Part 11 (2/2)

That great word of Frbel, _, has said in the world of education, whether religious, ht,” and is never to be forgotten in its utter

In this truth you will find an infinite resource of hope and successful energy You nant word, because you do not reject it as a proposition; but partial knowledge is often deluding, and _not doubting_ is far from _efficient conviction_, which a coives Letwe coifts

Think of the four last gifts of Frbel in their wholeness of fornize theht, or twenty-seven, or thirty-six wooden, solid, six-sided, eight-cornered, twelve-edged units, and see the relations of their properties in nature, it may seem to you as if you exhaustively knew the cube; but you do not if you have omitted to notice one property inherent in it, nant with more consequences than any other property,--I mean its _divisibility_ by means of which its possible transfor the syinal in a new variety of beauty, so that if you will give to a child one of these divisible cubes and suggest to hi contrasts, which is the law of all production, he will never tire (except physically) of h each and all, that sense of a _whole_ which was the first impression It is by reason of its divisibility, that the cube can be transformed infinitely Now you reat reatest,--_his creativeness_, whose consequences are infinite

Educational science has, in fact, generally o to the attributes it recognized; but, because before Frbel's day nized by the reflective , it had not been realized that he can be transfors, infinitely, ever producing soes, as much variety in hus in the Universe

It is, in short, because education has not hitherto conceived of man as _creative_, that there has been so much dead uniformity and lifeless repetition on the plane of hueneral characteristic of educational syste of the hu into certain fixed moulds, not only irrespective of individual tendencies, but antagonistic to the universal creative impulse, which is the profoundest characteristic of reat iven a bad nah it is the highest of all the high arts), itsliving spirit

Richard Wagner has said that ”were it not for education, all eniuses, for they are endowed at birth with the passionate pursuit of the new, needing only liberty and opportunity for self-direction”

_Liberty and opportunity!_ There could not be a better description of Frbel's principle and ive liberty and opportunity to the creative principle of the child is just the work you have to do; but observe, this is not to leave him to the caprices of an uneducated will There is neither _liberty_ nor _opportunity in that_!

”Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” _h to appreciate this, and _be vigilant for hienially, but fir to secure to his mind that _pause before action_ on the moral, the artistic, and intellectual plane, that the Friends recognize to be necessary before acting on the spiritual plane

The ways of caprice are multitudinous,--the way of life is _one_ for each individual, and is pointed out to the _pausing_ attentive mind by the Father, who speaks to us, within, forever; but whose voice can only be heard when listened to by _intention_; even on the intellectual plane, we do not let the will go storuidance of lahich is the voice of the very present Creator heard in the silence of _reflection_ on perceived facts and truths

There is a right and a wrong way of doing everything,--_always_ The right ill always produce a thing of use or of beauty, whose reaction on the rows the huht way is only to be discovered in that pause between impulse and action which is the characteristic discrimination of man from all other animals, and must be _secured for the child_ by the care of his educators--even when he is only playing, or the play will tire instead of exhilarate

Hence it is not _enough_, though it is indispensable, to guide children's activity while it is still irreflective to spontaneously s and , you are to make theo over in thought_, and put into words, what they have done, and lead the that are obvious to the childish sense; and when you have thus secured an iiven an experi a spiritual order; that is, a world of individual laws and a law-giver independent of human will and meant to lift it into the divine Those of you who are _Friends_ will agree with s can manifest no _spiritual_ beauty or moral power, except so far as they listen to the Shepherd of souls in the holy pause of the hours of worshi+p, a voice always suggesting loving activity And cannot you see, that no artistic production, no intellectual work, is possible without listening, in the pause of reflection for the word of the law of beauty or use, that the Creator of the intellect gives? and which makes art and science the worshi+p of God _with thework of the kindergartner, is to secure to the child this moment of reflection in the midst of his play and work on all planes of life; and you do so by sy his unthinking, ioing to do_, and not letting hi till he seeks to do the sy It is not every movement that will produce the satisfactory result It is thus that the child learns that there is a greater mind than his own, or even than his teacher'sthe intellect, for artistic principles flow into the mind from an Eternal source, _no less_ than do moral and spiritual principles In short, the true ift_ of a very present God, as much as the true method of the heart and soul

Man, then, in the last analysis, is a creative being; and the Frbel education has for its final object, to give hi in the earth; put all the cos hi his whole nature to the height of sitting doith our Elder brother on the throne, with the Universal Father

You should keep this great idea before you, and it will enable you to _use the technique_ that you have been learning, with a certain freedo these playful exercises in such an order as you reeable and salutary for them; and to check caprice, you must insist that, in these appointed tis, OR DO NOTHING, for they will generally conclude to do the thing in hand, rather than DO NOTHING while all their co, they will have time for reflection, and to hear the inward voice of laith the opportunity voluntarily to accept it Thus does God give to all his children ”to have life in the out their whole likeness to Himself, which proves that they are not his bond slaves,--like the lower animals,--but SONS If there are not in the universe two leaves that are alike, still less are there two souls that are alike But leaves and souls, after all, are alike in more than they are different You can provide action for all the instincts that children have in common, and create a common consciousness to a certain extent, which is the _common sense_; but what is peculiar to each, and makes the independent individual, is his _own secret_, and you can only help THAT to flower and fruitage by giving hi the inward eye and sharpening the inward ear for couide the will to the satisfaction of all the sensibilities of the heart, and the powers of intellect, and all the creative energies: but the religious and eneral_, not peculiar to, but inclusive of, the kindergarten plan of education To have these principles clear and disengaged from the accidental associations of the various denominations of the church, all of which (and also with many of those outside of any visible church) _unite in that faith in God_, and that _disinterested love of humanity_, which was historically enacted on earth by Jesus Christ, and _into_ which every child born on the earth should be brought before he is old enough to appreciate those _intellectual_ distinctions which artner will be able to els_ (does not that mean their spiritual instincts or ideals?) behold the face of the Father, and only then will the kindergartner practically enter into Frbel'swith their innocence

I see a great deal of this practical application in the kindergartens kept by the well-trained kindergartners; and especially when they are _artners (other things being equal), because it is easier for mothers to _divine_ the consciousness of their children In the opening hour of the kindergarten, when the kindergartner interchanges the songs and hyree to, with real free conversation, in which each child has a chance to tell what is uppermost in his little artner is done It has been artens kept severally by the mothers, who make the children feel that they are interested in whatever they say, however apparently trivial is the subject, and who answer genially, connecting it with so the reflective powers of the children, that everything they think is seen to be a part of the process of rowth

The possibility of doing this will prove to any one who has any heart and iination that it is no mere poetic phrase, but a profound spiritual truth, that ”Heaven lies about us in our infancy,” that children do ”colory,”

and for a time

”are still attended By the vision splendid,”

although too often

”The ht of co conversation need not be on the ious planes, but some of it should lead into explanations of nature and of the co dexterity and common sense; but one can hardly talk with children about anything, in a genuine way, that does not bring out of theious or moral expression I think it is in connection with these conversations to which the children furnish by their spontaneous confidences the vital points, round which the thoughts of the whole little company shall revolve, that the teacher can connect her own story-telling

For such genuine conversation the necessary prerequisite on the part of the teacher is a real faith in children's being the _breath of God_ in their Essence

Then she will not have any _ork_ of her own, but listen to hear what the child is attending to, be it nothing but a bit of string, which, of course, th that can be s may be measured, and which is h the hands of rowth of nature, all whose works bear witness to the being of God; for God's throne round of childish play as certainly and readily as from many a pulpit and cathedral, if not more so

A child whose affection for his coartner, and who sees the connection of some little playful or other experience that he tells as his story for the ed in a service of God_, race than anyout little kindnesses, sweet courtesies, gentle self-adjustiveness for little discourtesies or grave wrong-doings, brings the child nearer God than any spoken words of worshi+p can, the joy attending such innocent sweetness being the proof of the vital union of his soul with a very present God

So the work of the good Sa_ only of the _individual_ he was conized by Christ as a _real act of worshi+p_; for it was the fulfilment of the second commandment _like unto the first_