DEPARTMENT OF KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION SECRETARY'S MINUTES OFFICERS President-MARY B. Fox, dean of women, Chicago Kindergarten Institute. Vice-President-ELLA C. ELDER, supervisor of kindergartens... ...Chicago, Ill. ..Buffalo, N.Y. Secretary-FANNIE A. SMITH, principal, Smith-Froebel Training School.... Bridgeport, Conn. FIRST SESSION-THURSDAY FORENOON, JULY 6, 1916 The department was called to order by the president, in Concert Hall, Madison Square Garden, at 9:30 A.M., and the following program presented: Topic: Educational Trend as Shown in Some Recent Experiments (with Lantern Illustrations) "Relation of the Kindergarten and the Primary in the School of Childhood of the University of Pittsburgh"-Meredith Smith, School of Childhood, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. "Kindergartens of Yesterday and Tomorrow"-Patty S. Hill, head of Kindergarten Department, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. "The Demonstration-Play School of the University of California"-Mrs. C. W. Hetherington, director of Play School, University of California, Berkeley, Cal. At the close of the meeting the chair appointed the following Committee on Nominations: Luella A. Palmer, New York, N.Y., Chairman Emily Pryor, S. Pasadena, Cal. Pearl Johnson, Cleveland, Ohio SECOND SESSION-THURSDAY AFTERNOON, JULY 6, 1916 Reception and story-telling at 4:30 P.M. on Columbia University Campus, by local kindergartners of Greater New York. Madam Kraus Boelté was presented as one of the oldest and most loved kindergartners; at one time a president of this department, and a member of the Association since 1873. STORY-TELLERS Mary Adair, Normal School, Philadelphia, Pa. Marietta Stockard, Wilson Normal School, Washington, D.C. Anna Tyler, Children's Department, Public Library, New York, N.Y. THIRD SESSION-FRIDAY FORENOON, JULY 7, 1916 The department met in joint session with the Department of Elementary Education, at 9:30 A.M. The following program was presented: Topic: The Relation of the Kindergarten and Primary Grades "The Educational Values Which the Child Carries Over from the Kindergarten into the Primary Grades"-Mary D. Hill, supervisor of kindergartens, Louisville, Ky. "Should the Kindergartners and the Primary Teachers Teach an Equal Number of Hours and Receive the Same Pay?"-Charles É. Chadsey, superintendent of schools, Detroit, Mich. "Practical Means of Unifying the Work of the Kindergarten and the Primary Grades": (1) "The Elementary Point of View"-Junius L. Meriam, professor of school supervision, School of Education, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. (2) "The Kindergarten Point of View"-Luella A. Palmer, assistant director of kindergartens, New York, N.Y. (3) Discussion-Thomas M. Balliet, dean, School of Pedagogy, New York University, New York, N.Y. The papers will be found in the report of the Department of Elementary Education. FOURTH SESSION-FRIDAY AFTERNOON, JULY 7, 1916 The meeting was called to order by the president at 2:30 P.M., and the following program presented: Topic: The Arts in the Kindergarten "Literature for the Kindergarten Child"-Marian P. Greene, Public Library, New York, N.Y. (An exhibit of books suitable for children of all ages was presented for inspection.) "Art in the Kindergarten"-Grace Cornell, Fine Arts Department, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. (An exhibit of work done by children and adult students was presented for inspection.) "Evolution of the Dramatic Arts in Child Life"-Caroline Crawford, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. (Interpretative illustrations of the moods and feelings of the child were given by Miss Crawford.) The following officers were elected on recommendation of the Nominating Committee: Ind. President Elizabeth A. Woodward, instructor, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y. A vote of thanks was given to the various committees which had made our sojourn in the city such a pleasant and profitable one, to the Press for its generous publication of the Proceedings, and to the officers for the pleasing and helpful program which has been an inspiration to those present. FANNIE A. SMITH, Secretary PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS RELATION OF THE KINDERGARTEN AND THE PRIMARY IN THE SCHOOL OF CHILDHOOD, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH MEREDITH SMITH, SCHOOL OF CHILDHOOD, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, PITTSBURGH, PA. With this question of relation of kindergarten and primary grades is bound up the problem of so correlating the work of both as to make the education of the early years a more consecutive process-one which eliminates the break in education at the period of promotion from kindergarten into the first grade. We all know that no markt change appears in the child of six years. He has the same impulses and tendencies and about the same capacities and powers as the child of five years. The same principles should determine and govern the education of both. In our School of Childhood in the University of Pittsburgh, we have not considered particularly the problem of the relation of the work of one grade to that of another. We have been very deeply concerned with the problem of the relation of education in each particular grade to the child, his impulses, capacities, and needs. If the child is a growing, developing organism, and if the work of the school is adapted to his needs at each stage, his education, as he passes from one grade to the next, must follow a process of continuous development. The attempt has frequently been made to work out a solution to the problem of relationship from another standpoint. We have expected the teachers in the kindergarten and first grade to become acquainted with each other's work to the end that the primary teacher may carry over into the first grade valuable phases of kindergarten work, and that the kindergartner, recognizing the needs and demands of the primary school, may prepare her children to meet them. The problem of psychology is here involved. Psychology is a comparatively recent science, and many believe we have made a mere beginning of the understanding of the human mind and its processes. But psychologists have told us enough about child nature to give us a basis, at least, for reconstruction of early education. We know children are essentially active beings; that the period of childhood is preeminently the time when they are interested in doing and making. It is the time when they are educated thru and by means of their activity. Kindergarteners have recognized these facts, and they have, as part of their equipment, a wide variety of materials, such as blocks, dolls, clay, sand, trains, hammers, nails, etc., which make many forms of activity possible. However, we cannot say that the use they have made of these has always been in accord with child nature. The kindergarten furniture is not stationary, so that floor space is available when needed. But the primary teacher is not so provided. She may have clay, possibly a sand table, pencils, and paints, and, of course, books. But this is, as a general thing, the limit of the material provided for her children. In such a situation, how can she adjust her work to the child's needs and capacities? In our attempt to work out a scheme of education adapted to child nature, we have found it necessary to equip our first grade with even more material and a wider variety of material than is provided for the younger children. They are older and they need more material to carry out their ideas. They have as much available floor space as the younger group, and they keep it nearly covered with their constructions most of the time. The absorption of the children in the work, their joy in it, and the results achieved lead us to feel that we are on the right track. Another great handicap to the primary teacher in adjusting the education of the first school year to the children's needs is the absolute necessity imposed upon her to teach all the children to read before the end of the year. Reading has very little relevancy, it seems, to the activities of a child. of six years, or to his mental needs. Interest may be aroused in a more or less artificial way, but it is generally independent of other interests of child life. Someone will say very truly, "But children want to learn to read." The traditional idea that reading holds the key to enlargement and enrichment of life is past on to children. Learning is identified with acquiring ability to read, and children come into the primary grade eager to learn. So it was with our children. They did not care so much at first for the material, but askt for reading. It was enlightening to see the change of interest as the possibilities of the constructive occupations opened out before them. They became more and more absorbed in working out their ideas and had less and less time for reading and soon ceast to ask or care for it. The vision of a child, psychology tells us, is adapted essentially to seeing large, moving, and somewhat remote objects in the mass. They are warning us of the danger to the child of undue nervous strain consequent upon this effort at so early an age to make the fine and accurate adjustments of the eye necessary in following printed or written words. The age of eight years seems to be considered early enough for a child to give more than incidental attention to the written language forms. The processes of production, transportation, consumption, etc., which are most significant in our social life, may be reproduced by children in a miniature way. In their spontaneous play they do this to a certain extent, but, as an educational agency with direction and proper management, it has possibilities that have not begun to be realized. Such reproductions played by the younger children are the simple activities of the home and immediate neighborhood, furnishing and caring for the playhouse, providing for the needs of the doll, buying and selling, visiting each other, etc. Our younger children are supplied with large blocks, five-inch cubes, and bricks 10X5X2 in. so that they may build stable houses large enough to live in, sometimes with roofs, often with walls only a foot or two high. In these they relive the life they see about them, assuming obligations and responsibilities in play that they are not afforded in real life. The experiences of the primary children are wider, and their constructive work is developt along the line of reproductions of city and country life. With development we find the objects made become smaller, allowing for greater complexity and detailed representation. Thus we have different sets of materials for these children. In the work of the primary grades as well as that of the younger group, the children largely determine their own ends. There is guidance and suggestion, of course, but they are carrying the play on themselves. They suggest a great deal to each other. For example, one day some one said, "We ought to have a hospital," and a group of children took up the idea, erected a building and equipt it, making beds for the patients and tables on which were placed boxes of clay pills. They had a storeroom filled, it seemed to me, with everything that could be shipt there-barrels of apples, |