27. Klausenburg, Hungary [1869], Agricultural Academy; 114 students. 28. Leoben, Styria, Austria [1894], Mining Academy; 277 students. 29. London, England [?], Agricultural College; 50 students. 30. Lille, France [1885], Industrial and Agricultural School; 100 students. 31. Madrid, Spain [?], Schools of Agriculture and Veterinary Science; 200 students. 32. Milan, Italy [?], Agricultural Academy; 180 students. 33. Mons, Belgium [?], Mining Academy; 320 students. 34. Montpellier, France [1872], Agricultural School; 200 students. 35. Moscow, Russia [?], Agricultural and Forestry Academy; 225 students. 36. Münden, Prussia, Germany [1868], Forestry Academy; 56 students. 37. Nancy, France [1824], Forestry Academy; 51 students. 38. Nowaja-Alexandria, Poland, Russia [1892], Agricultural and Forestry Academy; 257 students. 39. Ouro-Preto, Brazil [1892], Mining Academy. 40. Paris, France [?], Mining Academy; 161 students. 41. Paris, France [?], Agricultural College; 240 students. 42. Poppelsdorf, Prussia, Germany [1846], Agricultural Academy; 369 students. 43. Portici, Italy, founded 1872, Agricultural College; 105 students. 44. Pribram, Bohemia, Austria [1849], Mining Academy; 150 students. 45. Rennes, France [1890], Agricultural College; 620 students. 46. Schemnitz, Hungary [?], Forestry and Mining Academy; 297 students. 47. St. Etienne, France [1816], Mining Academy; 120 students. 48. Stockholm, Sweden [1823], Forestry School; 41 students; also Agricultural Academy [1811]; 150 members. 49. St. Petersburg, Russia [1773], Mining Institute; about 600 students. 50. St. Petersburg, Russia [1880], Forestry Institute; about 500 students. 51. Tharandt, Saxony, Germany [1811], Forestry Academy; 55 students. 52. Toronto, Canada [1888], Agricultural College. 53. Vallombrosa, Italy [1869], Forestry Institute; 40 students. 54. Vienna, Austria [1872], Agricultural Academy; 374 students. NOTE. Other similar higher institutions of learning are connected with universities, hence they are not mentioned in this list of separate institutions. VIII. Veterinary schools. 1. Alford, France [1766]; 317 students. 2. Berlin, Germany [1790]; 550 students. 3. Bucharest, Roumania [1861]; 51 students. 4. Budapest, Hungary [1786]; 332 students. 5. Copenhagen, Denmark [1858]; see above in VII, 370 students. 6. Cordoba, Spain [1802]; 74 students. 7. Dorpat, Russia [?]; 311 students. 8. Dresden, Germany [1774]; 226 students. 9. Hanover, Germany [?]; 228 students. 10. Kazan, Russia [?]; 468 students. 11. Kharkof, Russia [1804]; 150 students. 13. Leon, Spain [?]; 99 students. 20. Santiago, Spain [1820]; -students. 26. Utrecht, Netherlands [?]; 87 students. CHAPTER XVI. THE KINDERGARTEN. BY LAURA FISHER, Director of Public Kindergartens, Boston, Mass. The first public expression in America on the value of the kindergarten was an article published by Dr. Henry Barnard in 1854. This article was a "Report to the governor of Connecticut on the International Exhibition of Educational Systems and Materials at St. Martin's Hall, London, under the auspices of Prince Albert and the Society of Arts, Commerce, and Manufactures." In this report Doctor Barnard says: “The system of infant culture presented in the International Exhibition of Educational Systems and Materials at St. Martin's Hall by Charles Hoffman, of Hamburg, and illustrated by Madame Ronge in her kindergarten in Tavistock Square, London, was by far the most original, attractive, and philosophical form of infant development the world has yet seen." Doctor Barnard's interest in the kindergarten increased with his study of the system, and this first expression of appreciation was followed in 1868 by a suggestion in his special report, as Commissioner of Education, to the Senate, and again to the House of Representatives, in 1870, on a system of public instruction for the District of Columbia "that the first or lowest school in a graded system for cities should cover the play period of a child's life," and that the great formative period of the human being's life in all that concerns habits of observation and early development should be subjected to the training of the kindergarten." To Doctor Barnard are due many valuable publications on the kindergarten, and to his influence can be traced that early appreciation of the system on the part of many educators which helped to give it educational standing. Following Doctor Barnard, in point of time, comes the well-known and deeplyappreciated effort of Miss Elizabeth Peabody, who will always be remembered and honored as the pioneer of the kindergarten in America. While hers was not the first kindergarten in the United States-that of Miss Caroline Louise Frankenburg, of Columbus, Ohio, having been established in 1858, and others, by Germans, in Hoboken, N. J., in 1861, and in New York in 1864-Miss Peabody's was the first effort that called forth any marked interest in the system and gave the impulse from which radiated the entire kindergarten movement in America. Although the general character of Miss Peabody's work is well known, no account of the kindergarten is complete that ignores her own statement of the beginnings of her work or fails to recognize the wonderful spirit of helpfulness, simplicity, and humility that touched all who came in contact with her. In her account of the kindergarten in America she tells us that after Doctor Barnard's articles in his journal in 1856 and 1858 nothing was said in America until the review in the Christian Examiner in 1859, Boston, of "Le jardin des enfants.” She alludes to the many unhappy attempts at kindergartens made during the next ten years by persons untrained in the system and points to her own as the most 689 ED 1903 -44 noted of these failures. In 1867 she went to Europe to study the kindergartens as established by Froebel. In 1868 she returned “ zealous to abolish her own and all similar mistakes and establish the real thing on the basis of an adequate training of the kindergartners."a Miss Peabody's and Doctor Barnard's initial interest in the kindergarten was of moment because of the influence upon other persons, and while not directly productive of the establishment of kindergartens on any large scale they gave to the cause in America the vital start to which all further developments of the' system owe their origin. The three main branches of kindergarten work in America are the private kindergarten, the charity kindergarten, and the public kindergarten. Each of these has an interesting history and has exercised its specific influence in shaping the work and in forming public opinion in regard to the educational and social value of the system. THE PRIVATE KINDERGARTEN. Originating with Miss Peabody's attempt already referred to and continued from that time on in Boston by Madame Kriege and her graduates, notably Miss Garland and Miss Weston, the private kindergarten spread from Boston to New York. Its first and foremost exponent there was Miss Marie Boelté, who was invited in 1872 by Miss Henrietta B. Haines to conduct a kindergarten in her school for young ladies. Miss Boelté had studied in Germany with Froebel's widow and had won a high reputation in Germany and also in England. In 1873 she married Prof. John Kraus, and together they established an independent kindergarten and normal class. From their training school many eminent kindergartners were graduated, and Madame Kraus is still considered the "best representative in America of the traditional practice as prevailing in German kindergartens and training schools." Their kindergarten was the center of great interest, and its excellence commanded marked support in New York. This branch of the kindergarten movement has, unfortunately, been most slow to grow, varying largely according to the temper of the city. It is a question of no slight interest just why the private kindergarten has had on the whole less success and support than the charity and the public kindergarten. Among the most obvious reasons is the fact that a great many small independent classes have been established by inexperienced, inadequately trained, and incompetent young women who have been unable to conduct a kindergarten properly, and have allowed their classes to become free-play schools run by the children. Not a few independent private kindergartens owe their failure to the exclusive manner in which they have been conducted on narrow lines for the Lenefit of a small group of children from chosen homes. These have sometimes failed because the young kindergartner, dominated by the ignorance and inconsistencies of her patrons, has been unable to carry on regular and systematic work with her pupils. Again, the necessity of earning a living has kept out of the independent private kindergarten the most capable teachers, these naturally seeking and securing positions commanding definite salaries, sufficiently large to insure comfortable living. It is interesting to note that many private schools in our large cities have adopted the kindergarten. In most of these this department extends over two years, and is followed by a connecting class in which the advanced constructive work of the kindergarten is carried on side by side with the regular branches of the pri a Miss Peabody not only incited the establishment of private and charity kindergartens and the first public kindergarten in the country, but she founded and sustained a periodical of kindergarten literature, established the American Froebel Union, and was largely instrumental in the organization of a Froebel society in England. mary school. These kindergartens are increasingly numerous and successful, The reason is not difficult to find. Wherever the kindergarten becomes an organic part of the general system of education, it takes its position as a place in which children are properly trained and instructed. It is an acknowledgment on the part of the heads of such institutions that the kindergarten is an important factor in the education of the child and a recognition of its influence upon the child's subsequent development. This attitude on the part of principals of schools influences parents who send their children to certain schools because of their confidence in the wisdom of the teaching corps, and in this way the kindergarten connected with the private school has begun to flourish and been enabled to do its legitimate work. Needless to say that the kindergarten has often been maintained in spite of the fact that it has been a financial loss to the proprietors of the schools, whose recognition of its educational value has been the sole explanation of the enthusiasm that has insisted upon the continuance of a nonpaying department. Among the first kindergartens established in connection with large private schools after the pioneer movement in New York was that in Mrs. Shaw's school in Boston. In the hope that young women would study the kindergarten in order to better prepare themselves for work in the home, a training department was established by Mrs. Shaw in connection with this school. Notable among the kindergartens connected with large private institutions are those at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; Teachers' College, New York; Ethical Culture School, New York, and the School of Education, Chicago. No one would claim that even this class of private kindergartens suffers from overcrowding, or that the wealthy are, as a rule, kindergarten enthusiasts. And yet there exists in New York an association composed of women of means, calling itself The Froebel League, that is making notable efforts to stimulate interest in and appreciation of the kindergarten as a system of education for all children, rich as well as poor, and all parents as well. Their recognition of what the kindergarten has done for them in fitting them for the responsibilities of motherhood, and of how it has influenced the development of their children within its domain and in the home, is not without influence which is bound to grow and to win for the kindergarten in this class of society due recognition as a valuable educational influence. Nevertheless it is true that the doubters belong mainly to this class, and that the habit of doubt, once become the fashion, is difficult to overcome. People whose children have fairly good care at home are not likely, as a class, to bother themselves about the merits of a system of early education. Again, to many persons no learning seems of value unless it begins with reading, and the three R's are still their fetish. Instruction in these is the only proper beginning of every child's education, for to be informed is to be educated. However vitally a child's mind is open to the beauties of nature and the influences of life; however its heart may glow with the sentiments that make for righteousness; however skillfully its hands may shape the materials with which they come in contact; however wisely and absorbingly it may play itself into an understanding of its world, to such persons the child knows nothing of value until it has learned to read: “It is a bird." When it is able to do this, the child has, in their opinion, learned something that is worth while. And the question whether it has ever really seen or observed a bird, interested itself in its haunts and habits, cared for, protected, and tended it, watched the brooding mother, and witnessed its exhibitions of motherlove, these are matters altogether foreign to the question of its real education and the school's share in it. We are, however, coming to value less what may be called the externals of education and to care more and more for its spirit and the spirit it begets; and with this increasing sense of the importance of inner development there begins the dawn of a new day for the kindergarten of the children who go to private schools. |