NEED FOR PLAYGROUNDS

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 125, 27 May 1920, Page 7

NEED FOR PLAYGROUNDS

FOR KINDERGARTEN WORK.

A public meeting was held at the Wellington Free Kindergarten, Taranaki.street, last evening, for the purpose of discussing kindergarten work and need 3. Mrs. Gill presided over, an excellent attendance.

Miss Bird, headmistress of the Dunedin Free Kindergarten, who recently returned from a visit to Sydney, described the developments made in kindergarten work there. ' She stressed the crying need for playgrounds, and the provision of a. bright environment for children attending kindergartens. .If the ■ children were provided with such there would be fewer physical deformities in the rising generation, and their mental and moral outlook would be improved in proportion.. It was highly essential, also, that games should be played under, a skilled supervisor, thereby developing not only the physique of the children, but their iViM power and the unselfish spirit. She urged, in conclusion, that eacli .kindergarten should be provided \vi\h a playground properly equipped. (Applause.) Mrs. Gill said they looked to the general public 'for support, and hoped to have a suitable playground and playhouse for the Wellington Kindergarten" by next yeas. ' They desired that these should not only be used by kindergarten child- " ren, but also by ex-kindergarten pupils, thus_ keeping them off the streets. _ Miss Rijey, headmistress of the Wellington' Kindergarten, spoke upon "the kindergarten as a factor in social life." The children, she said, were first taught to take care of other people's property, the nest to be cleanly, and then the habit of industry. These were all great factors in the building-up of citizenship. She spoke, also, of the work which kindergarten directors and* teachers did for the mothers .of the. children ' attending .these schools.

A general discussion ensued, and a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Misses Bird' and Riley for their addresses.