of the astronomer who prepares his ephemerides, the marvellous development of his child. Until this is done, there can be no solid basis for reasoning : we must still deal with conjecture." And why has nothing been done ? Because, in the prevailing system of culture, the art of observation, which is the beginning of all true science, the basis of all intellectual discrimination, and the kind of knowledge which is necessary to interpret these observations, are universally neglected. Frobel is the first who has kept this register of the phenomena of infancy and childhood, and from that discovered the laws upon which true development depends, and the conditions necessary for a harmonious growth from the seed-corn, — " first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." 68 KINDEEGAKTEN MESSENGER. THE FESTIVAL OF FROBEL'S BIRTHDAY. This was not quite enough of a festival to satisfy the kindergart- ners, who felt nothing was adequate to the occasion, except the music. That was every thing that could be wished. Tlie beautiful voluntary with which it commenced was the very voice and heart of happiest childhood. Then the chant, which Dr. Bartol's quar- tette clioir kindly undertook (for it was found impossible at such short notice to gather the scattered kindergartners to rehearse it as much us was necessary), was most appropriate ; taking in every word Christ was known to have uttered respecting childhood, and closing with Handel's beautiful rendering of " Suffer little children to come unto me." And after the sketch of Frobel's life had been read, and the announcement made of the objects and formation of the American Frobel Society, Dr. Bartol, before he called on the audience to speak, craved a musical blessing from the choir; to which it responded with the magnificent Amen of Haydn's Sixteenth Mass, that might well have been the anthem which the sons of God shouted for joy on the morning of Creation. The first to speak was Mr. William P. Atkinson, who regretted he had been detained, so that he was not in time to hear the sketch of Frobel's life-work, because he did not know enough of its details personally; though he trusted it was this system at the beginning, which was wanted to make effective the enormous outlay of earnest work and of money which was devoted to education in America, but whose result was so disappointing ! He went on to make a most important statement of the facts of the case. He said it had been his work to examine, for entrance, the pupils for the Technological School, whom it was the rarest thing to find tolerably prepared in any way. They did not know at sev- enteen what they ought to know at ten. He had asked the high- school teachers, lately in convention in Boston, why it was that, with all the outlay of buildings and apparatus and teachers, they could do no better. They said it was because the grammar schools did not afford them better material ; that the time of the high-school scholars was taken up in doing what ought to have been done in the grammar schools. And the grammar-school teachers, in their turn, said that they had similar excuse to offer ; viz., that they had to teach what ought to be taught in the primary schools. The evil, plainly, began at the beginning. The primaiy teachers said that they found the children wholly unprepared to learn. The KINDERGARTEN SIESSENGEK. 69 fault was not in the teachers. Mr. Atkinson spoke with the utmost consideration of the teachers of all the grades, and especially of those poor young girls and women who ai-e obliged to take fifty children and more from the streets, and from homes often worse than the streets, where the hard-worked mothers had no time to do any thing for their children, even if they knew how. It is not easy to do justice to Mr. Atkinson's speech, which was rich in all its details, and not at all declamatory. He spoke half aii hour ; and told, among other of his illustrations, of two girls who went out of the training school full of earnestness and hope, when he was on the school-committee. One, who was of fair capacity, and had carefully studied, and was of excellent disposition, said to him, when, a few weeks after she had begun, he asked her how she succeeded, that she had not succeeded at all : she had not been able to begin to apply any of the nice methods she had learned. It was all she could do to keep them from fighting. The other was a genius, — a natural kindergartner, if he understood what kindergartening was. She took the school which was the opprobrium of the city. The children came from the worst of the population. It had baffled every teacher who had ever undertaken it. It was so bad that she was allowed to take her own method, and was hampered less than usual with regulations by the school-committee. In three months this school was transformed. But how did she do it ? Like a kin- dergartner, she put flower-pots in the windows; she taught them how plants grow ; she contrived things for the children to do Avith their hands. She was unquestionably a genius ; but there are not geniuses enough to keep all the primary schools. We want a system which all can learn ; for it is our system which is wrong, and which makes a sandy foundation for the costly fabric the public money is lavished uj)on. Those who know of Frobel's Kindergarten declare that he has found out the secret of the sandy foundation, and would lay a new one. "All I know is," said Mr. Atkinson, " that there is needed a reform ; and, without it, we shall have disappointment in the future, as we have had in the past." When Mr. Atkinson sat down, Dr. Bai'tol called on Dr. Hedge ; who came forward, and began with saying that he was ignorant of Frobel's system, and confessed to have a suspicion of it because it teas a system. He then went on to oppose to this imaginary system, which he deprecated, some admirable observations upon the impor- tance of doing nothing artificial, but letting nature unfold in a cer- tain freedom. He believed that the idea of Frtibel was to make every thing easy for children ; and this might do for very little chil- dren. But that was a dangerous principle for a teacher. Nothing valuable was to be attained in life but by hard labor. He believed 70 KINDEKGABTEN MESSEXGEE. that the best thing to be done for children was to let them alone, but give them freedom and opportunity. In the course of his remarks, Dr. Hedge had pleasantly said that he saw his friend Miss Peabody was laughing at him, as if he were making mistakes ; and possibly he misapprehended the whole thing. Thus challenged. Miss Peabody rose, and acknowledged that she did smile when her friend went on immediately to prove the truth of his first remark, that he knew nothing about Frobel's system, by deprecating just what Frobel deprecated, and advocating just what Frobel advocated, who also would say that " freedom and oppor- tunity was what children needed." But Frobel would also say, that these could not be given by letting children alone, to become the victims of their own ignorance and caprices, but must be provided for by giving such conditions that they would find the laws of moral and intellectual life experimentally. It was not true that Frobel sought for the easy ways of doing and learning ; but true ways, the ways of wisdom, which are "paths of pleasantness and peace." Mr. Alcott was then called on, and 'made some characteristic remarks on the sacredness of childhood, its richness as a book of nature to be studied, and the necessity of letting the culture of the heart, in which the conscience inheres, precede that of the under- standing of nature outside of them; and referred to that sublime ode of Wordsworth's, " On the Intimations of Immortality in our Child- hood," which all profound students of Frobel feel to be the best statement of the philosojjhy of his method to be found in English. Dr. Bartol made the parting speech, in his own most genial man- ner and spirit ; expressing the idea that this contemplated reform of education at its vital point was the cure for all the vices of the time, — the sham, the wordiness, the dishonesty, the gambling spirit, — because it cultivated the productive powers. Then Miss Peabody, to whose interest in the cause of Kinder- garten all the speakei's had most kindly alluded, went to the table, and said to the audience that nothing was better demonstrated, by all that had been said, than that the Society which had just been announced was needed to spread specific knowledge of Frobel's method among those who were most attracted by his general spirit. Here were some of Steiger's Kindergarten tracts on the table ; Mr, Payne's " Frobel and the Kindergarten," which showed the serious meaning and aim of the movement plays ; and Miss Blow's lecture on the effect of the Frobel gifts and materials, properly pre- sented, to train the mind experimentally to exact analysis and artis- tic synthesis, while the children only knew that they were playing happily, with the intent of making others happy with what they were doins and making for them. KIHTDEKGAETEN MESSENGEE. 71 The people were leaving the house, for it was late aud cold, when Mr, Nathaniel Allen rose to express how deeply interested he had been in the sketch of Frobel's work and life which had been read, and asked where a copy of it could be found. To which Miss Peabody replied, that it was a lecture of Miss ShirrefF's to the Lon- don Frobel Society, of which she was President ; and that it would be published as an appendix to the " Reminiscences of Frobel," by Madame Marenholtz, which the American Frobel Society had al- ready engaged Lee & Shepard to publish before midsummer. AMERICAN FROBEL SOCIETY. It would have been more accurate to have spoken of the ladies and gentlemen who made the nucleus of this society, by subscribing sums of money from $25 to $100 a piece, as the originating mem- bers, rather than as organizing members ; for their donations and first meeting were only the preliminaries to an organization which is yet to be made. ^^^ the originating members do not pretend to be adepts in Fro- bel's philosophy : but some of them have had children and grand- children in the Kindergarten ; and others are favorable to it because they believe that a fair intellectual development is only possible upon the ground of a noble moral development, and this is what they understand Frobel proposes that the Kindergarten shall give. Children have not the elements of the intellect until some years after birth; but the heart and will they bring into the world with them, and these are the elements of moral character. To educate the will, to satisfy the heart of love (which is developed in the child first towards its mother, and then towards other children), is the specific work of the nursery and Kindergarten ; and it is a more delicate and subtle process than that of the teacher of the primary school, and should be accomplished before the child is sent to the primary school. The heart is to be kept diligently, and the understanding formed^ before it can be ^■/^formed with knowledge of nature. The greatest moralist of the century, or perhaps of any century since the day of St. John,* says, in his work upon " Working and Learning," in which he gives the history of institutions of learning, from the universities of the Middle Ages (which were conferences of the learned) to the latest invention, the infant school^ " The zeal * Frederic Denison Maurice. See his Lectures on Christian Ethics, to the Workingmen's College, of England ; and his Lectures on " Conscience," to his class in Moral Philosophy, in the University of Cambridge, England, &c. 72 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. which has been awakened respecting infant education has been of infinite worth. ... It has been impossible, in educating little chil- dren, to think chiefly of reading and writing and cyphering. We have been compelled to remember that we have living spirits to deal with, which must, by most wonderful and mysterious processes, — wherein we may be agents, wherein we cannot be principals, — be brought to trust, to think, to hope, [and then] to know." But to carry on these " mysterious processes," to be " agents " pro^ierly respecting the " j^^'i^cipals," who are the children them- selves as they come out of the hand of God, what is, in the first place, indispensable are kindergartners who have a much more pro- found education than is necessary for a mere teacher of reading and writing and the elements of science. As Mr. Maurice adds, " Those who think most earnestly of in- fant education must think of adult education, . . . They cannot expect to teach infants by infants." Hence the conviction which has created in America, as well as in England and Germany, societies for the spread of Frobel's system, which the best thinkers of the last thirty years (who have examined its theory, and seen its conscien- tious practice) acknowledge to be a discovery of God's Method of educating the I'ace, applied to the culture of each individual (for Frobel claimed nothing less for his idea). The general public must be made to understand his idea and scope, that they may imper- atively demand that only adepts in the philosophy and experts in the practice should undertake to train in this truly high art, founded on an exact science of nature, not only material, but human. Therefore, certain books must be published (Frobel's own, and those of his accredited interpreters) ; and it must be made possible, for all who are interested, to discriminate between persons capable of training kindergartners, and those who, in ignorance or blind ardor, and especially those who for the mei*e sake of getting a living, make a false pretension of doing so. To form the mind is the work of the kindergartner, — that is, to assist the child in forming its mind ; and it is a very much more delicate and subtle work than to *«form the already formed mind. The legitimate task of the primary teacher is a comparatively easy one. " It would be fun to keep a primary school, if I could have all my scholars from your Kindergarten," said a Boston primary teacher to a kindergartner from whom she had received seven or eight children who had been developed on Frobel's plan. This was be- cause the Kindergarten had taught the children to trust their teacher, to love each other, to love order, and to love to learn. Wherever there have been planted any Kindergartens strictly on Frobel's method, by persons who have the idea and practical skill, \ KINDERGARTEIS" MESSENGER. 73 they have made a great impression. But, as soon as this was made, persons who only know the name, and that one characteristic of the method is to play with children, start up incontinently, and propose to do it, and at the same time to keep a primary school ; not knowing that the two things are incompatible, and that the primary school can never include a Kindergarten, unless the Kinder- garten, pure and simple, has preceded it, any more than there can be fruit before the blossom. The London Frobel Society, the Manchester Kindergarten Asso- ciation, and the Dresden International Union, have each their col- lege for the training of kindergartners, who receive certificates only on examination. The American Frobel Society has no central establishment for this purpose, but proposes to keep advertised in the Kindergarten Messenger a list of the training-schools which they believe to have proved themselves adequate to this duty, whose principals they recognize as Examiners. At the first preliminary meeting, it determined to publish, for the use of the general public, only the "Reminiscences of Frobel;" and informally nominated a president, secretary, treasurer, and a number of vice-presidents, who should be competent to make out this list. When these oflicers shall all have accepted their places, they will be declared honorary members of the society, with the Examiners ; and all will be called together, with the life-members, to organize the society, by equal votes on a constitution and by-laws, the life-members reserving to themselves a deciding vote upon the disbursement of money. Dr. Henry Barnard and Superintendent B. G. Northrup, of Con- necticut; President Orton, of the Agricultural College of Ohio; Mr. John Ogden, of the Central Normal School, and Mr. White, of the Brooks School, in Cleveland ; Rev. Joseph S. Travelli, of Pennsyl- vania ; Mr. A. Newell, of Baltimore ; Miss Liicretia P. Hale, Mr. C. C. Perkins, and Rev. John Parkman, of Boston, — were among the first to accept. Mr. Henry B. Atherton, of Nnshua, New Hamp- shire, the generous founder and patron of the Kindergarten there, says, under date of May 2, " So far as I understand the general scope and object of the association, it has my hearty approval. It seems to me nothing can be more exasperating to the pioneers, who, with so much earnest labor, have sought to prepare the way for the new education, than to look around and find the field occupied by mercenary people, who know nothing about the Kindergarten but the 7iame, and who never fully realized what that means. " The instant the Kindergarten comes to be generally known, and to meet with popular approval, the danger will be that a swarm of quacks will seize upon the occasion to put money in their pockets and scandalize the cause, unless it can be prevented by some such 74 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. organization as the American Frobel Society, and the means it possesses. "And, as in all other reforms, too many will grasp at the shell, paying no heed to the kernel within ; and we shall have empty forms, pattern-work without vivifying principle, motions without meaning, acts without significance, words without thoughts ; a material body, decked it may be according to regulation, but out of which the winged soul of truth has flitted for ever, unless the seers of the new education keep the faith fresh and the fires on the altars continually burning, so that the germs of truth in regard to human development shall not be obliterated and entirely blotted out by the time-worn errors of the past. " Respectfully yours, " Henry B. Atherton." Rev. R. Heber Newton writes from 19 East Seventy-fifth Street, New York ; which we take the liberty to print : — " I feel honored in being asked to stand as one of the representa- tives of the Frobel Society ; for I regard it as a movement holding great promise for the future. " Some three or four years ago, I first looked seriously into the Frobel principles and methods ; and became satisfied, that, below the pretty plays of the Kindergarten, there was a profoundly important system of education, — the truest education of the faculties and affections, of the mind and the heart, — vastly more valuable than the after school-work, inasmuch as it is the preparation of the soul on which schools are to work. " Of course, my interest was most awakened by the evident moral character of the system. I hold all true education, all true social life, to be a moral culture; and so can recognize no real distinction between religious and secialar education. If the education in litera- ture, science, or the arts, does not culture character, inspire, refine, ennoble, strengthen, it is just because it is bad secular education. But, in a very peculiar sense, I think this holds of the Kindergarten. It takes the little ones in their most susceptible time, and makes a miniature society for them, — a society whose whole action is per- vaded wdth the sweet spirit of thoughtfulness, sympathy, kindness, love. It makes an atmosphere for the child-soul ; and the results are such as might be expected. " To keep the little ones in such an atmosphere for the first few years is the best foundation education that can be given. " I have seen in my own household the truth of this ; and I honestly KINDERGARTEN SIESSEXGER. 75 esteem the Kindergarten, such as Mrs. Kraus-Boelte makes it, of far more vahxe (soul value) than the average Infant Sunday School, although of direct religious education there is little. " So firm is ray conviction on this point, that the first work to be taken up in ray parish, where the children of the poor are numer- ous, is to establish a missionary Kindergarten, as the best education the church can give the poor. I hope to see the churches raoAC in this line of action, at least until the State recognizes the impor- tance of such a work, and undertakes it. Perhaps the day will come when ray good friend Mrs. Kraus-Boelte will be superin- tendent of the Kindergarten department of education in this city, amongst the other reforms coming in the good time. " Another aspect of the Kindergarten interests me greatly. The industrial value of it, I think, is scarcely to be exaggerated. The uplifting of labor depends largely on qualifying laborers to support themselves well in works that shall ennoble them, — as every craft exercising thought, intelligence, skill, tends to do. " The host of the ' drudges,' as Carlyle calls them, can now do only drudgeiy. So, in servile human toil, human life wears itself out ; and the ranks of the feeble, the dull, the stupid, the vicious, the diseased, the criminal, are continually replenished. " As all who deal with the problem of want in our great cities know, the very poor can't get work, above that of drudges, largely because they are unfit for work. They drag down labor above them, and load the social mechanism heavily. For a number of years past, attention has been turned to the necessity of educating labor; and our art-schools, schools of design, common schools in their later features, show the sense of need for this woi*k. " To turn out originative, quick-f acultied labor, I regard the Kin- dergarten, applied to the poor, as the greatest of all instrumentali- ties. It literally makes fertile brains, quick sight, subtle touch, the sense of beauty, originative power, which, once developed, for ever lifts the manual laborer out of the mechanical working that is the evil of our labor to-day, the cause of its poverty, the secret of its joylessness, the ground of its j^redisposition to beastly vices, such as drunkenness, &c. But I must not run on. " I look with great hope to this new move, as calculated to stir interest in the subject of the Kindergarten, and to guard it against the great danger of 2^&'>'version, which follows all novelties when they grow popular. " I wish I could be with you at the meeting ; but I am too busy to get ofi"." 76 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. In answer to the notification of her being elected as Vice Presi- dent of the American Frobel Society, Miss Macdaniel writes : — " My Dear Miss Peabodt. — I have received the Messenger, also, your letter inquiring in advance if I can serve in the proposed Ameri- can Frobel Society. I gladly hail the Messenger, and like it both in spirit and form. Regarding the office you so trustfully tender me in the proposed society, I am hardly able to resjDond so clearly. I need to know more of your plan, and what the duties of the office are likely to be. As far as you have gone in forming an association to act as a Board of Finance for the publication and dissemination of Frobel's works, there can be but one opinion, — that it is a most needed and good work done. But to organize a society which shall have the power to judge of the genuineness of this or that Kindergarten, ' to set up a standard of qualification and appoint competent exami- ners,' &c., is not a simple work of a society. To my mind, it needs the concurrence of all whose interests are vitally concerned, — parents, physicians, and working teachers. We certainly see, in all its depth, the evils whicli have been the result of the common schools, from want of establishing a vital relation between parents and teachers, home and school. In planting the Kindergarten as a sys- tem, and giving it up wholly to the teacher, simply as such, who may or may not have the maternal experience needed for children of such tender age, is there not danger that we may plunge the community into greater evils than those now acknowledged as the result of the common-school system ? " ' The Kindergarten ' — it is well for us to remember — is but one term in Frobel's Method ; and, to render it genuine^ should be pre- ceded by nursery training, in which the mother has had her relation with the child and Kindergarten nurse intelligently established. Let us be careful, then, not to travel too fast. " I know the practical arguments used for establishing the Kin- dergarten, in advance, viz. : 1. That the help the mother most needs, is that with her child from three to seven years old ; 2. That it is the most efficient way of enlightening mothers, who as yet dwell in much blindness and uncertainty as to any true order of development; and, 3. That it offiars to young women the most attractive way of being initiated into the method ; and, without their willing and devoted service, the Kindergarten would be null and void. " There is practical truth in these arguments ; and, as it seems the way the work has commenced, it is right to accept it, only feeling the necessity to protect it by giving it its true base, in its relation to the nursery. The enthusiasm and devotion with which young women are now devoting themselves to Kindergarten study calls out all KINDEEGARTEN" MESSENGER. 77 one's respect and admiration ; but is there not danger, in giving so much power and authority into their hands for the development of very young children, endowing them as it were with the infallibility of science, before they have been placed in intimate relations with the mother, whose love and intuition Frobel makes so all im- portant ? " The right physiological conditions of a Kindergarten are very grave ones ; and who but a mother, whose very fibres are one with those of the child, can take full oversight of them ? Tender and loving as young women are with children, there is a foresight needed regarding the temperature of young children, and the exercise they can bear without injury, which can be gained only by experi- ence^ and when the Kindergarten is the outgrowth of enlightened l^hysiological training in the nursery. The stamp, then, of what is genuine and what is not, must come from the j)areuts and home in relation with the teacher and Kindergarten proper. " Another point of consideration for the society which aims to make the application of Frobel's principle, — broad, — integral, — genu- ine, is in what way shall Kindergartens give to children a relation to nature, pure and direct ? The conditions to accomplish this are hard to be compassed in cities ; but an approach can be made, if there is a conviction^ with parents and kindergartners, that this is the germ of all true developement, and that sponta^ieity is born of a garden, and not of a school-room. Make this a sine qua non, and eventually we shall see ' Reserved Parks for children,' and gardens in places where no living thing now blooms. In country towns and villages, the word has yet to go forth, that there is no genuine * Kindergarten ' without its garden of plants. " Such, my dear Miss Peabody, are some of the considerations which your proposition to take part in the Frobel Society has called up ; and in what way the organization ]n-oposes to meet such demands of a true application of Frobel's principles, I wait to hear. It seems to me the Messenger can be the medium of much pre- liminary work before the call to organize should be held, and which is most necessary work, in order that there may be a full under- standing and harmony of opinion with its members; losing no time in useless discussion. Will it not be well to suggest that j^apers be sent in, with condensed statements, for practical use : — " 1. What constitutes Kindergarten nursery training? What are the reciprocal duties of mothers and Kindergarten nurses? What course should a young woman take to specially fit her for a Kinder- garten nurse, and by whom can it be given ? " 2. On Frobel's principle, — of the relating of the child to Nature, — how can it be carried out in nursery and Kindergarten, and what 78 KINDEEGAETEN MESSENGEK. practical steps are to be taken for instituting gardens in connection with the Kindergarten ? " 3. The necessary qualifications for a kindergartner : the course of studies to be pursued, and what should entitle to a diploma? " 4. On the government of a Kindergarten : the measures neces- sary on the part of a teacher to guard the health of children ; the course of exercises ; the maximum number of children to be brought together in one Kindergarten. "5. On the duties of Kindergarten training-teachers to each other, in order to arrive at a fixed standard, by interchange of experiences, for the right application of the principles, for the giving of diplomas, for instituting mothers' classes, and for the monthly reunion of teachers, in their respective localities. "6. On the connection of the Kindergarten with Public- School Education in this country. " And, lastly, a plan for the working organization of the society in which all the above interests of the system shall be fully attended to. " Yours, faithfully, "F. L. M." Mr. William A. Vaughan, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has kindly consented to serve as Treasueee of the American Frobel Society, and will receive, in trust, donations and bequests from the friends of the New Education. SONG FOR THE KINDERGARTEN. To the tune " Begone Dull Care." Begone, bad thoughts ! You and I will never agree. Let joy and mirth Come trooping forth, To carol songs to me. Begone, bad thoughts, I prithee, begone from me ! Begone, bad thoughts ! You and I will never agree. Happy thoughts will come. To give me joy. If I'm a brave, good boy ; Begone, bad thoughts, I prithee, begone from me ! KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 79 Begone, bad thoughts ! You and I will never agree. Let us dance and sing In our little play ring, And toss the bounding ball. Begone, bad thoughts, I prithee, begone from me ! Begone, bad thoughts ! You and I will never agree. The birds shall sing, The bells shall ring. And we will shout and play. Begone, bad thoughts, I pi'ithee, begone fi-om me ! Begone, bad thoughts ! You and I will never agi'ee. Come strength and health, And give us wealth, That we may take care of the poor ; Begone, bad thoughts, I prithee, begone from me ! m. m. THE FIRST SERIES OF KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. Unluckily, we did not have this first series stereotyped ; and therefore are unable to answer the demand daily made upon us, by new subscribers to the new series, for copies of it. We would gladly exchange the current year of the new series with any of our old subscribers who would send us the whole of the old series, from May 1, 1873, to August, 1875. Several persons have begged us to reprint certain articles, — such as Miss Garland's paper on Frobel's Law; Mrs. Ogden's, on the Relation of the Kindergarten to the Primary School ; Mrs. Ploedtei'll's paper on Kindergartening. (Mrs. Ploedterll is now associated, we believe, with Mr. Hailman's train- ing-school in Milwaukee.) These we will reprint, because it will help those who are seeking training to get an idea of the dis- crimination between the normal training necessary for the kinder- gartener and that for the school proper. The latter does not include what is necessary for the Kindergarten, though the training for the Kindergarten does greatly enrich the resources of those who go into the schools into which the forms of the Kindergarten cannot 80 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. be introduced ; but the spirit of the moral discipline can be made to prevail, rendering unnecessary all that is violent in the schools, by winning the love of the children to the interests of order. Feobel's Law op Contrasts, and their Connection.* The men who see and hear are comparatively few: they are Nature's chosen interpreters. To them are imparted certain of her secrets ; to them are confided certain clews, by which multitudes of less-finely inspired but earnest souls are guided into the perfect harmony of truth. It may happen that the student, after years of patient but unsatisfactory search and experiments, is impelled by a swift thought to bend a little closer over the nearest oracle of Nature, and that instant he grasps the magic thread ! Such a moment there was for Sir Isaac Newton, when, after long study and rigorous demonstration, he saw the law of gravitation rising befoi-e him, and felt deep agitation of soul at the thought of the immense and wonderful harmony it revealed ! Such a moment there was for Friedrich Frobel, when, in the eager pursuit of Natural Science at Berlin, he saw the clew that he had been seeking almost from his childhood ! He grasped this clew, followed it, and put into the hands of others (who still follow it) " Frobel's Law of Contrasts, and their Connections." In what sense is it " Frobel's law " ? Not certainly in the same sense that the law of gravitation may be called " Newton's law." Frobel did not, by his own observation, establish a certain order of facts, or numerically define the measure of a certain force. Under other names, — as equilibrium, equipoise, — the law had been recog- nized before, and its effects observed in various phenomena. But Frobel first saw the relation of this recognized law to a p>articular purpose, and made it subservient to the attainment of a special end ; namely, the culture of the human being. Before following the law in its application to human culture, let ns look at some of its effects in nature. Rolling in space round its central sun, our globe is kept in its orbit by the perfect adjustment of forces contrary the one to the other; and not the earth only (a mere dust-grain compared with other planets), but the entire system of worlds, is thus controlled. Either force alone would destroy the universe. The centrifugal forces would fling the planets off into space, were it not for the force of gravitation ; and the force of gravitation, without the centrifugal forces, would dash them against the sun. A slight study of astronomy or cliemistry is sufticient to * This paper was read by Miss Garland in May, 1872, on the occasion of her graduating from Madame Kriege's Normal Class. KINDERGARTEX MESSENGER. 81 reveal almost infinite adjustments, of a like nature, in the inorganic world. All organic forms witness to the law. See the germinating seed ! Plant it as you will, the plumule and the rootlet turn in their proper and opposite directions, — the one upwai-d into the air, the other downward into the earth ; and only through the con- nection of these natural contrasts do we receive the perfect vegetable form and functions. The topmost branches of the forest-tree, reach- ing far towards the sky, and its roots a hundred feet below, tortu- ously boring their subterranean way, are not only outwardly and visibly connected by the erect and massive trunk, but have their vital union in the sap, the blood of the tree, — a secret, noiseless cur- rent flowing through its body and leafy fingers, from root to crown and crown to root. Governed by the same law of growth, the tiny speedwell opens its blue eye, scarcely an inch from the ground ; and between the giant tree and the baby weed we have countless variations of the same theme. But the forms around us are so manifold, how can there be unity ? is the cry of our unbelief Yet we can trace all organic forms to the cell ; all inoiganic forms, to the primary crystal shapes in our earth-crust. From the rock-crystals to the sky- crystals, the fiiiry snow-flakes, we can follow the " divine geometry," and see that Nature's manifoldness is still oneness. And the being who is moved with wonder and admiration as he marks the grand efiects of this law of connected contrasts, — is he an exception to the law ? Does he not at the moment unite the world of matter and mind ? His physical life is developed and sustained like that of all organized beings. He breathes by oppo- sites, — by inhaling and exhaling the air; his body is nourished by opposites, — by assimilation and elimination of food ; he thinks by means of opposites, — by recognition of similarity or difference through comparison. Surely man himself is a most marvellous connection of contrasts! Our observation of inanimate and animate nature convinces us of the universality of this law ; and, if we choose to question Art, she will tell us that her creations and colorings are likewise skilful contrasts and combinations of a few simple elements, according to Nature's rule. A recent scientific writer says : " The number of substances deemed elementary has varied with the advance of science, but, as compared with the variety of their products, that number may be considered, infinitesimally small ; whilst the progress of analysis, with glimpses of laws yet unknown, renders it almost certain that this number will be found smaller still. Yet out of this small number of elementary substances, having fixed laws, too, limiting their combination, all the infinite varieties of organic and 6 82 KINDERGAETEN MESSENGER. inorganic matter are built up by means of nice adjustment. All the faculties of a powerful mind can utter their voice in language whose elements are reducible to twenty-four letters ; so all the forms of nature are worked out from a few simple elements having a few simple properties." Now let us turn to Frobel's application of the law of contrasts, and their connection in education, — understanding education to mean the harmonious development of man's entire nature. As instinctive manifestations or natural impulses serve for the develop- ment of all creatures, Frobel would aid this natural development in the child by supplying from the earliest period external conditions favorable to healthy growth. Nursery plays and songs, used in- stinctively the world over, he would have not less natural and fond ; but more wisely turned into a means of strengthening the pliant limbs, and at the same time healthfully feeding the receptive mind. Regarding _^rsi vn2)ressio7is as the food by which the soul is aroused and strengthened for its manifestation, he would have these impres- sions given by means of a few sim2)le objects, presenting marked contrasts, yet harmonious in combination ; for, thus receiving through the senses clectr impressions, the mind will, later, work them into clear conce2)tions, and by and by reproduce them in intelligent acts. Accordingly, we find the Jirst Gift in Frobel's series of objects to be six colored worsted balls, of a size suited to little hands. In the ball is presented the simplest, yet most comprehensive, of all forms ; and gradually the child is made acquainted with primary and secondary colors, and their harmonious arrangement. Ball-j^lays, constantly exemplifying our law by means of rhythmical motion, are carried on from the nursery through the Kindergarten, and aid in physical and mental develoj)ment. The second Gift — a wooden sphere, cube, and cylinder — differs in its substance from the first, but is connected with it in the form of one of its three objects. Here our contrasts are the sphere and cube ; while in the cylinder we have their connection. The third Gift is a two-inch cube, divided once in each dimen- sion. It has an obvious connection with the preceding Gift ; but its divisions enable us to produce, according to law, a great variety of forms. From the third to the seventh Gift we have cubes of various sizes, each presenting some new feature ; in the fourth are oblongs ; in the fifth, the small cubes are divided into halves and quarters ; and, in the sixth, we receive doubly divided oblongs. The solids then give place to surfaces or planes ; and with these the law is carried out in a series of geometrical forms. From the plane to the embodied line, in small stafisj from the embodied KINDERGAKTEN MESSENGER. O'' line to the pictured line, in drawing, and the point in pricking we follow constantly the same law ; weaving, paper-ioldmg, modelling i^ elay, - all the occupations of the Kindergarten are based on t , and the child, as he invents or studies the figure he produces by su'h but orderly changes in the material given him l-rns that, m tr.. of use, beauty, or knowledge, the symmetry of the whole de- fends upon the exact arrangement of the opposite parts. ^ But like the child, do we still push back to first causes wi h « Whv^"- WiV (lid Frobel think this law so important in early educati;n ? It uiay be universal, and upon it all -^^y in ~y xnay rest : the mature mind may study it with interest bu sui ely the child cannot comprehend it ! The answer is. The child is not expected to comprehend it, nor will he even hear of it as ^i abs^r^c law All science is based on experimental knowledge : the child s '^B^'taU^^^^^ fundamental forms, and constantly applying, tho^ugh unconsciously, the fundamental law m the tor m a- tfve p?od of life, arrangement, classification, and combination become Se-elements, and 1 deep and broad foundation is laid for loftv and liberal culture. , W must not, however, forget that there are pen^erted naturd immilses ; and, if time allowed, we might show that Frobel s system f"?^ hes'a coi'rective for these : for instance, we have in it a means of turning the impulse we call destructiveness into construcUveness, by deve4ing through this law the child's self-activity m creaUve ""'we should like to dwell upon the application of the law to the formation of character: we can only touch upon it. The harmonious blend nc^ of play and work, of freedom and order, of mdividual ,Z!:ucAJJ^y^^^e.,-^^. connection that is established be leen the works and plays of the child and the -^ -7-' f^' ^f^ sciences of men, surely creates an atmosphere favorable to the formatTon of good habits, and the love of the Beautilul, the True, '^The'unity of human life, through all its different phases, is recog- nized '' The child is father to the man ; » and EducaUon if worthy of its' name, must help to bind the days of this human life ' each to each with naturalpietyP Schiller points to this need of moral cultuie in these words : "It is not enough that all intellectual improvement deserves our regard only so far as it flows hack upon the character : ft must in a manner proceed fro.n the charactei^ since the way to the head must be opened through the heart. Cultivation of the perceptive faculty is, then, the most pressing want of the age, not only L a means to make a practical application ol an improved 84 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. insight, but for its own sake ; because it prompts to this improve- ment of insight." But the man of facts — the man immortalized by Dickens, "Mr. Thomas Gradgrind" — objects to any law that aids the develop- ment of the Ideal, to any system that excludes two of the distin- guished r's — reading and writing — until the mature age of seven ! We do not hope to move him by argument : he is wholly wanting in faith, " the evidence of things not seen." He will still repeat, " Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out every thing else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals from facts, and nothing else will be of any service to them ; stick to facts — facts — facts ! " It would be of no use to tell him that the senses are the feeders and tools of the mind ; and that his favorite system of instruction, which presents the absti-action be- fore the object, the sign before the thing signified, is contrary to natural principles : he will continue to regard young children as " empty pitchers to be filled to the brim with imperial gallons of facts." It would be worse than useless to speak of unity to one who is content with iiniformity, or to refer to the model given us by the Divine Teacher when he spoke to the simple people in parable or comparison, impressing their minds with the objects of external nature, that through them they might learn the highest spiritual truths. No: we cannot in this way persuade such an objector; but it would not be very difficult to supply him with facts for his note-book, showing that the age calls for reform in its most vaunted school-systems ; that stimulation of the intellect must be balanced by practical work ; that formation of character must be a primary object, and the end aimed at in primary schools, if we would lessen the obstinate numerical facts of pauperism, vice, and crime. So long as we seek definite results, fiery-red with haste, and those results not always the most ennobling, we shall never appre- hend that golden mean between Person and Condition, Freedom and Nature, where the true humanity will finally rest and expand. "The age culls simples, With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the glory of the stars ; We are gods by our own reckoning, — and may well shut up the temples, And wield on amid the incense-steam, the thunder of our cars, For we throw out acclamations of self-thanking, self-admiring. With — at every mile run — faster— Oh, the wondrous, wondrous age! Little thinking if we work our souls as nobly as our iron, Or if angels will commend us at the goal of pilgrimage." We believe in Frobel's law ; and we believe, too, that it must be no dead letter^ but a living power, in teachers filled with somewhat KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 85 of the loving, gentle spirit of the man who understood the law in nature, and discovered its use in education. Like Frtibel, his fol- lowers must strive to be true to nature, to man, and to God, waiting patiently while they labor in a new, and, in our age of steam, sus- piciously slow^ way. They can, at least, give so much of the world as falls within their influence a direction toward the good through the beautiful, toward the unseen and eternal through the seen and temporal ; and if the " tranquil rhythm " of time should fail to bring its development within their view, yet the co7inection between seed-time and harvest will be clearly established when the great Parable of Nature shall be unveiled, — when the seeming discords, the sharp contrasts, of our earthly existence — its good and evil, joy and sorrow, effort and apparent failure, meeting and parting — shall be resolved into the sweet accord, the rich harmony, of an undivided, a pei'fect life. MRS. PLOEDTERLL'S PAPER, Head at the German Teachers' Convention at UohoJcen, August, 1872. Undoubtedly the plan and practice of the Kindergarten sprang from the clear perception of the deficiency of education in general, and of home education in particular. Frobel, stalling from the fundamental principle that education should keep even pace with the organic development of man, and should be continued without cessation or interruption, found — on comparing that which home education afforded up to a certain age with that which school demanded at the same time — a void, in which he discovered the first cause of the failure of all later educa- tion and culture. Not only this, but the whole practice of ordinary education, brought to him the conviction, that here, above all, help was needed, if the cause of education was not to remain botch-work for ever, and thus impede the successful development and the ennobling of future generations. To reform the parents, to educate them anew, to force upon them the clear conviction of that which was actually needed, was too slow a means : the more sensible way was to com- mence at once with the children themselves. By this means, a double advantage was gained : the children were benefited by the new system of education, and their homes were indirectly improved through their influence. There are some persons who lack all knowledge of any rational system of education, who possess neither the desire nor the ability 86 KINDERGARTEN SIESSENGEE. to educate; there are others, who, in consequence of business occu23ations, cares for daily support, or other obstacles, are pre- vented from carrying out a good and systematic course of home education. In such cases, children are generally neglected ; and this, unfor- tunately, at an age when (as nature evidently shows) the foundation of all good in the future can and should be laid. What, then, is the work of the Kindergarten in connection with education, both at home and in school ? Let us first consider the relation of the Kindergarten to the family. As for as the educational task of the Kindergarten is con- cerned, it should complement home education when the latter is good, or not altogether bad ; where it is bad, the Kindergarten should ameliorate its condition, or take its place. There are, we admit with pleasure, many families who devote themselves with love and tenderness to the task of educating their children ; but, notwithstanding all their endeavors, it is impossible for domestic education to do all that is required for the develop- ment of the children. Obstacles of various kinds arise in the midst of the family, but can be avoided, if the Kindergarten takes upon itself the duties of home training. Some very important auxiliaries are not offered to the child at home : as, for instance, the uninterrupted intercourse with other children; the variety of useful and yet child-like occupations; the regular and harmonious exercise of the body, — in fact, all necessary opportunity for the development of physical and moral strength and independence. All these opportunities the Kindergarten offers, in a systematic order, in its daily plays and by its varied means of occupation. The child easily learns and improves among its companions. One serves as a model to the other, — a model which is readily fol- lowed. The little ones stimulate each other : that which is familiar does not become tedious ; that which is new presents no diffi- culties ; nowhere stubborn self-will or ill temper, for the intercourse of the little ones is all joyousness and indefatigable zeal. The desire for imitation — this useful element in the child's constitution — finds ample scope in the Kindergarten, and is called into exercise without overstraining or fatiguing its faculties. This fact has long since been acknowledged, and is sufficient in itself to settle the dis- pute regarding the advantages of collective over isolated education. And to the families of the poor, where father and mother must both work for their support, and consequeiitly cannot give anytime or care to their children, the Kindergarten is a positive blessing. As it cannot be denied that a great portion of the misery of the KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 87 world has its origin in the increasing demoralization of the people, it becomes the duty of the State and of all philanthropists to help, where help can yet avail. Money and labor alone cannot combat the enemy which threatens civil prosperity: morality and culture alone are able to resist successfully. These powers should, therefore, be called into exercise ; and this can easily be accomplished, if the children of the afore-named classes enjoy from their earliest child- hood the advantages of a good education. The so-called " children's asylums " (Bewahranstalten) are excellent ; but, if they are to sup- ply more than merely temporary good, they must adopt the educa- tional system of the Kindergarten. Let us now consider the relations of the Kindergarten to the school. With regard to the school, and preparatory to it, the mis- sion of the Kindergarten differs entirely from that which it holds toward the family : it serves as a systematic means of education destined to be the link between home and school. How can it fulfil this mission ? Only by combining the characteristics of home and school education, and by adojiting a system which, rendering a continuation of home life possible, pi'epares at the same time for the more earnest duties of school. Not upon any law founded on scientific examination of human nature, but on usage, rests the custom of not sending children to school until their fifth or sixth year. It is not our object here to examine the evil produced by this practice of initiating the child into school life at the above-named pei'iod : it is our task to con- sider what may be done before the period of entering school, and what is necessary on entering it. It is of the highest importance that the mental faculties of the child shall have been so judiciously exercised that the first lessons at school do not produce any ill effect upon the child's capacities and powers. Formerly, before the Kindergarten ranked amongst educational institutions, the child, after spending from five to six years at home, without training or discipline, was sent to school, and there expected to learn at once. What were the natural con- sequences of such a course ? With amazement, yet without under- standing, the child looked upon the new life that unfolded itself before its eyes. The intercourse with other children, it is true, was pleasing; but far from pleasant was learning, observing, think- ing, acquiring : with these things there had been no acquaintance hitherto. Finally, however, its mind became familiar, in a painful, dry, and mechanical manner, ill-suited to the tastes of a child, with the work and exercises of primary instruction. Does this abrupt change from home to school training favor a free, uninterrupted development of the child's nature ? No ; though 88 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. the children may from habit gradually fall in with the custom of the school, and submit to the unnatural ways imposed upon them. The disadvantage of such a system cannot perhaps be traced back to its source in the individual. Careful observers, however, of the human mind, as well as of whole nations, have discovered the source of so much deficiency in culture, and of superficiality in attainments, in that first-imposed instruction, in that injudicious drilling of the mental faculties, in our primary schools. It is the task of the Kindergarten to remedy this evil, and to establish an intermediate link between the home and school, des- tined to offer to the child that absolutely necessary preparation by which the embarrassment and bewilderment, the injury of the child's mental faculties on entering school, will be prevented, and a rapid understanding and mastering of the new instruction effected. After these remarks, there remains for us only to consider the method of the Kindergarten. The Kindergarten satisfies all the wants of the child's nature, by promoting, at the same time, its physical and mental development. For the strengthening of the body there are, in the first place, regular exercises in calisthenics and gymnastics; secondly, movement-plays (Bewegungsspiele) in the open air, and also in the house, — both combining to attain the desired end in a manner easy, pleasing, and useful to the children. Frequently the plays are accompanied with songs, which exercise great influence over the child's feelings and manners. The fellow- ship of the plays, the reigning freedom, the prevailing gayety, — all these together call forth in the hearts of the children moods and sentiments which may be considered the forerunners of a conscious love of the good and the beautiful. Elements so injurious to the culture of the heart as a stubborn seclusiveness, obstinacy, quarrelsomeness, imperiousness, or pride, are entirely banished from these regions. Children are brought and kept together here on the principles of a harmonious working of equal claims to culture, development, and the care of the teacher. And is this to remain without influence upon the child's soul-life ? Will it not make its heart suscej^tible of all that makes a human being truly happy ? The movement-plays are of decided advantage to the mental development of the child : it acquires, and without trouble, an in- tuitive knowledge of actual life ; it learns to understand a number of occupations and actions, and to judge of them, without injury to its tender organization, and without becoming precocious. A similar advantage it derives from each particular exercise of the Kindergarten. What a rich field is open to the thoughtful Kindergarten-teacher KINDERGARTEN" MESSENGER. 89 in the Tale, for instance. How slie can work upon the child's imagination ! Then the ball-plays, — how they promote skilful- ness and grace ! As for the building-blocks, here are new shapes with which the child becomes acquainted ; and what a variety of forms and structures can be produced ! You will be convinced by this explanation, that in the Kinder- garten alone children can receive in a natural manner that prepara- tion and fitness for school without which the school can never accomplish what it should. The school in its present state lacks the proper institution to precede and succeed it. In conclusion, we may say of the Kindergarten, in the words of Diesterweg, " If we ask the teachers to whom we intrust our chil- dren what pupils they like best, they answer that they consider themselves favored in receiving children into their schools who spent their first years in the wholesome atmosj^here of the Kinder- garten." WHO SHALL BECOME A KINDERGARTNERIN ? Opening Address to her Normal Class of 1874-75, hy Emma Marwedel. How often we hear the remark of mothers, " I am not able to teach my own children : that has to be done by some one else." On the other hand, do we not often hear, " I am only the teacher, and cannot be responsible any farther " ? Now, the first requirement of the Kindergarten (or the Frobel system) is, that the mother shall become a teacher, and the teacher a mother. Differing in nothing else, then, but in this point from the usual routine of teaching, any thoughtful person will at once recognize the great difference between the ordinary mode of teaching and the Kindergarten system. I do not intend, my dear friends, to give you, to-day, an expla- nation of the system itself ; but I will sketch, lightly, the new field of knowledge, to which you expect to be led by me, for information and direction. In order that you should know its grounds, its necessary fertilization, its j^lants, their growth, their uses, and, finally, the means to bring them to their highest perfection, I intend, first, only to refer to what is needed on your part, if you are to accomplish the work to which you have decided to devote your- selves. I therefore ask, Who shall become a kindergartnerin ? Only those who, — 90 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 1. Are able to depend on a healthy, graceful body; a perfectly balanced, serene temper; a good voice; a lively, sympathetic coun- tenance; and a loving heart for children. 2. Those who have already not only a good foundation of general knowledge, but who are themselves interested in all questions abovit causes and effects ; are able to catch at once the ideas of the child, and to reproduce them in such a way that they shall also instruct and interest the child to make its own original representation strictly according to Frobel's laws ; dictating only to develop the child's own knowledge, and lead it to observe and compare for itself, to go from the general to the special, from the concrete towards the abstract, and always in direct connection with what is at hand, making an impression upon the child's senses, and comprehensible by him. 3. Those who have practical ability to learn, and artistic talent to execute Frobel's occupations, and are able to impart them to the child without any mechanical drill (though instruction in order and accuracy in detail are essential), always bearing in mind that these occupations are only the tools for a systematic educational develop- ment of all the faculties born in and with the child ; and that the explanation of how and why these tools are to be applied according to obvious laws contain the most important points of the system ; and, farther, that these laws have to be fully understood in the movement plays and use of the ball, as well as in the weaving and the modelling, so that their profound logical connection, for the rigorous, systematic appliance of them, may be recognized. This philosoj)liic insight into the depths of the system is needed in order to mature you to independence of thought and originality in arrange- ments, — for kindergartnerinen are nothing if not original, — and that you may do justice to your individual talents, your own con- ceptions, your own observation of nature and life, and of their educational relation to the child and its human existence; and be saved from the great danger of debasing the system to a repetition of mere words, phrases, and dead actions, thereby introducing more monotonies, more mechanism, and nan-owing influences into this educational training than exists in the ordinary school methods. There never was a more liberal, tolerant leader than Frobel himself, who, in all his works and all his letters, addresses the motherly and individual natural teaching power and ingenuity, — the source of his own ideas. 4. Those who are able to observe, to study, and describe, the wonders and the beauty of nature and man, in that elevating, poet- ical, and moral sense we call religion, — a religion which teaches the tender heart of the child what is right and wrong, by filling its KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 91 sweet mind with taste for beauty ; naturally to reject the wrong instinctively and habitually, while unconsciously becoming aware that it is born to serve itself and others, and that life has no other value than what we make of it by our own work, and that each one is responsible to the whole of which even the child is a part ; every play, every song, every little gift made by the child, being presided over by this spirit. 5. And, finally, all those who are earnestly striving to fulfil these conditions may joyfully enter the glorious field of this educational mission, known under the name of the Kindergarten system. And if ever any earthly work does carry its own rewards, it is the teach- ing and loving of our dear little ones according to Frobel's advice ; making the teacher a child among children, and the happiest of all, because she feels that she is a teacher, a mother, and a playmate, all in one ! But she must not only be the youngest and the oldest of her circle : she must also unite them. The power she exercises will lead the children, imconsciously, either to wrong habits or right power. Her unworded but powerful example is to impress the young mind with all the higher aims and laws of life. She has to be true, firm, just, and, above all, loving. The few rules, once given, have to be kept strictly ; orders, when given, must be fulfilled. She must live in all and for all, never devoting her- self to one while neglecting others. She must hear and see, have an eye and ear for every thing, good and bad. Then the child will feel bound under the spiritual power, which will fill his whole imagi- nation, his faith, his love, his veneration. It will be a teacher that never fails ! And this, finally, is the key to discipline. Without it, all other powers will be powerless. In giving you the programme of the work for the season, let me say, that I think nothing needs the whole power of artistic and general knowledge and experience, the whole depth of Frobel's philosophy, and the whole everlasting source of originality and reason, more than the learning and right application of the Frobel occujjations ; and I think it is the greatest mistake of some of the normal schools of Germany that they have the occupations taught too mechanically. "With me your work will be : — 1. Making the six soft balls of the first Gift. 2. Learning twelve ball plays, songs, and music. 3. Building with the third, fourth, fifth, sixth Gifts of Frobel's series, according to dictation, supplemented by free inventions, accompanied by conversations suggesting how to talk with the children while they are working. 4. Laying of planes in series of forms, dictated, and by free invention. 92 KINDBEGARTEK MESSENGER, 5. Laying of sticks in series of forms, dictated, and by free invention. 6. Laying of rings in series of forms, dictated, and by free invention. 7. Pea-work in series of forms, dictated, and by free invention. 8. Weaving a series of patterns, first from dictation, and making at least six inventions of beauty. 9. Perforating twelve cards in a series of forms symmetrically combined, with twelve fancy pieces of original invention. 10. Sewing of twelve perforated cards with colored worsted, in lines, vertical, horizontal, oblique, and variously combined, according^ to a dictated series, with six freely invented forms of beauty. 11. Interlacing of papers (and of slats), by dictation, followed by free inventions. 12. Folding of paper in series of forms of knowledge and beauty, dictated, with six free inventions. 13. Cutting of paper in series of forms of beauty. 14. Drawing, according to dictation, series of lines and forms, followed by free inventions. 15. Modelling, in clay or wax, twelve forms of knowledge, and six free inventions of forms of life and beauty. 16. Learning twenty-five movement j)lays, with the songs and music. 17. Writing abstracts of the lessons given, on the rationale of the work. 18. Writing of essays. Miss Marwedel adds : " I have made ray own arrangement for a systematic following otit of a series of forms of knowledge, in weaving, sewing, perforating ; and these series have to be carried out with the necessary convincing enthusiasm, which is needed to make the children see in the same light that the teacher does, leading them beyond mere imitation to a real ownership of the thoughts illustrated by the practical work." Miss Marwedel also says, in answer to my proposition to publish her lectures on the ball and other movement plays : — "After the public statement in the Messenger, that you never had had opportunity personally to judge of my normal school, I thought it advisable to send you a few of my lectures, and give the table of work for the normal class. I did this to give you as much insight into my work as possible, wishing to gain your approval as a faithful co-worker, and to justify the interest and friendship you have expressed. Having reached this point, I regarded the object attained, and should rather decline to have them printed." KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. 93 foreign intelligence. The following letter, which we have just received, shows that in Germany also the same battle is to be fought against deterioration of the Frobel education in the interest of trade^ that the American Frobel Society is organized to fight here. Dresden, March 28, 1877. My Dear Miss Peabody, — At the request of Madame Marenholtz, I write you to apologize in her name for the delay in replying to your last two letters ; and to explain to you, in as few words as possible, the real question now at issue between the genuine disciples of Frobel and those who use his name without having the slightest comprehension of his principles. The question is rather a complicated one ; and Madame Maren- holtz has of late years written so little in English that she feels it would be difficult for her to explain it clearly. She has, therefore, trusted me to repeat to you the substance of a conversation, in which she has given me the history of the conflict. Some years since, when Madame Marenholtz was still living in Berlin, and devoting her time and energy to the building up of the Kindergarten cause in that city, she became acquainted with a young gymnastic teacher, by the name of Goldammer, who pro- fessed a great interest in Frobel, and seemed anxious to devote him- self to the study of the Kindergarten method. Feeling the necessity of securing friends for the system among professional teachers, and believing Goldammer to be sincere in his enthusiasm, Madame Marenholtz spared herself no pains to make Frobel's ideas clear to him; gave him the privilege of attending her lectures, and in private conversations tried to beat into his brain the essentials of the system. At first she had hopes that he would prove a true disciple ; and it was only very gradually that she found out that he was only inter- ested in the Kindergarten in so far as he could make it a stepping- stone for his personal advancement. Meanwhile, however, he had read the Manual published pre- viously by Jacobs, in Brussels, and fallen upon the idea of trans- lating it into German. To this Madame Marenholtz objected, stating that the Manual was very incomplete; that it filled to state Frobel's method, and was consequently not at all what was needed as a practical guide for kindergartners. Feeling, however, the absolute necessity of a hand-book of some kind, and fearing from her own state of health that she might die before she would be able to do any thing better, she finally allowed her objections to be over- ruled, and consented to write for the translated hand-book an intro- 94 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. diictory and a closing chapter, in "which she explained the essentials of Frobel's method. Thus, the first edition of " Goldammer's Guide " appeared as a translation from the French of Jacobs, with addi- tions from the pen of Madame Marenholtz. As Goldammer showed more and more of his true character, the breach between Madame Marenholtz and himself widened, until she refused to have any thing more to do with him and his spurious and selfish work. Since then, he has published a second and thii-d edi- tion of the guide-book, which he falsely calls his own ; has eutirel}' omitted to state that it is a translation ; has added to the book a mass of nonsense, which can only injure the Kindergarten in the eyes of sensible educators ; and has j^resumed to criticise Frobel, and to claim that he has made improvements in the Kindergarten method ! Finally, he stated that the illustrations of the different gifts and occupations were his private property, and that it was forbidden for any one to copy them. Up to this point Madame Marenholtz held her peace. But to have been silent longer would have been treason to Frobel and the Kindergarten cause. In common, therefore, with some other influ- ential advocates of the system, she signed a protest, which was made public, and which attacked Goldammer on the following points : — 1. Because, without any true understanding of Frobel, he boldly declares that " he based his system upon a mere philosophic phrase ; " thus casting contempt upon the law which underlies Frobel's method, and which alone gives it significance. 2. Because he adds to Frobel's gifts inventions of his own, which are not only worthless, but absolutely injurious. 3. Because he dares to claim, as private property, plates and illus- trations which are mere copies of Frobel's originals ; and which besides, being all methodical, might at any moment be discovered by the youngest child in the Kindergarten. 4. Because, contrary to Madame Marenholtz's positively expressed wish, he has retained her articles and her name in these later edi- tions of his book ; thus throwing the weight of her influence against the true interests of the Kindergarten. Such is, in substance, the question about which you requested an explanation. You will see at once that it affects us in America thus far, that Goldammer's book must not be recommended to our kindergartners. You can, with clear conscience, say emphatically in the Messenger, that the man is a humbug and an ignoramus ; and that he has so mixed the good, which he has stolen from the French Manual, with his own absurdities, that the influence of his book can only be injurious. KINDEEGABTEN MESSENGER. 95 Goldammer's reply to the above-mentioned protest was pub- lished in the little journal called " Kindergarten and Bewahr Austalten." The protest itself was not given, nor yet the subse- quent answer to and condemnation of Goldammer: so no fair idea of the question could be obtained. This journal is not reliable, as its publishers know nothing of the theoretical basis of the Kin- dergarten; and, if you ever see it, you must beware of being influenced by its statements. It is a purely money-making periodical ; devoted to the interests of its owners, and not to the interests of the new education. You can do another good work by publishing in the Messenger that the Kindergarten material furnished by Bretsch, in Berlin, is miserable ; and by recommending those who wish to import the Gifts, &c., to order them from Vetter, in Hamburg. Bretsch is another self-seeker, — takes no care to have his material well made; and I can testify from personal experience that his blocks are never uniform in size. Availing myself of this opportunity to assure you that I am trying to learn more of the Kindergarten during these months of comparative leisure, and begging you to accept the assurances of my kind regard, I remain, my dear Miss Peabody, Very truly yours, Susan E. Blow. There are thirty-six signatures to the protest mentioned in the above letter ; and, after the reply of Goldammer, three of them — Rudolph Benfry of Berlin, Alexander Bruno Hanschman of Walden- burg, Saxony, and Dr. Gustave Wittmer of Cassel — made another reply to him, quite elaborately (in the tenth number of the " Erzie- hung der Gegenwart," for 1876), which we would like to translate; for it would show that the editor of the Messenger is supported by the first authorities in Europe, in the assertion she made in a con- troversy of like nature with the above one, in which she was en- gaged last summer. She then said, that the Frobel education, especially in the Kindergarten stage, is " not to be regarded as a business^ but as a religion^ In the struggle for material good, which is a not unworthy, if too predominant characteristic of American life, we must not forget that '■'■the life is more than raiment;" and that childhood is the pure substance which is to be conserved, and clothed upon with knowledge of nature and wisdom, divine and human, by those who can only have this gospel to administer, if they, are single- eyed and pure in heart from self-ends. " Ye cannot serve God and mammon." We use the word "gospel" in reference to Frobel's mode of edu- 96 KINDERGARTEN MESSENGER. cation, because this mode is nothing less than to live with children from the beginning ; seeking for them and ourselves the secret of life, the law of action. The kindergartner is the first minister of the gospel of life, after the mother ; and it is as much, if not more, a blasphemy and sacrilege for a kindergartner to allow the question of gettijig a living in the material world to determine her activity in a Kindergarten as for a preacher to do so in a pulpit. We have as much right, and it is as much a human duty, to pre- serve the work of educating children from charlatanry and the spirit of worldly business, as it is conceded to be to preserve pulpit service from this sacrilege. To become a preacher of the gospel of life to the grown-up, as a mere business^ is conceded to be a sacrilege and a blasphemy. Not less so, certainly, can it be to administer this gospel to children, who are more dependent on the kindergart- ner than " the solemn assembly " of the grown-up can be on the minister ; for children must be guided by human providence away from the forbidden, until their own understanding is developed. No human being ever avoided the forbidden without this guidance ; not even the Christ child, who " grew in wisdom and grace," as well as stature, " subject to his parents.^'' It was the defect of the original first Paradise that there was no human guidance there, and hence moral death came into the world. But the Parental Author OE Life did not abandon the race to Death. The seed of Life was planted in the human relation of succeeding generations, bringing the happiness of heaven (which is the communion of love and icis- dom) down to mortals. This communion between the grown-up and child, this living with our children, which Frobel makes the princiiile of education, cannot exist at all except as a religion. The editor of the Kindergarten Messenger begs that its readers will take the idea which is expressed by discriminating the holy work of education from the business of getting a living. The latter is also a duty. We do not say that there must not be raiment^ but that we must not confound the raiment with life. It is not everybody who can engage in that part of the work of education which is to be done in the Kindergarten, precisely be- cause it is the nearest duty of some persons to get a living for them- selves, and perhaps for others, outside of it. I confess to a sympathy with poor women and young girls in this, even to the point of weak- ness ; and would help them, to the limit of my powers, to any legiti- mate business, — even to the business of instruction in any science or art. Bait the direction of helpless children into the method of life, which is the work of the Kindergarten, must not be profaned. " We do not live by bread alone." The Kindergarten Guide. An illustrated Hand-book designed for the Self-Instruction of Kindergartners, Mothers, and Nurses. By Maria Kraiis-Boelte and Jobii Kraus. No, The Kindergarten Guide will be published in 8 Numbers, viz.: . 1. TJie First and Second Gifts. With 50 illustrations. In Paper, 35 Cents; in Cloth, 65 Cents.— No. 2. Tlie Third, Fourth, Fifth, and iSi.rth Gifts.— ^o. 3. The Tablets.— l^o. 4. liintj-lnying, Stiek-Uiyiwf, SUit-interlacinff, Conneetetl Slat, Thread Game. — No. 5. Jirairint/, Ferforalinff, Seirintf. — No. (5. Paper-folding, Paper-ritttiiif/ and Faper-ninuttting, Wetiving, Paper-inter- tteinintf. — No. 7. Feas-(Cork-) Work, Morlelinf/. — No. 8. Stories, Music, Games, Conversational Lessons, Discipline, Care of Plants and Animals, etc. Numbers 2 to 8 will be issued as last as possible, each selling separately. Moral Culture of Infancy and Kindergarten Guide. By Mrs. Horace Mann and Elizabeth P. Peabocly. Contents:— I. Kindergarten: What is it? II. Rooms, etc. III. Music. IV. Plays, Gymnastics, and Dancing. V. The Kinder^artner. VI. Kindergarten Occupations. VII. Moral and Religious Exercises. VIII. Object Lessons. IX. Geometry. X. Reading. XI. Grammar and Languages. XII. Geography. Xm. The Secret of the Power. XIV. Moral Culture of Infancy.— With Music for the Plays. Cloth, $1.25 Froebel's Kindtrgarten Occupations for the Family. Each in an elegant and strong Paper Box, containing Material, Designs and Instructions. @ $0.75 1. Stick-Laying. — 2. Net-work Drawing. — 3. Per- forating Pricking). — i. Weaving i Braiding). — 6. Embroidering. -^ 6. Cork or Peas Work.— 7. Piait- ing [Interlacing Slats), — 8. Ring-laying. — 9. Inter- twining Paper. — •■ 10. Cutting Paper. Karl Frabel. Elements of Designing on the Developing System, for Elemei.tary School Classes and for Fami- lies, i Parts, each containing 24 pages ruled in squares, with designs and space for copying. Each part, in paper, $0.35 W, y. Hail man. Kindergarten Culture in the Family and Kindergarten : A complrte Sketch of Fraibel's System of Early Education, adapted to American In- stitutions. For the use of Mothers and Teacher-^. Illustrated. Cloth, $0.75 Heinrich Hoft'inann, Kindergarten Toys, and how to use them. A practical Explanation of the first six Gifts of Frcebel's Kindergarten. Illustrated. Paper, $0.20 Kindergarten Tracts. Steigek's No. 1. Wliat is the Puipnse of Kindergarten Education"! — 2. SBag ift ter ^ii'Ctf ter Slint'CViiorteii-l.Jv^icIjunii? — 3. Wfialisa Kindergarten? or Frcebel's System of Edu- cation briefly explained. — 4. SSsag ift ctil Jtiiitcvjiivlcn ? flurjC 1)arfteHiiii3 tc5 Svoberfdjcn Sm'teiiio.— 5. Fraibel and the Kindergarten System. (Extract from a Lecture by Prof. Jos. Payne.) — 6 What I think of Kinder- gartens. (From the Herahi of Health.) — 7. Kinder- garten. (From the A^. V. IVcekly Tribune.) — 8. A Day in the Kindergarten of Frdulein Held, at JVashua, iV. h. — 9. The Kindergarten. (An Address by Miss S E. Blow.) — 10. The Medical Profession recommend the Kindergarten. — 11. The Christmas Kindergarten. (A Letter by the Rev. J. S.Travelli.) — 12. The Pose Windoto. — 13. A few Words to Mothers on Froebel's First Gift for Babies. — 14. Friedrich Frcebel's Develop- ing System nf Education. (A Lecture by Karl Fr ^ O g '■^o CO >;:> •(O «o § ^ i-sS <^ ^ 09 so 'ts g <» ^ i»o H5 so to g ■w ^ 05 « 5^ Sit •>* 00' ^ to I %^ ered, other things being equal. It takes time to perceive. Who, at any period, is not tormented, more than amused, by being hurried through a succession of scenes, or plunged into the medley of an exhibition of pictures? The adult has some power, however, of selecting some things to attend to, and ignoring others : but the child has no choice, and so perceives nothing clearly, and therefore remembers nothing; and, by farther consequence, gets no materials for fancy, which is an act of the mind preceding the understanding (a psychological fact which has been too little considered). Understanding is only developed after comparison, which presupposes foregone perceptions. Whether impressions would stimulate perception without human intervention, it is hard to say, since no child ever lived a day, isolated from other human beings ; or whether perceptions could become memories, or memories become fancies and intellectual conceptions ; or whether children would begin to compare, or come into understanding of nature, without human hel-p. We know that the process, in point of fact, never goes on uninterruptedly and harmoniously without the help of others, whether consciously or unconsciously given. It is a communion in which both are givers and both receivers, and which is beneficial and happy only when it is not blind ; but, on the part of the elder conscientious and intelligent of the chil