AN ALASKA KINDERGARTEN.
"In June, 1885, I was born, and soon became a very active member of the
Fenwick family. I was pronounced by all who saw me an offspring in every
way worthy of my noble father and my beautiful mother. When I was two
months old, my parents returned to Alaska, taking me with them. There I
remained until I was seven years old--seven years in that forbidding
clime, so near the Arctic Circle. Isolated from other children, yet how
happy and contented I was. Those years recall a troop of joyous
memories, with not a bitter one to mar the group. My beloved parents
were my only companions, playmates, teachers and confidants. I was
papa's own girl. He was very proud of me and wished me to be with him as
much as possible. He never wearied in the endless task of answering my
questions, always so skillfully directing them by suggestions, that in
my receptive mind there was soon unfolded a clear conception of the
outlines of the different branches of all useful knowledge. When I was
four years of age I knew the alphabet perfectly and could spell and
construct a great number of words with my lettered blocks, and then copy
them on my slate. When I was five years old, thanks to my mother's
patient teaching, I could read fairly well. My father's ingenious
methods soon made me familiar with the key-words of geology, chemistry,
(including the names of minerals, metals and gases) botany, history,
geography, physics and astronomy. I was unconsciously taught to
associate these words or names with the groups, or families, to which
they belong. I would spend hours with my father in the most delightful
game of separating and classifying a miscellaneous heap of different
colored blocks, bearing the names of minerals, metals and gases and the
key-words of the studies I have just mentioned. To illustrate: The
astronomy blocks were blue with the names in white letters; the geology
blocks were a deep reddish brown, with names in gray; chemistry, red,
lettered in black; botany, green, lettered in yellow; geography, gray,
lettered in blue; history, black, lettered in red; physics, a deep
orange yellow, lettered in white; mathematics was represented in a small
way by the cipher and nine digits, lettered in black upon ten plain
unpainted blocks, giving in their forms that number of the principal
geometrical figures, to which was added a shallow box with a broad lid,
perforated by ten holes, corresponding to the blocks in number, size and
shape, but large enough for the blocks to easily pass through into the
box.
"In these groupings my childish interest and delight was intensified by
my father's personification of the different families, such as: 'Mr.
Astronomy Blue,' 'Mrs. Geology Brown,' 'Mr. Chemistry Red,' etc. For
instance, the wonderful stories he told to me of the minerals, metals
and gases--the sons and daughters of Mr. Chemistry Red, as he termed
them--describing their loves and hates, the great variety of pranks they
played, the queer combinations they entered into, the good and the bad
work they performed, etc. These to me were fairy stories of the most
charming kind, while at the same time they gave me a correct idea of the
powers and properties of these unfamiliar things and served to identify
them more closely as members of the chemistry family. My mother was a
natural teacher, very proficient in botany, and in history, with its
flower and fruitage of classic prose and inspiring poetry. She entered
into my father's 'block-signal-system' of education with an enthusiasm
as zealous and childish as my own, therefore her contributions to the
rapidly increasing store of blocks were large and exceedingly
interesting. Her stories regarding the numerous members of the botany
and history families proved equally profitable and charming; those about
plants and trees especially so. These stories and plays of science
grouping, always associated with such pleasant emotions of my childish
heart, became permanently fixed and dominant in my mental growth,
forming separate brain structures around which the details of the
accumulated knowledge of future years could easily and naturally
classify and crystallize.
"Thus swiftly passed those happy years of my early girlhood. So
constantly was I associated with my dear father and mother that schools
I did not need. In my seventh year, under their supervision, I commenced
a systematic course of scientific reading which I kept up until after I
graduated from college. I commenced with the Science Primer Series,
reading aloud to my parents one half hour each morning and evening,
conversing and commenting on the different topics as we went along. This
proved to be a continuation of the game of blocks: just as interesting,
equally entertaining; all about the same familiar families. I enjoyed it
so much and never once dreamed I was accomplishing a great deal of good
hard study. To me it was play; play that gave me more pleasure than any
of my childish sports. I soon began to ask for an extension of the half
hour lessons to an hour each; when my request was granted my cup of
pleasure was full, my joy complete. With each succeeding week my
interest in all my studies continued to grow. Yet my health remained
perfect: my physical kept an even pace with my mental growth, largely
owing, no doubt, to the much enjoyed hours of good romping exercise and
the dancing and singing which followed my reading lessons.
"You must pardon me, Mr. Flagg, if I should tire you with such a
detailed account of my child life; my excuse must be, the valuable hints
it may offer when we come to consider a school system for the children
of our model co-operative farm."
"I am profoundly interested," said Fillmore Flagg. "The very wonderful
result flowing from the wise methods conceived by your parents and
carried out by them so devotedly, fills my mind with admiration and
offers a flood of suggestions as to the possibilities of what may be
accomplished by a properly conducted, well equipped school on a
co-operative farm. But you must not allow me to interrupt--please
proceed with your very interesting story."