Some Reconstructive Movements Within the Kindergarten
- Author:
Luella A. Palmer,
Assistant Director of Kindergartens, New York City.
Within the past few months interest has been renewed in the discussion of the value of the kindergarten as training for little children. This is largely due to the somewhat different methods which are being offered by Signora Montessori’ in her Italian schools. Many educators and parents have expressed opinions showing that their ideas of the kindergarten are based upon a belief that it holds to a certain theory and practice which in many ways and in many places havef been outgrown. Where kindergartners have accepted Froebel’s attitude towards education rather than confined themselves to the details of his pedagogy, there is a steady and progressive change going on which augurs well for the future of the kindergarten as an institution.
Froebel studied little children, their interests, their actions, their questions, their responses; he studied the world about him, its ideals and social forms; he studied the way in which the individual grew into acceptance of race judgments. He concluded that education ought to be the guidance of the human being toward social standards and values through the utilization of the individual energy which was seeking an outlet. In formulating this idea definitely as a method he made many mistakes according to the beliefs of today, (1) because he knew so much less than we do of the child’s instincts and the development of his mental powers, (2) because social as well as educational standards and values have changed, and (3) because life itself rather than abstract formulae has been found to present the most efficient means for education. Yet?there is so much which is fundamental and vital in even the details which Froebel suggested that through following these, educators have found it possible to take the step which now enables them to look back and pick out the flaws.
Froebel’s ideas in pedagogy were so different from those prevailing in his time that the first Froebelian teachers needed to be persons of deep insight and faith to accept them. All of his ideas were received with equal enthusiasm. Since his time our knowledge of philosophy and psychology has grown and in pedagogy some of the ideas which Froebel first stated are taken as axioms. Misunderstanding of the kindergarten is arising because it is not known that many kinclergartners are discarding what is outgrown in the philosophical, psychological and scientific views of Froebel while still retaining the name, “kindergarten”. It is felt that the name belongs not to any body of distinctive formulated practices but to an institution where Froebel’s attitude is maintained in the education of five year old children.
The following are a few points which have only lately been accepted as truths and the realization of which has greatly influenced pedagogical practice in the kindergarten.
I. Education is a continuous process. In order to make the kindergarten felt as an influence in the educational world, it was necessary, at first, to insist on its peculiar features. When both school and community held that all education worthy of the name came through impressions gained from books, the kindergarten stood for the exercise of self activity guided in the right channel^ by giving materials for self expression. In order to convince unbelievers that there were values in such activity, the kindergarten had to place stress upon those results which were more in line with the accepted standards in education. Such results were the scientific facts obtained in any experiencing, the morals inculcated in the subjects of the games, or the form and number emphasized in handwork.
Now that the expression of self-directed energy is felt as the educational means for human beings of any age, the kindergarten has lost all excuse for setting itself apart. It gladly takes its rightful place as the step between the home and the elementary grades. It builds upon what the child brings from the home and by guiding and developing the interest and instincts ripening at this age, most effectively prepares him for work in the grades. Many kindergartners of the present welcome every opportunity which is offered them to cooperate with other teachers, for they know that education is as continuous as life itself and that the best education will be that which constantly appeals to the same ideals, uses the same general method and only alters its special method to respond to the changing child nature.
II. Complete development of the present stage is the best preparation for the next stage. When the kindergarten felt itself to be distinct from the school, having different ideals as well as practices, it felt that it must prepare in its own peculiar way for some distant time when its knowledge would be of value, that it must complete the lines of knowledge which it started out to give, as the next grade would ignore them entirely. This led to the telling of stories which were entirely beyond the comprehension of kindergarten children, it led to playing games too elaborate for them and hand work containing geometrical and mathematical complications suitable for high school children.
When great fault was found with the kindergartner because she did not prepare better for the immediate work of the next grade, she felt misunderstood. She knew that the child was developing under her care by means which were vital. The pressure from above made her emphasize the more formal side, of her work, for which she found full sanction in Froebel’s description of the details of his method. With the introduction of stories, games and handwork in the grades, the pressure to try to complete these subjects is removed and there is time to let the children live and learn what is most interesting to them at the present moment and to gain knowledge which is of use in the present situation. In giving opportunities for experiences of different kinds, many a kindergartner now feels that it is her share to awaken a child’s interest to the best aspects of his environment, and to help him gain enough knowledge about them to want to learn more. In other words, she tries to develop in the child an attitude of alertness to his environment, of selecting for consideration the best that there is in it and of learning something worth while about it. She does not need to exhaust its details, the child will have an opportunity to develop the subject later in the school. In the games the kindergartner is learning to give those only which the child enjoys, as she realizes TABITHA A MEMBER OF THE KINDERGARTEN FAMILY. TABITHA A MEMBER OF THE KINDERGARTEN FAMILY. 100 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
that the more advanced forms will be played afterward. It is the same with the handwork, she dares to linger over the kinds which develop the children in all directions.
The particular interest which is ripening between four and six years is the social interest. Children when they come to the kindergarten have seldom been in a group of equals of the same stage of development, although they know how to associate with those older and younger. When they enter the kindergarten they are very individualistic, they want a toy for themselves, merely for the sake of possession. Gradually they become willing to share the toy with some other child and before they are six they gladly control themselves (for a short time) in order to be fair in waiting their turn. Many of the exercises of the kindergarten give opportunities for a child to develop in his own peculiar individual way but at other times the little citizens learn to take their places in a democratic community where each one has his fair chance. This of necessity means subordination of individual desires for the sake of justice or a combined aim.
Although this finding of one’s place in a little community is developed in many of the exercises of the kindergarten, it is seen most plainly in the games. In the early games, the children all take part, performing the same action, later the children are found -willing and able to take many different parts. The later games are of a more organized type, where the different parts work together to produce a diversified yet complete whole. Such games show the gradual organization of the social instinct which takes place at the kindergarten age. To deprive a child of the fellowship of his equals at this age retards his later development. Most of the experiences which he lives through should be given social channels for expression in order that his nature may receive the kind of education which is demanded to complete this stage of development.
III. Development is through actual experiencing. Froebel’s great book of method is the Mother Play. In it he shows how the mother can educate her child by selecting for interpretation the objects in the child’s environment. In this way the mother starts the child’s interest in the right channels. Unfortunately the early kindergartners in America used for its content this book which was intended only as an indication of method. Instead of choosing from the environment around the American child, the experiences which would have brought to him the same values as the Mother Play did to children of Germany a century ago, Froebel was followed to the letter instead of in the spirit. As many of the topics in the Mother Play are entirely different from experiences which can be gained here, and as the types of experience chosen by Froebel were supposed to form a sequence and a complete whole for experience, the pictures in the book were used as a basis around which to weave the thought for the week in the kindergarten. However faulty Froebel’s notion may be of the act as preceding instead of being part of the idea, he was nearer the new psychology when he emphasized act than his followers were when they made their starting point the pictures. Words about the pictures took the place of conversation about vital experiences. As kindergarten games were at that time developed into the same sequence and complete whole for experience many of them were divorced from the child’s real interest, they were merely forms of activity through which the child was coaxed for the sake of a content and logical order which a child could not grasp. Many kindergartners are trying to give their children actual experiences. Children in fortunate neighborhoods plant gardens and raise their own crops of quickly growing vegetables and flowers; less fortunate ones plant in window boxes and take trips to the park to play on the grass, to see the flowers. The fireman, baker, blacksmith, carpenter, grocer, toyman, living near a kindergarten are quite accustomed to annual visits from the children. On windy days groups of children may be seen flying kites or running with pinwheels; on sunny days, the same group may be seen chasing each other’s shadows.* Rabbits and doves have the freedom of the kinderI garten room. Butter from the children’s own churning and cookies from their own baking are served at Thanksgiving time. Dolls will be seen dressed in clothes that are crude, but these are made by the children and kept clean by their washing.
IV. The materials used in the handwork of the kindergarten are not distinctive in character. When Froebel sought to impress upon his contemporaries the educational value of handwork for little children, he found geometrical relations between certain types. As he was of a mystical temperament, he felt that these relations were symbolic of some inner reality and that this reality was also within man’s nature. He developed a series of forms which would completely symbolize to man his whole nature. Froebel did not have time to study the child and his reaction to these types of handwork, or child student that he was, he would probably have discovered that the psychological response to them did not lead to the logical conclusions which he thought were implicit in them. Formerly the gifts were uged in a certain series of orderly ways to help the child to discover “the appreciation of the unity and conJUMPERLY sciousness of the evolution of nature.” Today the time which was spent in persuading the child that he realized this, is often taken in giving the actual nature experiences and helping him to express his own ideas. It is felt that only self expression which is founded upon a rich foundation of experience can be guided to organize the experience and so bring to consciousness logical values. Experiences socially shared and therefore enriched have become the subject matter of the kindergarten and the basis for expressive activities. It is only very lately that kindergartners have dared to follow the attitude of Froebel rather than the technical details of his directions. With the denial on the part of all educators of technical knowledge as the end and aim of education, kindergartners have found themselves free to acknowledge boldly their new attitude toward the distinctive Froebelian materials and toward other handwork. Many have discarded whatever was uninteresting or injurious to the children such as tablets, card sewing, pricking, fine weaving, peaswork, and have substituted such occupations as sewing dresses for dolls, washing doll clothes, making toys of various descriptions as wagons, kites, or doll house furniture. Instead of “gift” and “occupation” the kindergartner is now inclined to say “manual work” as the former are technical terms and seem to indicate that there is something peculiar about the handwork done in the kindergarten. Much of the Froebelian material appeals to the deepest and Used by permission of Teachers College.
most permanent instincts of childhood such as the blocks for building, the seeds and sticks for outlining. Where kindergarten material cannot be found, children will be seen piling spools on top of each other, making pictures with matches and edging the doorsteps with stones. The cubes and bricks pf the building “gifts” with their divisions are very adaptable and supply the different proportions in the material which the child demands in his increasing control over form and balance. Kindergartners have generally been quick to detect the lack of interest on the child’s part and the least interesting material has gradually vbeen collecting dust on the top shelves. Another modification of materials has been caused by the criticisms of physicians. The handwork which strains the eyes or uses the smaller muscles has been largely discarded. Small blocks will be replaced by large blocks as soon as funds can be raised to buy, them and closets provided to store them.
New materials are being introduced which are found to be of value in developing children. Wherever possible there is construction with wood, or cardboard, and objects are made with which the children can play, such as wagons and tops. Cloth is used for sewingduster bags or dolls’ dresses. A very little of the more difficult Montessori apparatus may be adapted in the near future if it is found to promote the best development of the child.
V. The child is the center of the curriculum. In the early days of kindergarten practice the “gifts” and “occupations” as well as the Mother Play were felt to contain a complete circle of knowledge. To omit one part was to break the continuity and to introduce any other was needless and perhaps harmful. The curriculum of the kindergarten was then a process through which each child had to pass regardless of what he brought to the kindergarten in the way of experience or powers. This formula was supposed to give each child the same amount of education. The curriculum centered about a certain mystical unity which was inherent in the relationship of materials and which corresponded to some unity within the child.
This feeling has given place to the idea of the child as the center, his instincts, interests and powers. It is the nature of the child which is to be developed in its manysidedness. The materials which are used in many places, are there now because of their psychological appeal rather than because of their logical relation to each other. They are supplied in such a way that the child will develop in the coordination and organization of his powers. Such materials as the doll and dollhouse will teach a. child to concentrate and hold fas Qwn energy to one line of effort for some length of time.
Each child is considered (as far as possible with our large classes) as an individual and that particular material and method is supplied which will develop his nature toward social ideals. Formerly it was the invariable rule for all children to follow the dictation of the teacher and make the same form in the same way. Now, in many kindergartens this is done only rarely as it promotes a very crude form of social feeling to follow a self-appointed leader and all do the same thing at the same time. A much higher kind of social feeling is developed when the children are making different forms, each one of which will be needed to complete some object, for instance when the children work on different kinds of furniture for the doll’s house. Another method which develops good social spirit is to let the children experiment and find out the best way to make an object, for instance a soldier’s cap, and then have all copy the form best suited to the purpose; in such a case there is a vital reason for following a leader and arriving at uniform results. The early kindergartners limited creativity to the puttingtogether of elements, “spots, lines, angles” to make a whole. This is accidental invention. For the highest type of creation one must start with some purpose however vague, which one is inspired to desire, then pick out the elements needed to arrive at it and combine them to attain the self-determined end. Instead of dictation or arbitrary limitation in the use of material, problems are now presented to the children which seem vital to them and which they are anxious to solve. The visible results may often be the same as those achieved by the earlier methods but they have developed within the child an entirely different attitude. He becomes alert to problems in his environment and to reasoning out the ways in which they can be solved. By these means a child is developed not only individually but also socially. The bond holding the little community together is strengthened by the feeling that all have the same interests. This kind of education is useful at the present stage of development and also for the next step.
VI. Health is the first consideration in the education of little children. Most of the kindergartners have discarded the occupations which were found injurious to the children’s eyesight, very few overstimulate with nervous excitable play, and practically none forget to pay attention to the demand of the little bodies for free muscular movement. Yet the crying need of our kindergartens is for still better hygienic conditions. This is seldom the fault of the kindergartner; she knows the value of fresh air and sunshine, of space for free activity, of large blocks for building, of digging in the ground, of opportunities for individual children to rest or exercise as they desire, but many kindergartens are placed in such conditions that these good things are denied to the children.
We have grown much since Dr Stanley Hall in the Forum of January 1900 criticized the kindergarten, particularly with regard to health conditions. Most kindergartners do the best they can in this respect. Wherever possible they have work in the open air, they ventilate the room, sometimes clean it themselves if janitors are careless, they keep the light out of the children’s eyes, they try to have comfortable seats, to alternate periods of rest and activity, to have the atmosphere of the room quieting to the nerves, and they wash the children who come dirty,?often the first weeks of kindergarten are devoted to different methods of impressing cleanliness. At mothers’ meetings the topics are care of the child, his food, rest, and play. Where the kindergartner can choose her conditions they are ideally regulated with regard to the children’s health. Where the kindergarten has been annexed to the public school as the last addition, it must often take the space allotted to it?a room not wanted for other purposes. As the kindergarten session is only two and a half or three hours long it is not thought to be so necessary for the little children to have hygienic conditions as for the older ones who spend longer hours in school.
In the investigation of schools carried on in New York last year, the report on the Elementary Schools gave four standards by which to judge the effect of teaching, these were: (1) the development of purpose or motive, (2) the consideration of values, (3) attention to organization, (4) exercise of initiative. In speaking of the kindergarten it says, “Specific and childlike aims tending to call out a high degree of effort are very prominent in the kindergartens.” “The kindergartner makes noticeable provision for relative values.” “Most kindergartners endeavor to organize more or less random and instinctive activities of even their youngest children.” “Kindergarten teachers have an enviable opportunity for encouraging the exercise of initiative and individuality of children, because uniformity is not demanded.” While there are several ways in which these broad statements are qualified, the reference to the kindergarten ends with,?”We feel little hesitation in saying that the kindergarten as a whole meets the test of the four standards set up, in a satisfactory manner and that therefore the instruction there rests on the higher plane, i. e. it is good at present and promising for the future.” Kindergartners of today welcome all intelligent criticism. It helps them to become conscious of their failings and their strong points. The encouraging words quoted above give us credit for what has been attained and inspire us to press on toward a higher goal.
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