We will suppose, for the sake of argument, that the rights of our own children are secured; but though such security betokens1 an admirable state of affairs, it does not cover the whole ground; there are always the "other people's children." The still small voice is forever saying, "Where is thy brother Abel?"
There are many matters to be settled with regard to this brother Abel, and we differ considerably2 as to the exact degree of our responsibility towards him. Some people believe in giving him the full privileges of brotherhood3, in sharing alike with him in every particular, and others insist that he is no brother of theirs at all. Let the nationalists and socialists4, and all the other reformers, decide this vexed5 question as best they can, particularly with regard to the "grown-up" Abels. Meanwhile, there are a few sweet and wholesome6 services we can render to the brother Abels who are not big enough to be nationalists and socialists, nor strong enough to fight for their own rights.
Among these kindly8 offices to be rendered, these practical agencies for making Abel a happy, self-helpful, and consequently a better little brother, we may surely count the free kindergarten.
My mind convinces me that the kindergarten idea is true; not a perfect thing as yet, but something on the road to perfection, something full of vitality9 and power to grow; and my heart tells me that there is no more beautiful or encouraging work in the universe than this of taking hold of the unclaimed babies and giving them a bit of motherliness to remember. The Free Kindergarten is the mother of the motherless, the father of the fatherless; it is the great clean broom that sweeps the streets of its parentless or worse than parentless children, to the increased comfort of the children, and to the prodigious10 advantage of the street.
We are very much interested in the cleaning of city streets, and well we may be; but up to this day a larger number of men and women have concerned themselves actively11 about sweeping12 them of dust and dirt than of sweeping them free of these children. If dirt is misplaced matter, then what do you call a child who sits eternally on the curbstones and in the gutters13 of our tenement-house districts?
I believe that since the great Teacher of humanity spoke14 those simple words of eternal tenderness that voiced the mother side of the divine nature,—"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not,"—I believe that nothing more heartfelt, more effectual, has come ringing down to us through the centuries than Froebel's inspired and inspiring call, "Come! let us live with the children!"
This work pays, in the best and the highest sense as well as the most practical.
It is true, the kindergartner has the child in her care but three or four hours a day; it is true, in most instances, that the home influences are all against her; it is true that the very people for whom she is working do not always appreciate her efforts; it is true that in many cases the child has been "born wrong," and to accomplish any radical15 reform she ought to have begun with his grandfather; it is true she makes failures now and then, and has to leave the sorry task seemingly unperformed, giving into the mighty16 hand of One who bringeth order out of chaos17 that which her finite strength has failed to compass. She hears discouraging words sometimes, but they do not make a profound impression, when she sees the weary yet beautiful days go by, bringing with them hourly rewards greater than speech can testify!
She sees homes changing slowly but surely under her quiet influence, and that of those home missionaries18, the children themselves; she gets love in full measure where she least expected so radiant a flower to bloom; she receives gratitude19 from some parents far beyond what she is conscious of deserving; she sees the ancient and respectable dirt-devil being driven from many of the homes where he has reigned20 supreme21 for years; she sees brutal22 punishments giving place to sweeter methods and kinder treatment; and she is too happy and too grateful, for these and more encouragements, to be disheartened by any cynical23 dissertations24 on the determination of the world to go wrong and the impossibility of preventing it.
It is easier, in my opinion, to raise money for, and interest the general man or woman in, the free kindergarten than in any other single charity. It is always comparatively easy to convince people of a truth, but it is much easier to convince them of some truths than of others. If you wish to found a library, build a hospital, establish a diet-kitchen, open a bureau for woman's work, you are obliged to argue more or less; but if you want money for neglected children, you have generally only to state the case. Everybody agrees in the obvious propositions, "An ounce of prevention"—"As the twig25 is bent"—"The child is father to the man"—"Train up a child"—"A stitch in time"—"Prevention is better than cure"—"Where the lambs go the flocks will follow"—"It is easier to form than to reform," and so on ad infinitum—proverbs multiply. The advantages of preventive work are so palpable that as soon as you broach26 the matter you ought to find your case proved and judgment27 awarded to the plaintiff, before you open your lips to plead.
The whole matter is crystal clear; for happily, where the protection of children is concerned, there is not any free-trade side to the argument. We need the public kindergarten educationally as the vestibule to our school work. We need it as a philanthropic agent, leading the child gently into right habits of thought, speech, and action from the beginning. We need it to help in the absorption and amalgamation28 of our foreign element; for the social training, the opportunity for coöperation, and the purely29 republican form of government in the kindergarten make it of great value in the development of the citizen-virtues, as well as those of the individual.
I cannot help thinking that if this side of Froebel's educational idea were more insisted on throughout our common school system, we should be making better citizens and no worse scholars.
If we believe in the kindergarten, if we wish it to become a part of our educational system, we have only to let that belief—that desire—crystallize into action; but we must not leave it for somebody else to do.
It is clearly every mother's business and father's business,—spinsters and bachelors are not exempt31, for they know not in what hour they may be snatched from sweet liberty, and delivered into sweeter slavery. It is a lawyer's business, for though it will make the world better, it will not do it soon enough to lessen32 litigation in his time. It is surely the doctor's business, and the minister's, and that of the business man. It is in fact everybody's business.
The beauty of this kindergarten subject is its kaleidoscopic33 character; it presents, like all truth, so many sides that you can give every one that which he likes or is fitted to receive. Take the aggressively self-made man who thinks our general scheme of education unprofitable,—show him the kindergarten plan of manual training. He rubs his hands. "Ah! that's common sense," he says. "I don't believe in your colleges—I never went to college; you may count on me."
Give the man of esthetic34 taste an idea of what the kindergarten does in developing the sense of beauty; show him in what way it is a primary art school.
Explain to the musician your feeling about the influence of music; show the physical-culture people that in the kindergarten the body has an equal chance with mind and heart.
Tell the great-hearted man some sad incident related to you by one of your kindergartners, and as soon as he can see through his tears, show him your subscription35 book.
Give the woman who cannot reason (and there are such) an opportunity to feel. There is more than one way of imbibing36 truth, fortunately, and the brain is not the only avenue to knowledge.
Finally, take the utter skeptic37 into the kindergarten and let the children convert him. It commonly is a "him" by the way. The mother-heart of the universe is generally sound on this subject.
But getting money and opening kindergartens are not the only cares of a Kindergarten Association. At least there are other grave responsibilities which no other organization is so well fitted to assume. These are the persistent38 working upon school boards until they adopt the kindergarten, and, much more delicate and difficult, the protection of its interests after it is adopted; the opening of kindergartens in orphanages39 and refuges where they prove the most blessed instrumentality for good; the spreading of such clear knowledge and intelligent insight into the kindergarten as shall prevent it from deterioration40; the insistence41 upon kindergartners properly trained by properly qualified42 training teachers; the gentle mothering and inspiring and helping43 those kindergartners to realize their fair ideals (for Froebel's method is a growing thing, and she who does not grow with it is a hopeless failure); the proper equipment and furnishing of class-rooms so that the public may have good object-lessons before its eyes; the insistence upon the ultimate ideals of the method as well as upon details and technicalities,—that is, showing people its soul instead of forever rattling44 its dry bones. And when all is said and done, the heaviest of the work falls upon the kindergartner. That is why I am convinced that we should do everything that sympathy and honor and money can do to exalt45 the office, so that women of birth, breeding, culture, and genius shall gravitate to it. The kindergartner it is who, living with the children, can make her work an integral part of the neighborhood, the centre of its best life. She it is, often, who must hold husband to wife, and parent to child; she it is after all who must interpret the aims of the Association, and translate its noble theories into practice. (Ay! and there's the rub.) She it is, who must harmonize great ideal principles with real and sometimes sorry conditions. A Kindergarten Association stands for certain things before the community. It is the kindergartner alone who can prove the truth, who can substantiate46 the argument, who can show the facts. There is no more difficult vocation47 in the universe, and no more honorable or sacred one. If a kindergartner is looked upon, or paid, or treated as a nursery maid, her ranks will gradually be recruited from that source. The ideal teacher of little children is not born. We have to struggle on as best we can, without her. She would be born if we knew how to conceive her, how to cherish her. She needs the strength of Vulcan and the delicacy48 of Ariel; she needs a child's heart, a woman's heart, a mother's heart, in one; she needs clear judgment and ready sympathy, strength of will, equal elasticity49, keen insight, oversight50; the buoyancy of hope, the serenity51 of faith, the tenderness of patience. "The hope of the world lies in the children." When we are better mothers, when men are better fathers, there will be better children and a better world. The sooner we feel the value of beginnings, the sooner we realize that we can put bunglers and botchers anywhere else better than in nursery, kindergarten, or primary school (there are no three places in the universe so "big with Fate"), the sooner we shall arrive at better results.
I am afraid it is chiefly women's work. Of course men can be useful in many little ways; such as giving money and getting other people to give it, in influencing legislation, interviewing school boards, securing buildings, presiding over meetings, and giving a general air of strength and solidity to the undertaking52. But the chief plotting and planning and working out of details must be done by women. The male genius of humanity begets53 the ideas of which each century has need (at least it is so said, and I have never had the courage to deny it or the time to look it up); but the female genius, I am sure, has to work them out, and "to help is to do the work of the world."
If one can give money, if only a single subscription, let her give it; if she can give time, let her give that; if she has no time for absolute work, perhaps she has time for the right word spoken in due season; failing all else, there is no woman alive, worthy54 the name, who cannot give a generous heartthrob, a warm hand-clasp, a sunny, helpful smile, a ready tear, to a cause that concerns itself with childhood, as a thank-offering for her own children, a pledge for those the hidden future may bring her, or a consolation55 for empty arms.
There is always time to do the thing that ought to be, that must be done, and for that matter who shall fix the limit to our powers of helpfulness? It is the unused pump that wheezes56. If our bounty57 be dry, cross, and reluctant, it is because we do not continually summon and draw it out. But if, like the patriarch Jacob's, our well is deep, it cannot be exhausted58. While we draw upon it, it draws upon the unspent springs, the hill-sides, the clouds, the air, and the sea; and the great source of power must itself suspend and be bankrupt before ours can fail.
The kindergarten is not for the poor child alone, a charity; neither is it for the rich child alone, a luxury, corrective, or antidote59; but the ideas of which it tries to be the expression are the proper atmosphere for every child.
It is a promise of health, happiness, and usefulness to many an unfortunate little waif, whose earthly inheritance is utter blackness, and whose moral blight60 can be outgrown61 and succeeded by a development of intelligence and love of virtue30.
The child of poverty and vice7 has still within him, however overlaid by the sins of ancestry62, a germ of good that is capable of growth, if reached in time. Let us stretch out a tender strong hand, and touching63 that poor germ of good lifting its feeble head in a wilderness64 of evil, help it to live and thrive and grow!
The End
The End
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1
betokens
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的第三人称单数 ) | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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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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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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gutters
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| （路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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dissertations
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| 专题论文，学位论文( dissertation的名词复数 ) | |
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twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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broach
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| v.开瓶，提出(题目) | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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amalgamation
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| n.合并，重组；；汞齐化 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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exempt
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| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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kaleidoscopic
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| adj.千变万化的 | |
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esthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的；悦目的，雅致的 | |
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subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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imbibing
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| v.吸收( imbibe的现在分词 )；喝；吸取；吸气 | |
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skeptic
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| n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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orphanages
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| 孤儿院( orphanage的名词复数 ) | |
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deterioration
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| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
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insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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exalt
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| v.赞扬，歌颂，晋升，提升 | |
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substantiate
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| v.证实；证明...有根据 | |
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vocation
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| n.职业，行业 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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elasticity
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| n.弹性，伸缩力 | |
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oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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53
begets
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| v.为…之生父( beget的第三人称单数 )；产生，引起 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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wheezes
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| n.喘息声( wheeze的名词复数 )v.喘息，发出呼哧呼哧的喘息声( wheeze的第三人称单数 ) | |
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bounty
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| n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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antidote
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| n.解毒药，解毒剂 | |
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blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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outgrown
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| 长[发展] 得超过（某物）的范围( outgrow的过去分词 )； 长[发展]得不能再要（某物）； 长得比…快； 生长速度超过 | |
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ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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