Page images
PDF
EPUB

mother who never sees the child's point of view? But I need not add to the list to convince you that, great as is the power of mother-love, it needs to be rationalized to be made conscious of its power, or else it may work untold evil as well as immeasurable good.

A direct appeal must be made to the nurture element which lies in the breast of every woman who is worthy of the name of woman. From the dawn of recorded history wherever women have been found nurture has been found. The old myth of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus is but the primitive way of asserting what the experience of the race had already proved, namely, that even the mother who has not risen beyond the brute instincts has the nurture element within her. A belief in this nurture element is the keynote to the truly successful mothers' class. It is the highest element in woman, and, if rightly developed, leads her into the highest form of womanhood. I do not mean sentimental gush, nor do I refer to the morbid love of self-renunciation which is sometimes called unselfishness; but rather that deep spiritual element in woman which makes her intuitively feel the weakness or need or discouragement of another when her more outward-looking brother has not yet perceived it, and that makes her rejoice in serving, rejoice in growing, that she may serve the more and the better. This spontaneous unconscious nurturing element in her must be rationalized and made a conscious power. This is the aim and scope of mothers' classes.

When you ask me what are the results, a vision comes before my eyes, the richest vision that all my work has left me, of class after class which have grown in such a thought-atmosphere as this; and I see their faces grow luminous as little by little they learn to think of their work, not merely as an individual work of love which concerns their own children, but as a great world-work whose influence will go on for generation after generation.

The first great result of rationalizing mother-love is that it dignifies the office of mother. With this dignifying of the office comes the dignifying of its every detail for the sake of the end in view the giving to the world of one more man or woman, strong in body, clear in intellect, warm in heart, and deep in that spiritual life which feels the God-presence every hour. This trained mother knows that sending her child out into the world without a strong body is sending him to his life-task with broken. tools. Aye, more, she knows that his body reacts on his mind and soul; that the health of the three is inseparable. It is the inner life of her child that she has learned to watch and to nourish as well as the outer. So she prepares his food, or sees that it is prepared, in the most wholesome manner possible, not merely that he may have good digestion and grow in stature and in size, but with his feeding comes her guardian care that he may learn to eat to live, not live to eat. She watches over his sleep and his quiet waking hours, not merely because she has learned that diseased.

nerves are generally the result of too much excitement during childhood, and that fatigue poisons the blood, and poisoned blood unbalances the mind, but also that the peace which passeth all understanding comes only from quiet, serene communing with nature and with self. The too "strenuous" life that is being forced upon our American children is preparing a generation that will fear not God nor keep his commandments. I say this from both a physiological and psychological standpoint. The child that hears not "the God-voice" in his childhood will not be able unhesitatingly to distinguish its words of command in later life. I do. not mean by this that each child should not have active life-an abundance of it; that, whenever it is possible, there should be allowed perfect freedom for the "motor nerves" to respond to the "sensor nerves." This nature will see to, if we will permit her. But I had reference to the overstimulation of the sense-perception in childhood a common fault of today.

Let us return to the rationally trained mother. She has learned that she cannot too early begin her child's social training in gratitude, courtesy, and compensation toward the world-workers by whom he is surrounded and sustained. Even in the nursery she begins to help him play that he is a carpenter, a blacksmith, a cab driver, or other server of mankind; for unless he can enter into the consciousness of the solidarity of the race, she knows he will never comprehend the height nor the depth nor the true meaning of living. Nothing that affects the life of her child is uninteresting or unimportant to such a mother; for she has learned to see it in its bearing on the inmost life, by which all outer life is made rich and beautiful, or mean and poor.

Again, such a study leads the mother to look upon her work from the standpoint of a universal work. She learns that most of her problems are the problems of all mothers. I have held possibly a hundred mothers' classes. Some have been large, containing many mothers, and some small, with not more than a score of members. Yet when "Questions and Answers" day came, I have never failed to have asked in some form the question: "What would you do with a child who lies?" "How should I manage a boy of ten who teases his little brother?" "What would you do with a girl of thirteen who is disrespectful?" "How can a slow child be cured of dallying?" etc., etc. A little book written for a small circle of Chicago mothers and dealing with these universal characteristics of children has already leaped the boundary of five foreign. languages.

Does not this short outline show where the stress of mothers' class

work should be placed? Not until a mother has learned to look upon her child, not as her child, but as a life given to the world that she is allowed to unfold and develop for humanity's service; not until she has learned to look upon her newborn infant as one more effort of the divine

life trying to manifest itself in concrete form, is she ready for the highest work of motherhood, the real spiritual motherhood of her child. When this day comes there will be such a religious awakening as the world has never dreamed of.

DISCUSSION

MRS. MARION B. B. LANGZETTEL, New York city.-The subject assigned me for discussion today is the influence of the private kindergarten upon the family and the home. The private kindergarten, as distinguished from the public and philanthropic kindergarten, has greater dangers as well as greater opportunities. It is without the supervision and inspiration which come from being associated with a large educational system, and hence often lacks a standard for comparison and becomes a mere caterer to the whims and caprices of its patrons. On the other hand, there may be greater freedom of spirit, better selection of rooms and sanitary arrangements, and less pressure from conditions artificial to an ideal environment for children of kindergarten age. In many states the age limit prevents children of four from entering our public kindergartens. In other cases the adoption of school methods thwarts the very spirit of play for which the kindergarten stands, and forces a child too early out of that waking period of unconsciousness which, properly enjoyed, makes a richer foundation for all later life.

Again, there is often lacking the real spirit of fellowship between the parents of the children and the kindergartner which is coming to be so large a factor in our mission kindergartens. There are many interests for women, many clubs and lectures, social duties and opportunities for self-culture and self-expression, and the average mother does not stop to realize the importance of the first few years of babyhood, beyond providing a good doctor, a good nurse, and possibly a good kindergarten for her child. Or the socalled intelligent mother, realizing the importance of training in early childhood, overcrowds his life with numerous classes and engagements.

Short hours, lack of punctuality, and irregularity of attendance, an insistence upon small numbers and those the children of intimate friends, all tend to weaken the work of private kindergartens. The cure for this is the organization of parents' classes among its patrons and the education of the community.

The private kindergarten belongs largely to the child of the rich, and it is here perhaps that it is to do its most important work. And by "rich" I mean not only the moneyed rich, but people rich in inheritance and in intelligence.

The following estimate, gathered from many years of experience with the children of private kindergartens, may prove of interest. These children are often one-third larger in size than the children of our mission kindergartens. This may be accounted for by the fact that science has done much to foster intelligence in the feeding and physical care of children. Roughly speaking, they are one-third more developed intellectually, owing doubtless to the wide variety of experiences open to them and to the response of cultured minds to childish inquiries. But they are one-third behind in dramatic expression and creative power. They fall short in symbolic games and original handwork, showing that increased perception has not been balanced by deepened feeling. A child may know the names of fifty birds and yet his bird game lack all suggestion of a mother's nurturing love. He may have a fund of facts, but not the inner feeling which makes these facts live.

The constant stimulus of city conditions and the many sources of amusement give keen sense-impressions without corresponding opportunities for expression. With many attendants the child fails to exert his own force, and hence does not feel the joy of action, nor gain control of his own desires. One little girl, who was asked to bring something to kindergarten to match a yellow ball, returned the next morning with the excuse: "I asked the butler for it, but he was too busy to find anything." It had not occurred to

that small child of four that she might have hunted up something herself, and why? Because she was washed, dressed, fed, walked with, and played with by some older attendant. Often children either stay out of kindergarten twice a week or are excused early, that they may attend dancing school in the afternoon. Another child of my acquaintance, when asked what she wanted most for a birthday present, said: "Oh, a whole half-day to do exactly what I please."

Surely Fiske's theory of the value of the lengthened period of infancy has been eagerly grasped by many mothers, and they are mistakenly using these early years to train children for the social life which is to be theirs later. Dancing school, riding lessons, military drills, children's parties, and missionary meetings, while each may be valuable in itself, are all crowded too closely together in the lives of young children. There is a tendency to do too much, and consequently it is done superficially.

Much of this may be counteracted by private kindergartens. Here is provided a natural place where minds and hearts as well as bodies may be trained. The child is given few experiences, and these fundamental ones. He has time and opportunity to enjoy and digest them, because they are touched from many points. He comes into a community of his equals under the law of the whole, and takes his place as one of many, as well as the one to whom many attend. But, perhaps best of all, he is given a task in proportion to his ability, and is encouraged and expected to give, create, and share, as well as receive, control, and demand.

THE INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN UNION

MISS STELLA L. WOOD, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY,

INTERNATIONAL

KINDERGARTEN UNION, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

The kindergartners first organized at the Saratoga Springs meeting of the National Educational Association in 1892 to prepare for the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Thirty signed at Saratoga as charter members. Thirty-nine more joined before the meeting at Chicago in 1893. There were nine branches and two life members. Later the crowded condition of the National Educational Association programs, owing to its large number of departments, made it seem necessary to appoint a separate time and place of meeting, just as the Department of Superintendence had done.

In 1903 the International Kindergarten Union held its tenth meeting at Pittsburg, Pa., April 14-17. At that time it reported five life members, two honorary life members, ninety-six associate members, eighty-one branches, representing eight thousand members. There are represented in the union twenty-seven different states, besides Canada and South America. At the Pittsburg meeting among the most important things done was the appointment of a committee of fifteen to formulate a restatement of kindergarten principles and belief, and a revision of the constitution to fit the needs of our rapidly growing institution.

The question of meeting on alternate years with the National Educational Association has been discussed, but is not yet decided.

The committee named will report at the next annual meeting, to be held in Rochester, 1904.

DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

FIRST SESSION.-TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1903

The Department of Elementary Education met in the South Congregational Church, and was called to order at 9.30 A. M., by the president, Miss M. Adelaide Holton, of Minneapolis, Minn.

The following program was carried out :

I. "The Lock-Step in the Public Schools," by William J. Shearer, superintendent of schools, Elizabeth, N. J.

Discussion by Richard G. Boone, superintendent of schools, Cincinnati, O.; Isaac Freeman Hall, superintendent of schools, North Adams, Mass.

2. "Nature Study True to Life," by Clifton F. Hodge, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. Discussion by Wilbur S. Jackman, dean of School of Education, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.; Miss Emma G. Olmstead, principal of Training School, Scranton, Pa.

3. "The Child's Favorite Study in the Elementary Curriculum," by Earl Barnes, lecturer for the American Society for Extension of University Teaching, Philadelphia, Pa.

Discussed by J. H. Van Sickle, superintendent of schools, Baltimore, Md.; Miss Ada Van Stone Harris, supervisor of kindergartens and primary schools, Rochester, N. Y.

The church auditorium proved inadequate to accommodate the numbers seeking admission, and an overflow meeting was held in the lecture-room in the basement.

At this meeting Dr. Richard G. Boone presided, and the papers of Mr. Shearer, Mr. Hodge, Mr. Jackman, and Mr. Barnes were repeated to a second large audience.

On motion of Superintendent F. W. Cooley, of Indiana, the president was authorized to appoint a committee of three to nominate officers for the ensuing year. The following were so appointed:

Superintendent F. W. Cooley, of Indiana.

Mrs. Mary R. Davis, of Connecticut.

Superintendent J. H. Van Sickle, of Maryland.

The department adjourned.

SECOND SESSION.-WEDNESDAY, JULY 8

The Department of Elementary Education met in the Old South Church in joint session with the Art and Manual Training Departments; for program, see minutes of the Department of Manual Training.

THIRD SESSION.-THURSDAY, JULY 9

The Department of Elementary Education met in the Old South Church in joint session with the Departments of Indian Education and Manual Training; for program, see minutes of the Department of Manual Training.

At the close of the session the Committee on Nominations reported as follows:

For President - Miss Ada Van Stone Harris, Rochester, N. Y.

For Vice-President - Superintendent Calvin N. Kendall, Indianapolis, Ind.

For Secretary-Miss Emma G. Olmstead, Scranton, Pa.

The report was received and adopted, and the officers nominated were declared elected for the ensuing year.

The department then adjourned.

ADDA P. WERTZ, Secretary.

« PreviousContinue »