KINDERGARTEN WORK.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1210, 19 August 1911, Page 11

KINDERGARTEN WORK.

ITS BENIGN INFLUENCE, ■"A happy childhood ig one of the best gi/ta that parents have it in their power to bestow upon their children. It is second only to implanting a habit of obedience which puts the child in training for the habit of obeying himself later on." Thus writes Mary Cholmondelcy in "Diana Tempest," and it is one of thoso statements which, as dear old Euclid says, "requires no demonstration"—at least it shouldn't.' . In all tho great changesthat havo conie over public opinion within the last five or six decades, that in regard to the training and education of children is probably ono of the greatest. There is no need to go further to prove it than the cases of our'own parents; and, again, wo have only to . read "Nicholas Nickleby." Such a place as "Dotheboys Hall" would not be tolerated nowadays, and Squeers would have had to depart without a moment's grace.

An interesting light is thrown upon the repression under which children suffered still further back in tho record of little Lady Jano Grey, who speaks of her treatment.at tho hands of her parents— typically upper-class parents of that time: ''When I am in the presence of either father or mother," she says, "whether I epeake, kepe silence, sit, stand, or go, catO) drinke, be memo or sad. . . I must do it .all so periitlio as. God .made tho world, or else 1 am sharply taunted, so cruellio threatened, yea, presentlie sometimes with pinches, nippes, and bobs, and other waies, which I-will not name, for the honour I beare them, so without measure misordered, that. I think, myself ■in'.Hell." . ' Less Strenuous. . Comparo that piteous complaint with the treatment o£ the present day, for npw ;it seems as though nothing is too good ■ ioi the child; even the safety of the I moon is imperilled if "his lordship" cries fior it. Never before has tha psychology [of the child been studied with such an (infinite patience, with a tenderer intuiHion and sympathy, and one can hardly wonder that children mature much later than they did in those far-off days. A well-known writer says there is. small question that, in spite of the multitude of subjects that young people nowadays tackle in their strenuous pursuit of knowledge, they are, on the whole, considerably behind their ancestors of tho same ago in actual mental grip, and strength of character. The eighteenth century boy ■was often in Parliament by the time he was twenty-one—did we not have a. Pnmo Minister once at twenty-one ?—and his sister, if she married at all, was usually married at sixteen or seventeen, and was equal to all the demands which her position might entail' upon her. At any rate, the old ideas have given way for new, and the repression, constraint, mismanagement, and non-comprehension of children are largely things of the past. In their place has como tho belief that' kindness, sympathy, care and-abovc_ all, happiness-aro the rights, of every child. ■ Nowiiero is this idea carried into practice more completely and thoroughly than in the kindergartens, and a visit paid to the Eichmond Ji'reo Kindergarten in Taranaki Street-there, are really four of them, only tho others are in different localities —was particularly illuminating in regard to methods. Wo grown-up person can quite realise how the world and tho things of everyday appear to the young unfolding life. Ono cannot throw asido the years that have passed, and stand as ono did then with an infinitely wondering, questioning,' 'and pathetically trusting mind with all things yet. to learn. Father, mother, and teacher aro tho child's Providence, his law, and the world a huge, sun-tilled place of many mysteries, and many delights. And sorrows, toof And what so utterly, crushmgly delicate, with no rift, no.gleam of light, as thoso

that befall unreasoning, powerless child hood.

Kindergartens at Work

That morning there wore over fifty children present, and the writer was just in time to see them at their eleven o'clock lunch of biscuits. The restraint was marvellous. Can you imagine a number of hungry children—averaging about four years of age-all sitting Touiul a table, and not attempting to (ouch tho biscuits placed upon their plates till every ono had been helped, and tho word given them to sing their grace ? There _is enough understanding and sympathy with child-naturo to realise the self-control that was brought into play. In the other rooms, tho children were, still younger, but tho same, thing happened there. Another interesting thing t"o watch were their games, and their story songs into which Hiey threw themselves so thoroughly, and with such enjoyment. ,For each quarter some subject is chosen such as spring or autumn and, till its termination, the morning talks are of the aspects of spring, thn growth of the buds, leaves and {lowers, with songs and games

illustrating them. If it happened to be autumn, then the leaves, and the fruits of autumn are talked of, and all the changes of autumn illustrated. It is wonderful how stimulating theso talks aro, and how it lias opened the eyes of the children to natural objects around them. Talking of the birds has made them watch how they fly, note their colouring their characteristics, and has added immensely to their powers of observation, as well as taken them into a world to which they would otherwise have been so blind. They are all intensely keen to be the principals in the little stories that are acted and aro quite merciless in their laughter over tho misfortunes or mistakes of the performers. For this quarter they have taken as their subject a house, and are building it themselves with boxes, paperin", furnishing, and fitfing.it out in the way in which they are accustomed to in their own homes. One thing which thev are devoting much attention to is "the'bathroom, and also the wash-house, tho older pupils going so far as to provide for a drying ground. Xho insistence upon clean faces and hands by parents and teachers is evidently effective. Learning to Play. Jh It a nm idea to tc told that children have to ho taught to play. .Ono is accustomed to thinking of them as being liko the young lambs of the spring time, or liko small kittens, full.of frolic and energy, and playfulness, and yet one is assured that the knowledge of now to play is not—among a very lar"o proportion of children-instinctive. So many of those in fortunate circumstances learn to play unconsciously becauso their parents, or relatives, or nurses tench them by playing with them, or by telling them stones, and thereby inciting their imaginations, but for tho others, whose lathers and mothers and bigger folk genera Ij- are away all day earning their daily bread, tliero is no one to do so, and consequently they do not know how to unless someone shows'them. In London before tho freo kindergartens became so general children would bo seen everywhere in the different nei"hbourhoods sitting on tho curbstones, steps, or anywhere at all, and doing very little else but squabbling among themselves talking, pushing ono another, or clso acting tho things they havo seen when "father comes home drunk." Another favourite I a ng nlT' a f\ -f 0 t0 P ris °n-that was all the idea that these children had of play of games. Although tho children hero did not play thoso gruesome things yet they wop almost as destitute of a knowledge of hearty, happy plnv. All that has been changed, and totally new pleasures iu life havo been opened up, and all sorts of fascinating games made known to them .during tho hours which thev spend in tho kindergarten. Exercises that mvolvo complete freedom of ac,rion-such as dancing round tho roam—aro taught to make them light and self-controlled in their movements, for children aro sometimes very clumsy, and very loose in "their actions. Over and over again the value of the kindergarten system of educating young children—or at least that system of arousing and stimulating their intelligence—is realised. It aids the child to sion, to self-control, and to self-activity, giving him or her the opportunity of unfolding and developing the original creativo powers within him, ns no other thing dew. The kindergarten games, playthings, and play materials—if they are rightly understood anA used—take the child along the direct path of creating tho self that, by and by in tho years to come, will, unhesitatingly choofo tho career for which Nature intended it when sho first implanted certain gifts and certain powers in the young mind. Most of us aro stunted and starved in some way or another, if not many ivays, and that is why there arc uninteresting people in tho world possibly. If tho ltimlrr;;.-,;-;™, .!» lin-.-n things, and in oom (! |imi.:f. ;..U ■■"> ii,!i):-n-Mv in Hi- <>!' l.h» "hi!,!.-.•!., lilii )'.:? v Mir.'lv t.iii-i.l; in '..!• ii 1 i;;!-i|.i;:in-.-ly : ,~.-j.|>,|. in u lit:!., ul.il- ihv ttYlliii;*.!! public v.'ill l,ov" Him r,|,(..-,i-ii:nifv of dnin-: «n. uh.-ii Mi-;: Kii-iiiiK'nd's '-hildiWs r.ln.v. for (!:!■ purine f> f I'^Hn - , , fund* to cam- nn i!ii-i work, will bo staged iu tho Town Kail.