Resolved, That we thank the members of the From Time to Time Club and all others who have made our stay in Los Angeles a pleasant one.

Resolved, That we appreciate the careful way in which the press of Los Angeles has reported our proceedings.

Resolved, That these resolutions be placed upon the minutes of the meeting of this department.

The Department then adjourned.

MINNIE C. WOOD, Secretary.

PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS

THE AMERICAN IDEAL IN THE KINDERGARTEN
GRACE EVERETT BARNARD, KINDERGARTEN TRAINING SCHOOL,
OAKLAND, CAL.

Whatever the motive for announcing this subject for discussion in our department, its timeliness appeals to us on this coast, who feel the humiliation of recent revelations in civic life. In the past, we heard much of the kindergarten as a school of citizenship, and in early days it was a proud boast that not a child of the free kindergartens had been in the police court. There has not yet been time for a kindergarten-trained city government to demonstrate its efficiency, but some of us seriously question whether our claims will be realized.

To assert one's conviction that national problems reach down even to the nursery, is but a revival of Froebel's claim that "the destiny of nations lies. far more in the hands of mothers than with the possessors of power."

The weighty problems of immigration, industrial warfare, predatory wealth, with which our legislators are wrestling, have their counterpart in our kindergarten realm. The foreign mother, who encourages her offspring to add to the family resources without regard to property rights, the wageearning mother who is forced to leave her group with immature brother or sister, the society devotee who, between week-end trips and nervous breakdowns, cannot be disturbed by the clamoring interests of her embryo citizens, all force upon the kindergartner grave responsibilities.

The White House, the university, the pulpit and the press unite in the verdict that only as we develop character that is morally incorruptable, may we attain civic and national righteousness. So we who guard these first years must be grounded in those fundamental principles of character-building which can secure moral rectitude, if the American ideal is to be preserved.

America is in danger of becoming a huge orphans' home. The rush of business life taking the father away before the children are up for the day, and keeping him absorbed until after they retire for the night, makes them practically fatherless. The equally strenuous social life of the mother deprives them of the very factor which has produced our typical Americans. In the endeavor to give their children position in commercial and social world, parents rob them of their most precious heritage.

The crowded life in hotels, apartments, and boarding-houses insures a setting of standards by nursery maids and street urchins. The abdication of

parental responsibility seems to be in progress, and church and school are held. responsible for what can only be accomplished in the intimacy of companionship of parent and child in the privacy of the home.

Another source of danger to our free institutions lies in the growing number of dependent children. The secretary of the State Board of Examiners of this state reports that in the United States there is one dependent child to each one hundred who are supported by parents or guardians.

It is unreasonable to expect inspiring personalities in such places under present conditions, and yet we all feel that the secret of character is the contagion of a noble life.

The first mission of the kindergarten seems to have been to the school. Educators point to its influence from the receiving class to the elective courses and laboratory methods at college. Its second mission is to the home. It has begun where Froebel began his work, in the call to parents: "Come, let us live with our children, that all the world may be better thereby."

Shocking as are the discoveries of corruption in high places, the indifference to bribery and deceit in home and school is worse. The commonness of cheating not only in examinations, but in excuses and truancy is appallingugly facts to which we must not shut our eyes. This is undermining the moral fiber. Even we members in good standing of the National Educational Association, could we plead "not guilty" if indicted by a grand jury investigating incipient corruption in home and school?

The kindergarten training-school has done earnest work in preparing teachers, but more lasting work in training for motherhood. A scientific knowledge of children, far from destroying tender affection, rouses new sympathy and a keener interest, and emphasizes the sacredness of woman's noblest calling. The student learns that knowledge of child nature and needs rests upon a more reliable foundation than memory of her own childhood, and fortunate as was her own home experience, there is a lack in health and ability which might have been avoided, had modern attention to such matters prevailed a generation ago.

Every well-regulated public kindergarten conducts mothers' meetings, and training-schools announce mothers' classes. The practical results of these are so rewarding that I urge any one who has not had courage to undertake this work to attempt it without delay. My last experience was with a group of representative young society matrons, and no training-class was ever more responsive. Such enthusiastic visitors to the respective kindergartens to assure themselves that the kindergartners were up to the standard! Bookstore and library testified to their response to suggestions for reading. One mother offered to pay the fee of ten dollars a month to secure a Sunday morning kindergarten for the sake of her small son.

In a former class the practical effect was shown by dismissing an expert cook to afford the luxury of a graduate kindergartner for the nursery. This same earnest member established the class, declaring that the mother in the

slums was provided for, but there was no possible way for the cultured mother to prepare herself for more enlightened motherhood.

If you will pardon one other personal experience-with great hesitation the suggestion was made that a mothers' class be conducted as a new feature in Sunday-school work. A dozen responded to the invitation and with gratifying regularity attended the three-months' course. These are hopeful indications and show us that we are not fulfiling our whole duty if confining our work to the professional kindergartner.

But what do we offer? Not a "program" or "book of work," suggestive as both may be. Not even the mother-play to begin with, but first a résumé of the results of child-study, with special reference to the significance of physical health on moral and mental development.

Then comes sympathetic discussion of the problems of discipline in home and kindergarten, with emphasis upon the power of suggestion, an exposition of Froebel's helpful searching truths on the side of religious training. After introducing the class to the underlying principles of the kindergarten, we take up the kindergarten tools, the gifts, occupations, songs and games, stories and talks, making clear that there is no magic in the materials, but that all depends upon the intelligence with which they are used.

We try to give them a standard by which to judge whether the kindergarten is a healthful garden where right soil and wholesome atmosphere are producing natural growth, or where a forcing process is hastening precocious development, which is destined to wither in the bracing air of every-day existence.

It is easy to warn against the danger of arrested development by overdrill on the one hand, or abuse of creativeness by overstimulation on the other, but to point the narrow way of insight into rational methods by which the goal is reached is a difficult task.

If the training-school is earnestly trying to help the home, it has not forgotten that its main function is sending out kindergartners who by the contagion of forceful, persuasive character, and with insight into mental processes, are able to incite the will, arouse the emotions, and stimulate the intellect of the least-promising children. The same general plan is followed as outlined for mothers, only on broader lines. The day has passed when loyalty to Froebel excludes light from other sources. G. Stanley Hall, J. Mark Baldwin, Professor James, Dr. Le Cont, and Dr. Harris are as familiar as Education of Man and "mother play." Less time is given to elaborate handwork, and more to its bearing on the character. The novice does not begin to practice upon the children until after a period of observation and study. Her task is a double one-to know herself, and to understand children. To discover that what she is determines her possibility of influence is startling.

If the kindergarten is to justify the high claims of its friends we need not only the contributions of modern science and philosophy, but a truer inter

pretation of Froebel. When our enthusiasm is equaled by our insight, we may be worthy to follow in his footsteps and attempt

to educate human beings who stand with their feet rooted in God's earth, in nature, whose heads reach even into heaven, and there behold truth, in whose hearts are united the varied life of earth and heaven.

The strongest argument for the kindergarten is its unparalleled opportunity for practicing the social virtues. Altho a German importation, it thrives best in our democratic soil. Froebel called it "the free republic of childhood," and strove to prepare for political liberty by securing self-control in the child. Obedience will be the first step, but teacher and pupil will be mutually subjectto the same law. We help the child to rise from the self-centered individual of the nursery, thru the social life of the kindergarten to a truer selfhood, which becomes self-forgetfulness in the service of others. In the intimacy of home and kindergarten he must find his happiness thru yielding his will to a wiser will, and thru moral, not physical, compulsion, recognize the right. We want reverence for law, but not slavish subjection to an individual. The aim of kindergarten discipline is self-direction, but its punishments are sure. Caprice must rule at no stage, Froebel insists, and we believe in establishing from the first, that the consequences of wrong doing should be visited upon the offender. He must early learn to be responsible for his own acts.

The handwork helps to impress the same lessons. Carelessness or indolence leave their mark, and the present-day kindergartner never sends home work that is not honestly the child's own. In all the work of the kindergarten, we value the individual contribution. The ability to transform a bit of paper or lump of clay into an object of beauty or utility develops a sense of power and self-respect. The opportunity for measuring one's work by his fellows' gives humility and incites to new efforts. The freedom in use of materials, and in methods, gives scope for initiative. As in the games the natural leaders are discovered, so in the handwork we read the character of the children and learn who need our help. To become efficient, one must enjoy some small success, must gain strength thru victory, and reach the point where he may contribute his mite to the work of the group. Children welcome so cordially original suggestions and rejoice in each other's achievements, that the backward child develops a new self-respect as he discovers his powers. One of Froebel's strongest contributions is his conception of the dignity of work-not slavish drudgery for mere existence, but the finding of one's self thru work, and revealing the divinity within.

There is danger of crowding out the child's creativeness by forcing our dictations upon him. Originality comes by way of imitation, but only enough is needed to arouse a desire to transform. The handwork and games do not exhaust the opportunity for self-expression. The "morning talk" is full of possibilities. Each child comes loaded with interesting experiences and until he has shared them he will not respond to the artificial interest presented. Here we find the key to his life, for he opens his soul to us. But Oh! the

pitiful waste when a kindergartner monopolizes the time by presenting scientific information which only has place as a child may be helped to discover it for himself. After each child has contributed his share, the kindergartner improves her time by directing all to one central thought and focuses attention by having free blackboard work. To kill the desire to illustrate the story told, by insisting upon formal drill, is again a waste of time. At this stage the child will attempt anything, but a little later he is conscious of his inability and then is the time to work for skill.

Since the public school has demonstrated that the kindergarten is not a luxury for the rich, nor a philanthropy for the poor, but the rational first step in our educational system, it is doing its part in obliterating class distinctions and upholding the American ideal that individual worth, rather than financial standing or social position, commands respect. All meet on the same footing, but special excellence in any direction secures honor. Honors with us are always opportunities to serve.

Our language and customs must be mastered before the foreign element can come under the power of our ideals, so the kindergarten becomes a factor in Americanizing the masses. Race prejudice does not appear among fouryear-olds, and Chinese and Japanese are as cordially welcomed as the more familiar types, and their obedience, industry, and artistic skill add to the efficiency of the whole.

We strive for individual initiative, honesty of purpose, and personal responsibility, but are not satisfied unless the group work, the circle play, the common playground, result in the conviction that there are advantages in being members "one of another." Co-operation is a feature of kindergarten experience, and the self-centered child of the nursery responds to recognition. of other selves, with like rights and duties, and the practice of the Golden Rule begins.

We point with pride to the forceful personality at the head of our nation, as the embodiment of our American ideal, and crave for these children the same splendid energy, efficiency and courage to stand for right. But such traits do not come by accident, and the parents who mourn the lack of sterling qualities in their children are more ready to blame "the times" than to admit loss of early influences. The world tries to train for patriotism, but trusts too much to firing the imagination by tales of war, stirring the heart and rousing noble sentiments, and failing to provide outlet for the emotion awakened. We need to exercise the will in heroic endeavor in commonplace tasks. The child must be given small responsibilities but held to the performance of these duties, if he is to be made ruler over great things.

To develop conscience is the joint work of teacher and parent. It grows with experience, and from the naming of individual acts as right and wrong to a grasp of the principle underlying these acts, until the child has a reliable guide within, which is as the voice of God, demands earnest attention. That so many children confuse moral questions with mere rules for convenience is