EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN IX. THE GOLDEN GATE KINDERGARTEN ASSOCIATION AT We have on several occasions referred in this Journal to the excellent system of educating young children which was organised over fifty years ago by the German thinker and teacher, Froebel, and which, under somewhat diversified forms, has been adopted in England and in many European countries, as well as in the United States of America. The training in Kindergartens, as the schools are called in which Froebel's methods are employed, draws out the faculties and capacities of children in an easy, pleasant manner, developes their senses and their minds, guides their moral tendencies, and thus educates them, not only on one side, but on the various sides of their nature. This training is useful in all classes of society; but the Association to which we are now calling attention especially directs its efforts to poor and neglected children. In the few years of its existence, several hundred little boys and girls belonging to the lowest classes have come under its influence, a large proportion of whom were below five years of age, and many from two and a half to four. It was in 1879 that the first free Kindergarten, for very poor children, was opened at San Francisco. The number of these infant schools has quickly increased, and the undertaking is now incorporated as an Association. The immediate cause of taking this step was that, after a legacy of 20,000 dollars had been received for the movement, and invested in the names of trustees, another generous friend offered to make a bequest on condition of the Society becoming a corporate body. Of course the Board of Management decided to act on the suggestion, and last year, after five years' existence, the Association was incorporated. It became necessary to choose a name, and the first decision was to call it the Cooper Kindergarten Association, after a lady who had expended much effort on the schools, and had acted as Superintendent. But Mrs. Cooper objecting to this arrangement, a member of the Association, whose daughter, now no longer living, had from the beginning connected herself with the work, suggested the name Golden Gate, which was at once adopted as a suggestive indication of the aims of the Association. The Annual Report bears testimony to the civilising effects of Kindergarten training upon the lives and homes of these neglected children. It appears that the parents learn to treat their little ones less harshly, and to become more affectionate towards them. They begin to take a pride, too, in sending them neat and clean to school. Often the poor mothers, in bringing their children, thank the teachers for the instruction they receive, and say that "they themselves did not have it, but that their children shall" One mother sent for the teacher when she was dying, and committed her turbulent little boy to her care, saying, "You must promise that you will look after him when I am gone. He has been a better boy since he went to the Kindergarten. It is the only place he takes comfort in. It is the only place where he gets good." The teacher cheerfully agreed to the promise, which she does not forget. The children delight in their life at school, and a story is told of one little pupil who, having cut his hand at home with a knife, was obliged to undergo a painful operation, in the midst of which he cried, "Oh, doctor, you must get it well quick; for I must do my work at the Kindergarten!" Another, a little girl, used to run up the hill on which the school house stands, every morning after being dressed, to make sure that the school had not opened. The children have great pleasure in their lessons and manual occupations; and they acquire habits of industry, selfhelp, and usefulness. The promoters of the Association believe strongly in the importance of preventive efforts for lessening crime, and improving society, and there are many in all parts of the United States who sympathise with their efforts. General Eaton, the official head of the Bureau of Education, at Washington, takes great interest in well-organised infant schools, and he supplies the Association with statistical dates and educational information from his department. It is satisfactory to learn that his last official Report states that Kindergarten work is progressing rapidly in twenty-six States and three Territories. Mrs. Leland Stanford has been one of the most liberal money contributors, having given, during the five years that the Kindergartens have been carried on, over 6000 dollars. Part of this sum was used for establishing a Memorial Kindergarten, in remembrance of her son, Leland Stanford, a painstaking, clever, and affectionate boy, who died young, and who had great sympathy with little children. Gifts of clothing, flowers, and fruit, as well as money, come to the Committee from various churches and charitable societies. Hundreds of letters flow in from all parts of the country, filled with inquiries as to the management of Kindergartens, and the Association is often asked to provide lecturers for explaining Froebel's methods, and the theory that underlies them, at meetings and discussions. At a Conference on Charities, held in Wisconsin, many papers were read on Preventive Work among Children, in which the San Francisco Kindergartens were largely referred to as doing an important work in preventing young children from falling into the ways of crime. Altogether, this organisation appears to be very active, and its promoters are carried forward by a loving enthusiasm for their aims. We will conclude our account by some remarks from a local newspaper, which, after lamenting the growth of an idle, improvident, and criminal class at San Francisco, as in all large cities, continues: "We believe there is a way to prevent a great deal of this idleness, poverty, ignorance, and crime; a way to lessen the numbers entering upon careers which lead, through idleness and dissipation, to such fearful results. We believe a remedy has been discovered; that it has been introduced to San Francisco, where, under the direction of a class of most worthy women, and by the aid of many generous and intelligent persons, the experiment has been so far tried as to justify us in commending it to the attention of the taxpaying citizen, as worthy of the most serious consideration. We refer, of course, to the Kindergarten system of education, introduced to this city, in 1878, by Felix Adler; encouraged by Judge Solomon Heydenfeldt; in the following year receiving the aid of Mrs. S. B. Cooper; and since that time having the hearty co-operation of so many teachers, and the charitable donations of so many generous persons, that we have not space in this article to name them. The Kindergarten school establishes itself in the midst of the children whom it seeks to educate. It goes to the families of the unfortunate, the very poor, and the criminal, and asks the privilege of taking their youngest ones-even those of less than three years of age-to the schoolroom for education. This education is an intelligent adaptation of instruction, so blended with amusement as to interest the children, and teach them to think. It subjects them to a discipline so attractive that they do not feel its chains, and leads them along a path so pleasant that they are not tempted to wander from it. The system teaches order, cleanliness, and obedience; it inculcates habits of industry; it corrects the very earliest tendency to bad language, and curbs, at the very outset, vicious propensities. With pictures, toys, blocks, charts, games, exercises, music, and innocent recreations, the child absorbs a practical instruction which makes the schoolroom more attractive than the street, and more comfortable than their own poor homes. This system gives children, for their models, kind, loving teachers, in contrast to a social circle where ill-mannered, and sometimes brutal, deportment prevails. Nothing so certainly demoralises children as to feel that they are not cared for; nothing is so sure to set them right, and keep them right, as to feel and know that they are loved and looked after. The influence of the vicious home is corrected in the model school, and the influence of the children is carried home to reflect itself upon the parents. There are fourteen hundred children now being taught in some eighteen of these Kindergarten schools, and all dependent upon the charitable gifts of a few generous persons. Kindergarten work is no longer an experiment; it is a demonstration. It has worked, and is working, admirably in other and older countries; it is a success in Eastern States, and it is a success in San Francisco." THE LATE PEARI CHAND MITRA. A bust, in marble, of Babu Peari Chand Mitra, president of the Horticultural Society of Bengal, was placed in one of the committee-rooms of the India Office, on exhibition, for a few days before being despatched to Calcutta, where it is to be permanently placed, by order of the Municipality, in the Townhall. It is pronounced by those to whom Babu Peari Chand Mitra is personally known to be a speaking likeness, and it certainly is an admirable work of art, the difficulties presented by the subject having been overcome in a manner which reflects the highest credit on the sculptor, Mr. E. E. Geflowski. Mr. Geflowski's well-known bust of Dr. Stoliczka, for which he was commissioned by the Government of India, was similarly exhibited at the India Office ten years ago, and since then he has executed several public busts and statues of Indian and Anglo-Indian celebrities for Calcutta and other cities in India, including the busts of Cavagnari, General Roberts, and Dr. Goodeve, and the statues of Radha Radhakant Bahadur, K.C.SI, the Maharajah Ramanath Tagore, and his Highness the Maharajah of Mysore, G.C.S.I.-Times. We are glad to give circulation to the following letter, copies of which we have received from the Director of Public Instruction for the N.-W. Provinces and Oude. We understand that Sir William Muir University, Edinburgh, has been requested to receive subscriptions in this country: HARRISON MEMORIAL. Allahabad, 20th July, 1885. DEAR SIR,-At a meeting of a few of the old pupils and friends of the late Mr. A. S. Harrison, Principal of the Muir College, held here on the 15th instant, under the presidency of Mr. E. White, C.S., Director of Public Instruction, it was resolved to try to commemorate Mr. Harrison's work in connection with the College in some way worthy of him. The following gentlemen were elected as a provisional committee to make arrangements for the collection of subscriptions for this object J. R. Reid, Esq., C.S., G. E. Knox, Esq., C.S., E. White, Esq., C.S., W. H. Wright, Esq., W. N. Boutflower, Esq., S. A. Hill, Esq., Maulvi Muhamed Zaka-ullah, Pandit Aditya Ram Bhattacharya, Rev. David Mohun, Pandit Sundar Lál, Pandit Newal Bihari Bajpai, Maulvi Hashmat-ullah, Munshi Ganga Sahai. Sir Alfred Lyall, K.C.B., LieutenantGovernor of the N.-W. Provinces, has kindly consented to act as President of this committee. Subscriptions may be paid to the Honorary Secretaries, Mr. S. A. Hill and Pandit Sundar Lál, or to the Allahabad Bank, Limited, to the credit of the "Harrison College Memorial Fund." Mr. Harrison was so universally loved and respected, not only by his pupils, but by all who knew him, that it is confidently expected a large sum will be subscribed to keep alive his memory in connection with the College in which his life's work lay, and in the service of which he died. Should this sum prove sufficient, it is proposed to found a scholarship, similar to the Gilchrist Scholarship, which, once in four years, would enable the best student of the College, after taking his degree, to proceed to Europe in order to continue his studies for a further period of four years. It is estimated that the sum required for this purpose would be about Rs. 40,000. Should this be found too ambitious a scheme, it is proposed that the amount collected be applied to endow one or two scholarships in the College, the details of which can be afterwards settled, and to procure a bust of Mr. Harrison, in white marble, to be placed in the College Hall. The cost of a bust is estimated at Rs. 6000. The bust is a form of memorial which commends itself to many of the old pupils; but it is generally agreed that something of greater utility and more worthy of Mr. Harrison, like the proposed scholarship tenable in Europe, should be aimed at. We are confident that, if all Mr. Harrison's friends contribute in proportion to their respect for his memory, the money will be forthcoming for both objects, and that his work in the College will be commemorated, not only by a tangible representation of his features in marble, but in the way he would have himself preferred, by helping some poor student in his efforts to attain a high education. It is earnestly requested that Mr. Harrison's friends and pupils in other stations organise sub-committees for the collection of subscriptions; and all subscribers are invited to com |