teachers (all mistresses). Last gift made by Professor William year there were 21 head teachers, 105 assistant teachers, 23 supplementary teachers; the expenses were 55,586.20 crowns (11,117.24 dollars). In a school building a great exposition of all requisites helping the teaching and educating of the infants was arranged April 26 to May 3, 1914. At the opening, At the opening, many representatives of school authorities, the City Council, and representatives of many associations for the welfare of the children assembled and speeches were made. Professor J. Novak, Ph. D., pointed out the ideas of the greatest Bohemian educationist, Johann Amos Comenius, about infant schools, from his work Informatorium of the infant schools, and Fr. Cada, Ph.D., professor of Bohemian University of Prague stimulated all teachers of infant schools to the study of child's evolution, and thanked the City Council of Prague for the foundation and, succoring of the Bohemian Pedological Institution for Bohemian Child Study. An exhibition of American school text-books and samples of American school children's work was arranged at Prague (Bohemia), from April 16 to 26, 1914. A rich collection of American books was exhibited. There were text-books from the Bohemian Pedagogical Museum of Prague, a rich collection of books from a great S. Monroe (Montclair, N. J.), books and publications that Bohemian Professor K. Veleminsky obtained during his travel in America, and many of the newest books of American publishers: American Book Co., Ginn & Co., D. C. Heath & Co., Scott, Foresman & Co., Burdett & Co., Benj. Sanborn & Co., and the World Book Co. The Committee organized well the exhibition with its 1,285 numbers. All books were arranged according to the school subjects of the elementary school. Other departments were: Kindergarten Schools (in this department the KINDERGARTEN REVIEW was exhibited), Education of Bohemian children in America, Journals of Schoolboys, Pedagogical Publications of many Public Schools, Secondary Schools, Vocational Schools, and Universities, and Publications of the Bureau of Education at Washington. Also pictures and photographs of schools, children's drawings and specimens of school hand work were exhibited. The picture of advanced education in the United States was most successfully given, and the Committee (Professors Fr. Cada, Ph.D., V. Rosicky, Ph.D., K. Veleminsky, Ph.D., A. Sum, Ph.D., Mr. V. Rohlena and Mrs. J. F. Siskovska) received much praise from all Bohemian visitors and all foreign visitors that month at Prague. EMANUEL LIPPERT. 1 ADAPTATION OF THE WORK OF THE KINDERGARTEN TO THE NEEDS OF INDIVIDUAL CHILDREN* By Maximilian P. E. Groszmann, Pd.D. AT last the time has come when the claim of the child is heard as against the pretensions of systems and programs. Heretofore the individual pupil had been forced into the Procrustean bed of established courses of study, methods, and theories, no matter whether he fitted into it or not. If he did not, it was not thought to be the fault of the system, but of the child, who was branded lazy, obstinate, backward, incorrigible, and what not. That the system was at fault would have been a thought sacrilegious. Only in the most recent years the truth is emerging that we must fit the system and method to the child who is to be educated, and that we must study individual aptitudes so as to do justice to the educational needs of the individual. *Address given before the Department of Kindergarten Education, N. E. A., St. Paul, July, 1914. This seems to be such a trite saying that some of you may consider my remarks rather superfluous and uncalled for. But are they? Is the great educational reform about which we have been talking for years a happy reality in our schools? I fear it is not, and we have been slow in carrying our theory into practice, imprisoned as our thoughts and habits have been by the fetters of tradition. Our schools still produce too many failures; too many children fall behind or leave school before they have received the training they need; too many drift into idleness, shiftlessness, and even delinquency, who might have become useful citizens. So there must still be too much uniformity. In fact, the slogan of uniformity has assumed a new guise. We are now talking about "standardization" even of the mental tests by which we measure the efficiency of a class, or a school, or an indi- When manual training was in- Examples of this kind may be multiplied. They add color to the general practice of schools to make grading, discipline, and graduation dependent upon a certain proficiency in all the so-called essentials, by which are meant the three R's, and some grammar, history, and geography, and perhaps nature. It is not even conceded yet that the group of expression studies, like art, manual work, music, composition, be rated as equivalents, so that the artistic, creative, and constructive minds would be recognized as against the average mind. When the kindergarten was first introduced into this country, it was justly hailed with enthusiasm as a new gospel of freedom from scholastic narrowness and pedantry. It gave a new outlook upon the possibilities of child development. It took advantage of those valuable formative years which had been neglected by the traditional school, in which education was held to be synonymous with book learning. It led the educator back to some realities in child life. And it recognized the symbolic stage in the development of the child mind. It is hardly necessary to enter here into a discussion of the history of the kindergarten movement in this country, which has been of deepest interest to me personally as I happened to be connected with its beginnings and with some of the subsequent phases of reconstruction. It is equally unnecessary to dwell upon |