Roots take a firmer grasp, buds form, and flowers bloom where,
under more unfriendly conditions, bare stalks or pale leaves would
greet the eye,--pathetic, unfulfilled promises,--souls no happier
for having lived in the world, the world no happier because of their
living. "Virtue kindles at the touch of joy." The kindergarten takes
this for one of its texts, and does not breed that dismal fungus of
the mind "which disposes one to believe that the pursuit of knowledge
must necessarily be disagreeable."
The social phase of the kindergarten is most interesting to the
student of social economics. Cooeperative work is strongly emphasized;
and the child is inspired both to live his _own full_ life, and yet to
feel that his life touches other lives at every point,--"for we are
members one of another." It is not the unity of the "little birds," in
the couplet, who "agree" in their "little nests," because "they'd
fall out if they didn't," but a realization, in embryo, of the divine
principle that no man liveth to himself.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131