II.-Colleges for women--Continued.

CHAPTER XIX.

HISTORY AND STATUS OF PUBLIC KINDERGARTENS AND ÉCOLES GARDIENNES IN SEVERAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.1

I. BELGIUM.

The very history of this interesting kingdom is intimately connected with its educational interests. In 1814 Belgium was united with Holland, and much was done at once by the new government to place public instruction on a good footing. These efforts, however, deeply offended the clergy. Restrictions were placed on their influence and on their control of their own schools. These they interpreted as attacks upon the liberty and autonomy of the Belgian people, and the liberal party joined them in the demand for freedom of instruction. Under the influence of the French Revolution of July, 1830, outbreaks took place in Belgium, which led to the establishment of a provisional government in September, and to the declaration of Belgian independence in October. The new constitution declared:

"Instruction is free; every preventive measure is forbidden; measures of supervision and repression are regulated by the law; the public instruction to be given at the expense of the state is also regulated by the law."

However, this law was a long time coming. In the meanwhile the clergy, always well organized, regained more than it had lost in matters of instruction; and the liberal party, poorly organized and compelled to turn now against those who had aided them so effectually in the attainment of independence were rapidly losing their foothold. They succeeded, however, in successive struggles (more particularly in 1835, 1842, 1850, 1859, and 1878) in establishing a system of public education which challenges the admiration of the world and which the clerical party, since its last victory in 1884, has in vain attempted to undo.

We are, however, here concerned only with the infant schools of the little kingdom. These were originated in 1826 by the same philanthropic spirit that had resuscitated the salle d'asile in France. In the larger cities, which had a vast industrial population, societies were formed that established and maintained these salles d'asile, écoles gardiennes and crèches, whose organizations were after French patterns 2.

However, in 1857, Rogier, minister of the interior department, summoned Madame Marenholtz-Buelow to Brussels. He had made her acquaintance during a session of "the International Charity Congress" at Frankfort, where she had delivered two addresses. On her arrival at Brussels, she found that Madame Guillaume, a kindergartner from Hamburg, had just established a kindergarten. "Nevertheless," she reports, "the cause and even Froebel's name were wholly unknown, and endless labor was needed in order to obtain a modest circle of hearers for my weekly lectures." At

Later on, however, these were attended by many prominent men and women.

1 Prepared for the Bureau of Education by W. N. Hailmann, superintendent of public schools, La Porte, Ind.

Private devotion to educational progress organized in associations is even now in Belgium the chief hope of the schools, whose interests the liberals declare to be threatened at every point by the reactionary measures of the ruling clerical party. Thus the workingmen of Ghent are organized as "Lovers of Freedom," the working women of the same city are banded together in an association, significantly named "Joy in Duty" (Nreugd in Deugd). Elsewhere we find rather humorous names, such as Reclining Academicians," Standing Academicians," "Marching Academicians," "The Guard of the Communal Schools,' "The Impermeables," "The Five Farthings," etc. The object of all of these is to diffuse instruction among the people and to support certain features of the schools which, for reasons of their own, the clergy are steadily attempting to restrict or abrogate.

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the same time a normal class, or course for teachers, was organized; and, at her request, the Government (Rogier) invited Mademoiselle Breymann to aid in this work. The movement was further aided by Mademoiselle Chevallier, a Parisian kindergartner, who had come to Brussels to give instruction to a number of nuns; still more by the publication of the Manuel des Jardins d'Enfants, which was the joint work of Mademoiselle Marenholtz, School Inspector Jacobs, Mademoiselle Breymann, Mademoiselle Chevallier, and Madame Reulens, a Belgian poet of some

note.

In 1858 Rogier commissioned the inspectors-general of the Belgian provinces to look into the merits of the Froebelian method and to report the result of their examination. Their report is so classical that some of its principal portions are given here in full. They wrote as follows:

"Prominent educators, filled with the love of mankind, have labored to discover the nature and powers of the human mind in order to bring education and instruction into efficient and harmonious unity. The influence of new psychological experiences enabled them successfully to modify the method of teaching. The majority of them, however, confined themselves to the enunciation of theoretical principles, which indicated only very imperfectly the road to be followed.

"Froebel supplied this deficiency to a remarkable degree. The principle underlying his system demands that the child be developed by means of his own spontaneous activity. Education should stimulate his physical, moral, and intellectual powers, furnish him materials that call forth and serve his activity, and lead him to the harmonious and complete development of his humanity."

The report then goes on to detail the value and meaning of play, and of Froebel's gifts, and continues with the following remarkable thoughts: "According to Froebel the family should be the center of education. Yet the family alone is not sufficient to develop every side of the human being. The kindergarten is meant to supplement family education by offering opportunities for the practice of social virtue. Froebel regards the kindergarten as the most necessary auxiliary of the mother in every condition of life. Community of interest in the kindergarten affects the young souls much more strongly than is generally supposed. Children between the ages of two and seven learn to adapt themselves to a fixed order, to obey a law which acts so beneficently because it secures to them much coveted joy and activity; and they enjoy these pleasures only by fulfilling concurrent duties."

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The recognition of these principles on the part of Belgian educators, and the utter failure of French leaders of educational thought to apprehend them, explain the fact that in Belgium, in spite of unfavorable conditions and in the face of determined opposition on the part of a reactionary government, Froebel has achieved even at this advanced epoch his brightest triumphs (at least as far as European countries are concerned), whereas in France, in spite of most favorable conditions and a government eager for progress, the spirit of his work seems to be hopelessly buried beneath heaps of meaningless technicalities.

From Brussels Madame Marenholtz went to Ghent and Antwerp, where her lectures aroused much interest. Many kindergartens were established in these and other cities of Belgium, and the work continued to flourish. However, the majority of nursery schools (ècoles gardiennes) were still conducted largely on the plan of the salle d'asile, and a constant struggle was required to prevent reversion into the easier methods of the claquoir. Thanks, however, to the determined devotion of a number of persons of influence and insight the work prospered into ever greater purity in the leading cities of Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, Liege, etc., and ultimately the kindergarten triumphed and impressed its principles and tendencies permanently on the écoles gardiennes (nursery schools) of the kingdom, which had been established in 1812.

Up to 1870 the ecoles gardiennes had been subject to the exclusive control of the communal authorities. In most cases they were asylums for neglected children and subject in their somewhat precarious existence to shifting economic whims and prejudices of the communes. The desire to remedy this state of affairs led to the introduction of the following paragraph into the law of July, 1879:

Salles d'asile or écoles gardiennes are to be connected with the communal schools in every locality where the Government deems it necessary.

In consequence of the manifest interest in these schools which followed the promulgation of the law, the ecoles enfantines increased rapidly in number, in efficiency, in character. During the year 1880-81 the number of these schools rose from 394 to 684, and in 1884 their number had risen to 850. Similarly their population had risen from 52,500 children in 1881 to 74,000 in 1884. In 1879 the expenses for the écoles gardiennes and écoles d'adultes amounted in round numbers to 2,255,000 francs, the state contributing 620,000 francs; in 1884 the ècoles gardiennes alone cost 2,300,000 francs, of which the state paid 900,000 francs.

That the minister of public instruction (P. Vanhumbéeck1) had risen to a full appreciation of the value of these schools and had learned to place a high estimate on Froebel's educational aims and means is amply attested by the circular and programme for the ecoles gardiennes issued to the governors of the provinces in September, 1880. The programme indeed had been prepared by skillful hands, by a commission appointed for the purpose, among whom were M. Jacobs, principal inspector of primary instruction at Brussels; M. Minnaert, subdirector of the normal school of Ghent; Madame Op Den Berg, directress of the kindergartens of Liege, and Mademoiselle Van der Molen, from the normal school of Brussels.

In this programme the aim of the école gardienne, which was now rapidly becoming a jardin d'enfants (kindergarten), was formulated as follows:

To cultivate the physical powers and to assure to the children robust health; to secure by the exercise of the senses, an early development of the faculty of perception to the spirit of observation: to encourage the impulse of imitation, and to stimulate the inventive faculties; to teach children, within the limits of their power, to express clearly their observations and judgments; to habituate them to cleanliness, order, politeness; to inspire them with the love of the beautiful; to train them to obedience, veracity, diligence; above all, to make them kind, amiable, generous.

The method to be used is based on the natural laws that control the physical, intellectual, and moral development of the child. In its great principles, as well as in its fundamental practical applications, this method has been created by the genius of Froebel. It comprises a series of graduated plays, exercises, stories, or conversations, song, and manual occupations, which in happy harmony bring into activity all the powers and faculties of the child.

In order to succeed in this work of maternal education, it is necessary that the teacher in the full apprehension of Froebel's spirit, should rely more on pedagogical principles than on the study of the details in a manual; that she should shun purely mechanical devices and the mere memorizing of formulas; that she should know how to vary the talks and invent new exercises, and lead the children to invent, to create; that she should endeavor to acquire the affectionate and persuasive language of the mother; that, finally, she find all her joy in seeing herself surrounded by children beaming with health and happiness.

These beautiful introductory words, as well as the painfully detailed programme of work, which is reproduced in Appendix D, reveal, together with the many excellences, also the shortcomings of the Belgian interpretation of Froebel, which will appear more clearly later on.

The minister of public instruction in the circular accompanying the programme of work points to the fact that as a rule "education is a secondary consideration in charity nurseries, which attempt to gather under the direction of one teacher from 60 to 100 and even more children, and expresses the hope that the organization of the communal kindergartens will be such as to limit the number of children intrusted to one teacher to 30 or 40 at most." A similar observation may be made in our own country. Charity kindergartens frequently unite in one room from 100 to 150 children, and seek to "keep them in order" by placing at the disposal of the teacher a number of inexperienced apprentices, who in blundering fashion pay with their time for the privilege of “learning the kindergarten." There is no greater obstacle to the diffusion of a proper appreciation of the kindergarten than the charity kindergartens organized in this miserly fashion.

The minister of public instruction concludes his remarkable circular with the following far-reaching words:

"If these institutions are pervaded by the principles of Froebel, if they hold in high esteem the cultivation of the senses and of the incipient faculties, if they open the heart of the child to moral influence, if they give him habits of order and industry, there can be no doubt that the primary school and the school for adults in continuing and completing a culture so well begun will secure that rounded education which renders the pupil intelligent and efficient, prepared for individual and for social life, capable of working out his own improvement."

In accordance with the spirit of the law of 1879, the communal écoles gardiennes were freely subsidized by the state, and the need of private enterprise in this direction was signally reduced. At the same time strenuous efforts were made to secure competent teachers for these schools. For this purpose persons who desired to teach in the icoles gardiennes were required to hold a special diploma as proof of a satisfactory examination showing among other things a knowledge of the method of Froebel and familiarity with the didactic exercises of the kindergarten. Admission to these examinations was accorded only to those who had passed satisfactorily through preparatory schools, and, for the present, to those serving at the time in the 1 The Revue Pédagogique Belge just brings the news (September, 1890) of the death of this educational benefactor of Belgium. He became minister of public instruction in 1878 and filled this important office until the fall of the Liberal ministry in 1884. The Revue says concerning the results of his administration: "Under his administration hundreds of schools were built even in the remotest hamlets; schools for adults, normal schools, and atheneums multiplied in every province; special and superior institutions were reorganized, supervision was strengthened, the position of the teachers improved and honored; the state created the first intermediate schools for girls and assumed the organization of kindergartens left heretofore wholly to the initiative of private enterprise and the communes; the programmes were entirely recast and gave to popular education the scientific and integral character corresponding with the requirements of our time; in short, it was a real intellectual awakening."

communal écoles gardiennes, in the communal primary schools or in the practice schools of State normal schools.

In order to secure the needed preparation the Government had planned the estabment of special normal schools for the training of kindergartners. For the period which must necessarily elapse before the realization of the plan it had established temporary normal courses in a number of prominent cities. These courses lasted for ten weeks, required a high degree of preparation in those who entered, and gave much time to thoroughly professional work under excellent teachers. Persons who attended these courses could secure by suitable examination a provisional license to teach. They had after that three years' time to prepare themselves for obtaining their final special diploma, which alone could render their appointment permanent. In 1880 these normal courses were attended by 830 students; of these 720 secured the provisional license. Out of 492 who attended in 1881 439 secured licenses. In 1884 three-quarters of the teaching corps (over 1,400) had secured the full special license. Subsequently additional opportunity for improvement was offered by teachers' conferences, four of which are held annually under the auspices of the Government. We reproduce in Appendix F the plan of the conferences at Antwerp for 1882. Indeed, in his triennial report published in 1884, the minister of public instruction, Vanhumbéeck, could write:"

"The exercises of the méthode Froebel have penetrated, to a great extent at least, into all the écoles gardiennes subject to our inspection. There are no longer any classes in which the children do not practice the folding, plaiting, and cutting of paper; where they have not frequent talks on the persons and things in the school and in the family, on the productions of nature and of the arts; where the children can not recite some small pieces of children's prose and poetry; where they are not able to render a pleasing song, to execute some regular marches or some gymnastic games. In all there is taught a little arithmetic and drawing, and in the greater number the children are skilled in producing the constructions and arrangements implied in an intelligent use of Froebel's gifts."

Still here, too, popular ignorance and prejudice had compelled the teachers in a number of places, notably in the provinces of Hainault and Namur, to make concessions to false notions and to teach the rudiments of reading and writing in order to secure the attendance of children.

"Certainly," he concludes, "the interpretation of the thought of Froebel is not yet perfect in all the schools; a number of the teachers render the work with the occupations too mechanical and fail to arouse the spontaneous activity of the children; but in general there is considerable progress, and we may safely say that we are far in advance of the old nurseries (garderies) where the poor little children vegetated in idleness and disorder and in a fatal torpor of head and heart."

The bright prospects of an indefinite progress, however, received a serious check with the accession to power of a reactionary government in 1884. In September of this year the beneficent law of 1879 was abrogated and a new law promulgated which practically disowns the écoles gardiennes so far as the state is concerned. It reduces these schools to the status of 1842, leaving the communes "free to establish or suppress écoles gardiennes without the intervention of the Government." The state, however, reserves the right of inspection over all écoles gardiennes organized by the communes or subsidized by the state, the province, or the commune. It still places in its budget a certain sum for subsidizing such schools, if the commune solicits this aid and the state finds the existence of the school justifiable and its character satisfactory.

At the same time the plans for the establishment of special normal schools for the education of competent teachers were abandoned and the special normal courses, established for the same purpose, were dropped. Attendance on the conferences for the improvement of teachers ceased to be a matter of interest to the state, and laws requiring special licences became inoperative so far as the state was concerned.

The disastrous effects of this hostile legislation soon became apparent. It is true that according to the reports of the Government the population of these schools and the number of teachers continued to increase. With reference to attendance the Government finds for the period from the 1st of January, 1884, to December 31, 1887, an increase of 33,953 children reporting for the latter date a population of 99,296 children in the écoles gardiennes of the kingdom.

It should be observed in the first place that the period referred to includes the year 1884 during 9 months of which the schools were under the law of 1879, and, inasmuch as the population of these schools, on June 30, 1884; had reached 74,383 children, the increase claimed would, by this consideration alone, be reduced to 24,913. Again, one chief inspector complains that in some schools children are kept in these schools to the age of 9 or 10 years, and another regrets he has found in these schools "many children of 12, 15, and 18 months."

It goes without saying that such irregularities would be more apt to be tolerated in the "adopted and subsidized écoles gardiennes," which are virtually under the con