The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

The Briton of the Future: How Shall We Train Him?

[We have pleasure in publishing so able and eloquent a plea for the Kindergarten, the more so as it gives us an opportunity we have been looking for of stating the P.N.E.U. view of the subject; we hope to do this in an early number.--ED.]

We have heard much in these days of the character of the British. The Pro-Boers have discovered that we are conceited, selfish, arrogant, cruel, acquisitive and various other disagreeable characteristics, while all the while we imagined we were generous, merciful, brave, tenderhearted, just and almost everything else that is good. The Americans find that we are defective in the matter of cuteness, inventiveness and so on, while we are imagining ourselves in the front rank of science and all that is clever. A Frenchman notices "l'inaptitude relative de la race britannique a concevoir les idees generales," while we still think as in the time of Henry V.,

"O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of France,
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work and cold for action."

And so it behoves us to look to ourselves and see whether the accusations of those who would depreciate our character are founded in any degree on fact, and whether the virtues we have been attributing to ourselves are real or imaginary. And how far are the defects and the virtues which we shall discover by this self-examination due to our methods of education?

The wise educationist looks back to the history of the great nations which have preceded ours to discover wherein lay their strength and in what manner it was cultivated in their young men. He finds the Greek giving prominence to physical and mental training, and relegating to a secondary place the mere gaining of knowledge and the merely practically useful. He finds the Roman developing patriotism by a state education, of which law is the determining factor. And so in each nation, and in each stage of the history of the world, he finds to some extent a reaction from the ideas of that which preceded it and sees in each something to admire and copy, something to deprecate and avoid. And at each stage and in each age he finds some enlightened educator arising who has seen the faults in the prevailing system and is trying to reach out towards something better, wider and nobler.

What we have to do then is to gather up this wisdom of the ages and apply it to our own case. I think we are all agreed, that whatever the criticisms made upon us, and whatever may be our private opinion of the British character, we each and all wish the Briton of the future, the embryo representative of our nation, to grow up into a perfect man in all points.

For what is a child? The child is the young of man, the immature man, i.e., he bears within him the germs, the possibilities of every quality which we admire in man, and also of every fault and weakness to which man is subject. And it is our duty as guardians and educators of children to allow and encourage the development of the good qualities, and hold back and starve out, so to speak, the bad.

And next we must enquire, what is man? Man's nature is complex. We may consider it under three aspects.

(1) Man is an animal.
(2) He is an intelligent being;

and he has a third side to his nature which appears to be above and beyond the other two, dominating them and guiding them to higher planes of existence and thought. He is therefore a moral being.

These three sides it is our duty to develop. To quote Wordsworth--

"This sacred right is fruitlessly announced,
This universal plea in vain addressed
To eyes and ears of parents who themselves
Did in the time of their necessity
Urge it in vain,"

(1) Man as a perfect animal must have the best possible muscular development, good nerve power, and each of his senses must be trained to their highest possibilities. "This organic frame" (says Wordsworth) "which from Heaven's bounty we receive, instinct with light and gladsome motions."

(2) Man as an intelligent being should have keen observation, great power of concentration, logical habit of thought, powerful memory, good judgment, and facility in reasoning and a strong imagination.

(3) Man as a moral being must have the following qualities well developed:--Sociability, love, reverence, unselfishness, self-control, truthfulness, bravery, constancy, resolution, etc.

Let us think thirdly, what is education? Mr. H. Dalston said, speaking at a P.N.E.U. meeting in February, 1900, "The true aim of education should be the free and natural and mental, together and in harmony, to develop the best types of manhood and womanhood, leaving the material interests of the future to depend on the realization of the full development."

Sully, the psychologist, says, "Education seeks by social stimulus, guidance and control, to develop the natural powers of the child so as to render him able and disposed to lead a healthy, happy and morally worthy life." And again, "The educator must ever keep before him the ideal of a complete man, strong and well developed physically, intellectually and morally, and so far as is practicable, assign a proportionate amount of time and exercise to the development of each side of the child's being."

Ruskin says, "Education then, briefly, is the leading human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them, and these two objects are always attainable together and by the same means: the training which makes men happiest in themselves also makes them most serviceable to others."

Now I have had a good deal of experience in dealing with children, for I was allowed to teach while still at school, * and after I left, brought up and tried to teach my younger brothers and sisters, besides being trusted at various times with small cousins and friends, for I have always been particularly happy with children. At thirty years of age I went in for Kindergarten training, and at that age, with my previous experience, was peculiarly fitted for comparing the old and new methods of education. And I unhesitatingly say that the Kindergarten (as its founder Froebel meant it to be) is the only rational method of training our infants, forming their character, and preparing them for future life. I say, advisedly, "as its founder meant it to be," for the name has been used to cover so many spurious imitations of Froebel's system, that unless one goes to the fountain-head, one often gains a very wrong impression of the aim and object of this wonderful, far-reaching, all-embracing system.

* A school which kept in touch with Miss Buss and the best educational movements of her day.

Froebel defines education thus;--"That training which leads a man to clearness concerning himself, to peace with nature, and to unity with God."

Froebel's idea of the end of life reminds one of Keble's idea of the end of the day--

"That with the world, myself and Thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be."

Or of the words of our Prayer Book, "That we may lead a godly, righteous and sober life." And surely it should be mockery for any of us to use these words for ourselves if we are not seeking to put our children in the best possible position for living them in their turn.

Next the Kindergarten itself, and what does it do towards carrying out this all-sided development of the child into a complete human being?

The Kindergarten; the garden where Froebel would set the child as a little plant, give him the earth food that his nature craves, surround him with the spiritual and moral atmosphere which will enable him to develop aright and provide him with the needful wise guidance which will prevent his growth becoming warped and one-sided, the sort of one-sided growth which Wordsworth denounces when he says,

"In whom a premature necessity
Blocks out the forms of nature, preconsumes
The reason, famishes the heart, shuts up
The infant being in itself and makes
Its very spring a season of decay."

(And here I quote from Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin and Miss Nora Archibald Smith, two prominent American teachers who seem to have most thoroughly absorbed the Kindergarten spirit according to Froebel).

"The Kindergarten--a simple unpretentious place, where a lot of tiny children work and play together; a place into which if the hard-headed man of business chanced to glance, and if he did not stay long enough, or come often enough, would conclude that the children were frittering away their time, particularly if that same good man of business had weighed and measured and calculated so long that he had lost the seeing eye and understanding heart.

"Froebel's idea--the Kindergarten idea--of the child and its powers, of humanity and its destiny, of the universe, of the whole problem of living, is somewhat different from that held by the vast majority of parents and teachers. It is imperfectly carried out, even in the Kindergarten itself, where a conscious effort is made, and is infrequently attempted in the school or family.

"His plan of education covers the entire period between the nursery and the university, and contains essential features which bear close relation to the gravest problems of the day. If they could be made an integral part of all our teaching in families, schools and institutions, the burdens under which society is groaning today would fall more and more lightly on each succeeding generation."

"In the Kindergarten, the physical, mental and spiritual being is consciously addressed at one and the same time. There is no 'piece-work' tolerated. The child is viewed in his threefold relations--as the child of Nature, the child of man, and the child of God: there is no disregarding any one of these divinely appointed relations. It endeavours with equal solicitude to instil correct and logical habits of thought, true and generous habits of feeling, and pure and lofty habits of action; and it asserts serenely that, if information cannot be gained in the right way, it would better not be gained at all. It has no special hobby, unless you would call its eternal plea for the all-sided development of the child a hobby."

Now we will take our list point by point.

1. Animal side.--As Shakespeare makes Henry V, say:--

"You good yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, let us swear
That you are worth your breeding."

(a) Muscular development is provided for in the Kindergarten by carefully graded drill and by the games of muscular activity suggested by Froebel. If you look through this wonderful book, Mother Play, which has been called the Kindergarten Bible, you will see that exercises for almost every part of the body are suggested. Later Kindergartners use also Ling's Swedish Drill, which would have delighted Froebel, because he constantly says that his games, etc., were only to be taken as suggestions which might be improved upon by those with profounder knowledge of each special subject. Only he would wish us to incorporate the exercises in some way with the games and play so as to gain the children's interest and co-operation, for whatever is done form a forced motive, without freewill, is doing more harm than good.

[Mother Play and Nursery Songs by Friedrich Froebel, 1878]

[Note that "kindergartner" refers, not to the little child, but to the kindergarten teacher.]

These exercises have to be very carefully used and of short duration (ten minutes or thereabouts every day), or over-drill might result in nerve exhaustion, which brings us to the next point:--

(b) The strengthening of nerve power. This short, daily, carefully-supervised drill is of itself, of course, highly conducive to nerve strengthening, carried on, as it should be, in a room previously well aired, with windows open, whenever possible, or even in the open air, if provision can be made for the purpose. Besides this, the alternation of occupations, providing alternate use and rest for each set of nerves, avoids strain while giving adequate exercise for each. The regularity of the hours and the carefully-apportioned duration of the lessons give balance and calm to the mind, and the restful happiness which all good Kindergartners try to attain, and mostly succeed in getting, is very needful for the tender brain. You will find Sully * mentions very particularly the benefit of alternation of lessons. Professor McHardy **, of the Royal South London Ophthalmic Hospital, has been writing lately on the evils of the use of chequers in Kindergartner (here, as always, I imply a good Kindergartner, which I will emphasize further on), should entirely counteract the strain there would be if the occupation were extended. And, as an alternative, what would the child be doing at home in the nursery under the care of an uneducated nurse--very likely threading small beads with a fine needle in a dark corner, or drawing with its shadow thrown on the paper and its nose within an inch of its drawing. We, in the Kindergarten, use bead threading too; but, with large beads and wire, and we make it a methodical lesson in counting: a few beads being first placed on the table and counted, and afterwards threaded, this placing and threading being alternated so as not to strain the eyes by the continuous aiming at the hole in the beads. The Kindergartner sees that the light is thrown properly on to the paper or any other object the child is looking at, and that the object itself is at a proper distance to avoid straining the optic nerve. The furniture too is in proportion to the child's size, so that it has not to sit with legs dangling or hunched up shoulders for writing. The Kindergartner is trained also to notice signs of fatigue or want of nerve power as manifested in various parts of the body. Besides this avoidance of strain to the optic nerves, the sight is actually trained and tested by various exercises in colour and very greatly in form. Not only the sight, but each of the other senses is given a special training in the Kindergarten. Taste and smell to a smaller degree, as they subserve less intellectual purposes and get a very good ordinary training in common life. Hearing is by graduated exercises in singing, &c. Touch, by the handling of the Gifts and Occupations. † Froebel says that "the child is in the universe as an integral part of the universe--a thought of God--a struggling expression of an inner diving law, eagerly seeking an outlet, with points within feeling out for contact with the universe around." This contact is supplied by his senses; they are channels of communication with the world around and must therefore be allowed to develop as completely as possible. These impressions conveyed through the senses, he says, are as root fibres for the understanding that is developed later. So much for the animal side! And yet we shall find that intellect is developed and intelligence cultivated by bodily exercises and manual skill, for "Physiology tells us that an important section of the brain is largely occupied with the control of movements of the limbs, and that, according as these movements are restricted or brought into play and systematised, the growth of this brain-section will be discouraged or prompted.

* [James Sully, Teacher's Hand-book of Psychology, 1886, mentions "the frequent alternation of mental and bodily exercise."]

** [Malcolm Macdonald McHardy. It's not clear whether chequers refers to the game (checkers, which was called draughts in England) or to checkered paper. The concern seems to be alternate colored squares that strains the eyes.]

† [Froebel's "Gifts and Occupations": Froebel developed twenty gifts and occupations. The first is small colored balls on strings -- a mobile. Others include cubes, cylinders, and blocks to teach color, shape, counting, proportion. Read more here.]

But we must go a step further, for as Shakespeare tells us in Love's Labour Lost, "He that hath never fed on the dainties that are bred in a book . . . . his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts." And so we pass on to the second head.

II. Intellectual.--The Kindergarten work, although based upon plan is not really play, but the appropriate work for that stage of being. The children are at work, doing something with all their might, for a particular end. Knowledge becomes valuable to them as an aid to this engrossing work. And they are not allowed to go on until they get weary of an occupation, so that they may return to it next time with renewed zest. Thus they are practising (from within them, observe, not being forced into) Concentration. Perhaps I need hardly touch on Observation because people always seem to recognize that as the one sole virtue of Kindergarten work. Nature lessons of course are the chief means by which we train observation. Froebel insists over and over again that the child be taken out into Nature, to revel in Nature, live with Nature, get saturated with Nature; (in town kindergartens we have to bring Nature to the child). (And here I would notice that even our respected Editor of the Parents' Review does not seem to grasp this aspect of Kindergarten training, as she suggests in Home Education * that the Kindergarten is a very useful help and aid to one part of education, but suggests Nature knowledge as an addition to it.) The truth is that Froebel thought of every side of a child's nature: all-sided development. Besides Nature lessons, every Gift and Occupation in the Kindergarten helps to develop observation. I cannot think of one exercise which would be carried on without this power being prominently brought forward, because the Kindergartner demonstrates in front of the children, and they are forced to observe accurately to place their bricks, their sticks, their beads, their lines in right positions, either on the squares of the table or in their books. We have building, brushwork, drawing, tablet and stick laying, and many other occupations specially training observation.

* [The Parents Review reprinted part of Home Education in the following edition directly after Part II of this article, either as a supplement to Constance Barnard, who refers to Home Education, or perhaps as a preliminary rebuttal.]

To train logical habit, nothing can be more carefully contrived than the Gifts and Occupations of the Kindergarten. They are most carefully graded so that each exercise leads almost imperceptibly into the next. A child who was told she was to go into the transition class, and had it explained to her that it was an advance into more difficult lessons, went home and told her mother, "The lessons are not a bit more difficult; they are just as easy as last term." The children themselves do not notice any difference, so easily does one step lead into another. And not only is this logical progression visible throughout the whole continuity of the system, but in each Gift and Occupation the exercises follow on logically step by step. Judgment is constantly being trained by comparison. We compare the first Gift, woollen balls, with the second, a sphere, cube and cylinder of wood, the third with the second, &c., and the various parts of each as each is newly introduced to the child's contemplation: for instance, Gifts III. and IV. are both the same size, but differently divided. The child is asked to judge whether one brick is larger than the other, and to find a proof of their being the same size. Memory is trained partly by the language exercises, reciting the words for the games and songs, and learning the tunes. The memory of facts, too, is trained by the constant repetition, in varying forms, of the exercises embodying the facts that 8 is the cube of 2, &c.; that a square has four equal sides and four equal angles; that a solid has length, breadth and thickness, &c., &c. Memory is dependent upon clear perceptions. Sight, sound, feeling, all help memory, and these are all being developed in the Kindergarten. The Games, too, are for this purpose, to repeat in dramatic form the previous experiences gained in other ways.

All this exercise of observation, judgment and memory, is training the facility for reasoning, e.g., after several building lessons you may set problems as to how many bricks you will require to make two equal sized objects out of a cube. After a lesson on a bird (say, a bullfinch), another bird with a similar beak is sown. "Can you tell me what food this bird eats?" "No," is probably the first answer. "Think again. What does he use for eating his food?" "His beak." "What do you notice about his beak? Have you seen a beak like that before?" And so they begin to reason that it probably eats the same food as the bullfinch.

One of Froebel's underlying principles, which is illustrated by nearly all the Gifts and Occupations, is the meditation of opposites. He says, "We can recognize nothing until it is compared with its opposite; so variety is constantly supplied throughout the universe; and for the mind's movement as a whole, the contrasted processes of analysis and synthesis are necessary. In this way the human mind will be trained to render to itself an even clearer and clearer account of the laws of its thinking and acting, while an opposite method of education would more or less hinder the mind from attaining the power of clear thought. Who shall say then that a system of training the child to reconcile extremes by his own deed--of teaching him by experiences that there must in the nature of things be a point of union for all apparently hopeless contradictions--who shall say that this will not be one of the most valuable of life's possessions?"

Imagination you will say hardly wants developing in some children; it seems over-vigorous already, and quite runs away with all sense of truth and proportion. Well, in that case it needs very careful training and guiding into the right direction, while with some children it actually needs cultivating. Stories are the great power here. Stories of animals, stories of children, stories of plant life. Mrs. Gatty's story of the green caterpillar, for instance, is I suppose known to all my readers. You can see for yourselves what a great deal of imaging or mind picturing has to be brought in there: carefully leading the little minds all the while to higher imaginings, for all Froebel's teaching is highly symbolic. He would lead the child from the concrete to the abstract, and from the visible to the invisible. Mrs. Wiggin says, "The more truths of every kind presented to children in a corporal or symbolic form, the greater will their power of spiritual or abstract apprehension be in after years, for they will have living images in their minds, not merely a stock of memorized statements." This view of his teaching will help us to understand how he trains the qualities coming under our third head.

III. Moral. (I cannot do better here than quote again from Mrs. Wiggin and Miss Smith). "The Kindergarten starts out plainly with the assumption that the moral aim in education is the absolute one, and that all others are purely relative."

"The Kindergarten makes the growth of everyday virtues so simple, so gradual, even so easy, that you are almost beguiled into thinking them commonplace. They seem to come in, just by the way, as it were, so that at the end of the day you have seen thought and word and deed so sweetly mingled that you marvel at the 'universal dovetailedness of things,' as Dickens puts it."

"The Kindergarten attempts a rational, respectful treatment of children, leading them to do right as much as possible for right's sake, abjuring all rewards save the pleasure of working for others and the delight that follows a good action, and all punishments save those that follow as natural penalties of broken laws, the obvious consequences of the special bit of wrong doing, whatever it may be. The child's will is addressed in such a way as to draw it on, if right; to turn it willingly, if wrong. Coercion in the sense of fear, personal magnetism, nay, even the child's love for the teacher, may be used in such a way as to weaken his moral force. With every free, conscious choice of right, a human being's moral power and strength of character increase; and the converse of this is equally true."

"It is our task in the Kindergarten to lead the children into those blind but holy habits which make goodness easy."

"Froebel, with those divinely curious eyes of his, saw deeper into the child's mind and heart than any of his predecessors, and for every faint stirring of life which he perceived provided adequate conditions of development. True prophet of the coming day, his philosophy is rich with suggestions for the cultivation of the social powers of the child. No one ever felt more keenly than he the inseparable, the organic connection of all life; and with deep spiritual insight he provides nursery plays and songs by which the babe, even in his mother's arms, may be led faintly to recognise in his being one of the links of the great chain which girdles the universe."

Sociability.

"Oh England! model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart;
What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do
Were all thy children kind and natural!"---Shakespeare.

In a Kindergarten the child is one unit of a larger whole, a member of a community; all his actions are shown to have reference not only to himself but to others. He must live for others, work for others, plan and think for others, and join in every way to make the whole society happy and wellbeing. The Games especially bring this out. Does not the child who breaks the rules of the game, gets out of step, sings out of time or tune, or indulges in roughness, spoil the whole effect of the game? He is then quietly left outside the circle, an outlaw, a banished individual until he feels in harmony once more with the pervading spirit. Are not here the germs of all social life, of the all-embracing love to our neighbour which is second only to love of God? The love of God's creatures is fostered and developed by attending to animals and plants, noticing all that is beautiful, curious and useful in them. Mankind too is not left out. We are indebted not only to animals and plants for food and clothing, but also to men, who prepare and arrange it all for our use. So the various manufactures and occupations of life are introduced to the children's notice to cultivate a grateful love to those on whom we depend so much, leading up of course to the idea of the Author and Giver of all good things. We actively cultivate this neighbourly love in our sorrow when one companions is left out of a game, when one is absent from an interesting lesson, in helping the weaker ones, in welcoming a new member, in making much of one who has a birthday and very much in dedicating all our work as gifts to relatives and friends, and spreading from them to a larger circle, to children in hospitals and to the poor, who have not the same happiness as we have. The enlargement of the horizon is very noticeable in many of the games. It is what I think the last generation needed sadly. We grew up too narrow-minded, too self-centred. And here is one great good of the Kindergarten as a community which I should like to emphasize. Children taught at home are apt to be self-centred, to think everything revolves round them; they do not mix often enough with others to have their social qualities developed. When they do meet others it is often in the way of unhealthful excitement, such as children's parties, the after-action of which causes mothers generally to think and sometimes to say, "I will never let you go to a party again!" If they were constantly in the habit of meeting other children and playing or working with them, these extra times would not cause the harmful excitement so often complained of. The morbid self-consciousness so noticeable in the last generation, my generation I mean, would die a natural death.

"One of the most valuable functions of the school with its larger community is to correct home-bred vanity by introducing a higher and less partial standard of reputation and making the child feel, in daily collision with his equals and superiors, the limits of his attainments. Bright, eager classmates are a potent stimulus to the individual child." And this I would add is the only legitimate use of competition. We do not encourage prizes and marks in the Kindergarten. We make the child's individual effort reward itself as far as is possible, by allowing him to retain possession of that which he has worked at honestly, and to have the pleasure of bestowing it upon whom he pleases.

Closely connected with this love of animals and plants is the love of beauty. If we are continually providing beautiful objects for the child to examine, something for his sense of beauty to feed upon, surely he will not grow up satisfied with a lower ideal. Mr. Alma Tadema * says, "The Froebel System teaches children by forms before they can read and write, and I believe it is right. The more you teach children to look for beauty around them, the more they will think of it in later life. Then let us open their eyes to the beauty of nature, and let them find joy in form and colour. It will bear fruit, as throughout life they will be guided by taste, and art and industry will profit by it." And if he tries to reproduce, as we continually do in the Kindergarten, these beauties of line, form and colour, he will learn more truly their inner meanings, become more intimate with them, and see more in them in consequence. Who that has had a training in drawing does not know the feeling of finding more in a form than one did before? Does not an artist see more colours and more shades of colour than an ordinary individual? And do we not all think shadows grey or black until our eyes have been trained to notice the beautiful blue or crimson depths in them? Emerson ** says, "The sense of beauty must be awakened in the soul in childhood, if, in later life, he is to create the beautiful. Life brings to each his task, of whatever art you select, algebra, painting, architecture, poems, commerce, politics--all are attainable, even to the miraculous triumphs, on the same terms of selecting that for which you are apt: begin at the beginning, proceed in order, step by step." Froebel says, "The artistically cultivated senses of the new generation will again restore pure, holy art." I like that expression, holy art. There is a great deal, if you think of it, in love of beauty and refinement leading to love of purity and holiness as a groundwork or background of religion. To some it is a religion in itself, but Froebel would not have us rest here, only use it as a stepping-stone to higher regions. We had a beautiful lecture at a P.N.E.U. meeting a little while ago on the inculcation of Reverence. Here is the way we try to train it in the Kindergarten. Love and admiration of these beautiful objects leads to reverence for them. We cannot wantonly ill-treat or destroy that which we love and admire. The trying to reproduce and copy them leads to reverence for the Creator of them, Who can produce such perfect work. E.g., a child makes a clay image of a potato and admires his work exceedingly. It may look perfect to him, but a few questions will soon set his mind on the right path. Is it exactly like the potato? Yes. Have you made the little eyes? Yes. If I plant your potato, will the little eyes begin to sprout into little stems and the stems bear leaves and flowers above ground and good potatoes underground?

* [Lawrence Alma-Tadema, the painter. The quote could only be located online in the book "Froebel's Occupations" by sisters Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith. Kate Douglas Wiggin may be better known as the children's author who wrote Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Mother Carey's Chickens, and and The Bird's Christmas Carol. Wikipedia says, "She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878 (the Silver Street Free Kindergarten). With her sister during the 1880s, she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Kate Wiggin devoted her adult life to the welfare of children in an era when children were commonly thought of as cheap labor."]

[Considerations by the Way, from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Conduct of Life" says "Life brings to each his task, and, whatever art you select, algebra, painting, architecture, poems, commerce, politics,--all are attainable, even to the miraculous triumphs, on the same terms, of selecting that for which you are apt;--begin at the beginning, proceed in order, step by step." The first half of the quote ("The sense of beauty must be awakened in the soul in childhood, if, in later life, he is to create the beautiful") could only be located online in the book "Froebel's Gifts" by Kate Douglas Wiggin.]

In handling the Occupations, reverence for material is developed. Loss or misuse of one piece of material spoils the whole plan, mars the whole effect. Reverence of manner comes from imitation of the Kindergartner's manner in speaking of or handling holy or beautiful things, and if the reverence of spirit is also being developed, the child will feel that reverence of manner is the fitting expression of the inner feeling. To quote Mrs. Wiggin again, "If the Kindergartner be a good, pure, loving, earnest woman, into whose heart the love of God has fallen to quicken all true and beautiful thoughts and motives, she can no more help making her four hours' daily work with the children a constant preaching of the Gospel, than the sun can help radiating light and heat." And, "She whose own soul is dead may be a religious drill sergeant, but only the living spirit can communicate religious life."

(To be continued.)

Typed by happi, Oct 2019; Proofread by LNL, Apr 2020