GOTHA, December 2, 1865. The Great Kinder Garten School at GothaThe Sparrow and the Hawk-Mechanical Occupations, etc.-The Mistake in the System-Careful Oversight, the Great Advantage-The Elementary School attached to the Kinder Garten; it is not Superior to American Schools.

HE Kinder Garten of Gotha is one of

THE

the most celebrated in Germany; and as my little girl is a pupil there, I have taken time to visit it repeatedly. So far as these visits warrant, I may say that the method of instructing the scholars is as good, or perhaps better, than is current in American infant schools. The director, Mr. Kohler, is evidently a man of fine spirit; and the young ladies who assist him are patient, faithful, and energetic. The method employed is as follows:

Children attend four hours daily-from ten to twelve, and from two to four. The first hour is spent in singing; the second, in building block-houses, drawing on slates, working on perforated board, and weaving slips of variegated paper together. In singing, the children stand in a circle, and the songs are made to illustrate simple little games. Take this, for instance: A sparrow is seen flitting up and down within the circle of little ones. This is a child chosen at random from the school. It sings a simple air, telling you how glad it is to enjoy the bright sunlight. Pretty soon a hawk enters the circle, in silence, and pursues the sparrow up and down, while the children standing around sing a verse or two describing the pursuit. The next step is seen when all aim a gun (their extended right arm) at the hawk, continue the song, which culminates at that point when the combined weapons are discharged and the hawk falls dead. Meanwhile, the children continue their verses, while the strongest goes in and bears the bird of prey from the field.

This is an example out of many. Some illustrate occupations-the blacksmith, the shoemaker, and the like; some imitate the motion of mills and of machinery more or less intricate. All indicate ingenuity. A few are copied, and are well known, in an English dress, in America. Some are new

the children, and the stiff, formal manner in which they went through their plays and songs, convinced me that there lay a mistake at the bottom of the system, and that the introduction of a few minutes of song and of play into the midst of the regular duties of the school-room gives a keener satisfaction than the system of this Kinder Garten.

"All work and no play
Makes Jack a dull boy,"

says the old couplet; but

No work and all play
Is apt Jack to cloy,

is an equally bad rhyme, and not much further from the truth.

Yet the institution seems to be not wholly unworthy of praise. With the introduction of an hour's instruction in sewing and knitting (to be taught to the boys as well as to the girls), and some little matters like that, interposed with frequent songs and plays, as is done in an admirable Kindergarten in London, it would be very easy to make this institution one of great excelence and profit. I think the careful oversight which the scholars have at all times is, perhaps, the best part of the whole sysA little son or daughter can be sent here with the greatest security against the contraction of evil habits and foul language.

tem.

The elementary school, which is connected with this Kinder Garten, I have also visited. The method of instruction is similar to that which is pursued in those schools with us where the "object system" has been introduced. It is hardly worth while to enter into a detailed description; for there was little new to be described. The appearance of the scholars and of the teachers was not materially unlike what it would be found in hundreds

of schools in New England and in New York. Books are little used. Much of the instruction is conveyed by oral communication, and the Pestalozzian central principle is rigidly adhered to, to make the scholars think out result after result, from principles and facts given to them at the outset. Yet in no way could this school be spoken of as superior to many which can be found with us. One might expect in German teachers one quality the possession of which might naturally presuppose the possession of patience, I mean stolidity -that good-natured, easy way, that would make them gentle, considerate, patient teachers. But this they do not seem to be. They are, too often, hasty, harsh, passionate. Treatment of this sort is the worst possible for children. There is nothing that they need more than the absence of an impetuous, jerky, fiery, and impatient spirit. But I do not find that, in this respect, the Germans are superior to our nervous and too excitable teachers in America. W. L. G.

HOW TO TEACH THE ALPHABET.

MR.

ASTORIA, December 16, 1865. [R. EDITOR-The difficulty experienced by many preceptors in teaching the alphabet induces me to say a few words concerning it. I have come to the conclusion, that before a person is fitted to impart primary instruction he must be full of experience in teaching, and must possess tact and judgment rarely found. Consequently, we commit an error of the most grievous kind when we use primary classes as schools of discipline and preparation, in which young teachers are to gain the training which fits them for positions of (as is supposed) more responsibility.

To teach the alphabet is a difficult task, generally because the teacher is unfitted for the work. An officer in our army, while at New Orleans, undertook to teach a freedman to read. In the orthodox manner, he took up the primer, and, pointing out the third letter, said, "That is "C;' then pointing out the first letter, he said, "That is A.'" Whenever the pupil was asked the name of either letter, he invariably answered "C," and, when rebuked, promptly replied:

"It's no use, massa; 'C''ll always come fust."

Failing in this, and thinking he had begun at the middle, the instructor pointed out two capital "A's" of different sizes, and stated that they were alike. Being called away for a short time, he was astonished, upon his return, at finding the pupil busily engaged in comparing the letters by means of a stick.

"Some mistake here, massa; they ain't the same--one's bigger than t'other."

The would-be teacher gave up his charge in disgust, and ever since has busily denounced the freedmen as incapable of mental improvement, forgetting, meanwhile, that the fault was his, not his pupil's.

As the inclination of the child is against study, the elementary points must be presented as curiosities, not as subjects requiring labor. If this method be adopted, the teaching of the alphabet becomes simple. How easily children pick up the letters, their names and sounds, from a tin plate! An acquaintance of mine, an old teacher, not long ago illustrated this principle by relating his own experience:

"While I was teaching over in New Jersey, I found that one of my pupils, a little fellow about ten years old, was unusually dull. Soon it was his father's turn 'to board the teacher.' While there, I learned that, before the boy went to school, he knew nearly all his letters, but that he had now forgotten them. The teacher's neglect then had caused his dullness. I took him in hand immediately.

"Do you see that letter? What does it look like?

"I then pointed to 'B,' and called it an oxshoe; so with others, until, in three quarters of an hour, his knowledge of the alphabet had returned, and cach letter wore a familiar face. At length I called his attention to the two letters, 'O' and 'X,' and asked him what they spelled. Of course he did not know; but, by pointing out the oxen then feeding in the door-yard, I helped him. In this way I gained his attention. Learning was not a task but an amusement, and before bedtime the dull child was as bright as need be. From that night I had no difficulty. The boy is now a worthy man, as clever as any of his

MR

LYNDON, MD., December 7, 1865.

R. EDITOR-I am not much of a critic, but in the "MONTHLY" for November there is one page which I do feel inclined to criticise a little. The page in question is that which you devote to the notice of "Our Young Folks."

Now, so far from gainsaying a single word of it, I cordially indorse it all, for a more charming little monthly could scarcely be gotten up; but there is a qualification I should make in giving it my approval, which you do not make, and I am sure it has never occurred to you. One's geographical position sometimes reveals truths, which more acute and profound minds, in a different locality, fail to discern.

-Thus guided, I have been pained to discover, in that otherwise almost faultless little magazine, a drop of poison, that must penetrate the young minds and hearts which are learning from its pages their "lessons for life." I refer to the articles concerning the treatment of our prisoners of war, and others of similar tone.

Tales of suffering and hardship are related with a bitterness that must make a deep impression on the tender minds of youth, and lead them to form and cherish sentiments of hatred and retaliation.

Now, I would not object to children hearing of these things, if they heard both sides impartially, for that would teach them to hate war itself, and to avoid whatever would lead to it.

But children in the North, at least the readers of "Our Young Folks," are never told of the suffering that marked the track of the conquering armies-they know nothing of the miles of wasted desolated homes, the throngs of starving, perishing women

and children, nor even of the hardships of the miserable rebel prisoners who spent dreary months and years on their own soil.

Oh, no! these things are not for their ears, and they are led to believe that the sufferings of our boys in Southern prisons was unprovoked and unparalleled.

This seems to me all wrong. If we are to have peace in reality—if the conciliatory policy of our Government is to amount to any thing-why embitter the minds of the children by keeping continually before them the wrongs of one side only? Better far instil lessons of pity and forgive

ness.

It seems unwise, to say the least, now at the close of one fearful war, to sow the seeds that must, some day, result in another war, if they produce their legitimate fruit. But, besides that, it is cruel to the children themselves to foster in their hearts sentiments and prejudices that can not elevate or refine them, or prepare them for the duties of citizenship in a reunited country. My heart aches for the children, who, instead of being taught to forgive their ene mies, are taught to hate them with a bitter hatred.

Then there is another view to take of it. If these magazines find their way into the Lands of Southern youth (which, however, in their present impoverished condition is not very likely to happen), it will have, by no means, a conciliating effect upon their minds, to find that but.one side of the story is told to their young countrymen in the North, and that their sufferings, privations, and wrongs, are ignored altogether.

Is it not, think you, a very great pity-a great wrong-thus to implant such lasting ill-feeling and hostility in the minds of youth all over the land?

But I have written more than I intended; I only meant to suggest to you the danger, thinking you might devise a remedy. Could not your influence be enlisted in an effort to somewhat modify the tone, or exclude such articles from the pages of a journal so widely disseminated as "Our Young Folks," and so calculated to form and mold the plastic minds and characters of the rising generation?

Your unqualified indorsement of it calls for an effort from you to help to make it worthy of what you say of it, and perfectly unexceptionable in every respect. Or if this may not be, you can at least warn your

own children, and the many young friends you must have, of the insidious teachings of such articles.

Here, on the border, we feel these things as you scarcely can, but the danger exists, nevertheless, if it be not apparent.

My deep interest in the children of our country-our whole country--and a desire to see the divine law of forgiveness and charity impressed on their susceptible hearts, must be my apology for writing at such length.

A. J. M. A.

NOTES.

Petroleum.-I have seen several conflicting statements as to the lowest depths at which this substance is found, and the localities in which it is thus procured. Petroleum is found in Canada in geological formations lower than in any other region. The lowest worked oil-bearing stratum the corniferous limestone of Enniskillen, A. MOTT KNOLL.

QUERIES.

Origin of Light.-Is it universally supposed that light is due to the vibrations of the ether?

[No. Dr. Calvert, an eminent English philosopher, holds that the phenomena of light is due to the vibrations of solid matter. He believes that there is no light, heat, electricity, or magnetism beyond the limits of the atmosphere surrounding the earth, but that when the ether, which is in a state of vibration, comes in contact with the particles of matter composing our atmosphere, it communicates one of its own peculiar vibrations to these particles; that then, by their vibrations, they become luminous. This theory was maintained in the recent "Cantor Lecture," before the Society of Arts, and awakened much interest.-J. w. H. C.]

Steam Power in Earthquakes.-I find little said of the power of steam in the phenomena of earthquakes. What is its greatest power? Is it not an active agent in such cases?

H. G. HOWELL.

[The power of steam, at exceedingly high temperatures, has not been ascertained. It is recorded that in casting two brass cannon, the heat of the metal of the first gun "drove so much damp [sic] into the mold of the second, which was near, that as soon as the metal was let in, it exploded, tearing

up the ground, breaking down the furnace, untiling the house, and killing many persons." This was the steam of a few ounces of water, as it is termed merely "damp." The temperature of melted brass is only 1,8690 F.; but the heat of lava is at least 3,000° F. Now, as it has been proved that the pressure of steam increases with an enormously rapid ratio with the temperature, it is manifest that steam, which is present in all natural disturbances of the earth's crust, must be, at times, a dominant force in the production of earthquakes and volcanoes.-J. W. H. C.]

Gold. The "Object-lesson on Gold" suggests another inquiry. Is this metal the heaviest of all known substances?

E. B. 8-LL.

[Gold is not the heaviest substance known. Its specific gravity is about 19.8; that of platinum and iridium about 21.15; osmium, 21.45.-J. W. H. c.]

REPLIES.

West Virginia.-In November MONTHLY are queries concerning West Virginia. When the old State of Virginia seceded, the western part, almost as a unit, refused to follow. When the Confederates poured across the border, on their way to Pennsylvania and Ohio, she rose as a breakwater between them, rallied round the old flag, and asked to be admitted as a member of the family of Federal States. Congress granted the petition, and another star was added to the flag, bearing the motto Monsemper liberi. Striking off the shackles of slavery, she adopted the freeschool and township systems. West Virginia became a State, not temporarily-not as a war measure-but actually and permanently. The temporary capital is Wheeling.

tana

W. V.