on is
leavened with the leaven of kindergarten concretes, and the grade
teachers get the spirit of kindergarten work. In the near future Miss
Bothwell hopes to have the kindergarten work extend to the second grade,
in order that the spirit, rhythm, harmony and joy of the kindergarten
may thoroughly permeate the roots of the Cincinnati school system.

Even more significant--if anything could be more significant than the
breakdown of the ironclad, first grade traditions--is the grip which the
kindergartens of Cincinnati have secured on the people. The Cincinnati
kindergartener is more than a teacher--she serves many masters. In the
morning she holds kindergarten classes. On two afternoons a week she
does kindergarten work with first grade children; on one afternoon she
holds a conference with the supervisor; on a fourth afternoon she visits
the classes of first grade teachers or confers with mothers' clubs, and
on her remaining afternoon she visits her children in their homes. Out
of these varied duties has come: first, a group spirit among the
kindergarteners, built upon frequent interchange of plans and ideas;
second, an understanding of the relation between the problems of the
kindergarten and the problems of the grades; third, a sympathetic grasp
of the home conditions surrounding the life of many a difficult child;
and fourth, sixty-one mothers' clubs, one organized in connection with
each kindergarten, which furnish a social gathering-place for mothers,
an opportunity to influence parental ideas, and a body of invaluable
public sentiment.

The idea of a kindergarten, usually regarded as a small part of the
school program, has been evolved until, in this one city, it is a potent
influence, working on children, teachers, parents and public opinion.

IV Regenerating the Grades

The kindergarten is not alone in its appeal to the child and in its
affiliation with the community. Traditional grade education has likewise
been modified and rehabilitated until it makes an appeal to parent and
child alike. In the first place, a consistent effort has been made to
provide accommodations for the physical education in the grades of the
fifty-seven elementary schools. Twenty-five now have fully equipped
gymnasiums in which children have two or three periods of exercise each
week. In the schools not so equipped the physical work is confined to
calisthenics. Each year the Board of Education appropriates five
hundred dollars for