PREPARATION OF THE KINDERGARTNER. 345 
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of the kindergartner. Notwithstanding all the logic of heredity and en- 
vironment, to discern the essential coming of God into every life at its 
advent ; to hear God saying, ‘“ All souls are mine,” even amid the renewed 
assumptions of philosophy and the clamorous demands of the new science 
of evolution ; to be able to recognize every child as first the child of God, 
with a divine soul ready to germinate within him, while wise men are pro- 
claiming him not only the child of man merely, but the child of the beast, 
she child of protoplasm, the child of chaos—this is to prove one capable 
of knowing and helping the child in his onward growth. The divine 
celations of childhood should be clearly seen, and without shutting one’s 
eyes to the complex relations into which his human descent places him. 
But in the whole commonwealth of childhood, repeat no more the proverb 
5hat humanity is evolved from what is below, and not from what is above. 
I'he spirit of God in its germinating force has been placed within all mat- 
er, only to assimilate it to its growing uses and make it a temple of God. 
Whether this transcendent harmony of the whole nature be the result 
of training and experience, or the happy balance of native gifts and graces, 
it is the preparation which the kindergartner cannot do without, for it 
determines her essential attitude toward her work. It is the motherhood 
of the calling, and expresses the calling itself. It is the preparation of 
‘he spirit, and vastly more essential than that of the letter or the technical 
‘orm in which it is embodied. 
Every normal school should be furnished with a kindergarten depart- 
ment, equipped with a model kindergarten, where the complete theory and 
oractice may be taught by masters and mistresses of the subject. We must 
demand at the outset that no charlatans shall administer this profound 
philosophy, no ignoramus or superficial student shall presume to handle 
shese vital elements of learning, and no mere wage-earner be allowed to 
conduct the little child to this freedom of development. Is it too sanguine 
a prophecy that the educational science of Froebel shall ere long be repre- 
sented by the university chair, and the study of the education of man be 
thought worthy of the highest degree in a professional training ? 
In considering the second point of the thesis, we may allow that all 
kindergarten teachers are not necessarily kindergartners. There may be 
much pleasant and useful help given by sympathetic persons of an ordinary 
degree of general culture. The plays and games are the brighter for the 
vivacious and intelligent participation of some young girl fond of children 
and not too far removed in age to be accepted as a playmate as well as di- 
rector of these exercises. A knowledge of the mechanical part of the games 
and occupations, with a spontaneous interest and sympathy, is a most val- 
nable qualification for a helper to the professional kindergartner. I think 
when the kindergartner is best fitted for oversight and not for too constant 
active participation in the games, such an assistant is quite necessary. I 
like to see the vounger students of the normal class entering into the