other pedagogical reformers-Pestalozzi in particular, and even in Locke before Rousseau.

To become rational, man must learn to practise self-control, and to substitute moral purpose for mere impulse. Man inherits from nature, in time and space, impulses and desires; and, as subject to them, he is only a Prometheus Vinctus— a slave of appetite and passion, like all other animals. The infant begins his existence with a maximum of unconscious impulse, and a minimum of conscious, rational, moral purpose. The disciple of Froebel who apotheosizes infancy, and says, with Wordsworth,— "Heaven lies about us in our infancy,"

and who thinks that the child is a—

"Mighty prophet! Seer blest,

On whom those truths do rest

Which we are toiling all our lives to find,"

is prone to regard the kindergarten as a “child's paradise," wherein he should be allowed to develop unrestrainedly, and the principle, laissez faire"let him alone" is to fill the world with angels.

This belief in the perfection of nature is the arch heresy of education. It is more dangerous because it has a side of deepest truth-the truth which makes education possible, viz., the truth that man possesses the capacity for self-regeneration—the capacity of putting off his natural impulses and desires, his animal selfishness, and of putting on righteousness and holiness. His ideal nature must be made real by himself in order to be. His real nature, as a product of time and space, must be annulled and subordinated, and his ideal nature be made real in its place.

The child as individual, and without availing himself of the help of his fellows, is a mere slave, a thing, a being controlled by fate. Through participation with his fellow-men united into institutions-those infinite, rational organisms, the product of the intellect and will of the race conspiring through the ages of human history and inspired by the Divine purpose which rules all as Providence-through participation in institutions, man is enabled to attain freedom, to complement his defects as individual by the deeds of the race; he subdues nature in time and space, and makes it his servant; he collects the shreds of experience from the individuals of the race, and combines them into wisdom, and preserves and transmits the same from generation to generation; he invents the instrumentalities of intercommunication-the alphabet, the art of printing, the telegraph and railroad, the scientific society, the publishing-house, the book-store, the library, the school, and, greater than all, the newspaper. The poor squalid individual, an insignificant atom in space and time, can, by the aid of these great institutions, lift himself up to culture, and to the infini tude of endless development. From being mere individual, he can become generic-i. e., realize in himself the rationality of the entire species of the human race. By education we mean to do exactly this thing; to give to the individual the means of this participation in the aggregate labors of all humanity.

Hence we are bound to consider education practically, as a process of initiating the particular individual into the life of his race as intellect and will-power. We must give to a child the means to help himself, and

the habit and custom of helping himself, to participate in the labors of his fellowmen, and to become a contributor to the store created by mankind. Institutions.-the family: civil society, with its arts, and trades, and professions, and establishments, schools, etc.; the state, with its more comprehensive organizations; and, finally, the church:-these are greater than the individual, and they are products of his ideal nature, and exist solely as means whereby the individual may develop his ideal. The kindergarten, then, has the same general object that the school has had all along-to eliminate the merely animal from the child, and to develop in its place the rational and spiritual life.

EDUCATIVE FUNCTION OF PLAY.

Now, as regards the science of the kindergarten, there is one more consideration which is too important to pass by-the theory of play as an educational element.

The school had been too much impressed with the main fact of its mission-viz., to eliminate the animal nature and to superinduce the spiritual nature-to notice the educative function of play. Froebel was the first to fully appreciate this, and to devise a proper series of disciplines for the youngest children. The old régime of the school did not pay respect enough to the principle of self-activity. It sacrificed spontaneity in an utterly unnecessary manner, instead of developing it into rational self-determination. Hence it produced human machines, governed by prescription and conventionality, and but few enlightened spontaneous personalities who possessed insight as well as law-abiding habit. Such human machines, governed by prescription, would develop into law-breakers or sinners the moment that the pressure of social laws was removed from them. They did not possess enough individuality of their own. They had not assimilated what they had been compelled to practice. They were not competent to readjust themselves to a change of surroundings.

Now, in play, the child realizes for himself his spontaneity, but in its irrational form of arbitrariness and caprice. In its positive phase he produces whatever his fancy dictates; in its negative phase he destroys again what he has made, or whatever is his own. He realizes by these operations the depth of originality which his will-power involves--the power to create and the power to destroy. This will-power is the root of his personality-the source of his freedom. Deprive a child of his play, and you produce arrested development in his character. Nor can his play be rationalized by the kindergarten so as to dispense altogether with the utterly spontaneous, untamed play of the child-wherein he gives full scope to his fancy and caprice-without depriving his play of its essential character, and changing it from play into work. Even in the kindergarten, just as in the school, there must be prescription. But the good kindergarten wisely and gently controls, in such manner as to leave room for much of the pure spontaneity of play. It prescribes tasks, but preserves the form of play as much as is possible. If the child were held to a rigid accountability in the kindergarten for the performance of his task, it would then cease to be play, and become labor. Labor performs the pre

scribed task. Play prescribes for itself. The attempt to preserve the form of self prescription for the child in his tasks is what saves the kindergarten from being a positive injury to the child at this tender and immature age. It is the preservation of the form of play, and at the same time the induction of the substance of prescription, that constitutes what is new and valuable in Froebel's method of instruction. There is a gentle insinuation of habits of attention, of self-control, of action in concert, of considerateness towards others, of desire to participate in the common result of the school, that succeeds is accomplishing this necessary change of heart in the child-from selfishness to self-renunciation-without sacrificing his spontaneity so much as is done in the old-fashioned primary school. And he gets large measures of the benefits of the school that he would have lost had he remained at home in the family. The child, too, at this period of life has begun to experience a hunger for the more substantial things of social life, and the family alone cannot satisfy his longings. The discovery of Froebel gives the child what is needed of the substantial effects of the school without the danger of roughly crushing out his individuality at the same time.

PRACTICAL CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS.

After we have decided in the affirmative the essential questions relative to the reasonableness of the course of study and discipline of the kindergarten, its suitability to the age of the children, its effect upon the education that follows it, we come to the subsidiary questions regarding expense, training of teachers, and the details of management. These questions are not important, unless the decision is reached that the kindergarten theory is substantially correct. If it is found to be a valuable adjunct to the school, then we must solve the practical problems of how to introduce it into the public school system. The problem is, how to meet the expense. If the traditional form of the kindergarten be adopted, that of one teacher to cach dozen pupils, and this constituting an isolated kinder garten, the annual cost of tuition would be from $50 to $100 per pupil, a sum too extravagant to be paid by any public school system. The average tuition per pupil in public school systems of the United States ranges from $12 to $20 for the year's schooling of 200 days. No school board would be justified in expending five times as much per pupil for tuition in a kindergarten as it expended for the tuition of a pupil in the primary or grammar school.

If it is necessary to limit the number of pupils per teacher to twelve or twenty, while in the primary school each teacher can manage and properly instruct fifty or seventy, it becomes likewise necessary to invent a system of cheaper teachers. At once the Lancasterian system-or the "monitorial" system-suggests itself as a model for the organization of the cheap kindergarten. The kindergarten shall be a large one, located in a room of ample size to hold five to ten tables, each table to have fifteen children attending it, and presided over by a novitiate teacher; and the whole room shall be placed under the charge of a thoroughly competent teacher, of experience and skill, and well versed in the theory and practice of Frocbel's system. The director of the kindergarten must be a well

paid teacher, receiving as much as the principal of a primary school, with two assistants. Her assistants, the "novitiate teachers," are learners of the system. The first year they shall be volunteers, and receive no salary: the second year, or as soon as they pass the first examination in theory and practice of the kindergarten, they are to receive a small salary as "paid assistants." After a year's service as paid assistants they may pass a second examination, and, if found competent, be appointed directors, and receive a higher salary.

In the St. Louis kindergartens, the number of 60 pupils entitles the director to one paid assistant, and there is one additional appointed for each 30 pupils above that number. Thus, there. would be a director and four paid assistants if the kindergarten had 150 pupils (The director would, in St. Louis, receive $350 per annum, and each paid assistant $125 per annum. The cost of tuition-based on teachers' salaries-would be $850 per annum for the 150 pupils, being less than $6 per annum for each.)

Beside the salaried teachers of the kindergarten, it is expected that there will be an equal or greater number of volunteers. In order to make it worth while for volunteers to join the system, as well as to secure the development of the salaried teachers, it is necessary to have two persons, of superior ability, that can give instruction, once a week, on the theory and practice (the "gifts and occupations") of Froebel's system. A young woman will find so much culture of thought to be derived from the discussion of Froebel's insights and theories, and so much peculiarly fitting experience from her daily class in the kindergarten-experience that will prove invaluable to her as a wife and mother-that she will serve her apprenticeship in the kindergarten gladly, though it be no part of her intention to follow teaching as a vocation.

It is a part of the system, as an adjunct to the public schools, to educate young women in these valuable matters relating to the early training of children. I have thought that the benefit derived by the 200 young women of the St. Louis kindergartens from the lectures of Miss Blow to be of sufficient value to compensate the city for the cost of the kindergartens. A nobler and more enlightened womanhood will result, and the family will prove a better nurture for the child.

Here we come upon the most important practical difficulty in the way of the general introduction of the kindergarten. If the teachers are no better than the average mothers in our families, if they are not better than the average primary teacher, it is evident that the system of Froebel cannot effect any great reform in society. "It is useless to expect social regeneration from persons who are not themselves regenerated.”

In our St. Louis work we have been very fortunate in having a lady of great practical sagacity, of profound and clear insight, and of untiring energy to organize our kindergartens and instruct our teachers. Her (Miss Susan E. Blow's) disinterested and gratuitous services have been the means of securing for us a system that now furnishes its own directors, assistants, and supervisors.

There is another important point connected with the economy of the kindergarten. The session should not last over three hours for the chil

dren of this age. Hence each room permits two sessions to be held in it per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, thus accommodating double the number of pupils. In some cases, where the teacher has attained experience and strength sufficient, she teaches in both sessions, and receives a higher grade of salary for the work.*

The furniture of the kindergarten is made up of small, movable chairs, and small tables, each one capable of accommodating two children-the surface of the table being marked off into divisions one inch square. It is better to use the small tables than large ones that will accommodate a whole class, for the small ones may be moved easily and combined into large ones of any desirable size, and may be readily arranged into any shape or figure, and placed in any part of the room, by the children themselves. It is necessary to use the floor of the room during one exercise each day for the games, at which time all the children are collected "on the circle"; at this time it may be desirable to remove the tables to the sides of the room, and with small tables this can be easily accomplished. Again, in the absence of one of the teachers, it may become necessary to combine two classes into one, uniting two tables. The small tables are therefore an important item in the economy of the kindergarten.

With these suggestions, I leave the subject, believing they are sufficient to justify the directors of our public schools in making the kindergarten 2 part of our school system. The advantage to the community in utilizing the age from four to six: in training the hand and eye; in developing habits of cleanliness, politeness, self-control, urbanity, industry; in train ing the mind to understand numbers and geometric forms, to invent combinations of figures and shapes, and to represent them with the pencilthese and other valuable lessons in combination with their fellow-pupils and obedience to the rule of their superiors-above all, the youthful suggestions as to methods of instruction which will come from thc kindergarten and penetrate the methods of the other schools-will, I think, ultimately prevail in securing to us the establishment of this beneficent institution in all the city school-systems of our country.

In St. Louis, directors receive $600 for two sessions per day, and $350 for one session; paid assistants receive $125 for one session. and $200 per annum for two daily sessions.