ism, it is very hard to move about, particularly to bend down to the ground, and it really seemed as though the schoolmaster's cabbages must stay all winter in the garden. He had no money to hire any one, and his wife, who would gladly have helped him, had rheumatism too and could scarcely cook their simple meals.

As the season grew later and the weather colder the rheumatism became worse and worse, until the poor old people could scarcely hobble about. September passed, and the days went on until the very last day of October, the day before Hallowe'en, had come. As the old man stood looking out of the window at the cabbages, he shook his head and said sadly, “Ah, that the good days might come again when fairies lived in the forest and could come to the help of weak men! But the fairies have been gone these many years, and alas! there is none to help the old schoolmaster!"

Now the schoolmaster had forgotten that that very night was Hallowe'en; and I am sure he did not hear a sly chuckle by the

door.

But in the middle of the night something

waked the schoolmaster-he could not have told what. He hobbled to the window, and there in the moonlight he saw the strangest sight! The garden was full of queer little men, not larger than little John here, all laughing and jumping, playing leap-frog, turning handsprings, and trying every trick

that boys and brownies know.

The schoolmaster rubbed his eyes, but still there they were! He pinched himself to make sure that he was awake, but still the little men did not vanish. Then he called his wife, and her eyes, too, saw the same strange sight.

As the two old people looked closely at these funny folk, they saw that right in the midst of their play the brownies were doing something to the cabbages. Sometimes two together would take hold of a cabbage and pull and pull with all their strength, just as you have seen a robin pull at a worm. Suddenly the cabbage would loosen its hold and the two tiny men would roll over backward, with the cabbage on top of them. But brownies do not mind a bump, and up they would jump, shake off the dirt, strip away the outer leaves of the cabbage, and then,hippety, skippety! away they would roll it toward the open cellar door.

appeared down the stairway, and with many a somersault and merry prank the band of little people danced away into the forest, singing as they went something which sounded like:

"We brownies dearly love a joke,

We are a merry band;
But most of all and best of all

We love to lend a hand."

When the music had died away and the garden was dark and still, with only the moonlight shining down upon it, the schoolmaster and his wife crept back to bed and slept until the sun was high in the sky.

For a long time as they went about their work neither of them spoke of what they

had seen.

But at last the schoolmaster said: "It was a dream!" "Surely it was a strange dream," repeated the wife. But when they looked in the garden the cabbages were gone! "Some evil person might have stolen them!" said they both together.

Then, although the rheumatism was very painful, they must hobble and creep down the cellar stairs; and there, all snugly packed away in their bin, ready for the buyer who would soon come for them, were the cabbages!

Now, at last, the schoolmaster remembered that the night before had been Hallowe'en, and that Hallowe'en is the time when boys

and brownies creep out to do all manner of helpful things in funny ways.

When winter came and the snow lay in great drifts above the garden there was never any lack of food in the tiny house by the great forest; and although the shadows of the pines fell dark and heavy across the snow, there was plenty of sunshine in the hearts of the old schoolmaster and his wife.

There are three great virtues to which every one should be dedicated the virtue of civilization, which is politeness; the virtue of morality, which is conscientiousness; the virtue of religion, which is humility.--Martin

Better the chance of shipwreck on a voyage of high purpose than expand life in paddling hither and thither on a shallow stream to no purpose at all.-Miss Sedgwick.

Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again; wisely improve the present, it is thine; go forth to meet the shady future. without fear and with a manly heart.-Long

THE

MONTESSORI METHOD AND

THE KINDERGARTEN.
W. N. HAILMANN, PH. D.

In view of the stir caused by announcements of the achievements of Dr. Montessori in sense-training and in teaching her Italian children the arts of writing and reading, coupled with her denunciation of certain phases of Froebel's work, disquietude has come to a number of earnest kindergartners as to the influence of this movement upon the institution they have learned to cherish.

Even a running perusal of Dr. Montessori's book will convince readers with fair appreciation of what has been and what is, that there is no occasion for dismay. Under the guidance of the great progressive principle, 'Prove all things and hold fast that which is good,' implying also the rejection of what does not reach the standard, they will find much to strengthen faith in the laws on which Froebel's new education rests. Tested by these, some of her devices will be welcomed; others, perhaps in view of her fine enthusiasm, regretfully rejected.

To a limited extent I have already indicated this in a previous article; but conversations with earnest teachers and letters from eager kindergartners impel me to lay additional stress upon a few features of the work pointed out in these communications.

The chief emphasis in her didactic material is upon sense-training. Her excessive attention to this and its narrow and shortsighted use in the education of the children are obviously due to her antecedents. She gained her pedagogic enthusiasm in connection with the

Here, following suggestions by Dr. Seguin, she gained "surprising" results and even brought some idiots to write and read-an achievement, however, by no means new. This, when she came to take charge of the education of normal children in the Children's Houses, led her to attempt the application of the methods for defectives to the education of normal children between the ages of three and six and to formulate the specious maxim: "The same didactic material with defectives renders education possible, and with normal children stimulates auto-education."

Now, while it is unquestionably true that, as Dr. Seguin expresses it, "the physiological education of the senses is the royal road to the education of the intellect," it is essential that in traveling this road, at least with normal children, we should not stop where it enters the domain of intellect. Rather, we should be solicitous to afford the children opportunity and stimulus to apply new sensory acquisitions in intellectual activities. Each new acquisition should become a true inner possession, should enrich the child's intellectual life and render it more flexible, should stir his imagination, reach his purpose-life and culminate in varied forms of self-expression, individual and social.

Of all this there is little indication in the account of Dr. Montessori's work. There is no connection among the exercises; each one stands alone, begins abruptly, ends abruptly, finds little subsequent application in spontaneous play-work, is not used except, perhaps incidentally, when the children employ the sense of touch in determining the degree of smoothness of the visitors' clothes or in a few sense-games. As to the color exercises proper, the child seems satisfied when in triumph it cries out: "I know the colors!" Subsequently it may happen that it paints the outline cow green, and the outline hen red. In short, throughout, sense-training is the essential and all else is incidental, until writing is reached in which the cultivation of the muscular sense culminates.

Moreover, in the exercises child and teacher are perhaps properly so in view of the purpose as mute as possible and social interest is reduced to a minimum. Each child is intent upon the exercise chosen; only occasionally some neighbors laugh in derision when a little one blunders. The teacher names the sensation and leaves the child to its own resources. Later she tests the child's

me" the rough or smooth, the red or blue. If the child reacts correctly, the experiment is closed. If the child errs, the directress caressingly suggests another experiment, never correcting or leading the child to discover the blunder, for fear this might disturb the natural condition for subsequent observation of the child on the teacher's part, as it would "force" the child to understand.

Many of these and other shortcomings in the work of the Children's Houses, as viewed from the standpoint of the kindergarten, probably result from the ultra-scientific attitude of their founder. The leader in charge, she holds, should be above all else an experimenter and observer, never teaching or giving, but directing stimulus and noting results; not, as we should say, sympathetically living with the children, but rather living above them and applying successive tests of their ability and growth in their manufactured world.

There are, indeed, a few opportunities in which the children may use their sense-perception in collective games-blind man's game, color game, etc.—in which a number of children share. Yet, there is in these little true social intro-ordination, always a crowd and an individual and, consequently, much opportunity for the laughter of derision.

At every point we miss stimulus and opportunity for the adequate exercise of the imagination in constructive and creative selfexpression. This is the case even in what is labeled as constructive work, in design and in clay modeling which ends with the fashioning of pots and vases and of small bricks to be used in building walls. Everywhere, to use Froebelian terms, undue stress upon forms of knowledge and neglect of forms of beauty and even of life.

The occupations of the kindergarten, so largely stimulating to the imagination and to creative self-expression, are rejected. Only clay modeling is retained. Partly, I infer, this is due to the fact that they invite "collective" and social work and render active "living with the children" necessary, thus disturbing the natural condition for the ob servation of the individual child.

lessons," apparently confined, however, to "nomenclature." But the "silly stories" of the kindergarten and of the Salle d'Asyle are rejected. Their socializing value, their influence upon the child's imagination, upon his sympathies, upon his purpose life, etc., are ignored. There seems to be almost exclusive attention to sense-perception and nomenclature. The "mechanism of language" ever has the right of way, and "logical language" must wait, a procedure wholly averse to natural development. Naturally, the child has a deeper interest in events and meanings, in the sympathetic and logical side of speech than in its mechanism and even in sense-perceptions. It wants to live before it analyzes the tools of life.

That neglect of this fact results in arrested development was illustrated in the reference to the story-book incident in my previous article. This is not offset by evidences of happiness and eagerness on the children's part upon which Dr. Montessori places stress. Children will find these things in the narrowest environment that affords opportunity for the exercise of the instinct of activity and permits the "feeling of being master of one's own actions." The problem is not so much to make the children happy and eager-although this is much-but to do this and at the same time to afford opportunity and stimulus for the self-unfoldment of their being, individual, social and spiritual. And in this the Children's Houses fail.

In spite of these shortcomings and others that I omit, there are in the work of Montessori many devices that may prove serviceable in the kindergarten and, more especially, in the primary school. There is above all else her fine enthusiasm in behalf of rational discipline, of freedom and self-help on the children's part. But the kindergarten will stand and grow.

There are,

A YEAR IN THE KINDERGARTEN.

HARRIETTE MCCARTHY,

Kindergarten Director, Oklahama City Public Schools.

SEPTEMBER,

FIRST WEEK

SONGS-Choice of the following:

Good Morning to You, Patty Hill.

Father We Thank Thee, Walker and Jenks.

This is the Mother Good and Dear, Walker and
Jenks.

Here'a a Ball for Baby, Emily Poulsson.
Happy Monday Morning, Patty Hill.

MONDAY

Circle-Family ties. What is mother doing today. Show pictures of animal family life. Cats washing kittens, and birds fed in nest.

Rhythm-Here we go 'Round the Mulberry Bush.
Game-Drop the Handkerchief.

Gift-First Gift. Emphasize the color red.

Occupation-Drawing posts with clothes line and clothes hanging on it. Cut wash tubs, etc. TUESDAY

Circle-How mother's work is divided. How all the trades are dependent on each other. Trace all back to the Creator.

Rhythm-Dramatize washing and ironing.

Gift-First Gift. Show colors in prism and see if children can pick out color in balls. Pay particular attention to circular motion.

Game-Same as yesterday.

Occupation-Cut out clothes that lang on the line. Towels with fringe, skirts, aprons with strings, etc. WEDNESDAY

Circle-Continue division of mother's work. Monday washing, Tuesday ironing, Wednesday mending. Story-The Lark and her Young Ones.

Rhythm-Marching.

Gift-Second Gift. Compare with first.
Game-Hide the button.

Occupation-String Hailmann's beads, as spools that mother

uses.

THURSDAY

Circle-Division of mother's work of previous days. Thursday, baking day.

Rhythm-Rhythms reviewed.

Gift-Third Gift. Compare with second gift. Notice the

cracks on the top face by which the gift is divided. Game-Hide the button. The squirrel. Occupation-String Hailmann's beads, ball and cyli der. FRIDAY

Circle-Review work in home for each day.

Friday, sweeping day, Saturday, baking day, Sunday, going to church.

Rhythm-Imitate washing, ironing, mending, sweeping, bakiug, etc.

Gift-Sticks.

Occupation-Unfinished work.

SECOND WEEK

Songs-Thumbs and Fingers Say Good Morning.

Songs-Patty Hill,

Finger Plays-Emily Poulson.
Song Book-Brown and Emerson.
Plays and Games.

New Kindegarten Songs-Halsey.

Child's Garden of Song-Tomlins.

Merry Song - and Games-Mrs. Hubbard. River, ide Song Book-Lawrence.

Songs in Season-George.

Songs for Little Children-Eleanor Smith, Old and New Singing Games-Hoffman. Songs of Life and Nature-Eleanor Smith. Merry Songs and Games- Hailman. Primary Song Book-Smith and Weaver.