368 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
che law, and which elevated the above-mentioned seminary to the rank 
of a state institution, and now its certificates have the value of public 
locuments. 
In 1875 a second seminary was opened at Vienna, and five years later 
government itself annexed like institutions to the seminaries for female 
teachers. I am sorry to say that neither public opinion nor the good will 
of our teachers kept pace with this satisfactory acknowledgment of the 
Froebelian system. Parents in better situated homes did not take kindly to 
an institution which they judged at best to be superfluous. Teachers at 
drst thought it a hindrance to future serious work ; they were of the opinion 
that the habit of symbolizing gave too large a scope to childish imagina- 
jon, that it was apt to make the little ones fanciful and dreamy. They 
would have it that being led from ome occupation, from one play to 
another, took all self-reliance out of them, and that they had great trouble 
to accustom them to serious schoolwork. These prejudices are disap- 
pearing, as happily most prejudices do in the course of time. Not the 
least merit in dissipating them belongs to the “ Association for Kinder- 
gartens ”— Verein fiir Kindergdrten in Oesterreich—on the first board 
of which I had the honor to be the only lay woman, a link between kin- 
dergartners and mothers. I am very proud of having accomplished this 
mission. On this committee we had some teachers from public schools. 
They Lad occasion to study the system, to know its value better, and to 
promote a truer understanding between their colleagues and the kinder- 
gartners. This association, founded in 1879, undertook as its highest aim 
0 prove that kindergarten teaching is an advantage to future teaching. 
It sent out a list of questions to the heads of the primary schools, asking 
what percentage of pupils who had had this kindergarten teaching gave 
setter and what gave less satisfaction to their teachers ? This Inquiry is 
not yet closed. The association would open Volks-kindergartens, but their 
means are not sufficient. Its work till now is more an ethical than a 
practical one ; it gives a nucleus to the kindergartners by meetings, read- 
ings ; by the publication of its organ, the Journal for Kindergartens, a 
most valuable source of information for kindergartners out of reach of 
lirect communication with their colleagues. 
In 1879 there were one hundred and fifty-six kindergartens at work in 
Austria. The next year was of importance not only as to statistics, but for 
the dignity of the idea as a means of guarding the German element from 
being overrun in mixed districts, as we have so many in Bohemia and in 
other provinces of our polyglot empire. The Deutsche Schulverein was 
founded by a circle of German patriots. This noble institution endowed 
Austria not only with a great many German schools, but also with 
between fifty and sixty kindergartens. As far as I could procure the 
statistics, there are now between five hundred and six hundred kinder- 
yartens in Austria, They owe their subsistence to government, in case