THE PACIFIC EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL. Official Organ of the Department of Public Instruction of California. ISSUED MONTHLY BY THE EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING CO., | P. O. BOX 2509, SAN FRANCISCO A. MEGAHAN, P. M. FISHER, Editor and Manager. A. B. COFFEY, Associate Editor. EDITORIAL OFFICE, NO. 211 CENTRAL BANK BUILDING, OAKLAND, CAL. Drafts and Money Orders should be made payable to the order of the Manager. Yearly Subscriptions, $1.50, Payable in Advance, VOL. XI. OCTOBER, 1895. CURRENT EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT. No. 10 Some Thoughts from California Educators. WE lose much good because teachers do not participate more actively in the work of the Institute. We ought to work to secure coöperation upon the part of the teachers, to draw out the teachers by giving them, if need be, a store of thought, first in some general paper or talk. Larger participation by the teachers seems to me a necessity. All through the year, there should be some line of thought leading up to the Institute, circulars being sent out to secure this attention—or, perhaps, the reading of some book or carrying on of some line of investigation along the new education.-PROF. E. E. BROWN, University of California. BETTER that our boys and girls grow up knowing a little less arithmetic, a little less geography, and with a little less outward polish, but with clearer knowledge of the principles and practices of honesty, frugality, justice, right living and a more exalted love of country than we as a people have ever had. Be sure, then, that you train for these elements of character.-PRINCIPAL E. T. PIERCE, Los Angeles State Normal. THE coming, if not the present race of school superintendents must know the human mind from a to izzard, from the first mild whims of infancy to the highest speculations of Kant and Herbart.—PRESIDENT MARTIN KELLOGG, University of California. FOR all disintegrating agencies in our country, the simple remedy is educated citizenship.-HENRY E. HIGHTON, San Francisco. WE claim that in elementary schools there should be no specialties; for this reason, primary teachers should have a Normal or University education, with special training in music, kindergartning and physical culture from a medical standpoint.-Allie M. Felker, San Jose State Normal. TEXT-BOOK Science now belongs to the silurian age. During its reign the mind was filled but did not grow.-M. L. SEYMOUR, Chico State Normal School. THE studies best fitted to supply the material upon which the young mind is to be exercised and disciplined should be few, and should be chosen with reference to developing the powers of observation, reason and exposition. The three subjects used for this purpose should be a natural science (or lessons in the natural sciences), mathematics, and the English language; these three departments of studies are fundamental, and all other studies of the primary and grammar schools may be regarded as subordinate to them. Other disciplines are desirable and should have a place in the program, but not to the exclusion of any of these three.-PROF. IRVING STRINGHAM, University of California. LET us improve our common schools by ridding them of the mess of weeds which choke the garden of a good, solid English education. -Sacramento Bee. MANY a poor miser fancies he would be generous were he rich. Many a lazy loafer fancies he would be industrious had he a fair chance. Many a fool fancies he would be wise had he been given an education, but the world knows better. The world takes facts,—bare, cold facts,--and bases its judgment thereon. The world is right.MARGARET E. SchaLLENBERGER. GENERAL · DEPARTMENT ** The Relation of the Kindergarten to the Public School. MISS MARY PETER. [From the Undergraduate Seminary in Pedagogy of the University of California.] The first question that arises in our minds is, "What are kindergarten ideas?" The casual or prejudiced observer is apt to regard a kindergarten as a place where children are sent to be amused, and where songs, colored balls and bright scraps of paper are the principal means of entertainment. Possibly Froebel would not think that his work had been in vain could he see merely the happiness which he has brought into many children's lives, for he delighted in the joy of children; but he had much more in mind when he instituted his schools than the mere amusement of his pupils. The more we study the methods of this great teacher, the more reverence do we have for the ideas which inspired him, for the sincerity of his love for humanity, for his profound knowledge of human development. He, above all other educators, has emphasized the fact that there can be no true education which does not take into account the complexity of the child's nature and attempt to develop harmoniously his different faculties. Froebel was a close student of Nature's methods; he saw that physical development comes through exercise, and that play is the natural expression of the child's inborn desire for activity. In accordance with this, he sought to make use of judicious exercises, guiding the instinct of the child into organized movement; the games he suggests have all an ethical and an educational value, and teach not only physical exercises, but habits of self-control, harmonious. action and purpose, together with some simple fact. Thus the kindergarten games develop the all-sided activity of the child-of his body, mind and spirit. |