the Kindergarten. Thus, Mr. and Mrs. Kraus are able to show how Froebel intended to continue the system of educational development after the Kindergarten,--whose aim is to enlarge the home-education of children between three and seven years of age, before the time when they are due at the school,-with the same material and the same method in extension.*

Training Class.

The instruction given to the Training Class begins in October, and ends in June following-embracing at least five lessons per week, besides the actual practice in the Kindergarten, for all the working portions of one year.

The qualities and qualifications looked for in candidates for the diploma of this class are :

1. A quick and responsive sympathy with children-a real, genuirë sympathy, and not simulated.

2. A child and motherly heart-something which inspires the feeling of sister and mother for children, and makes them happy in their company, and gives a clear insight into child nature and life up to the seventh year.

3. An exact knowledge and spiritual comprehension united with dextrous handling of the Kindergarten material.

4. Sufficient musical knowledge and vocal ability to sing well the little songs and guide the plays.

5. A cheerful humor, that can easily enter into the child's

* Mr. J. Kraus has already shown, some years ago, how the Kindergarten is to be finally developed in the school-garden, in accordance with the ideas of Dr. Erasmus Schwab, at Vienna, who says in regard to this subject: "For more than a century, thinking pedagogues have been seeking to embody the thought of the school-garden in some practicable method. It was lying near, and is simple in itself; but they did not succeed in finding a practical form for it. A hundred years hence it will seem inexplicable that

for centuries there could exist among cultured nations public schools without school-gardens, and that in the nineteenth century, communities and nations in generous emulation could furnish the schools with all things dictated by common-sense, and profit, and care, except, in thousands of cases, an educational medium that should suggest itself to the mind of even the common man. Surely, before fifty years shall have passed. the schoolgarden will receive the consideration it deserves, as surely as drawing, gymnastics and technical instruction for girls-whose obligatory introduction was deemed impossible forty years ago have found a place in our schools. The school-garden will exert a powerful influence upon the heart of the child, and upon his character; it will plant in the children the love of nature, inculcate the love of work, a generous regard for others, and a wholesome æsthetic sense."

In regard to the Organic Link between Kindergarten and School, Mr. Kraus said, in the discussion on the report of the committee appointed at the meeting in Boston, in 1872, to inquire into the form in which Froebel's principles may be most efficiently applied to the educational wants of the country pp. 237-41 of the Addresses and Journal of Proceedings of the National Educational Association Session, of the year 1873, at Elmira, New York: "Kindergarten education will have its fine success only then, wher the organic fink between it and the school is created; such a link will bring great advantage to the school, because the Kindergarten itself gives security for an all-sided, natural training. The school must not be a Kindergarten, and the Kindergarten not a school."

plays, and is not easily disturbed by occasional frowardness, or real shyness.

The object of the course is to give the members of the class a clear coaception of Froebel's pedagogic aim in his several gifts and occupations, and to show the deep significance of the child's natural play, and breathe a true spirit into employments which become otherwise incomprehensible mechanism. The characteristic of Froebel's method of occupying children to their own development, lies in permitting them unconsciously to bring forth a product by their own feeble efforts, and thus awaken and develop the germs of the creative spirit to produce individual work, and not mere imitation.

To secure a real fusion of learning, work, and play, the objects are not all ready made, and enough only is said or done, so as to invite some independent mental or muscular energy upon the material. Chil dren's activity must be encouraged, and only so far directed, so as to be saved from destructiveness, and prevented from exhausting itself into languor and thoughtlessness. The danger of the occupations of children degenerating into mere imitation and mechanical routine, must be obviated, by leaving ample scope for exciting and employing the imagination and invention, in their own combination of the material.

Too much is done in our American Kindergartens, and the same defect is noticed in most European institutions, with perfected patterns and elaborated materials; and great efforts are made in this Training Class to teach its members how to vary the exercises, encourage children to devise patterns, and use, modify, and make up the material for themselves, each in his own way. In their published circular Mr. and Mrs. Kraus say:

"It cannot too often be repeated that the significance of Froebel's system consists in so arranging the gifts and occupations as to encourage and enable the child to transform and recombine the material, and thus strengthen by exercise his bodily and mental faculties. Individuality is thus developed. Froebel gives explanations how to conduct their games: to know them all is quite a study; to apply them well, an art; to understand their full significance, a science. No one can master all these details without deep study, much observation, and thoughtful practice. And when mastered, the Kindergartner deserves a rank and remuneration not now accorded to her."

Nearly two hundred ladies have availed themselves of the opportunities in training which this Seminary has offered, and hold its diploma. Many of them are now teachers of the Kindergarten method in several Normal Schools, Principals of Ladies High Schools, conductors of independent Kindergartens in some of our chief cities, ladies of education from different parts of the country, with their daughters for their own personal culture, sisters of charity and other devoted women, to qualify themselves to conduct asylums, and infant schools for neglected children.

BOSTON KINDERGARTEN TRAINING CLASS.

HISTORICAL NOTES.

The Boston Kindergarten Training Class at 52 Chestnut street, was opened in 1868 by Madame Kriege and her daughter. Miss Kriege was prepared for her work in Germany by the Baroness Marenholz-Bülow, and taught succes-fully in New York on her first arrival in America. For four years these ladies worked faithfully in Kindergarten and Normal Class, meeting many discouragements, and overcoming many obstacles; they sowed good seed that is bearing fruit now.

On their return to Germany in 1872 a graduate of theirs took up the work in Boston. Miss Garland had had long experience in teaching, and found in this new way of educating young children an embodiment of many of her own conceptions, and the perfecting of me hods she had been groping for. Her work began with two children, and the number during the first year was but eight.

It became necessary to form a Normal Class, and among the pupils was Miss R. J. Weston, who had taught very successfully for many years in the Primary Schools of Boston, and had always leavened the public school methods with the Kindergarten spirit. After her graduation, in the autumn of 1873, Mis; Weston associa ted herself with Miss Garland in the charge of the Kindergarten and Normal Classes, taking also the special care of the Advanced Kindergarten class formed that year. Since then the work has made steady progress, and the whole number of pupils for the last three years has been about fifty.

The Kindergarten.

The Kindergarten proper includes two divisions; the youngest children, usually three and four years of age, chiefly under Miss Garland's care; the next division, including children in their second Kindergarten year, and from five to a little over six years of age, under the care of an assistant. The Intermediate or "Connecting Class," in which writing, reading, and written arithmetic are begun while one period is still devoted to Kindergarten work, is mainly under Miss Weston's direction. The children in this class are over six years of age.

Advanced Class.

In the advanced class the elementary studies are carried on, and here the children's powers of observation, thought, and expression developed in the Kindergarten are further strengthened and exercised by lessons in natural science; knowing through doing not being laid aside in any of the classes. Children thus far have been members of this class to the age of twelve. An effort is made to preserve unity throughout the work, and in all grades to work for the development of the three-fold nature. In some general exercises, as in the daily gymnastics, and occasionally in games, all the children in the building are brought together.

Normal Class.

The normal class is usually limited to twenty ladies; these are chosen from among all applicants, according to natural ability and educational fitness, determined by certain informal examinations or tests. The pupils are required to devote seven months to the study, spending four afternoons each week in class work and an average of two forenoons in the Kindergarten department, as well as a number of weeks in the free Kindergartens of the city. The course of study includes, besides the distinctive theory and practice of the Kindergarten, lectures on moral and religious culture; on hygiene and the physical needs of children; on music in its application to the Kindergarten; and lessons in modelling and free hand drawing.

At the end of their course the students receive certificates, if their course has been satisfactory, signifying approval of their work during the time; a blank is left to be filled in after a year or more of service if they prove themselves competent as Kindergartners.

Conferences of Kindergartners.

Once a month a meeting of all the Kindergartners of Boston and its vicinity is held. It has grown from a very small beginning to quite large proportions, its list numbering more than eighty names.

The subjects discussed are those that have practical value in the work of the teachers, as: "How can we best cultivate moral independence in children?" "How preserve the balance between spontaneous self-activity and due regard for the rights of others?"

Difficulties encountered during the month in the guidance of the children or in the application of Kindergarten principles to work or play, are brought before these meetings, and the reflex influence of the discussion has been found of great value.

EDUCATION IN COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDIES.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.

Mainly from Lecture by Prof. David Ross, Principal of Glasgow Training College.

PROGRESS IN SCOTLAND.

PROF. DUGALD STEWART was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, educators in Scotland to recognize in education both a science and an art, resting on the philosophy of the human mind, and to advocate that teaching should be brought into the curriculum of university lectures and instruction, and that teachers should be treated as a learned profession. In his opening lecture, as published in the "Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind," in 1792, Prof. Stewart remarks:

The most essential objects of education are the two following: First, to cultivate all the various principles of our nature, both speculative and active, in such a manner as to bring them to the greatest perfection of which they are susceptible; and, secondly, by watching over the impressions and associations which the n.ind receives in early life, to secure it against the influence of prevailing errors, and, as far as possible, to engage its prepossession on the side of truth. It is only upon a philosophical analysis of the mind, that a systematic plan can be founded for the accomplishment of either of these purposes, thus realizing Milton's idea of "that complete and generous culture, which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war."

To instruct youth in the languages and in the sciences is comparatively of little importance, if we are inattentive to the habits they acquire, and are not careful in giving to all their different faculties, and all their different principles of action a proper degree of employment. Abstracting entirely from the culture of their moral powers, how extensive and difficult is the business of conducting their intellectual improvement! To watch over the associations which they form in their tender years, to give them early habits of mental activity, to rouse their curiosity and to direct it to proper objects, to exercise their ingenuity and invention, to cultivate in their minds a turn for speculation, and at the same time preserve their attention alive to the objects around them, to awaken their sensibilities to the beauties of nature, and to inspire them with a relish for intellectual enjoyment-these form but a part of the business of education; and yet the execution even of this part requires an acquaintance with the general principles of our nature, which seldom falls to the share of those to whom the instruction of youth is commonly intrusted.

In whatever way we choose to account for it, whether by original organization, or by the operation of moral causes in very early infancy, no fact can be more undeniable than that there are important differences discernible in the minds of children previous to the period at which, in general, their intellectual education commences. There is, too, a certain hereditary character (whether resulting from physical constitution, or caught from imitation and the influence of situation), which appears remarkably in particular families. One race, for a succession of generations, is distinguished by a genius for the abstract sciences, while it is