The question for us to decide to-day is not how we can interest people in and how illustrate2 the true kindergarten, for that is already done to a considerable extent; but, how we can convince school boards, superintendents3, and voters that the final introduction of the kindergarten into the public school system is a thing greatly to be desired. The kindergarten and the school, now two distinct, dissimilar, and sometimes, though of late very seldom, antagonistic4 institutions,—how will the one affect, or be affected5 by the other?
As to the final adoption6 of the kindergarten there is a preliminary question which goes straight to the root of the whole matter. At present the state accepts the responsibility of educating children after an arbitrarily fixed7 age has been reached. Ought it not, rather, if it assumes the responsibility at all, to begin to educate the child when he needs education?
Thoughtful people are now awaking to the fact that this regulation is an artificial, not a natural one, and that we have been wasting two precious years which might not only be put to valuable uses, but would so shape and influence after-teaching that every succeeding step would be taken with greater ease and profit. We have been discreet8 in omitting the beginning, so long as we did not feel sure how to begin. But we know now that Froebel's method of dealing9 with four or five year old babies, when used by a discreet and intelligent person, justifies10 us in taking this delicate, debatable ground.
So far, then, it is a question of law—a law which can be modified just as soon and as sensibly as the people wish. Before, however, that modification11 can become the active wish of the people, its importance must be understood and its effects estimated. Could it be shown that after-education will be hindered or in any way rendered more difficult by the kindergarten, clearly all efforts to introduce it must cease. Were it merely a matter of indifference13, something that would neither make nor mar14 the after-work of schools, then it would remain a matter of choice or fancy, for individual parents to decide as they like; but, if it can be shown that the work of the kindergarten will lay a more solid foundation, or trace more direct paths for the workers of a later period, then it behooves15 us to give it a hearty16 welcome, and to work out its principles with zealous17 good will: and "working out" its principles means, not accepting it as a finality—a piece of flawless perfection—but as a stepping-stone which will lead us nearer to the truth. If it is a good thing, it is good for all; if it is truth, we want it everywhere; but if this new department of education and training is to gain ground, or accomplish the successful fruition of its wishes, there must be perfect unity18 among teachers concerning it. If they all understood the thing itself, and understood each other, there could be no lack of sympathy; yet there has been misunderstanding, conflict occasionally, and some otherwise worthy20 teachers have used the kindergarten as a sort of intellectual cuttle-fish to sharpen their conversational21 bills upon.
Of course I am not blind to the fact that after we have determined that we ought to have the kindergarten, there are many questions of expediency22: suitable rooms, expense of material, salaries, assistants, age of children at entrance, system of government, number of children in one kindergarten; and greatest of all, but least thought of, strangely, the linking together of kindergarten and school, so that the development shall be continuous, and the chain of impressions perfect and unbroken.
Suffice it to say that it has been done, and can be done again; but it needs discretion23, forethought, tact24, earnestness, and unimpeachable25 honesty of administration, for unless we can depend upon our school boards and kindergartners implicitly26, counting upon them for wise coöperation, brooding care, and great wisdom in selection of teachers, the experiment will be a failure. We have risks enough to run as it is; let us not permit our little ones, more susceptible27 by reason of age than any we have to deal with now,—let us not permit them to become victims of politics, rings, or machine teaching.
The kindergarten is more liable to abuse than any other department of teaching. There is no ground in the universe so sacred as this. But the difference between primary schools is just as great, only, unfortunately, we have become used to it; and the kindergarten being under fire, so to speak, must be absolutely ideal in its perfection, or it is ruthlessly held up to scorn.
There is a tremendous awakening28 all over the country with regard to kindergarten and primary work, and this is well, since the greatest and most fatal mistakes of the public school system have been made just here; and the time is surely coming when more knowledge, wisdom, tact, ingenuity29, forethought, yes, and money, will be expended30 in order to meet the demands of the case. The time is coming when the imp12 of parsimony31 will no longer be mistaken for the spirit of economy; when a woman possessed32 of ordinary human frailty33 will no longer be required to guide, direct, develop, train, help, love, and be patient with sixty little ones, just beginning to tread the difficult paths of learning, and each receiving just one sixtieth of what he craves34. The millennium35 will be close at hand when we cease to expect from girls just out of the high school what Socrates never attempted, and would have deemed impossible.
Look at Senator Stanford's famous Palo Alto stock farm. Each colt born into that favored community is placed in a class of twelve. These twelve colts are cared for and taught by four or five trained teachers. No man interested in the training of fine horses ever objects, so far as I know, to such expenditure36 of labor37 and money. The end is supposed to justify38 the means. But when the creatures to be trained are human beings, and when the end to be reached is not race-horses, but merely citizens, we employ a very different process of reasoning.
That this subject of early training is a vitally interesting one to thinking people cannot be denied. The kindergarten has become the fashion, you say, cynically39. This is scarcely true; but it is a fact that the upper, the middle, and the lower classes among us begin to recognize the existence of children under six years of age, and realize that far from being nonentities40 in life, or unknown quantities, they are very lively units in the sum of progressive education.
When we speak of kindergarten work among the children of the poor, and argue its claims as one of the best means of taking unfortunate little Arabs from the demoralizing life of the streets, and of giving their aimless hands something useful to do, their restless minds something good and fruitful to think of, and their curious eyes something beautiful to look on, there is not a word of disapproval41. People seem willing to concede its moral value when applied42 to the lower classes, but, when they are obliged to pay anything to procure43 this training for their own children, or see any prospect44 of what they call an already extravagant45 school system made more so by its addition, they become prolific46 in doubts. In other words, they believe in it when you call it philanthropy, but not when you call it education; and it must be called the germ of the better education, toward which we are all struggling, the nearest approach to the perfect beginning which we have yet found.
We see in the excellence47 of Froebel's idea, educationally considered, its only claim to peculiar48 power in dealing with incipient49 hoodlumism. It is only because it has such unusual fitness to child-nature, such a store of philosophy and ingenuity in its appliances, and such a wealth of spiritual truth in its aims and methods, that it is so great a power with neglected children and ignorant and vicious parents.
The principles on which Froebel built his educational idea may be summed up briefly50 under four heads. First, All the faculties51 of the child are to be drawn52 out and exercised as far as age allows. Second, The powers of habit and association, which are the great instruments of all education, of the whole training of life, must be developed with a systematic53 purpose from the earliest dawn of intelligence. Third, The active instincts of childhood are to be cultivated through manual exercise (chiefly creative in character), which is made an essential part of the training, and this manual exercise is to be valued chiefly as a means of self-expression. Fourth, The senses are to be trained to accuracy as well as the hand. The child must learn how to observe what is placed before him, and to observe it truly, an acquirement which any teacher of science or art will appreciate. To work out these principles, Froebel devised his practical method of infant education, and the very name he gave to the place where his play lessons were to be used marks his purpose. No books are to be seen in a kindergarten, because no ideas or facts are presented to the child that he cannot clearly understand and verify. The object is not to teach him arithmetic or geometry, though he learns enough of both to be very useful to him hereafter; but to lead him to discover truths concerning forms and numbers, lines and angles, for himself.
Thus in the play-lessons the teacher simply rules the order in which the child shall approach a new thing, and gives him the correct names which, henceforth, he must always use; but the observation of resemblances and differences (that groundwork of all knowledge), the reasoning from one point to another, and the conclusions he arrives at, are all his own; he is only led to see his mistake if he makes one. The child handles every object from which he is taught, and learns to reproduce it.
It is not enough to say that any ordinary system of object teaching in the hands of an ingenious teacher will serve the purpose or take the place of the kindergarten. People who say this evidently have no conception of Froebel's plan, in which the simultaneous training of head, heart, and hand is the most striking characteristic.
The kindergarten is mainly distinguished54 from the later instruction of the school by making the knowledge of facts and the cultivation55 of the memory subordinate to the development of observation and to the appropriate activity of the child, physical, mental, and moral. Its aim is to utilize56 the now almost wasted time from four to six years, a time when all negligent57 and ignorant mothers leave the child to chance development, and when the most careful mother cannot train her child into the practice of social virtues58 so well as the truly wise kindergartner who works with her. "We learn through doing" is the watchword of the kindergarten, but it must be a doing which blossoms into being, or it does not fulfill60 its ideal, for it is character building which is to go on in the kindergarten, or it has missed Froebel's aim.
What does the kindergarten do for children under six years of age? What has it accomplished61 when it sends the child to the primary school? I do not mean what Froebel hoped could be done, or what is occasionally accomplished with bright children and a gifted teacher, or even what is done in good private kindergartens, for that is yet more; but I mean what is actually done for children by charitable organizations, which are really doing the work of the state.
I think they can claim tangible62 results which are wholly remarkable63; and yet they do not work for results, or expect much visible fruit in these tender years, from a culture which is so natural, child-like, and unobtrusive that its very outward simplicity64 has caused it to be regarded as a plaything.
In glancing over the acquirements of the child who has left the kindergarten, and has been actually taught nothing in the ordinary acceptation of the word, we find that he has worked, experimented, invented, compared, reproduced. All things have been revealed in the doing, and productive activity has enlightened and developed the mind.
First, as to arithmetic. It does not come first, but though you speak with the tongues of men and angels, and make not mention of arithmetic, it profiteth you nothing. The First Gift shows one object, and the children get an idea of one whole; in the Second they receive three whole objects again, but of different form; in the Third and Fourth, the regularly divided cube is seen, and all possible combinations of numbers as far as eight are made. In the Fifth Gift the child sees three and its multiples; in fractions, halves, quarters, eighths, thirds, ninths, and twenty-sevenths. With the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Gifts the field is practically unlimited65.
Second, as to the child's knowledge of form, size, and proportion. His development has been quite extensive: he knows, not always by name, but by their characteristics, vertical66, horizontal, slanting67, and curved lines; squares, oblongs; equal sided, blunt and sharp angled triangles; five, six, seven and eight sided figures; spheres, cylinders68, cubes, and prisms. All this elementary geometry has, of course, been learned "baby fashion," in a purely69 experimental way, but nothing will have to be unlearned when the pupil approaches geometry later in a more thoroughly70 scientific spirit.
Third, as to the cultivation of language, of the power of expression, we cannot speak with too much emphasis. The vocabulary of the kindergarten child of the lower classes is probably greater than that of his mother or father. You can see how this comes about. The teachers themselves are obliged to make a study of simple, appropriate, expressive71, and explicit72 language; the child is led to express all his thoughts freely in proper words from the moment he can lisp; he is trained through singing to distinct and careful enunciation73, and the result is a remarkably74 good power of language. I make haste to say that this need not necessarily be used for the purposes of chattering76 in the school.
The child has not, of course, learned to read and write, but reading is greatly simplified by his accurate power of observation, and his practice of comparing forms. The work of reading is play to a child whose eye has been thus trained. As to writing, we precede it by drawing, which is the sensible and natural plan. The child will have had a good deal of practice with slate77 and lead pencil; will have drawn all sorts of lines and figures from dictation, and have created numberless designs of his own.
If, in short, our children could spend two years in a good kindergarten, they would not only bring to the school those elements of knowledge which are required, but would have learned in some degree how to learn, and, in the measure of their progress, have nothing to unlearn.
Let those who labor, day by day, with inert78 minds never yet awakened79 to a wish for knowledge, a sense of beauty, or a feeling of pleasure in mental activity, tell us how much valuable school time they would save, if the raw material were thus prepared to their hand. "After spending five or six years at home or in the street, without training or discipline, the child is sent to school and is expected to learn at once. He looks upon the strange, new life with amazement80, yet without understanding. Finally, his mind becomes familiar in a mechanical manner, ill-suited to the tastes of a child, with the work and exercises of primary instruction, the consequence being, very often, a feeble body and a stuffed mind, the stuffing having very little more effect upon the intellect than it has upon the organism of a roast turkey." The kindergarten can remedy these intellectual difficulties, beside giving the child an impulse toward moral self-direction, and a capacity for working out his original ideas in visible and permanent form, which will make him almost a new creature. It can, by taking the child in season, set the wheels in motion, rouse all his best, finest, and highest instincts, the purest, noblest, and most vivifying powers of which he is possessed.
There is a good deal of time spent in the kindergarten on the cultivation of politeness and courtesy; and in the entirely81 social atmosphere which is one of its principal features, the amenities82 of polite society can be better practiced than elsewhere.
The kindergarten aims in no way at making infant prodigies83, but it aims successfully at putting the little child in possession of every faculty84 he is capable of using; at bringing him forward on lines he will never need to forsake85; at teaching within his narrow range what he will never have to unlearn; and at giving him the wish to learn, and the power of teaching himself. Its deep simplicity should always be maintained, and no lover of childhood or thoughtful teacher would wish it otherwise. It is more important that it should be kept pure than that it should become popular.
I have tried, thus, somewhat at length, to demonstrate that our educational system cannot be perfect until we begin still earlier with the child, and begin in a more childlike manner, though, at the same time, earnestly and with definite purpose. In trying to make manhood and womanhood, we sometimes treat children as little men and women, not realizing that the most perfect childhood is the best basis for strong manhood.
Further, I have tried to show that Froebel's system gives us the only rational beginning; but I confess frankly86 that to make it productive of its vaunted results, it must be placed in the hands of thoroughly trained kindergartners, fitted by nature and by education for their most delicate, exacting87, and sacred profession.
Now as to compromises. The question is frequently asked, Cannot the best things of the kindergarten be introduced in the primary departments of the public school? The best thing of kindergartening is the kindergarten itself, and nothing else will do; it would be necessary to make very material changes in the primary class which is to include a kindergarten—changes that are demanded by radically88 different methods.
The kindergarten should offer the child experience instead of instruction; life instead of learning; practical child-life, a miniature world, where he lives and grows, and learns and expands. No primary teacher, were she Minerva herself, can work out Froebel's idea successfully with sixty or seventy children under her sole care.
You will see for yourselves that this simple, natural, motherly instruction of babyhood cannot be transplanted bodily into the primary school, where the teacher has fifty or sixty children who are beyond the two most fruitful years which the kindergarten demands. Besides, the teachers of the lower grades cannot introduce more than an infinitesimal number of kindergarten exercises, and at the same time keep up their full routine of primary studies and exercises.
Any one who understands the double needs of the kindergarten and primary school cannot fail to see this matter correctly, and as I said before, we do not want a few kindergarten exercises, we want the kindergarten. If teachers were all indoctrinated with the spirit of Froebel's method, they would carry on its principles in dealing with pupils of any age; but Froebel's kindergarten, pure and simple, creates a place for children of four or five years, to begin their bit of life-work; it is in no sense a school, nor must become so, or it would lose its very essence and truest meaning.
Let me show you a kindergarten! It is no more interesting than a good school, but I want you to see the essential points of difference:—
It is a golden morning, a rare one in a long, rainy winter. As we turn into the narrow, quiet street from the broader, noisy one, the sound of a bell warns us that we are near the kindergarten building…. A few belated youngsters are hurrying along,—some ragged89, some patched, some plainly and neatly90 clothed, some finishing a "portable breakfast" thrust into their hands five minutes before, but all eager to be there…. While the Lilliputian armies are wending their way from the yard to their various rooms, we will enter the front door and look about a little.
The windows are wide open at one end of the great room. The walls are tinted91 with terra cotta, and the woodwork is painted in Indian red. Above the high wood dado runs a row of illuminated92 pictures of animals,—ducks, pigeons, peacocks, calves93, lambs, colts, and almost everything else that goes upon two or four feet; so that the children can, by simply turning in their seats, stroke the heads of their dumb friends of the meadow and barnyard…. There are a great quantity of bright and appropriate pictures on the walls, three windows full of plants, a canary chirping94 in a gilded95 cage, a globe of gold-fish, an open piano, and an old-fashioned sofa, which is at present adorned96 with a small scrap97 of a boy who clutches a large slate in one hand, and a mammoth98 lunch-pail in the other…. It is his first day, and he looks as if his big brother had told him that he would be "walloped" if he so much as winked99.
A half-dozen charming girls are fluttering about; charming, because, whether plain or beautiful, they all look happy, earnest, womanly, full to the brim of life.
"A sweet, heart-lifting cheerfulness,
Like spring-time of the year,
Seems ever on their steps to wait."
… They are tying on white aprons101 and preparing the day's occupations, for they are a detachment of students from a kindergarten training school, and are on duty for the day.
One of them seats herself at the piano and plays a stirring march. The army enters, each tiny soldier with a "shining morning face." Unhappy homes are forgotten … smiles everywhere … everybody glad to see everybody else … happy children, happy teachers … sunshiny morning, sunshiny hearts … delightful102 work in prospect, merry play to follow it…. "Oh, it's a beautiful world, and I'm glad I'm in it;" so the bright faces seem to say.
It is a cosmopolitan103 regiment104 that marches into the free kindergartens of our large cities. Curly yellow hair and rosy105 cheeks … sleek106 blonde braids and calm blue eyes … swarthy faces and blue-black curls … woolly little pows and thick lips … long arched noses and broad flat ones. Here you see the fire and passion of the Southern races, and the self-poise, serenity107 and sturdiness of Northern nations. Pat is here with a gleam of humor in his eye … Topsy, all smiles and teeth,… Abraham, trading tops with Isaac, next in line,… Gretchen and Hans, phlegmatic108 and dependable,… François, never still for an instant,… Christina, rosy, calm, and conscientious109, and Duncan, as canny110 and prudent111 as any of his people. Pietro is there, and Olaf, and little John Bull.
What an opportunity for amalgamation112 of races, and for laying the foundation of American citizenship113! for the purely social atmosphere of the kindergarten makes it a life-school, where each tiny citizen has full liberty under the law of love, so long as he does not interfere114 with the liberty of his neighbor. The phrase "Every man for himself" is never heard, but "We are members one of another" is the common principle of action.
The circles are formed. Every pair of hands is folded, and bright eyes are tightly closed to keep out "the world, the flesh," and the rest of it, while children and teachers sing one of the morning hymns:—
"Birds and bees and flowers,
Every happy day,
Wake to greet the sunshine,
Thankful for its ray.
All the night they're silent,
Sleeping safe and warm;
God, who knows and loves them,
Will keep them from all harm.
"So the little children,
Sleeping all the night,
Wake with each new morning,
Fresh and sweet and bright.
Thanking God their Father
For his loving care,
With their songs and praises
They make the day more fair."
Then comes a trio of good-morning songs, with cordial handshakes and scores of kisses wafted115 from finger-tips…. "Good-Morning, Merry Sunshine," follows, and the sun, encouraged by having some notice taken of him in this blind and stolid116 world, shines brighter than ever…. The song, "Thumbs and Fingers say 'Good-Morning,'" brings two thousand fingers fluttering in the air (10 x 200, if the sum seems too difficult), and gives the eagle-eyed kindergartners an opportunity to look for dirty paws and preach the needed sermon.
It is Benny's birthday; five years old to-day. He chooses the songs he likes best, and the children sing them with friendly energy…. "Three cheers for Benny,—only three, now!" says the kindergartner…. They are given with an enthusiasm that brings the neighbors to the windows, and Benny, bursting with pride, blushes to the roots of his hair. The children stop at three, however, and have let off a tremendous amount of steam in the operation. Any wholesome117 device which accomplishes this result is worthy of being perpetuated…. A draggled, forsaken118 little street-cat sneaks119 in the door, with a pitiful mew. (I'm sure I don't wonder! if one were tired of life, this would be just the place to take a fresh start.) The children break into the song, "I Love Little Pussy120, Her Coat is so Warm," and the kindergartner asks the small boy with the great lunch pail if he wouldn't like to give the kitty a bit of something to eat. He complies with the utmost solemnity, thinking this the queerest community he ever saw…. A broken-winged pigeon appears on the window-sill and receives his morning crumb121; and now a chord from the piano announces a change of programme. The children troop to their respective rooms fairly warmed through with happiness and good will. Such a pleasant morning start to some who have been "hustled122" out of a bed that held several too many in the night, washed a trifle (perhaps!), and sent off without a kiss, with the echo of a sick mother's wails123, or a father's oaths, ringing in their ears!
After a few minutes of cheerful preparation, all are busily at work. Two divisions have gone into tiny, "quiet rooms" to grapple with the intricacies of mathematical relations. A small boy, clad mostly in red woolen124 suspenders, and large, high-topped boots, is passing boxes of blocks. He is awkward and slow. The teacher could do it more quietly and more quickly, but the kindergarten is a school of experience where ease comes, by and by, as the lovely result of repeated practice…. We hear an informal talk on fractions, while the cube is divided into its component125 parts, and then see a building exercise "by direction."
In the other "quiet room" they are building a village, each child constructing, according to his own ideas, the part assigned him. One of them starts a song, and they all join in—
"Oh! builders we would like to be,
So willing, skilled, and strong;
And while we work so cheerily,
The time will not seem long."
"If we all do our parts well, the whole is sure to be beautiful," says the teacher. "One rickety, badly made building will spoil our village. I'm going to draw a blackboard picture of the children who live in the village. Johnny, you haven't blocks enough for a good factory, and Jennie hasn't enough for hers. Why don't you club together and make a very large, fine one?"
This working for a common purpose, yet with due respect for individuality, is a very important part of kindergarten ethics126. Thus each child learns to subordinate himself to the claims and needs of society without losing himself. "No man liveth to himself" is the underlying127 principle of action.
Coming back to the main room we find one division weaving bright paper strips into a mat of contrasting color, and note that the occupation trains the sense of color and of number, and develops dexterity128 in both hands.
But what is this merry group doing in the farther corner? These are the babies, bless them! and they are modeling in clay. What an inspired version of pat-a-cake and mud pies is this! The sleeves are pushed up, showing a high-water mark of white arm joining little brown paws. What fun! They are modeling the seals at the Cliff House (for this chances to be a California kindergarten), and a couple of two-year-olds, who have strayed into this retreat, not because there was any room for them here, but because there wasn't any room for them anywhere else, are slapping their lumps of clay with all their might, and then rolling it into caterpillars129 and snakes. This last is not very educational, you say, but "virtue59 kindles130 at the touch of joy," and some lasting131 good must be born out of the rational happiness that surrounds even the youngest babies in the kindergarten.
The sand-table in this room represents an Italian or Chinese vegetable garden. The children have rolled and leveled the surface and laid it off in square beds with walks between. The planting has been "make believe,"—a different kind of seed in each bed; but the children have named them all, and labeled the various plats with pieces of paper, fastened in cleft132 sticks. A gardener's house, made of blocks, ornaments133 one corner, and near it are his tools,—watering-pot, hoe, rake, spade, etc., all made in cardboard modeling.
We now pass up-stairs. In one corner a family of twenty children are laying designs in shining rings of steel; and as the graceful134 curves multiply beneath their clever fingers, the kindergartner is telling them a brief story of a little boy who made with these very rings a design for a beautiful "rose window," which was copied in stained glass and hung in a great stone church, of which his father was the architect.
Another group of children is folding, by dictation, a four-inch square of colored paper. The most perfect eye-measure, as well as the most delicate touch, is needed here. Constant reference to the "sharp" angle, "blunt" angle, square corner and right angle, horizontal and vertical lines, show that the foundation is being laid for a future clear and practical knowledge of geometry, though the word itself is never mentioned.
There is one unhappy little boy in this class. He has broken the law in some way, and he has no work.
"That is a strange idea," said the woman visitor. "In my time work was given to us as a punishment, and it seemed a most excellent plan."
"We look at it in another way," said the kindergartner, smiling. "You see, work is really the great panacea135, the best thing in the world. We are always trying to train the children to a love of industry and helpful occupation; so we give work as a reward, and take it away as a punishment."
We pass into the sunny upper hall, and find some children surrounding a large sand-table. The exercise is just finished, and we gaze upon a miniature representation of the Cliff House embankment and curving road, a section of beach with people standing19 (wooden ladies and gentlemen from a Noah's Ark), a section of ocean, and a perfect Seal Rock made of clay.
"Run down-stairs, Timmy, please, and ask Miss Ellen if the seals are ready." … Timmy flies….
Presently the babies troop up, each carrying a precious seal extended on two tiny hands or reposing136 in apron100. They are all bursting with importance…. Of course, the small Jonah of the flock tumbles up the stairs, bumps his nose, and breaks his treasure…. There is an agonized137 wail…. "I bust138 my seal!"… Some one springs to the rescue…. The seal is patched, tears are dried, and harmony is restored…. The animals are piled on the rocks in realistic confusion, and another class comes out with twenty-five paper fishes to be arranged in the waves of sand.
Later on, the sound of a piano invites us to witness the kindergarten play-time.
Through kindergarten play the child comes to know the external world, the physical qualities of the objects which surround him, their motions, actions, and reactions upon each other, and the relations of these phenomena139 to himself; a knowledge which forms the basis of that which will be his permanent stock in life. The child's fancy is healthily fed by images from outer life, and his curiosity by new glimpses of knowledge from the world around him.
There are plays and plays! The ordinary unguided games of childhood are not to be confounded for an instant with the genuine kindergarten plays, which have a far deeper significance than is apparent to the superficial observer. "Take the simplest circle game; it illustrates140 the whole duty of a good citizen in a republic. Anybody can spoil it, yet nobody can play it alone; anybody can hinder its success, yet no one can get credit for making it succeed."
The play is over; the children march back to their seats, and settle themselves to another period of work, which will last until noon. We watch the bright faces, cheerful, friendly chatter75, the busy figures hovering141 over pleasant tasks, and feel that it has been good to pass a morning in this republic of childhood.
I have given you but a tithe142 of the whole argument, the veriest bird's-eye view; neither is it romance; it is simple truth; and, that being the case, how can we afford to keep Froebel and his wonderful influence on childhood out of a system of free education which has for its aim the development of a free, useful, liberty-loving, self-governing people? It is too great a factor to be disregarded, and the coming years will prove it so; for the value of such schools is no longer a matter of theory; they have been tested by experience, and have won favor wherever they have been given a fair trial But how important a work they have to do in our scheme of public education is clear only when we consider the conditions which our public schools must meet nowadays.
On the theory upon which the state undertakes the education of its youth at all—the necessity of preparing them for intelligent citizenship—a community might better economize143, if economize it must, anywhere else than on the beginning. An enormous immigrant population is pressing upon us. The kindergarten reaches this class with great power, and increases the insufficient144 education within the reach of the children who must leave school for work at the age of thirteen or fourteen. It increases it, too, by a kind of training which the child gets from no other schooling145, and brings him under influences which are no small addition to the sum total of good in his life.
The entire pedagogical world watches with interest the educational awakening of which the kindergarten has been the dawn. If people really want to make the experiment, if parents and tax-payers are anxious to have for their younger children what seems so beneficent a training, then let them accept no compromises, but, after taking the children at a proper age, see to it that they get pure kindergarten, true kindergarten, and nothing but kindergarten till they enter the primary school. Then they will be prepared for study, and begin it with infinite zest146, because they comprehend its meaning. Having had that beautiful beginning, every later step will seem glad to the child; he will not see knowledge "through a glass darkly, but face to face," in her most charming aspect.
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determined
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illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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superintendents
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| 警长( superintendent的名词复数 )； （大楼的）管理人； 监管人； （美国）警察局长 | |
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antagonistic
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affected
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adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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justifies
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| 证明…有理( justify的第三人称单数 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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11
modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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12
imp
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| n.顽童 | |
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13
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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14
mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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15
behooves
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| n.利益，好处( behoof的名词复数 )v.适宜( behoove的第三人称单数 ) | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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18
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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19
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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20
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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21
conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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22
expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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23
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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24
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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25
unimpeachable
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| adj.无可指责的；adv.无可怀疑地 | |
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26
implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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29
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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30
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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31
parsimony
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| n.过度节俭，吝啬 | |
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32
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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33
frailty
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| n.脆弱；意志薄弱 | |
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34
craves
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| 渴望，热望( crave的第三人称单数 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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35
millennium
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| n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世 | |
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36
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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38
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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39
cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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40
nonentities
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| n.无足轻重的人( nonentity的名词复数 )；蝼蚁 | |
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41
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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42
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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43
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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44
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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45
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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46
prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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47
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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48
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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49
incipient
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| adj.起初的，发端的，初期的 | |
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50
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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51
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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52
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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53
systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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54
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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55
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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56
utilize
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| vt.使用，利用 | |
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57
negligent
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| adj.疏忽的；玩忽的；粗心大意的 | |
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58
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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59
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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60
fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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61
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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62
tangible
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| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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63
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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64
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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65
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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66
vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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67
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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68
cylinders
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| n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物 | |
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69
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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70
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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71
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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72
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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73
enunciation
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| n.清晰的发音；表明，宣言；口齿 | |
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74
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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75
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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76
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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77
slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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78
inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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79
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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80
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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81
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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82
amenities
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| n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快 | |
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83
prodigies
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| n.奇才，天才（尤指神童）( prodigy的名词复数 ) | |
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84
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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85
forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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86
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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87
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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88
radically
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| ad.根本地，本质地 | |
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89
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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90
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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91
tinted
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| adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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92
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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93
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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94
chirping
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| 鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的现在分词 ) | |
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95
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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96
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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97
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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98
mammoth
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| n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的 | |
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99
winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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100
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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101
aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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102
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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103
cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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104
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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105
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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106
sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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107
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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108
phlegmatic
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| adj.冷静的，冷淡的，冷漠的，无活力的 | |
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109
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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110
canny
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| adj.谨慎的，节俭的 | |
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111
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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112
amalgamation
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| n.合并，重组；；汞齐化 | |
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113
citizenship
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| n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份) | |
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114
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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115
wafted
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| v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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116
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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117
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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118
Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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119
sneaks
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| abbr.sneakers (tennis shoes) 胶底运动鞋（网球鞋）v.潜行( sneak的第三人称单数 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
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120
pussy
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| n.(儿语)小猫，猫咪 | |
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121
crumb
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| n.饼屑，面包屑，小量 | |
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122
hustled
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| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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123
wails
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| 痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 ) | |
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124
woolen
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| adj.羊毛(制)的；毛纺的 | |
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125
component
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| n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的 | |
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126
ethics
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| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
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127
underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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128
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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129
caterpillars
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| n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带 | |
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130
kindles
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的第三人称单数 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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131
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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132
cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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133
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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134
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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135
panacea
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| n.万灵药；治百病的灵药 | |
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136
reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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137
agonized
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| v.使（极度）痛苦，折磨( agonize的过去式和过去分词 )；苦斗；苦苦思索；感到极度痛苦 | |
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138
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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139
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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140
illustrates
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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141
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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142
tithe
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| n.十分之一税；v.课什一税，缴什一税 | |
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143
economize
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| v.节约，节省 | |
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144
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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145
schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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146
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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