_creative_, that there has been so much dead uniformity and lifeless
repetition on the plane of humanity; and that a general characteristic
of educational systems hitherto has been a mechanical running of the
human being into certain fixed moulds, not only irrespective of
individual tendencies, but antagonistic to the universal creative
impulse, which is the profoundest characteristic of man, and which, not
being understood, has, in a great measure, proved only a source of
disorder, and given a bad name with people of genius to educational art
(although it is the highest of all the high arts), its material, if you
will forgive the verbal ambiguity, being living spirit.
Richard Wagner has said that "were it not for education, all men would
be geniuses, for they are endowed at birth with the passionate pursuit
of the new, needing only liberty and opportunity for self-direction."
_Liberty and opportunity!_ There could not be a better description of
Froebel's principle and method of education.
To give liberty and opportunity to the creative principle of the child
is just the work you have to do; but observe, this is not to leave him
to the caprices of an uneducated will. There is neither _liberty_ nor
_opportunity in that_!
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," _moral_ as well as
political; and before the child is old enough to appreciate this, and
_be vigilant for himself_, the educator must do so _for him_, genially,
but firmly intervening to secure to his mind that _pause before action_
on the moral, the artistic, and intellectual plane, that the Friends
recognize to be necessary before acting on the spiritual plane.
The ways of caprice are multitudinous,--the way of life is _one_ for
each individual, and is pointed out to the _pausing_ attentive mind by
the Father, who speaks to us, within, forever; but whose voice can only
be heard when listened to by _intention_; even on the intellectual
plane, we do not let the will go storming on, without the guidance of
law, which is the voice of the very present Creator heard in the silence
of _reflection_ on perceived facts and truths.
There is a right and a wrong way of doing everything,--_always_. The
right way will always produce a thing of use or of beauty, whose
reaction on the mind of the producer _cultivates_ his mind, or _grows
the human understanding_; but this right way is only to be discovered in
that pause between impulse and action which is the characteristic
discrimination of man from all other animals, and must be _secured for
the child_ by the care of his educators--even when he is only playing,
or the play will tire instead of exhilarate.
Hence it is not _enough_, though it is indispensable, to guide
children's activity while it is still irreflective to spontaneously make
forms of beauty and use with its playthings and materials of occupation;
but after they have made something, you are to make them stop and look
back (not every time, but often), and _go over in thought_, and put into
words, what they have done, and lead them to observe all the properties
and relations of the thing that are obvious to the childish sense; and
when you have thus secured an impression of the means by which order is
attained, you have given an experimental knowledge of there being a
spiritual order; that is, a world of individual laws and a law-giver
independent of human will and meant to lift it into the divine. Those of
you who are _Friends_ will agree with me that human beings can manifest
no _spiritual_ beauty or moral power, except so far as they listen to
the Shepherd of souls in the holy pause of the hours of worship, a
voice always suggesting loving activity. And cannot you see, that no
artistic production, no intellectual work, is possible without
listening, in the pause of reflection for the word of the law of beauty
or use, that the Creator of the intellect gives? and which makes art and
science the worship of GOD _with the mind_?
The most important, the crowning work of the kindergartner, is to secure
to the child this moment of reflection in the midst of his play and work
on all planes of life; and you do so by sympathetically playing with him
and gently guiding his unthinking, impulsive activity, and asking him
what he has done and is _going to do_, and not letting him do anything
till he seeks to do the symmetrical or, at least, the useful thing. It
is not every movement that will produce the satisfactory result. It is
thus that the child learns that there is a greater mind than his own, or
even than his teacher's mind, present with him guiding the intellect,
for artistic principles flow into the mind from an Eternal source, _no
less_ than do moral and spiritual principles. In short, the true method
of the intellect is the perpetual _gift_ of a very present GOD, as much
as the true method of the heart and soul.
Man, then, in the last analysis, is a creative being; and the Froebel
education has for its final object, to give him the dominion over
everything in the earth; put all the cosmic forces into his hands,--as
well as to bring him into the communion of love with his fellows; thus
lifting his whole nature to the height of sitting down with our Elder
brother on the throne, with the Universal Father.
You should keep this great idea before you, and it will enable you to
_use the technique_ that you have been learning, with a certain freedom
as well as fidelity, guiding these playful exercises in such an order as
you may find agreeable and salutary for them; and to check caprice, you
must insist that, in these appointed times, they do the appointed
things, OR DO NOTHING, for they will generally conclude to do the thing
in hand, rather than DO NOTHING while all their companions are doing
their work; and when they are doing nothing, they will have time for
reflection, and to hear the inward voice of law, with the opportunity
voluntarily to accept it. Thus does GOD give to all his children "to
have life in themselves," and to bring out their whole likeness to
Himself, which proves that they are not his bond slaves,--like the lower
animals,--but SONS. If there are not in the universe two leaves that are
alike, still less are there two souls that are alike. But leaves and
souls, after all, are alike in more than they are different. You can
provide action for all the instincts that children have in common, and
create a common consciousness to a certain extent, which is the _common
sense_; but what is peculiar to each, and makes the independent
individual, is his _own secret_, and you can only help THAT to flower
and fruitage by giving him the conditions of free, _independent action_,
opening the inward eye and sharpening the inward ear for communication
with Him who alone can adequately guide the will to the satisfaction of
all the sensibilities of the heart, and the powers of intellect, and all
the creative energies: but the religious and moral principles I shall
endeavor to _define_ are _general_, not peculiar to, but inclusive of,
the kindergarten plan of education. To have these principles clear and
disengaged from the accidental associations of the various denominations
of the church, all of which (and also with many of those outside of any
visible church) _unite in that faith in God_, and that _disinterested
love of humanity_, which was historically enacted on earth by Jesus
Christ, and _into_ which every child born on the earth should be brought
before he is old enough to appreciate those _intellectual_ distinctions
which make different _creeds_; because then the kindergartner will be
able to meet children on the high plane of life where their _angels_
(does not that mean their spiritual instincts or ideals?) behold the
face of the Father, and only then will the kindergartner practically
enter into Froebel's method of _living with the children_, and communing
with their innocence.
I see a great deal of this practical application in the kindergartens
kept by the well-trained kindergartners; and especially when they are
_mothers_, who unquestionably make the best kindergartners (other things
being equal), because it is easier for mothers to _divine_ the
consciousness of their children. In the opening hour of the
kindergarten, when the kindergartner interchanges the songs and hymns
which the children choose, or at least agree to, with real free
conversation, in which each child has a chance to tell what is uppermost
in his little mind, the very most important work of the kindergartner is
done. It has been my privilege to listen to much of this in the
kindergartens kept severally by the mothers, who make the children feel
that they are interested in whatever they say, however apparently
trivial is the subject, and who answer genially, connecting it with
something else, and so organizing the reflective powers of the children,
that everything they think is seen to be a part of the process of moral,
religious, and even intellectual growth.
The possibility of doing this will prove to any one who has any heart
and imagination that it is no mere poetic phrase, but a profound
spiritual truth, that "Heaven lies about us in our infancy," that
children do "come from GOD who is their home, trailing clouds of glory,"
and for a time
"are still attended
By the vision splendid,"
although too often
"The man beholds it die away,
And fade into the light of common day."
Of course _all_ the opening conversation need not be on the moral and
religious planes, but some of it should lead into explanations of
nature and of the common life of this work-day world, improving
dexterity and common sense; but one can hardly talk with children about
anything, in a genuine way, that does not bring out of them some
religious or moral expression. I think it is in connection with these
conversations to which the children furnish by their spontaneous
confidences the vital points, round which the thoughts of the whole
little company shall revolve, that the teacher can connect her own
story-telling.
For such genuine conversation the necessary prerequisite on the part of
the teacher is a real faith in children's being the _breath of God_ in
their Essence.
Then she will not have any _will-work_ of her own, but listen to hear
what the child is attending to, be it nothing but a bit of string,
which, of course, must have a certain length that can be measured, and
with which other things may be measured, and which is made of material
that has passed perhaps through the hands of many manufacturers, and
which in its elements at least was a growth of nature, all whose works
bear witness to the being of GOD; for GOD's throne may be reached from
the ground of childish play as certainly and readily as from many a
pulpit and cathedral, if not more so.
A child whose affection for his companions and for the personages of a
story told by the kindergartner, and who sees the connection of some
little playful or other experience that he tells as his story for the
morning, is _engaged in a service of God_, more vitally bearing on his
growth in grace than any mere repetition of prayers. A play bringing out
little kindnesses, sweet courtesies, gentle self-adjustments to his
companions, the asking and giving of forgiveness for little
discourtesies or grave wrong-doings, brings the child nearer GOD than
any spoken words of worship can, the joy attending such innocent
sweetness being the proof of the vital union of his soul with a very
present GOD.
So the work of the good Samaritan, though he was doubtless _thinking_
only of the _individual_ he was comforting, and not at all of God, was
recognized by Christ as a _real act of worship_; for it was the
fulfilment of the second commandment _like unto the first_.
The time will come, I confidently believe, when all religionists of
whatever denomination will recognize that the favorite doctrines and
formalities which distinguish them from each other are a mere
superficial crust of that true spiritual life which is to be lived when
the grown-up shall all become as little children, who feel that,
"In their work and in their play,
God is with them all the day."
In speaking of the ceremonies of the Temple worship, which Moses made
symbolical of all the virtues of life, moral and religious, but which in
Paul's day had fallen into such a _mere_ ritual that this great Apostle
said that the _Holy Ghost was not bodily exercise_, but a hopeful,
faithful _charity of thought_, _feeling_, _and deed_; and this is what
children can be guided into from the beginning, provided the
kindergartner knows how to converse and play _with_ them instead of
talking to them and coercing them _ever so kindly_ into acting out _her_
will. The play of childhood is the most genuine and intense life that is
lived, body, heart, and will _conspiring_ entirely; and it is by
respecting the child's _will_ and _heart_ that you really help instead
of _hindering_ this unification of his threefold nature, which
corresponds to the Trinity of the Supreme Being and prevents _that_ from
becoming a bewildering tritheism in his conception.
A child cannot be _just_ unless he is _loving_, nor attain the freedom
of moral dignity unless he asserts himself; and there is no way to
nurture this self-respect except to express respect to him, by being as
courteous to him as you are to any adult, always asking him to explain
himself and his own motives, when he seems to be in the wrong, before
you condemn him.
I think I have gained some of the deepest insights I have ever had into
_Divine Truth_, by discovering what was the motive thought of some
child, who did what seemed inexplicable, till he told me, or I had
divined, his secret reason.
It is not mothers alone who can charm out of children their secret, as
those know who have seen some maiden kindergartners talk _with_ their
pupils in the opening exercises; but those who are not mothers will
always do well to observe carefully those who are. On the other hand,
mothers have to guard themselves against exaggerating their own
children's natures _comparatively_. I have known some of the best
mothers in the world _do that_, so as to be practically of bad influence
over children not their own.
Mothers who would be and can be the best kindergartners should therefore
none the less study Froebel's science carefully and humbly.
_All_ children are alike in having the _threefold nature_. I wish I had
time to tell of a hundred kindergarten experiences that have come under
my observation, in which the respectful, genial kindergartner has
assisted in some moral development, whose occasion was very trivial to
the superficial observer.
Herein lies the importance of prefacing the school with the
kindergarten, that in it all the virtues and Christian graces can be
unconsciously practised on the plane of play, which is the moral
gymnasium of mankind.
This is the meaning of Solomon's wise saying, "Train up a child in the
way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." But
the nature, which is the image of the Divine Nature, cannot be
_mechanically_, but must be morally and spiritually, trained; that is,
addressed and treated as free agency.
The salutation of the Brahmin to his youthful son, no less than to his
equal in age, is "to the divinity which is in you I do homage." This is
one of the gleams of light from the lost Paradise in which man was
created, and to which we hope the kindergarten is to more than restore
the race, when it shall have become the universally applied principle of
culture for human beings. (See Appendix, Note F.)
FOOTNOTES:
[11] See George Macdonald's _Vicar's Daughter_.
[12] This unique book was the text-book Froebel used in his
training-school. Its profound meaning, and how it points to the divine
philosophy of the instinctive play, that is the first phenomenon of
human life with mother and child, some of you have heard Miss Blow and
Miss Fisher luminously explain in a course of lectures much longer than
mine, and which I hope they may be persuaded to publish in book form.
GLIMPSES OF PSYCHOLOGY.
SPIRITUALITY.
WE speak of the necessity of studying childhood; we call children living
books of nature, and say that we cannot succeed in educating them (which
is putting them into a harmonious activity of all their powers), without
knowledge, such as a musical performer has of his instrument, of these
"harps of a thousand strings."
This fundamental knowledge of children is not chiefly a discrimination
of their individualities; though observation of these will be made by a
consummate kindergartner; it is a knowledge of what is universal in
children, essential to the constitution of human beings.
Froebel never wrote out, in systematic form, the psychology which
underlies and gives the rational ground to all the details of his
method. But there are pregnant sentences in all his writings, and in his
sayings handed down by tradition, which give such insights, that it can
be divined with some completeness.
We propose to give such glimpses as occur to us from time to time--not
always in our own words, but as often as we can in Froebel's, and also
in the words of other thinkers, whose guesses at this kind of truth
light up their writings on many subjects.
We must, in the first place, attend to one important fact; there is, in
the experience of childhood, somewhat pre-existent to all impressions
made by the universe, and consequently to all operations of the
understanding--perceiving, comparing, judging--for these are
intentional acts of the pre-existent soul breathed into his body and
bidden to "have dominion."--_Genesis 1._
What is this pre-existent soul, this mysterious depth of personality?
Washington Allston, in his posthumous lectures on Art, has finely said:
"Man does not live by science; he feels, acts, and judges right in a
thousand things, without the consciousness of any rule by which he so
feels, acts, and judges. Happily for him, he has a surer guide than
human science in that _unknown power within him_, without which he had
been without any knowledge." Again, he speaks of "those intuitive
powers, which are above and beyond both the understanding and the
senses; which, nevertheless, are so far from precluding knowledge, as,
on the contrary, to require--as their effective condition--the widest
intimacy with things external, without which their very existence must
remain unknown."
He does not, however, merely assert this pre-existence of the soul to
the understanding, but speaks of the evidence of it that we all can
appreciate. "Suppose," he says, "we analyze a certain combination of
sounds and colors, so as to ascertain the exact relative qualities of
the one, and the collocation of the other, and then compare them, what
possible resemblance can the understanding perceive between these sounds
and colors? And yet a something within us responds to both--a _similar
emotion_. And so it is with a thousand things, nay, with myriads of
objects, that have no other affinity but with that mysterious harmony,
which began with our being, which slept with our infancy, and which
their presence only seems to have awakened. If we cannot go back to our
own childhood, we may see its illustration in those about us who are now
in that unsophisticated state. Look at them in the fields, among the
birds and flowers; their happy faces speak the harmony within them; the
divine instrument which these objects have touched, gives them a joy,
which perhaps only childhood, in its first fresh consciousness, can
know, yet what do children _understand_ of the theory of colors, or
musical quantities?"
That this mysterious power, this feeling soul, is the _human_
characteristic, is suggested in another paragraph of these lectures.
"What, for instance, can we suppose to be the effect of the purple haze
of a summer sunset on the cows or sheep, or even on the more delicate
inhabitants of the air? From what we know of their habits, we cannot
suppose more than the mere physical enjoyment of its genial temperature?
But how is it with the man, whom we shall suppose an object in the same
scene, stretched on the same bank with the ruminating cattle, and
basking in the same light that flickers from the skimming birds? Does he
feel nothing more than the genial warmth?"--Vol. I. p. 84.
This feeling of beauty, this power which appreciates harmony, this
creative unity, in fine, this æsthetic soul, distinct from and above the
understanding (which certain philosophers seem to think is all of man,
over and above his body), is not all of the soul,--but the moral and
even merely social sentiment has the same pre-existence. Allston bears
witness to this also. He says: "With respect to Truth and Goodness,
whose pre-existent ideas, being living constituents of an immortal
spirit, need but the slightest breath of some _outward condition_ of the
true and good--a simple problem or a kind act--to awaken them, as it
were, from their unconscious sleep.... We may venture to assert that no
philosopher, however ingenious, could communicate to a child the
abstract idea of Right, had the child nothing beyond or above the
understanding. He might, indeed, be taught, like inferior animals,--a
dog, for instance,--that if he took certain forbidden things, he would
be punished, and thus do right through _fear_. Still he would desire the
forbidden thing belonging to another, nor could he conceive why he
should not appropriate to himself--and thus allay his appetite--what
was another's, could he do so undetected; nor attain to any higher
notion of Right than that of the strongest. But the child _has_
something higher than the mere power of apprehending consequences
(external?). The simplest exposition, whether of right or wrong, is
instantly responded to by something within him, which, thus awakened,
becomes to him a living voice, and the good and the true must
thenceforth answer its call. We do not say that these ideas of Beauty,
Truth, and Goodness will, strictly speaking, always act. Though
indestructible, they may be banished for a time by the perverted Will,
and mockeries of the brain, like the fume-born phantoms from the
witches' cauldron in Macbeth, may take their places and assume their
functions. We have examples of this in every age, and perhaps in none
more startling than the present. But we mean only that they cannot be
(absolutely?) forgotten; nay, they are but too often recalled with
unwelcome distinctness....
"From the dim present, then, we would appeal to that fresher time, ere
the young spirit had shrunk from the overbearing pride of the
(vitiated?) understanding, and confidently ask, if the emotions we then
felt from the Beautiful, the True, and the Good, did not seem, in some
way, to refer to a common origin? And we would also ask, if it was
frequent that the influence from one was singly felt? if it did not
rather bring with it, however remotely, a sense of something--though
widely differing,--yet still akin to it? when we have basked in the
beauty of a summer sunset, was there nothing in the sky, that spoke to
the soul of Truth and Goodness? And when the opening intellect first
received the truth of the great law of gravitation, and felt itself
mounting through the profound of space, to travel with the planets in
their unerring rounds,--did never then the kindred ideas of Goodness and
Beauty chime in, as it were, with the fabled music (not fabled to the
soul), which led you on as one entranced? And again, when, in the
passive quiet of your moral nature, so predisposed, in youth, to all
things genial, you have looked around on this marvellous, ever-teeming
earth, ever teeming alike for mind and body, and have felt upon you the
flow, as from ten thousand streams of innocent enjoyment, did you not
then almost hear them shout in confluence, and almost see them gushing
upwards, as if they would prove their _unity_ in one harmonious
fountain?"