the instruction of deaf-mutes in incorporated numbering in 1898 twelve schools scattered cities and villages,” in which with great clear- over the state with an enrollment of 140 pupils, ness, force, and ability he covered the broad

instructed by twenty-four teachers, assisted in field of deaf-muteism and deaf-mute education, Milwaukee by six normal students who use the making a document of universal and imperish- school for observation and practice. Although able value.

the law makes no provision as to methods of In that letter Dr. Bell said: “The moment

instruction, leaving the local authorities, parmy attention was directed to the bill no

now under

ents, and teachers free to choose either the sign, consideration, I recognized the fact that a new the manual, the sign and manual, the oral and phase of legislation for the benefit of the deaf sign, or the pure oral method, or all combined, and dumb had been reached of vast importance these schools, without exception, adhere strictly to the deaf and to society. The bill represented to the pure oral method, and no desire for any the first attempt that has been made in the other is known to exist. United States to embody, in the form of a law, The course of studies pursued by the deaf in a principle of dealing with the deaf and dumb the schools is the same as in schools for hearing that has long been seen to be advisable from a children. theoretical point of view; and the example of Notwithstanding the time required to develop Wisconsin will undoubtedly be speedily fol- speech, the progress of the deaf children comlowed by other states. The principle involved pares favorably with the hearing with whom may be tersely described as the policy of decen- they associate at school on the play grounds, in tralization, the policy of keeping deaf-mutes manual training, at home, and in the comseparate from one another as much as possible munity. during the period of education, and in contact Special interest is manifested by teachers of as much as possible with hearing and speaking hearing children in the oral schools for the deaf children of their own age.'

as object lessons for the benefit of those who In the summary Dr. Bell said: “In the above are defective in hearing, articulation, or otherargument I have attempted to show:

wise. In Milwaukee, Oshkosh, and Superior, “1. That the provisions of the bill are calcu- students in the state normal schools are frelated to bring under instruction a larger number quent visitors to, and observers of, the oral of the uneducated deaf children of the state than schools for the deaf, and the methods are diswould be possible in the institution plan. cussed as a part of their course.

"2. That by her constitution, Wisconsin is The influence of these schools upon the homes pledged to offer the benefits of education to all of the deaf with which they are in touch is reher children between the ages of four and markably beneficial, and the interest of parents twenty years, and that in case of the deaf she and others in the schools is mutually helpful. can not fulfill this obligation, except upon some Financially the experience of Wisconsin with such plan as that provided for in the bill. day schools as compared with the institution

“3. That their instruction may be commenced plan of educating the deaf is highly satisfactory. at a much earlier age than has heretofore been The first ten years showed a net saving of over possible.

$100,000. Although the state aid had been in4. That the conditions created by the bill creased from $100 per capita to $150, the savare eminently favorable to the growth of im- ing of the state for the ensuing ten years will provements in the methods of instruction." aggregate quite as much as for the first ten

Immedliately upon the passage of the bill the years, due to increased attendance. Milwaukee school board assumed the model day Influenced by the example of Wisconsin, Illischool for the oral education of the deaf estab- nois and Ohio have adopted the day school syslished by the Wisconsin Phonological Institute tem for the education of the deaf. Minnesota under the instruction of Pau. Binner of revered and California are moving in the same direction, memory. This became the first in the Wiscon- and the prospects are that the system will be sin System of Public Day Schools for the Deaf, come general.

In Wisconsin where the day school system cocoon all winter and are wild with joy when the has been longest in operation and is strongest

real fairy story comes true in the spring; they daily

watch fishes, snails, turtles, and polliwogs in the and its influence most felt upon the state insti

aquarium. tution for the deaf, the effect has been to stimu

And yet the wise kindergartner is not satisfied, for late attention to articulation teaching, increase she knows the best of nature can not be brought indoors. the number of teachers, decrease the size of She longs not only to bring nature to the child, but far classes, and to the general improvement of the

more to take the child to nature.

To take the child to nature was originally the stronginstitution. The attendance at the state schoo)

est feature of the kindergarten. Every child was to has not been materially lessened. But the state

have a garden. Froebel laid great stress upon this. has been saved heavy outlay for enlarging the He recognized the child's “instinct for digging in the school at Delavan or of establishing another soil" as he watched him “making a little garden under similar school. Money for the education of the

the hedge near the fence of his father's garden.” deaf in day schools paid by the state is distrib

The use of spade, rake, and hoe, of wateringpot and

wheelbarrow in the kindergarten would certainly help uted to the larger cities and towns from which

to settle some of our present day problems in regard to it is collected in taxes, instead of being ex- enlarged material; some kindergartners have already pended at one place on an institution.

added these tools to their supply list. From every point of view the Wisconsin Sys- It is sometimes said, kindergartners want the earth. tem of Public Day Schools for the Deaf is an

· Yes," we reply, “not figuratively but literally." unqualified and pronounced success and has By way of encouragement Miss Merrill passed beyond the experimental stage.

quoted letters received from Philadelphia, St. The coming year will add several new schools Louis, Chicago, and Boston, giving accounts of to the system with increased enrollment and children's out-door gardens. One enterprising the employment of six graduates of the normal kindergartner in St. Louis, with the helpofeighty department of the Milwaukee School, Class of little ones, transformed an old brickpaved yard 1898. From the outset the Phonological Insti- into a real live flower garden. Another tells of tute has fostered and exercised constant sur- a lunch party flavored with raddishes and letveillance over these schools and assumed the re- tuce from our garden." Philadelphia reports sponsibility of providing specially trained twenty gardens, and one boy so interested in teachers by the pure oral or German method. their single hill of corn that he decided “God In carrying forward the movement the Phono- was a better man than he thought" for making logical Institute has expended over $20,000 in it grow. Another boy became so interested showing the state a better, more efficient, eco- that he planted a pea in asbes in a mustard box, nomical, and humane way of dealing with and carrying his treasure in his pocket lest it be educating the deaf. Should the question be asked What will be

“An interesting letter from the Baroness Von Bulow, the ultimate effect of day schools upon the in- who last year traveled so widely in the United States, stitutions for the deaf? I can only say that time states that she was impregsed with the absence of garwill answer it wisely and well in the interests

dens even in small towns where grounds could be se

cured. She believes much more could be done on the of progress and humanity with which all will,

grounds around school buildings if kindergartners inI am sure, be happily content.

sisted upon the children's needs. The Baroness deROBERT C. SPENCER, scribed Froebel's ideal kindergarten with a flower and President Wisconsin Phonological Institute. vegetable bed for each individual and one large bed

belonging to all. Children's Gardens. *

She speaks of Froebel's suggestion that the children

thrown away.

!

“A little child shall lead them," is as true to-day as “A good and proper beginning implies the end,” says it has been, and ever will be.

Diesterweg, one of the most distinguished educational Froebel says: “The child, as a bud on the everlast- writers and teachers in Germany of the present century, ing tree of life, must, like the first cause of existence, who regarded the principle of “self-activity" in the shape his being 'out of himself' by creative activity; service of the true, the beautiful, and the good, as the and he must be so guided that the bud may throw out aim of all education.– Mrs. Muria Kraus-Boelte. roots which will strike into the everlasting life,' and that in the fruit of his doing and living, the divine and human may appear again in unity, i. e., that ac

Childish Ideals. tions may spring from his inner being to the honor of

(Summary of a Lecture given by Mr. Earl Barnes, Professor God and the use and advantage of man.

of Education in Stanford University, California, to the members Play, rightly understood, proves itself a means of as

of the British Child-Study Association.] sisting the inner growth of the child, independent of Something over a year ago, Miss Estelle M. Darrah, formal instruction. "Self-seeing, self-hearing, self- at that time an instructor in the Department of Edumaking, self-experience, self-thinking”—these are the cation in Stanford University, California, began gathactivities of the child; and, rightly developed, they are ering papers written by American children with a associated with happiness, gayety, and joyousness. A view to making a study on their ideals. The children number of intuitions are gradually acquired without were simply asked, as a regular piece of composition instruction. Developing thus during the first seven work, to answer the question: “What person of years of his life, he learns to count and join num- whom you have ever heard or read would you most bers-yet has no arithmetic lessons; he acquires the like to resemble? Why? Miss Darrah gathered about language of his country—and has no instruction in seven hundred papers written by California children, language. He learns to sing—without singing lessons, and an equal number written by children in the city and, without geometry, he gains a knowledge of points, of St. Paul, fifteen hundred miles away. The returns lines, surfaces, bodies, etc. Without instruction in in the two sets of papers ran so closely on the same lines natural history, he learns something about animals, that they were massed together in a common study. birds, fishes, insects, trees, flowers, stones, etc. His re- The results of this study were published in the April ligious feelings are incited, without receiving any number of the Popular Science Monthly (Appleton & instruction in religion. All knowledge conjointly Co., New York). In this present study I have used should be was one great subject,"—without separation Miss Darrah's test with a view to presenting a parallel -so that the little ones may “reach out" in order and comparative study on London children. Through to assimilate, take in, according to their need, as does the kind efforts of the members of the British Child the plant. The help given by education should consist Study Association we have gathered and worked up in "assistance," i. e., in “supplying” food. The little 2,100 papers from Board schools in London. The child is left free, drawing equally alternately on all the papers on which this main study rest are fairly repremental powers, charging none too heavily nor for too sentative, as they are neither from the best nor the long a time. The element of “free development poorest of these schools. In gathering materials for should ever be pre-dominant, though proper care should this study, we asked the children to write an answer to be taken that such “free development” does not the question: What person of whom you have ever diverge and become degraded to arbitrariness and mere heard or read would you most wish to be like? Why?” “toying." All the conditions for aesthetic activity The papers were first sorted into groups for boys and should first be given; then “free will, subject to intel- girls, and then for the separate ages from eight to ligent motive," should be addressed, directing the same thirteen inclusive. Then each paper was read, and the to certain ends through artistic and useful work or gener- facts were entered under the headings, · Persons ous social action. The object is, the realization of a Chosen,” “Reasons why Chosen." Under the Perfaithful, pure, inviolate, and hence 'holy life.'” “By sons Chosen,

we considered the headings: “No one forcing the child out of his unconsciousness, by de- Named," *Some General Class,” “Acquaintances," manding of him reflection, by checking the joy of his “Historical or Public Characters” “Literary Characreceptiveness, by too much teaching, we spoil the divine ters,” “The Deity,” and “Bible Characters." Two of teaching of God and nature,” says Froebel. “ Make these headings will show the way in which the data the bridge from the cradle to manhood just as long as were worked up. “Acquaintances ” includes those you can, leaving the child a child as long as possible, whom the child knows personally. Two special subnot forcing him into premature development by intel- groups were kept out for individual study: “Father ligence, or by anything else. Let him be a child, and and Mother,” and “Child Acquaintances.” not a little ape, or a man running about town.” deal with these sub-strands first. Fifty children chose Ratich, Francke, Locke, Basedow, Pestalozzi, and the father or mother as their ideal-5 per cent of the Froebel based their systems of education on the prin- boys, 3 per cent of the girls. The boys chose the faciple of “observation by the senses,” the latter ther and mother equally, while nearly all the girls ( Froebel ) introducing into his methods “the spirit of chose the father. The number of those making this self-activity."

66

13.

..49

years. Fifty-three children chose some child acquaint- quantitatively for any group of children for purposes ance-3 per cent of the boys and 5 per cent of the girls. of comparison with other groups, or to test rapidity of This choice also belongs mainly to the younger chil- growth within the same group. (4) This movement is dren, and disappears as they grow older. Uniting all decidedly less rapid with the children of the London the acquaintance choices, we find that 24 per cent of Board schools than with the children in the common the boys, and 32 per cent of the girls select as their schools in America. (5) It is decidedly less rapid with ideal of life some person in their immediate circle of the girls than the boys in the same schools. (6) In this acquaintances. It is interesting to see how these an- expanding ideal the most prominent single character is swers are distributed through the ages from eight to Her Majesty the Queen. This study. shows that her thirteen inclusive:

many personal and public virtues have been impressed Ages...... 8. 9.

10.
11. 12.

upon the children until she has become a profound Boys (per cent)..42 40 26 11 16 15 influence in organizing the social and civic consciousGirls

51 37 27 18 14 ness of the children. (7) The second most popular As will be seen, this line of tendency is a steadily van- national hero in these schools is Nelson, though he apishing line. It marks the abandonment by the child peals mainly to boys. Mr. Gladstone comes third, of his local neighborhood dreams, his gradual abandon- though still important. (8) Deity and Bible characters ment of his little circumscribed personality for a larger furnish a very large range of ideals for these children, world. This larger world is found under the next about the same as for the children in Minnesota, though heading, “Historical or Public Characters." Here twenty times as much as for the children in California. again we have found it convenient to keep out certain (9) The characters of literature play a very slight part particular strands for closer study. They are “Queen in the life of the children in the London Board schoo's, Victoria," “Florence Nightingale,” “Gladstone," as compared with those in the American schools. (10) “Nelson,” and “Wellington.” Let us examine these This outward-going development of the personality, or lesser strands first. Queen Victoria is a most popular social sense, shown in the substitution of historical or character, being chosen by no less than 161 children- public characters for acquaintance ideals, is also seen 3 per cent of all the boys, and 18 per cent of all the in the substitution of philanthropic reasons for the girls; Florence Nightingale is chosen by 3 per cent of choice made instead of selfish reasons. the girls; Mr. Gladstone by 5 per cent of the boys, and The application of the generalizations we have 2 per cent of the girls: Nelson by 3 per cent of the reached to educational practice is another matter, boys, and 2 per cent of the girls; and Wellington by 2 and a very difficult one, too. In education, as in medper cent of the boys. It is surprising what a 'small icine, the first thing to do is to diagnose your case. The range of public characters are named. Apparently, treatment will then depend upon what you want to the popular heroes of the day, and the great range of accomplish, upon what you know about medical pracmen and women who have made England's name glo- tice, and upon what medicines you have at hand. rious, have no very intimate place in the English chil- In this particular case one must decide first whether dren's hearts. If now we take all the historical and one wants the children in the London Board schools to public characters together, we find that they are chosen live their lives in a range of ideals made up of relatives by 41 per cent of the boys, and 52 per cent of the girls; and the shopkeeper round the corner, with a gradual and, again, it is interesting to see how they are distrib- expausion into the ideas that gather around their uted by ages.

Queen and their Bible, or whether one wants them to Ages... 8. 9.

12.

go out, in their dreams at least, into the life repreBoys (per cent). .17 17 34 50 60 69 sented by the great creative and artistic forces of the Girls

..26 14 21 40 46 44 past and present, forces represented by Balder, PerThis is distinctly a growing strand of consciousness, seus, and Robinson Crusoe, Stanley, and the long line or of choice. It marks the broadening out of the per- of great men and women who have been England's sonality, and the substituting of larger political, social, pride and glory. I think we shall all agree to this-and world dreams for those of the home and the neigh- that, if one's personality is expanded too fast, it will borhood. After discussing the separate headings under lead to disintegration of character and reckless living. “Person Chosen ” and “Reason for Choice," illustra- If, on the other hand, it is expanded too slowly, we ting the movements in each strand of tendency by shall have that arrested development which makes charts, which also compared these results with the re- good ground in which to grow stupidity, brutality, and sults of the American studies, the following generali- drunkenness, the true fruits of a sluggish and selfzations were drawn from the facts so far presented: satisfied mind. (1) Half the London Board-school children at eight These questions, as you see, are too intimately conyears old find their ideal characters in some local char- nected with the most fundamental problems of national acter in the home, school, or neighborhood. (2) With character and national policy for a foreigner to deal advancing years they tend to reach out for their ideals with them effectively. Certain it is that, if you will into the larger world of public and historical charac- provide the Board schools with that wealth of myth ters. (3) This expansion of the personality follows and romance so abundantly available to-day, and if you definite lines of tendency, which can be expressed call into the schools the long line of noble and generous

10.

11.