The letters received from school superintendents, in response to a questionnaire regarding the conduct of kindergartens in various cities, give evidence that this system of child training, providing as it does large opportunities for the exercise of self-control, kindness, generosity, and sympathetic understanding of the rights and needs of others, as well as for a harmonious development of all a child's powers, has made a unique place for itself in our system of education.

The necessity for a kindergarten may possibly be questioned where parents have the means and the will to supply an equivalent training, and where the importance to a child of early association with other children, under right conditions, is definitely provided for in the home. But when children are left to the care of servants, or when the mother of a family is too busy or too preoccupied to supervise, personally, the work and play of its younger members, the school must supply the deficiency or the children will be defrauded.

There are comparatively few mothers who find it possible under the pressure of home and social duties to maintain the sympathetic, self-controlled attitude toward children that is maintained by the kindergartner who has been trained for her task. And it is a difficult matter for any home to provide children with such opportunities for progressive and educative activity as are afforded by a properly equipped kindergarten.

The neglected child, the "only" child, the lonely, selfish, or wilful child, even when the latter is surrounded by every luxury and refinement that wealth and culture can afford, all need to be brought under some strong socializing influence while they are in the plastic period, when habits are readily formed and conduct most easily influenced. In the case of children of alien peoples, who must be taught a new language and must be prepared for life under new conditions, there is no more potent or more effective educational agency than the kindergarten with its atmosphere of love and beauty and its opportunities for self-expression.

A further suggestion is offered by short-sighted economists to the effect that money may be saved for vocational schools by delegating to the primary school in well-to-do city districts many of the functions of the kindergarten, and establishing day nurseries for the children of the poor.

At best such a substitution would be merely a makeshift, for no primary school can perform its own functions and those of the kindergarten. As well may the trade school attempt to give to its pupils the elementary instruction in reading and writing that should have been given earlier in the grades.

To provide day nurseries for the children of the poor, and substitute the primary school for the kindergarten in all districts where the people are well to do, would be to lose more than anyone who is not a close student of kindergarten methods and results can possibly apprehend.

The kindergarten is not an experiment. It has come to stay, for it

meets a need that no other agency can meet so well. It lays broad and deep foundations for virtuous and effective living and cannot therefore be spared from any complete system of education. It is no nearer perfection than the college or the high school, but it is growing each year in efficiency, and already many practices to which its critics object have been abandoned by progressive kindergartners. Occupations which have a tendency to strain the eyes or the nerves of children, such as cardboard sewing, fine weaving, the stringing of small beads, and construction with peas and sticks, have been replaced in a majority of the modern kindergartens by work with materials that are much larger and much more easily manipulated. For example, very soft, large-sized crayons are used instead of pencils for drawing and coloring; free paper cutting is taking the place of the old-time cutting to line, and much of the construction work is with blocks of large size with which stable and satisfactory structures may be reared, structures that when completed stand firmly in place upon the floor and the building of which brings into play all the larger muscles of a child's body.

It is true that a primary teacher is now and then heard to complain that kindergarten children are restless and inclined, as one mother expressed it, "to dance the carpets off the floor"; but the majority of first-grade teachers testify that when given work that calls for the exercise of power the child who has had a year in a kindergarten gives practical evidence of the benefit derived from his training. Such a child is apt to be bored by work that is beneath his ability, but he is more responsive, more ingenious, and more helpful in his human relationships than the child who has entered the grades without this preliminary training. Whether he passes thru the grades more rapidly than his neighbor is of less moment than how he passes thru them, and what he is when he has finished his school course. How much does he get out of his educational work? What does he contribute to life and to his school? What is the result in general efficiency? These are more important questions than, "Did he pass the examination and reach the high school in advance of his mates ?"

The friends of the schools, by suggestions based upon a sympathetic and intelligent study of conditions, and by constructive criticism, may do much to improve them. Open discussion of educational methods and processes is always to be welcomed, for nothing is of more vital interest to every home in the commonwealth than the question of public education.

In the kindergarten is embodied an idealistic philosophy, which has already influenced greatly and beneficently all departments of our schools. But the books are not yet closed, the problems are not all solved, and kindergarten workers everywhere are calling for the co-operation of parents, physicians, and educators in perfecting a scheme of child-culture that is destined to meet a great need. Such faults as are apparent in individual kindergartens are not inherent in the system. The doctrines of Froebel are

fundamentally sound, and the kindergarten as it exists thruout our country today fully justifies the refusal on the part of its patrons to rob Peter in order to finance Paul.

THE KINDERGARTEN OF THE FUTURE

FRANK EDSON PARLIN, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Some of us, who appreciate the genius of Froebel and heartily approve most of his fundamental principles of education, believe the orthodox kindergarten is neither sacred nor perfect, that the position of the conservative kindergartners is both unwise and untenable, that they emphasize the most defective parts of Froebel's system and forget his most vital and valuable principles. We insist that we are not only true friends of the children but of the kindergarten, but friends who sincerely believe radical changes are desirable and absolutely imperative if the kindergarten is to survive. Kindergartners need to study something besides the writings of Froebel, and to study Froebel anew in the light of modern knowledge of the child. If Froebel were living and familiar with the results of modern research dealing with the growth, development, and education of the child, he would be one of the most severe critics of many of his own methods and much of our practice. To imitate Froebel blindly as tho he were infallible is no more wise than to follow in like manner the teachings of the leading chemists or physicians of the eighteenth century. He was wise for his time but not for all time.

It matters not how old or systematic or æsthetic our theories of the child's education may be, if they are in conflict with the fundamental laws of his growth and development, they are simply wrong and must be abandoned. In the kindergarten, the laws of the child's physical growth and development, especially the growth and development of his nervous system, must determine the time and the method of his training, for the brain is the chief organ not only of the mind but of the body and of life. At birth, the child has as many brain-cells as he will ever have, but they are at very different stages of development and will require widely varying periods and conditions to mature. The brain does not develop symmetrically as a whole but in spots, and there is an invariable sequence in the order of its functioning. Nature's order is always from the lower to the higher forms, the higher being conditioned upon the lower, and she allows no departure from her order and time without exacting severe penalties. If, in our ignorance or impatience, we attempt to force the functioning of centers before their nascent period, nature responds as well as she can and we secure precocious results; but the premature development always falls short of the normal and results in a case of arrested development. Moreover, we interfere with the development of both the centers below and those

above, and so dwarf the possibilities of that brain and actually diminish the sum of human power. At birth, the only organized centers are those controlling the general sensibility, the vital functions and certain reflex movements. After birth, the sensory and motor centers are the first to develop, rap dly at first and then more slowly up to maturity. The lower intellectual organization and language center follow, and the higher intellectual and moral development come much later. At the kindergarten age, the child's brain is very immature and entirely unprepared for most of the intellectual work now required. It is ready for sensory, motor, and language training only. These centers should be freely exercised up to the point of fatigue, but not to exhaustion, for it is only by such exercise that nascent cells can be developed to their maximum capacity. The theory of an all-around symmetrical education for young children is in direct conflict with the laws of their growth. Nature strongly emphasizes one thing at a time, the rest being incidental and supplementary. In our shortsighted anxiety to transform young children into little men and women we do at great labor and cost much needless and even harmful work. It cannot be insisted upon too strongly that the condition of the child must determine the character of the kindergarten.

In the first place, the kindergarten of the future will be true to its name, a garden of children, a place especially adapted to the nurture of children and in charge of those who understand their condition, their needs, and the laws of their growth. If it is to be a garden and not a hothouse, it will generally be out of doors, in the sunlight and open air, among the trees and flowers, associated with the birds and animals, providing healthful conditions for the body, appropriate food for the hungry senses, abundant exercise for the growing muscles, ample scope for the imagination, and unfailing topics for stories and conversation. The health of the child will be the prime consideration, the chief aim being to develop a strong, well-organized body to serve later as the efficient instrument of a well-trained mind. Physical health and strength are of sufficient importance in themselves to receive most careful attention during these early years, but they assume increased importance when it is known that they are essential to the highest and best development of the intellectual and moral powers. Spontaneous activity will largely displace prescribed sedentary occupations, and large lungs, good digestion, a strong heart, and steady nerves will greatly outrank peg-sticking and a meager knowledge of sphere, cylinder, and cube.

The kindergarten of the future will recognize the supreme importance of play in the education of the child and will provide ample time and suitable places for it. Few things seem to disturb the minds of kindergartners so much as the suggestion of free, spontaneous play, and yet nothing is so characteristic of childhood nor so potent in the general development of the child. It is by far the wisest and most efficient teacher he will ever have, because it calls into well-timed and well-measured action both body and

mind without forcing or neglecting either. It trains the senses, exercises the muscles, stimulates the imagination, excites thought, increases knowledge, and promotes normal growth. It involves a concentration of attention, a persistency of effort, an exercise of ingenuity, and an intensity of action never secured in any other way. No school, not even a kindergarten, has yet succeeded in securing such absorbing interest, such harmonious co-operation of mind and body, and such large and lasting results. We wonder that the child does not completely exhaust himself, until we learn that the effect of spontaneous action upon the nerve-cells is very different from the effect of work, or action under the compulsion of the will. Genuine play draws only slightly upon the energy of the brain while imposed duties rapidly exhaust it. A healthy child is fatigued a hundred fold more rapidly by enforced sitting than by active play of his own choosing. Much of the kindergarten play is only make-believe, just playing play, and lacks most of the value of real play. Spontaneity and imagination are largely lacking. I refer to industrial plays representing adult interests and imitating things about which the children know nothing. These bogus plays will certainly give place to the genuine plays of childhood, which are of three kinds: the frolic or aimless capering and laughing due to an overplus of physical energy; the imaginative individual play, in which each child follows his own observation; and the group plays, in which all play together. The frolic is nature's safety valve. It may be somewhat noisy but it reduces the tension, distributes the circulation, and wakes up the whole body. The free imaginative play is more quiet, but, from an educational point of view, most valuable. For it there should be a large collection of all kinds of simple playthings. The ideal place is by the side of a large rock or under a big, low-branching tree. In this kind of play no direction is needed, only unobtrusive oversight with now and then a little sympathetic co-operation by one who will be learner rather than teacher and who will not shatter the child's world of imagination by injecting ideas from the adult world of fact. Here let the child test, plan, construct, tear down, and make himself lord of his little domain. After a while there is need of play which will change the emphasis from mental to physical activity, and the old hide-andseek, run and catch, circle and singing games are best.

Our kindergarten will surely associate childhood with the myriad forms and voices of Nature. The animals and birds, the trees and flowers, the clouds and winds, speak to the child as they will never speak to him again. The spirit of nature calls to the fresh spirit of the child to know her and to love her. This is his golden period for gathering thru his senses a stock of elementary ideas. The time for classified knowledge and scientific thought comes later. Now is the time for harvesting the materials of thought— sense and motor impressions. The country provides the most natural food for the mind of the child; without it, it is difficult to secure a normal development. "God made the country, but man made the town." One