Essays on the Kindergarten, being a Selection of Lectures read
before the London Froebel Society (W. Swan Sonnonschein and Co.), contains in an unpretending form a very great deal of important information, more especially useful to mothers and teachers ; for wo fear that, notwithstanding a greatly increased interest in the subjects here discussed, a great ignorance prevails. At any rate, even where good principles are assented to, their practice is too often delayed or neglected, and the often-decried evils go on as before. We believe that in many nurseries, and not a few schools, the principles of Froebel are conscientiously acted out ; but the following remarks will serve to show the tenor of the advice here given, and are in them- selves worth thinking over. They occur in an excellent paper on the "Physical Education of Girls," which is the second of the series:—
"While on the subject of Kindergarten, it may not be out of place to insist on one indispensable condition of their success, viz., that they be intelligently conducted, by able, cultured, and efficiently trained women. To give the necessary professional training is the aim of the recently-founded Kindergarten Training College ; and it is the earnest hope of its founders that it may be the means of edu- cating a band of faithful, devoted, large-minded, and large-hearted Kindergarten teachers, who will go out into the English-speaking world as missionaries of the educational reform which Froebel in- augurated, and which appeals so powerfully to the best instincts and sympathies of every mother's heart. This reform, I repeat, must be worked for, intelligently and reasonably, by adapting the system to the special circumstances of every country, by modifying details of management when found necessary, by allowing even the possibility of further development in the future. In short, Froebel must take his proper place as a great reformer, an enthusiastic and enlightened friend of little children, who systematised and simplified the educational methods which the best mothers and teachers of all ages, led by their intuitive perception of the requirements of very young children, have always been in the habit of employing. He must not be set up as an idol, to be blindly obeyed, whose precepts are to supersede reason and common-sense, and to silence their questionings. This would be to erect a fetish, not to choose a guide, and the Kinder- garten, thus shorn of healthful individuality and vigour, could never become rooted in English soil."
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