THE KINDERGARTEN. 211 



activity of the child. All growth of human power is based on the 

 self-activity of the individual to be developed. No thought is 

 ever definite until it has been consciously lived out or wrought 

 out. The kindergarten makes use of self-expression in the child 

 to define the thought already in its mind, and to reveal new 

 thought. There is no other way by which thought can be clearly 

 revealed and defined. Self-activity on the part of the child se- 

 cures four very important results : it enables the teacher to be 

 sure that the child is paying attention to its work, it reveals the 

 nature of the child's own conceptions, it is an accurate test of the 

 clearness of the thought received from the instruction of the 

 teacher, and it is the most productive incentive to originality. 



In the kindergarten, knowledge is applied as it is gained. 

 The old plan of learning definitions or tables, or the names or 

 powers of letters, or the theoretical principles of any science as a 

 preparation for practical work to be done in geometry, algebra, 

 arithmetic, reading, or science, was not in harmony with natural 

 laws of growth. It is unnatural to value knowledge of any kind 

 for itself alone. Knowledge has no value except as it is used ; 

 and an assumed value based on any other foundation must be 

 fictitious and misleading. The child should not be interested in 

 knowledge that it is not required to use in some way. When it 

 becomes conscious of a lack of knowledge that is essential to the 

 accomplishment of any definite purpose in its mind, it needs no 

 artificial stimulus to make it give active and persistent attention. 

 The consciousness of necessity should precede the effort to ac- 

 quire. The kindergarten leads the child to define knowledge by 

 using it, and uses knowledge as soon as it is acquired. 



The kindergarten trains the executive powers of children. 

 Formerly only their receptive powers were cultivated. They 

 were made receptacles for knowledge communicated by the 

 teacher, and their powers of receiving knowledge independently 

 were developed. When teachers had accomplished the two pur- 

 poses of storing the minds of their pupils and training their pow- 

 ers of observation, so as to qualify them for gaining knowledge 

 readily and accurately themselves, they were satisfied. Better 

 teachers were soon convinced that the accumulation of knowledge 

 by even the most perfect methods was not the true aim of educa- 

 tion, and gradually the reflective power received attention as well 

 as the receptive powers. The lesson that the kindergarten has for 

 us is that the best training of the receptive and reflective powers 

 is practically valueless unless the executive powers are trained 

 too. It will not do to leave the training of the executive powers 

 to the circumstances of life outside of school. The receptive pow- 

 ers receive a great deal of good training outside of school ; so do 

 the reflective powers ; so, too, do the executive powers. There is 



