From James Hannan, Esq., assistant superintendent: "The most positive friends of the kindergarten are those who know it best. No principal who has had one in his school is willing to do without it. We have had several cases where the principal of an old school has been transferred to a new one and in every such case there has been urgent demand for the establishment of a kindergarten in the new school."

From Mr. Lincoln P. Goodhue of the D. S. Wentworth school:

"The kindergarten-trained child is more responsive in early primary work, has greater freedom of thought and expression, better and more definite control of motor activities and many well-established useful habits not usually found in the ordinary beginner.

"During the first year many of the kindergarten children take first rank in their rooms, although some fall into the lower classes, even into the C class. It is seldom, however, that a kindergarten child is found overtime in grade. In the second year and above opportunity for the observation of the kindergarten child in this school has been quite limited, and I am unable to submit any definite statement.

"That the average child is helped very materially by the kindergarten course must be admitted. That the children of the poor are led into habits of thought and conduct which their home environment could never develop is also true.

"The dull child, while he may still be dull, must be quickened more or less by kindergarten training well done. The whole question as to the value of the kindergarten can be answered only when the other question as to the training and qualifications of the kindergarten teachers has been positively settled. It is more true in the kindergarten perhaps than in the grades that the teacher makes the school."

From Miss Minnie R. Cowan, principal of the McAllister school:

"In the following respects we find the pupils who have had kindergarten training very superior to children who come directly from the home,-power of observing closely and accurately and ability to express their thoughts readily and clearly.

"They have also a considerable degree of manual skill, and in the first year of school life especially this is a great aid to their progress.

"I have not found that they ordinarily gain any time in the grades, but they do the work of the grades more easily and perfectly."

From Mrs. Elizabeth Huntington Sutherland, principal of the Alice E. Barnard school:

Having been seventeen years in this school, I have had many large families begin and complete their work with me. 'The older three or four children of said families were in school before our kindergarten was established; the younger three or four since. Invariably there is a marked contrast in the ability of the two groups. The younger ones are brighter in every way, and often seem hardly to belong to the same stock. Much of this difference I believe to be due to the early wholesome awakening brought about by the training in the kindergarten."

From Mr. Fulton B. Ormsby, principal of the Perkins Bass school:

"My observations thus far convince me that the kindergarten is a distinct and positive help to the future progress of the child.

"The motor activities are so developed that the various occupations of the school room are taken up with skill and readiness, and the powers of observation so aroused that the more formal instruction, if desired, may be undertaken at once with success.

"In our school, the children who have had the kindergarten training are advancing more satisfactorily than those who lack such training."

From Mr. Samuel A. Harrison, principal of the Burroughs school:

"The observations of myself and teachers are that pupils coming from the kindergarten:

"1. Know better how to handle themselves. They have been trained to control their attention, and can begin school work at once.

"2. They have gained some little learning in singing and numbers.

"3. They are cleaner, neater and better mannered, and their training shows to advantage in all school proprieties." From Mr. Frank A. Houghton, principal of the Kershaw school:

"The kindergarten has a most excellent influence on the primary grades. I feel its influence on the work of the first grade especially."

Miss Ida De La Mater, extra teacher, who supervises the primary work of the Kershaw school, adds:

"I have found that the kindergarten children lack concentration, self-control, and are hard to discipline.

"In the games, story work, language and general information, they are better than other children. I am in hearty sympathy with the work."

From Mr. Charles F. Babcock, principal of the Holden school:

The children who have been in the kindergarten classes are noted for their powers of observation and expression, fluency in language, etc. They are vastly superior to those who have not had this training. The only objection to them is that they develop into regular chatterboxes, and it takes some time to tone them down. We have the kindergarten and non-kindergarten classes together and can speak of them better for so doing."

From Mr. Daniel Appleton White, principal of the Everett school:

"I have carefully revised the records of this school in regard to the progress cf kindergarten children. By comparing the progress of several hundreds of children who are at present members of this school, I obtain the following statistics:

"Of one hundred promotions from first to second grade, I find that the children who have had the kindergarten work required an average time of thirty-seven and one-half weeks for the completion of the grade work, while the others required forty-four and one-third weeks for the same. For the second grade the respective results are forty-five and one-tenth weeks and forty-four and eight-tenths weeks. For the third grade forty-three and seven-tenths weeks and forty

six weeks, while for the fourth grade the average time required was thirty-three weeks and forty-four and fourtenths weeks.

"In addition to these facts I cheerfully submit my opinion of the advantages of the kindergarten training so far as I have observed them. In my judgment * * the children gain exceedingly in regard to the following points:

'The formation of good habits, the development of freedom and activity, the power to understand directions, the social element, and last, but not the least, the attention paid to cleanliness."

Since the kindergarten system has been more highly developed in Boston, Chicago and St. Louis than in other places, testimony from these cities has seemed to me of the highest importance. Similar results are, however, showing themselves in many smaller cities and towns, in witness whereof I permit myself to quote the following published

statements.

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I

Having often been asked if there is any difference in the ages of those children in the several grades who have had kindergarten training and those who have not been so fortunate, I have this year taken some pains to see if there is really any difference. I find that the age of the kindergarten trained children in every grade is actually less than that of the remainder of the class by a few months until the eighth grade is reached, where the difference is ten months, or one whole school year. At first this does not seem very much, but a year at school is a great factor in the life of any student." (Olive McHenry, principal of Hawthorne school, Des Moines, Iowa. Published in report of city superintendent of schools for 1893-94.)

II

"Referring to our kindergartens and schools as we see them in New England, what is the opinion of the most intelligent primary teachers to-day concerning what the kindergarten does? Being very familiar with this matter in a town where eleven kindergartens, having some nineteen teachers, are feeding the primary schools, it is a pleasure to say that there is unanimous agreement on the part of all the

primary teachers that the children receive incalculable benefit through their kindergarten training, and are far better prepared to take up the activities of the school because of that training.

"Many of these teachers are well advanced in life, and had long experience before the kindergarten was adopted in the town. They have not been hasty in making up their minds; on the other hand, they have no doubt been slow in doing so. They find the kindergarten children coming to them full of anticipation of what they are to enjoy, and they are slow to adopt any measure that tends to dampen this enthusiasm. They find them active and needing activity. They are quick to see, curious to ask questions, and anxious to co-operate in everything pertaining to the school. And it is delightful to note that the same methods which make the kindergarten a highly socialized community where there is much mutual sympathy, and co-operation operate also in the school so that it becomes something quite different from the school of other days when children were treated as little men and women and when the aim of the teacher was to have as little stir and activity as possible, doing violence to the nature of the child and often crippling him for life.

"The time has come when we may safely claim that the kindergarten with all that it has brought to the school of spirit and method gives enlarged capacity to do work of all kinds and its beneficent influence is felt not only in all grades of schools but in college and in after life." (Samuel T. Dutton, Superintendent of Schools, Brookline, Mass., in Kindergarten Magazine for April, 1899.)

In view of the attacks so freely and insistently made upon what is called the "sentimentalism" of the kindergarten, it may be well to call attention to the fact that none of the expert witnesses whose testimony I have quoted seem to have detected its existence. That among kindergartners there are some sentimentalists I have no doubt. That sentimentalism is inherent in the Froebelian ideal or tolerated in the best training schools for kindergartners I unhesitatingly deny. There is greater danger of its appearance in private than in public work because any person calling herself a kindergartner may be accepted as such by ignorant or