THE KINDERGARTEN MOVEMENT IN MELBOURNE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 77, 24 December 1907, Page 3

THE KINDERGARTEN MOVEMENT IN MELBOURNE.

AN INTERVIEW WITH MRS. CHAS. PRESTON. Recently Iliad an interview with Mrs. Chas.'Preston, L.L.8., a lady who.is prominently connected with the kindergarten movement in. Melbourne.. Mrs. Preston said :.although great progress had been made in Melbourne during tho last, four or five years, nnioh remained to be done. Many teachers still thought .that the kindergarten was a method rather than a principle or a spirit m accordance with which teaching should bo given. Tho object was really to teach the child rather than {0 teach tho subject. The ordinary 'professional teacher was much more interested in tho book than in the child; that was tho main difference between the untrained teacher and tho trained teacher; botween the old ideas and the new, and there was a growing number of teachers imbued with this spirit. "I think," Mrs. Preston continued, "that, wo" are getting our inspiration to a large extent from America. Tho Americans Tiro really very clover educators, although inclined to bo shallow. They fail in depth. They have gone in for breadth of/ curriculum, introducing an almost unlimited number of subjects, so to say, but what tlm gained 111 breadth thoy certainly lost in depth. Thpy have.become impatient of the old, plodding, solid methods of acquin:ij> knov/ledgo. What the American educatovs want is originality, and thoy will sacrifice most things to get originality. I think that is why they have sacrificed the old mechanical grind of the English schools, which <va& after all to a largo : extent. mere ■ copying But the object of the kindergarten tcachinp is to get tho original expression of the child's liiind, not a copy of the teacher , .) idea. If we can get the child's idea of tha. idea, so to say, all the bettor.

1 "Hero. in Victoria wo are ivorking out a kind of Australian kindergarten system, or • rather we aro working up methods of other, countries to suit ourselves. Australian education was founded on English ideas, tho first trained teachers were English, and they .brought English traditions and English methods out hero. These methods were mechanical to largo extent, but they meanwork on the part of tho child, real', honest application. Now the American influence in certainly a very vitalising influence, and if .ivo can combine tho English honesty of work With■ the originality we shall.get tho ideal.' ' .

".Tho new education of courso is n development of tho kindergarten idea The Germans devoloped-tho kindergarten system from tho principles, of Froebel. tlis -principles wore fundamentally right, but he had littlo knowledge of scienco or art. He, ,'soams to have had n\pqqtic insight into life' and tho principles of life, but hc.-himsclf did aot realise tho full application of his principles and had not got tho actual knowledge of facts in regard to our physical and psychological constitution. It is most astonishing how modern scienco has confirmed his principles. One might say that- tho Americans had brought modern scienco to bear upon his principles and conlirmoyl them, as they have improved his methods. Take FroebePs idea of unity.- Froebel meant among othor things that all lifo is one and ho wanted to bring the child intoi sympathy witli all sorts of lifo—vegctablo life, animal life, individual life, family lifo, national life; and modern scienco has most .wonderfully confirmed this. Tho lifo in tho crystal, the , ■ life' .in ■ • tho vegetable, tho !ifo in the animal, the life in'tjie man is all one. Thorqforo, all society is one. ■And so tho kindergarten' method is laying ■the foundations of a true, democracy—a de-;mocracyj-of: worth.:; -A child • in the kindergarten school is valued not for wliat ho wears or for what ho looks liko, but for what lio is, and-he is judged by an absolutely unwinking and impartial tribunal. There , 'are no 'snobs in the kindergarten. For that, reason it .is. as. much a mission ■to the children of the rich as to tho children of tlio.poor." ■ ■ ' " ■ ~: -

■ilii l reply to another question, Mrs. Preston said that sho would apply tho kindergarten method direct from the criidle' to the grave, for by tho kindergarten was meant true education. ■ So long ns.thc individual was living ho ought to lie learning, .and so long as ho was learning bo was progressing. Of course progress-was relatively very, : very much .greater in tlio early stages of life. The actual five senses of an infant were not developed at birth. A new-born infant was 'probably almost blind, deaf, not very sen-,' sitive to touch, .and so on; and all its senses had to he ■ developed by its environment. Light, struck upon, tho oyo and the development of sight ■ began, so with tho sense of , smell, hearing, and so on. All that; development wenton. very-quickly and in tho courso of a few woeks an infant could distinguish' between objects; ;its powers of sense were developed very rapidly, that is, new centres.of thought. , were" created.-' This development was much more rapid up to tho ago of three- , years than aftonvards, still , it wont-on-to some extent all through lifp. Seven years of age was generally given as tho limit of tho kindergarten.-Indeed-, many trained kindergarten teachers had said j that if they had a-child up to tliat age anybody else could have him afterwards, basing the claim involved in this oil the theory of tho association of ideas; Briefly that was that when two ideas had been associated-in the mind, if ono idea* recurred tho tendency was for the other idea to recur. Her own opinion was that State kindergartens were tho very best investment-that any nation could make, for they produced the right and true, the noble and intellectual man and woman, and for every true kindergarten that-was established half a dozen'gaols and reformatories would bo saved. The whole kindergarten movement was essentially a roligi.ms and moral mission, as well -as an intellectual mission. It taught tho right relation of man to man: that was morality; it taught.tho right relation of man to God: that was religion. There had been rather a tendency to emphasise the moral' element in some quarters, but this was a mistake; physical , , mental, and moral development must go hand in hand. It was quite true that a man trained on highly intellectual lines alone became moro immoral and wicked than an ignorant man; it was also true, that an-ignorant man could not be really a' moral man forthe circumstances of modern life were so complex that the intellect was frequently brought to bear in deciding as to whether any given line of conduct was right or wrong. .Similarly a man who had not boon educated in regard to-his physical body could not attain the highest degree of morality. There was what might be termed the "Higher Morality," and compliance with it involved, as she bad said, the complete development of the human being, mentally, morally and physically. This was the essential root of the kindergarten, mid explainnd the statement that tho principles of tho - kindergarten .could ho applied to tho oducation of mankind from the cradle to the gravo.' ' . '