KINDERGARTEN METHODS AT

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 58, 9 March 1906, Page 1

KINDERGARTEN METHODS AT

HOW THE"CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT IN AMERICAN NURSERIES.

Happily for the, risUtg generation, the gentle, Q.f reading; may truthfully he said to be acquired without tears* and writing as well as" Arithmetic and the use of the globes" is introduced insidiously into the nursery move qt \egs in the form of play. Both clay modelling and picture postcards have become serious educational mediums, and the youngster, who v& days of yore was wont to struggle through pages of .."famQujshjjforV' and ink this way across hemispheres of angular maps, in t.h.e.s.e rosy times takes his geogrupiiy in jam—figuratively speaking— and forms his clay continents or turns.over his postcard album as a simple means^Qf, Girling away a wet afternoon, Pictures have a wonderful fa.^inatio.n "for a small girl or bpy, §a4 'there is uq doubt that a collection of coloured, photographs of the Rhenish toyvns or European' capitals will fix. their names or whereabouts more irmly in the child's mind than if he knew them only as di- or tri-syllabic words of uncertain pronunciation. ' In many homes in America, nowadays the cult of the beautiful in early years is a distinct tenet of the educational creed, and children., from the moment they first b,e@in. to take notice of things abqutj them,"are euc9iiraged to see and appreciate the best in art. Good pictures/coloured engravings^ or ai'tistic copies of well-know,** masterpieceb1 are hung on the where formerly bright f>ttu lithographs: were tho rule-, and tne smallest niites are carefully' provided with only really artistic pictures, books, or toys. A crudely coloured and badly drawn picture has as bad an influence on a child as a cross word QV an unkind action, and in the opinion of modern authorities: too much care cannot be paid to helping a child early in life1 to "see" with artistic eyes.

American kindergarten authorities nowadays urg© th& importance of inducing a, <>hitq to make useful things instead, of those which are purely ornamental, and whether it is the case of straw or basket-plaifcing, moulding or kr.itting,tlie article when finisJaed must serve a utilitarian purpose. The sewing machine has b.e#p introduced into several schools—miniature treadle machines being expressly made for this : p«irposa— and boys and girls from five ; years upwards are in this way given their first insight into the mysteries of machh\O(r>.v % well as taught to keep a straight line and guide with the eye, , the boys making playing aprons, tents tor■ thejv soldiers, etc., and the girls dolls" clothes. But in the teaching of music in particular present-day authorities m America have brought about some radical changes, and t&e first lessons m harmony m.ay fee said to commence in the woi&. As soon as a clilni is abU> \s, speak he is encouraged to smg, jind sing in time and In t\\^e>. is taught to appreciate only good music, everything trashy and inharmonious being carefully excluded, and in many of the schools almdst all the early lessona aats taught by chant.. Little musj ? p.*vi plays are got up by the infan^ pupils, who are early ine«iloated in the art of expression by inflexion of ' the voice and gestures,,, a» innovation which, for one th\t^g^ ensures a certain amount of confidence, and prevents the "manyaise honte" which is often , ; suoh an agony to a sensitive. Qhttd'.iil later, school days.