KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
THERE is a kind of thing done in Kindergarten, which retains the best
characteristics of childish play, and yet assumes the serious form of
occupation.
Fancy-work, if Froebel's method be strictly followed, is the best
initiation of industry; for it can serve to a perfect intellectual
training.
Childish play has all the main characteristics of art, inasmuch as it is
the endeavor to "conform the shows of things to the desires of the
mind,"--Bacon's definition of poetry. A child at play is histrionic. He
personates characters, with costume and mimic gesture. He also
undertakes to represent whatever thing interests his mind by embodiment
of it in outward form. Advantage is taken of this, by Froebel, to
initiate exquisite manipulation, in several different materials; a
veritable artistic work, which trains the imagination to use, and
develops the understanding to the appreciation of beauty, symmetry, or
order,--"Heaven's first law."
Froebel's first two Gifts, as they are called, are a box of colored
worsted balls, and a box containing the cube, the sphere, and the
cylinder. These two Gifts belong more especially to the nursery series,
and were published some years since in Boston, with little books of
rhymes, and suggestions for playing with babies.
But they can be used, in some degree, in the Kindergarten: the first, to
give lessons on the harmonies of colors; and the second, to call
attention to fundamental differences of form.
It is possible, however, to omit these, and begin a Kindergarten with
the Third Gift, which is a little wooden box, containing eight cubes of
an inch dimension.
The first plays with these blocks, especially if the children are very
young, will be to make what Froebel calls forms of life; that is,
chairs, tables, columns, walls, tanks, stables, houses, &c. Everybody
conversant with children knows how easily they will "make believe," as
they call it, all these different forms, out of any materials whatever;
and are most amused, when the materials to be transformed by their
personifying and symbolizing fancy are few, for so much do children
enjoy the exercise of imagination, that they find it more amusing to
have simple forms, which they can "make believe,"--first to be one
thing, and then another,--than to have elaborately carved columns, and
such like materials, for building. There is nothing in life more
charming to a spectator, than to see this shaping fancy of children,
making everything of nothing, and scorning the bounds of probability,
and even of possibility. It is a prophecy of the unending dominion which
man was commanded, at his creation, to have over nature; and gives
meaning to the parable of the Lord God's bringing all creatures before
Adam, that he might give them their names.
Wordsworth felicitously describes, in that ode which he calls
"Intimations of Immortality in Childhood," this victorious play of--
"The seer blest,
On whom those truths do rest,
Which we are toiling all our lives to find."
"Behold the child among his new-born blisses;
A six years' darling of a pigmy size;
See where, mid work of his own hand, he lies,
Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses,
With light upon him from his father's eyes!
See at his feet some little plan or chart,
Some fragment of his dream of human life,
Shaped by himself with newly learned art,--
A wedding or a festival,
A mourning or a funeral;
And this hath now his heart,
And unto this he frames his song.
Then he will fit his tongue
To dialogues of business, love, or strife;
But it will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside,
And with new joy and pride,
The little actor cons another part;
Filling from time to time his humourous stage
With all the persons down to palsied age
That life brings with her in her equipage."
That this is a literal picture, every mother knows; and, in this
childish play, there is all the subjective part of a genuine work of
art; the effort being to dramatize, or embody in form, the inward fancy,
no less than in the case of the most mature and successful artist. The
child seizes whatever materials are at hand to give objectivity to what
is within; and he is only baffled in the effect, because he is not
developed enough in understanding, and has not knowledge enough to
discover or appreciate means appropriate to his ends. It is for the
adult to show him that the universe is a magazine of materials given to
the human race, wherewith each is to build an image of God's creative
wisdom, into which he shall inwardly grow by the very act of
accomplishing this destiny.
As the child is satisfied at first with a symbolical representation of
his inward thought, a row of chairs and footstools, arranged in a line,
makes a railroad to his imagination; and no less a row of cubes, one
being piled on another for the engine.
In using the blocks in a Kindergarten, the child at first is left to his
own spontaneity, as much as possible; but the teacher is to suggest
means of carrying out whatever plan or idea he has. What is cultivating
about the exercise is, that the child makes or receives a plan, and then
executes it; has a thought, and embodies it in a form.
But something more can be done with the blocks. They can be made
symbolical of the personages and objects of a story. Thus even with the
eight blocks, five may be a flock of sheep, one the shepherd, one a wolf
who is seen in the distance, and who comes to steal a sheep, and one
the shepherd's dog who is to defend the sheep against the wolf.
When all the Gifts come to be used, much more complicated dramas may be
represented. The teacher should set an example; as, for instance, thus:
"I am going to build a light-house, so;" (she piles up some blocks and
leaves openings near the top, which she says are) "the lantern part
where the lights are put;" near the light-house are a number of blocks,
rather confusedly laid together, of which she says, "These are rocks,
which are very dangerous for ships, but which are scarcely ever seen,
because the water dashes over them, especially when there is a storm, or
when the night is dark; and that is the reason the light-house is put
here. Whenever sailors see a light-house, they know there is danger
where it stands; and so they steer their ships away from the place. Look
here! here is a ship" (and she constructs with other blocks something
which she calls a ship, or schooner, or sloop, representing respectively
the number of masts which characterize each kind of vessel), "and there
is a pilot standing upon it who has seen the light-house, and is turning
the ship another way."
Having built her story, she will now call upon the children to build
something. Some will imitate her; others will have plans of their own.
As soon as one has finished, he or she must hold up a hand; and the
teacher will call upon as many as there is time for, to explain their
constructions. There is no better way for a teacher to learn what is in
children, their variety of mental temperament and imagination, than by
this playing with blocks. Some will be prosaic and merely imitative;
some will show the greatest confusion, and the most fantastic operations
of mind; others, the most charming fancies; and others, inventive
genius. But there will always be improvement, by continuing the
exercise; and it is a great means of development into self-subsistence
and continuity of thought.
But to return to Froebel's Third Gift, consisting of eight blocks. In
making things with the blocks, a great deal is to be said about setting
them accurately upon each other, and upon the squares drawn on the table
(if it is so painted). I was both amused and instructed, when I was in
Hamburg, by seeing a little table full of children taking a first lesson
in making two chairs, by piling three blocks on each other for the back,
and putting one in front for the seat; the Kindergartner going round so
seriously to see if each block was adjusted exactly, and stood squarely.
When, at length, the chairs were done, the children took hold of hands,
and recited, simultaneously with the Kindergartner, a verse of poetry;
and then sang it. I could not understand the words; but the
conversation, while they were making the chairs, had helped the several
children's fancy to seat their fathers, mothers, or grandparents, or
some other favorite friends, in them; each child having been asked for
whom he wished to make his chairs, which developed a good deal of the
domestic circumstances. None of the class was more than four years old.
But the most important use of the eight blocks is to lead the children
through a series of symmetrical forms, which Froebel calls forms of
beauty.
As a preparation for this work, the children are questioned, till they
understand which is the right, and which the left side of the cube made
by the eight blocks; which the front, and which the back side; which the
upper, and which the under side; and are able to describe a cube by its
dimensions; also to know how to divide the whole cube into two, four, or
eight parts; how to divide the length, how the breadth, and how the
height, into two parts,--lessons of analysis sufficiently amusing, and
giving precision to their use of words.
Dividing the height, they get a simple fundamental form; and the four
blocks taken off can be arranged around the others symmetrically.
For instance: tell them, first, to take an inch cube and place it in
front of the square that the four lower blocks make, so that one-half
shall be on one block, and the other half on the other; then tell them
to take another small cube, and place it opposite, in the same way,
one-half on one cube, and the other half on the other. Already they will
find the figure is symmetrical, or, as they may phrase it, even. Then
tell them to put a cube on the right hand of the fundamental figure in
the same way as before, and then another opposite on the left side; and
the figure will be still more symmetrical.
When this has been recognized all round, tell them to move the front
block just half a block to the right; then the opposite one half a block
to the left; then the right-hand block half a block farther back; and,
on the opposite side, the left-hand block half a block towards the
front. This will make again a symmetrical form. Again, they may be told
to move the front block half a block farther to the right; and then move
the opposite one to the left, and so on,--which will make another
figure. Their attention must be drawn to the fact that always--if the
symmetry is to be retained--all four of the movable blocks must be
moved; demonstrating to the eyes, by otherwise placing them, that
symmetry is more pleasing than confusion, and order than disorder.
In going on, through the large number of forms which are given in the
manuals of Madame Rongé and the Baroness Marienholtz, for the
convenience of the Kindergartners, the children can be asked in turn to
suggest rules for new figures, and then directed how to apply the rule,
and adjust each of the four blocks to make a symmetry. Often, a form of
the series given, is anticipated; but, if no suggestion is made by the
children, the Kindergartner must choose, and ask if so and so would not
be pretty. But in no case must the engraved forms be given as a pattern.
Imitation is mechanical, and children soon tire of working by patterns;
while to work from a rule, whether it is suggested by another, or is
one's own fancy, will keep up the interest a long while, and stimulate
invention; for it is real intellectual work, though less abstract than
geometry.
The great secret of the charm of working out symmetrical forms is, that
the mind is created to make, like the divine mind. "God geometrizes,"
says Plato; and therefore man geometrizes. The generation of forms by
crystallization, and by vegetable and animal organization, follows the
law of polarity, which is alike the law of the human and the mode of the
divine creation. It was amusing to hear a little child cry out, "I
cannot find an opposite;" and, when another said, "No matter, take
this," reply, "But then it will not make anything."
In going through the series of forms, made first by the eight blocks,
then by those of the Fourth Gift, and afterwards by the larger number of
the Fifth and Sixth Gifts, the child comes, by being led perpetually to
put down _opposites_, in order to make symmetry, to learn the value of
the law of polarization, which obtains alike in thought, and in the
created universe.
But, besides the boxes of solids, there are boxes of triangles, one of
equilateral, one of right angle, and two of isosceles triangles--one
acute and one obtuse--affording means for an infinity of forms of
beauty; so that this amusement of making symmetrical forms is not
exhausted in the whole four years of the Kindergarten course.
The same principle of polarity is brought out in the combination of
colors, as well as of forms.
In weaving bookmarks and mats, with strips of different colored papers,
the series of forms becomes more attractive by observing the harmonies
of color. The children are taught, by the colored balls of the First
Gift, to distinguish the primary and secondary colors, and to arrange
them harmoniously. Children acquire very soon a very exquisite taste in
color, and, if carefully called to attend to harmonies, detect an
incongruity at once.
Calkins, of New York, has published sheets of diagrams, if they may be
so called, of the harmonies of colors.
The Kindergartner, while at the training-school, gets a series of
several hundred woven forms, to relieve her from the fatigue of
constantly inventing, when she is full of care. But children soon begin
to invent of themselves, and are recreated--not fatigued--by it. This
weaving may be turned to much account for innumerable ornamental
articles which the children are delighted to make, in order to have
something of their own, to give to their friends, at Christmas, New
Year's, and birthdays. Our woodcut gives the beginning of the series of
woven forms. Children of three years old can begin these; and those of
five will make beautiful things. But a series of forms may perhaps be
most easily begun by little children, by sewing colored worsted threads
into pricked paper.
One essential furniture of the Kindergarten is paper ruled in squares of
a sixteenth of an inch, which can be done wherever paper is ruled. Every
child should have a piece of this paper, pricked in the crossings of the
squares, and be taught to use the needle and colored thread, so as first
to make parallel lines, then diagonals, then right angles, then squares;
and then other more complex but still symmetrical figures.
This squared paper may also be used to teach pricking, first at the
crossings of the lines, preparing sheets for sewing, and then making a
series by pricking symmetrical forms; following the same general law as
produced beauty with the blocks and triangular planes.
Also, simultaneously with these occupations, the children should be
induced to draw, by means of this squared paper. A very small child can
be taught to use the pencil, so far as to draw a line of an eighth of an
inch over the blue line, or the water-mark of the squared paper.
Immediately these lines must be so drawn as to correspond and make
forms; and it is perfectly wonderful to the child himself, to find how,
by following the rules given, he goes straight on to make the most
complicated forms and beautiful designs. When I was in Dresden, I bought
of Madame Marquadt hundreds of drawings made in series by children
between three and seven years of age, where no stroke was longer than an
eighth of an inch. I was told that every one was the _invention_ of some
child; for only inventions were carefully preserved.
But another manipulation must not be forgotten; viz., the folding of
paper.
Here, a square piece of paper, of four or five inches, is given to the
child, who had previously been exercised in building with solids, in
making forms with sticks, and in pea-work; which last is done by having
sharp-pointed sticks of various lengths, and constructing squares,
triangles, and the frames of chairs, and other articles of furniture,
uniting the sticks by means of dried peas, soaked in water. (See
woodcut.)
As the sticks and peas were used to teach the properties of geometrical
lines and points, which they clumsily represent, so the square of paper
can be used to develop ideas of surface and geometrical planes; without,
however, using any abstract geometrical language.
Folding paper develops the value of the law of polarity, just as all
other symmetrical work does; but there is the additional charm to
children, of making, by means of this folded paper, a multitude of forms
of life as well as of beauty; involving a great instruction. For always
the folding begins with nothing but a square piece of paper, which, by
following their thought, is made into hundreds of beautiful forms; and
thus they learn to respect in themselves the power of thought applied to
work, which is nothing less than _creative_. By cutting off a piece of
the folded paper, while still it is folded, a new series of forms can be
made, of unimagined symmetrical forms, which the children, when they
unfold the paper, are electrified to find they have caused; and, with
the pieces cut out, they can also enrich the figures with new varieties
of symmetrical beauty.
I have seen, in one of the Kindergartens, five hundred different figures
made out of the simple square, variously folded and cut. The attention
of the children should be called to the fact of this endless capacity of
development of the simplest and most uninteresting form, by the exercise
of human ingenuity, acting according to law. Thus they will realize that
beauty is not an outward thing, but an inward power, which they exert.
This cutting and folding of paper can only be learned in a Kindergarten
training-school. It cannot be described in a book.
Modelling is the highest form of manipulation of solids, and one which
is very fascinating to children, who often make forms with mud and snow
in their out-door play.
The material, whether clay, rice, wax, or whatever else may be employed,
must be previously prepared, and always kept in a plastic state.
Clay is the least expensive material, but it must always be kept wet,
and it is cold to the hands. Wax, prepared with oil, is more expensive,
but far cleaner than clay; and it has the advantage of preserving the
forms moulded, while the clay shrinks and cracks when it dries.
The material being prepared, each child is supplied either with a small
flat board, slate, cloth, or strong paper, to cover the part of the
table used; a small blunt elastic knife, and a portion of the plastic
material. The child is first left to pursue the bent of its own
inclinations, generally the roller and the ball are the first objects
attempted. In their formation the child finds great delight. Irregular
forms are, however, the easiest. The children are encouraged to imitate
birds' nests, baskets, candlesticks, and various fruits: apples, pears,
strawberries, also some vegetables, and especially flowers;--whenever it
is possible let them have the natural objects before them. Afterwards
models of animals _couchant_ are given for imitation; and they are
encouraged to make parts of the human figure,--fingers, hands, ears,
noses, for which they have models in each other. I have known a boy not
twelve years old, who would take an engraved head, and mould one by it,
in which the likeness would be remarkable;--he used wax and a pin.
To make forms from the hint of an engraving, is a little above
imitation; and it is to be remembered that we do not wish the children
to stop with imitations. Let them go on and invent forms, beautiful
vases, pitchers, &c. When they begin to make heads and human figures, a
teacher, who understands the principles of drawing, can bring to their
notice the proportions of the human figure and face found in nature,
which make ideal beauty. Many a heaven-destined sculptor will find
himself out, in the Kindergarten.
In Germany, at the quadrennial meetings of the Froebel Union, it is the
custom to carry specimens of the children's work in all these kinds. A
series of each kind is made up by taking the best work of all the
children. The six meetings which have already taken place, have all been
signalized by impressing upon the commissioners of education of some
State, the value of Froebel's culture to the interests of art,--fine and
mechanical,--followed by its adoption. And yet its value to art is of
secondary importance to its influence on character, which must needs be
lifelong,--leading away from temptation, and delivering from evil, the
activity secured to the production of use and beauty.
In America, where the excitements of opportunity are literally infinite,
the importance of training the speculative mind and immense energy of
the people to law, order, beauty, and love (which are all one in the
last analysis), is incalculable; and that it can be done most easily and
certainly by beginning with the child's mind while he is still
"beholding the face of the Father in heaven" with his heart, no one who
has ever faithfully tried Kindergarten culture will doubt.