Dr. Hart. — I would like to ask Miss Hallowell what she con-
siders the effect of kindergarten training on nervous children, and
what is the result of such training in the public schools after^vard ?

Miss Hallowell. — Very great care is taken not to stimulate the
children. It may be true that there is injudicious teaching. A
system may be perfect and the exponents imperfect. But where
there is an intelligent teacher, one who has the motherly instinct,




I

■

I



THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES

she would naturally protect the child from improper development.
I ihink that it is a false impression that kindergarten instruciion
develops too rapidly or excites the nervous system. We have a
phrase that it is intended for " the harmonious development of (he
whole child," and that would imply that there is no overslimulating.
As 10 the second question, whether kindergarten instruction leads
naturally and easily into the more advanced instruction of the
schools, 1 believe that it does, according to the experience of those
teachers who have co-operated with kindergarten teaching. We
have especially the testimony of St. Louis and Philadelphia public-
school teachers. They lell us that a properly trained child coming
from the kindergarten is very ready to enter into the studies of the
primary schools. In Boston, the child omits the first year of the
primary school, and goes into the second. The little mind is natu-
rally developed, and is ready for impressions.
Rabbi Sonneschein. — May I ask Miss Huntington what is done
about children who do not speak English in the Wilson School ?

Miss Huntington. — They soon team English. Ourforeign speak-
ing children are mostly German, and we have a teacher who speaks
both English and German.
