but he sought to prove himself a good man and true; to acquit himself like a hero. The children of all future generations will rejoice that Froebel ever lived.

In establishing the Kindergarten he provided a place where the little human plant may be cultured, where all the needs of child-nature can be supplied. With every healthy child the brain is busy, the body active, and if proper work is not given for both to do, it will seize upon whatever comes near. In the Gifts and Occupations of the Kindergarten, Froebel provided for this phase of child-nature, giving it work. it can do and enjoy. When it sees the result of its work in the structure of blocks it has erected, or in the mat it has woven, it learns by experience that labor and self-exertion alone give happiness. The social element in the child's nature is satisfied by meeting with children of its own age and attainments, and in the games and songs it finds an outlet for the exuberance of young life which will manifest itself in play.

While with the object lessons and the various devices for drawing out the child's powers of observation, these powers are quickened to such an extent, that the world ever after is richer and brighter.

We suffer, all of us, from the limitation of the insight which would open our blind souls to myriads of happy impressions. One of these forlorn, neglected, little beings comes into the Kindergarten. He has been accustomed through the years of his babylife to disorder and dirt, to the jarring sounds of harsh voices, to unkind words and rude acts. He has begun to feel somehow there is no place for him in the world, that he is always in the way in the poor room he calls his home. His overworked or dissipated parents think they have fulfilled their duty if they give him sufficient food to keep him from starving, and he is sent into the streets to find what employment

these haunts afford for the busy, little fingers and the growing brain.

The Kindergarten is to him a new world. Here he feels that interest is taken in him personally. He feels instinctively the elevating effect of order and cleanliness, he comes under the influence of that powerful agency, which perhaps he has never felt before, the influence of love. We have seen the lip quiver and the eye fill with tears, when instead of the harsh reproof and the sharp cuff to which he has been accustomed, a hand has been softly laid on the shoulder, and kind words have fallen on his ear. His rough exterior and ragged garments cannot conceal the fact that under it all there is what the highest and the lowest alike possess, the yearning, struggling, rejoicing, sorrowing, human heart.

In the Kindergarten his busy brain is supplied with food for thought, in the pretty stories and object lessons given by the teacher, his ear is pleased with the bright and cheery songs, and his hands are employed with work, which he soon learns to love and to take an interest in.

In the plays of the Kindergarten, while they please and delight, he is brought into such relations with other children that all the principles which govern society are brought into action.

He learns to respect the rights of others, and to respect himself; and through it all, through the work and the play and the lessons, he feels the influence of law, he learns that by following a principle he will surely come to a certain result, and that law, not accident, rules in everything.

So we hope by the daily work of the Kindergarten to counteract the evil influence and the disadvantage under which these city waifs have been born, and to give them at least a fair chance of developing into useful and respectable citizens.

New York.

E. J. JAMESON.

It

FIG. 1.

At the National Educational Association in St. Paul no exhibit attracted more attraction than that of Slöjd furnished by the Sisters Meri and Sigrid Toppelius, of Finland. This hand craft in wood, universally and successfully introduced in all the schools of Sweden and Finland, is attracting the attention of all American educators. was a source of satisfaction to many to get even the superficial idea of this work that was offered them in St. Paul. Two distinct sets of models were exhibited, one for children from ten to fourteen years of age, which is not unlike those used in Sweden and other countries. The other set of fifty models is for children from five to ten years of age, which are a special feature of Vera Hjelt's work in Helsingfors, Finland. This development of Slöjd for younger children is of special interest to the Kindergartener. Miss Sigrid Toppelius is engaged as a Slöjd teacher in a primary Boston school. She took to St. Paul a large number of articles made by her children, the age being marked on each model. Some of those made by children from five to seven years of age were simply perfect. A knife is not used in making this small series, as this is considered a dangerous tool to put into the hands of young children, especially when many of them are working together. Quite a large number

+

of this series are made with the bracket or scroll saw, a plane and a file, using sand paper for finishing. Hard wood is used, as with this a child cannot so easily make mistakes and spoil his work.

This simple pointer, Fig. 1, is the first article made. One side of wood one fourth of an inch thick is planed perfectly straight, then the other side and point are drawn. Itis sawed close

to the line,after which it is filed and sand papered perfectly smooth. As simple as this seems to be it is really quite difficult to

make the sides straight and parallel, and to have the point exactly in the center.

No. 2 is a Key label. This, too, is made of thin hardwood; one side is planed straight, then the other side and ends are drawn, after which it is saw

FIG. 2.

ed out. The hole in the end is made with a bit. In the first few models the teacher does the drawing.

In No. 6 the child makes a star-shaped silk winder. A circle is first drawn, and then six points indicated by dividers. The child saws from each point towards the

center, and then finishes with a file, using a small one at the last to complete the inner angle.

It is a remarkable fact that a child will make more perfect models than a grown person not accustomed to tools. This exhibit in St. Paul proves that Slöjd can be well done by quite small children.

FIG. 6.

The next question is, What does it do for the child? His interest and enthusiasm in the work is undisputed, but does it give him the training he needs? And what is its relation to the Kindergarten? In countries where Slöjd is extensively introduced Kindergartens are scarcely known. The long, rigorous winters, and the custom of most people spending summers in the country, almost precludes the possibility of the Kindergarten. The advocates of Slöjd claim that it has advantages over ordinary Kindergarten work.

Vera Hjelt the able Superintendent of the Slöjd Institute in Helsingfors, says: "Kindergarten methods are good, but they do not satisfy me entirely. Children are given an interest in making various fragile, impractical and useless things. These are usually used as playthings for a few days, are then left lying about, accumulating dust and making the rooms untidy, and finally

are destroyed or thrown away. Neither has pleasure in the work been lasting. No doubt this kind of training has its mission. To me, however, most of the Kindergarten work I have seen is as if the child writes upon a slate. In so doing he has only a slight feeling of responsibility, because he knows that if he writes badly he can wipe it out. I am quite positive in the opinion that children must learn to work with a feeling of responsibility from the very beginning. As our thoughts and actions cannot be easily effaced, so little children must be taught that their work can do them honor or bring them shame in proportion as it is well or badly done. I condemn by no means the work according to Froebel, but in its place I wish to give a work that is whole, durable and useful, a work that excites interest, promotes independence and develops the child in every direction. This I claim for Slöjd, and am sure if Froebel were now living, he would be the first to admit wood to be the best working material for pedagogic purposes."

Had Vera Hjelt seen the practical work of the Kindergarten as developed in this country possibly she would not make the same criticism. We are satisfied, however, that Slöjd can be made a desirable factor in education. It must become one of the connecting links between the Kindergarten and the Manual Training School. Those who have private schools will find Slöjd well adapted to those passing the Kindergarten age. The child will not only be interested in it, but it will give him a general dexterity in handling tools that can never leave him. He learns a sense of size, and proportions. He acquires habits of neatness, exactness and order. His moral nature receives a bent in the right direction, for his desire for ceaseless activity is turned into desirable channels. Kindergartners certainly will not be slow to acknowledge the value of Slöjd training.

Little Ben Lee had a pretty pansy bed in his mother's garden. All the long summer he had cared for it, and watched the sweet pansy faces, never once seeing the fairy Wind Princess, who often stood by his side, she too helping the plants to grow and blossom.

One day in the late fall, this fairy whispered to the pansies, "It has grown so cold I will ask the North Wind to bring you a 'fluffy blanket of white to keep you warm through the cold winter," and away she went in her magic car to the North Wind's home.

He lived high up among the snow mountains with his father the Ice King, in a wonderful crystal palace. It was hung with dainty curtains of frost work made by the roguish Jack Frost himself, and the walls and towers were painted in beautiful rainbows whenever the sunshine came to visit it.

Soon the little pansies heard the great North Wind coming, and sure enough he brought with him the soft snow blanket, that helped the flowers to sleep safe and warm till spring time.

After many months the sleepy pansies heard the Wind Princess whisper to them, "I will ask the South Wind to come with its warm breath, and help the sun to take away your winter covering so you may see the garden and the sky." Then off she drove her magic car to the South Wind's home. This wind lived with the goddess Flora, in an arbor of flowers and vines in the midst of a wonderful garden. The air was laden with perfume, and the birds sang there all the day long.

Soon the pansies felt the breath of the gentle South Wind, and knew the snow mantle had gone from their bed, and they opened their sweet eyes.

After a few days the Fairy Princess came again, this time to tell them she was going to bring the East Wind to visit them, for she saw how the velvet blossoms needed some warm rain drops.

So early next morning, the kind Princess flew to the eastern home where Aurora lives, to ask the East Wind's help to send rain to the garden bed. Oh! how beautiful the palace of the dawn looked! With its walls and domes and columns all of shining silver, and its entrance hung with rosy cloud curtains, pinned back by a silver star.

As the East Wind hurried the rain drops down to the waiting plants, the little pansies bowed their heads as if thanking their kind Fairy for the refreshing shower.

Just at night, one rainy day, the pansies saw the Prince of the Winds driving her car as fast as she could to the golden palace of the West Wind, and they said among themselves, "The dear Princess has gone to ask West Wind to blow away the clouds that we may have a fair day tomorrow."

The rain ceased soon after the Fairy reached the sun set palace, on her errand of love. The Queen of this gorgeous home drew aside the curtain of crimson and gold and stood at the entrance of the palace to receive her royal guest.

"Oh! what a pretty sunset," cried little Ben Lee, as he looked toward the west that evening, but he never guessed who stood in the cloud palace asking the kind West Wind to come next day and help his pansy plants to grow; he only knew that God loved flowers and birds and little children, and in His own wise way helped them to live and make the world more beautiful.

SOPHA S. BIXBY. Norwich, N. Y., July 28th.

The work of the Kindergarten is summed up in one brief sentence, "During the first six years, put into the child the foundation of all knowledge necessary to life." This indicates the scope of Froebel's educational idea and suggests the innumerable lines along which the work of the Kindergarten lies.

The senses are the gateways of knowledge, and through them the child must receive the first nourishment for the development of mind. The world is full of sounds, colors, forms and all materials which affect the senses in varying combinations; but enlightened people have outgrown the thought that children should be left alone, and unaided to find the necessary food for mental growth until they are old enough to go to school.

If, when the senses are first awakening, their training is neglected, all after education will show a defect which can never be wholly removed.

There is nothing formal in the education of the Kindergarten; everything is done in the play spirit, because play is the activity which is natural to the earlier stages of man's development. So the children's minds develop as their bodies do, without their being conscious of the process. learn by doing and seeing.

They

The knowledge possessed by the race is the inheritance of the individual, and he is never too young to possess this birch-right if the knowledge be adapted to his stage of development and his capacity for receiving it.

The Kindergarten Gifts, with which the children play they are building and designing, are the means of giving them a knowledge of elementary geometry, number and form; such knowledge is the inevitable result of handling them and playing with

them. There is a logical sequence in the development of the Gifts, each one containing suggestions of those preceding it and foreshadowing those to come. The first consists of six worsted balls with long strings attached, in the three primary and the three secondary colors. From these the youngest children gain a definite basis for knowledge of color, direction and form. All this is taught as the children play with the balls. Direction, for instance: front, back; right, left; up and down, they learn as they keep time to some rhythmic song, moving the ball in the direction indicated by the words of the song.

The Second Gift is a concrete illustration of a great educational law. It consists of a wooden ball and, sharply contrasted with this, the cube, and then to relate these two opposites, the cylinder, because it possesses the qualities of both. The ball is the symbol of the earth, the sun, the moon and all the heavenly bodies; the cube symbolizes the mineral kingdom, because all the crystal forms only are modifications of it, and the cylinder is found to be the typical form in the animal and vegetable worlds. When the children's attention has been directed to these facts in some simple and interesting way, they are always quick to observe how everything can be classified under one of these three forms. One little boy, after he had been in the Kindergarten a few months, suddenly discovered that his house was full of oblongs and that a horse wasn't anything but a lot of cylinders put together.

Following this are the building Gifts, which are adapted to that stage of the child's development when he desires to investigate, and to analyze the forms which he handles. They are cubes which are subdivided by cutting into various geometrical forms, and their analysis progresses from