Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, September 10, 1915.

SIR: The large increase in the number of kindergartens in the United States within the past few years and the revival of interest in the kindergarten in all parts of the country have given rise to a demand for information about schools for the preparation of kindergarten teachers and the standards and courses of study in these schools. The schools themselves ask for honest intelligent criticism of their work and for suggestions for improving it. To meet this demand of the public, and to some extent in response to the requests of the schools, this report has been prepared at my request through the cooperation of the National Kindergarten Association and a committee of the International Kindergarten Union cooperating with the kindergarten division of this bureau. This committee consists of the following members: Nina C. Vandewalker, Myra M. Winchester, Ella C. Elder, Alice O'Grady, Patty S. Hill, Julia Bothwell, Alma Binzel, Hortense Orcutt, Mabel MacKinney, Amalie Hofer Jerome, Luella A. Palmer, Alice Temple, Mary C. Shute, Margaret A. Trace, Elizabeth Harrison, Lucy Wheelock, Annie Laws, Mary B. Page, Mary McCulloch, Catherine R. Watkins, and Alice N. Parker. The section "Ideals in kindergarten training" has been prepared by the Committee of Nineteen of the International Kindergarten Union. I recommend that this report be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education. Respectfully submitted.

P. P. CLAXTON,
Commissioner.

The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

4

KINDERGARTEN TRAINING SCHOOLS.

I. KINDERGARTEN TRAINING IN RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT.

By NINA C. VANDEWALKER, Head of Kindergarten Department, State Normal School, Milwaukee, Wis.

The increase in the number of kindergartens in the United States and their incorporation into the school system have brought the training of kindergartners into the field of public interest and inquiry. During the early years of the movement the interest in such training was slight, since the kindergarten itself was private and the training was given almost wholly by private institutions. When the kindergarten became a part of the school system, the training of kindergarten teachers necessarily became of vital interest to public school authorities.

Interest in the question is at present both kindly and critical. School authorities concede that the kindergarten has contributed much to the school; that it has, in fact, created new standards for the school as a whole, the adoption of which has enabled the school to increase its effectiveness and value many fold. From this standpoint kindergarten training is accorded high praise. On the other hand, from the standpoint of the kindergartner's scholarship, her insight into the kindergarten as a part of the school as a whole, and her acquaintance with the aims and methods of education in general, it is felt that kindergarten training is in need of improvement. School authorities who are conversant with the development of such training know, however, that improvement is already in progress, and that the shortcomings in question are due to the fact that the type of training which originated in the early years has not yet been fully outgrown. A glance at the beginnings of kindergarten training is therefore necessary to a comprehension of the present situation.

When the demand for kindergarten training first arose in the United States, during the decade from 1870-1880, elementary education was still upon the traditional basis. The child's interests had not yet been discovered as an educational asset, and the whole purpose of the school was instruction in the three R's, without even a diversion in the form of music, drawing, storytelling, or handwork. Into this atmosphere of dead formalism the kindergarten had come with its message of education as development instead of instruction. The favor with which it was received is shown by the fact that the 10

kindergartens in existence in 1870 increased to over 400 by 1880. It was because kindergartners were wanted that training schools sprang up to supply them, and it was because the demand was great that the courses were short and meager. They were hardly more meager, however, than the courses for the training of grade teachers at this time. The two were, in fact, nearly parallel, since the essence of the prospective grade teacher's course was instruction in the methods of teaching the school arts, and that of the prospective kindergartner was instruction in the methods of using the kindergarten instrumentalities games, songs, and handwork. The kindergarten course had a strong element of interest which the other did not have, however, in its exposition of the doctrine of development as the basis of education. Because of the new insight which this study gave, the course was satisfactory on the whole in spite of its brevity.

The fact that the kindergarten remained private for many years gave the training schools the opportunity of organizing the training course in accordance with their own ideals. In the course thus organized the central theme was, as before, a study of the Froebelian conception of education, illustrated by the work in the kindergarten. Of this the study of the kindergarten instrumentalities, the games, gifts, and occupations, formed an integral part. The carrying out of this plan called for much practice teaching and much study of Froebel. The need for other lines of work was hardly felt, in fact. Since the kindergartens had no organic relation to the school, training teachers felt no necessity for making a study of educational theory in general, and since music, drawing, and nature study had not yet become an organic part of general education, the need for instruction in these or other general subjects was not felt. Such training, therefore, became the typical kindergarten training, and it was not until kindergartners so trained entered upon public school work that the need for change was felt.

During these years, from 1885 on, education had made marked progress. The conception of education as development had made. itself felt in the school, and such subjects as music, drawing, and manual training had been added to the elementary curriculum. This had resulted in higher standards for the training of teachers, standards which kindergartners were not prepared to meet. School principals expected them to have a knowledge of these new subjects, and an insight into the problems of education in general, but their training had not included such subjects. The criticisms made by school authorities upon the narrowness of kindergarten courses awakened kindergarten training teachers to the realization that if the kindergarten was to form a part of the school system, the training of kindergartners must be such as to meet the school requirements. This resulted in a gradual broadening of kindergarten courses.

As public kindergartens increased, the desirability of offering kindergarten training courses in public normal schools became apparent. Kindergarten departments had, in fact, been opened in 8 normal schools during the decade from 1880-1890, but these were rather for purposes of observation than of training. During the following decade such departments were opened in 25 more, mainly for the specific purpose of training kindergartners. From 1900 until the present time the number has increased to 76. The changing proportion of private and public institutions is worth noting. Of the 175 institutions that in 1903 gave kindergarten training, 135 were private and 40 public. Of the 147 in 1913, only 71 were private and 76 public. In the number of students, the former still outrank the latter, however. Of the 2,000 kindergartners who were graduated in 1912, 1,100 were from the private and 900 from the public training schools.

The kindergarten course organized in normal schools differs in some respects from that in most private institutions. In it a study of kindergarten education is taken up against a background of general education in order that kindergartners may see their own work in relation to that of the school as a whole. That relation is made clear in the instruction given in music, art, literature, and nature study-the lines of work which the kindergarten shares with the grades. Because of the emphasis upon the relation of the kindergarten to the school, and upon adequate instruction in all the lines of work that have their beginnings in the kindergarten, the graduates of such courses can doubtless articulate their work with that of the school more easily than can those who have taken courses of a different character. In these respects normal-school courses have in many instances set new standards for other training courses.

The training that enables a kindergartner to articulate her work with that of the school in general has unquestioned value, but this alone does not cover all that such training should include. The kindergarten embodies ideals concerning early education, not for the school alone, but for the home and the community at large. It is important that the kindergarten should articulate with the school, but it is also important that it should articulate with the home and with other agencies for child betterment in the community. For this, training is also needed, training that is sociological in character, and the purpose of which is the betterment of child life in the home and community. It is because the kindergarten doctrines tend toward this larger service that many training schools have allied themselves with the agencies for child welfare in the community, and that they have thus given their students the insight into social work that has enabled them to become leaders in playground and settlement work and in other forms of social service. It is in their

« AnteriorContinuar »