THE KINDERGARTEN. 207 



image is formed upon the retina, and this image, however imper- 

 fect it may be, is what is perceived by the brain. In hearing the 

 case is different. The waves of sound, if they be conducted to 

 the internal ear, and if the nerve of hearing, with its terminations, 

 be normal, can not be modified in course of transmission. Sounds 

 are always appreciated at their exact value, except as regards in- 

 tensity. Enough has been said about the eye, I think, to show 

 that it is perfectly adapted to all requirements, and whatever de- 

 fects it may seem to have, viewed as an optical instrument, ren- 

 der it more useful to us than if these apparent defects did not 

 exist. 



THE KINDERGARTEN A NATURAL SYSTEM OF 



EDUCATION. 



By JAMES L. HUGHES, 



PUBLIC-SCHOOL INSPECTOR, TORONTO. 



THE kindergarten is a natural system of education, because it 

 recognizes the natural laws of human growth, and supplies 

 the necessary conditions to stimulate the special powers of each 

 individual child. It recognizes the fact that each child has an in- 

 dividuality peculiarly its own, and that the greatest evil of school 

 life in the past has been the dwarfing of individual power. No two 

 children are alike, no two should be alike. All should be in uni- 

 son by having the same desire to live for the right, but the pow- 

 ers of each and the methods of using them should be his own. 

 The mightiest, holiest part of each individual is the quality or 

 power in which he difi^ers from all others. Schools generally 

 manufacture men and women " to pattern." Whatever the abil- 

 ity, general or special, possessed by the difi'erent pupils of a class, 

 they have all been expected to rise or fall to the same dead level. 

 Usually the level has been very dead. The kindergarten is 

 founded on the broad principle that the Creator had a special 

 purpose in giving life to each child, and that the school should 

 aid the child in becoming as nearly as possible what God meant 

 him to be when he first let him enter the world. The kinder- 

 garten insists on the proper control of each child, because uncon- 

 trolled spontaneity commonly leads to anarchy and unbridled 

 evil, but it never allows power to be destroyed by controlling it. 



The kindergarten values the child more than the knowledge 

 to be communicated to it or acquired by it. It values knowledge 

 highly, but it places its highest estimate on the child, who has 

 power to give the only real value to knowledge. It knows that 

 the development of the child increases his capacity for gathering 

 and using knowledge. It believes that the child's powers should 



