n
account of the mother-instinct, brought forth a retort from a learned
monk to the effect that it was indelicate if not sinful for an unmarried
female, who was not a nun, to study the natures of children.

Parents with children old enough to go to school would not entrust their
darlings with the teaching experimenter--this on the advice of their
pastors.

Middendorf and Langenthal were still with him, partners in the disgrace
or failure, for none was willing to give up the fight for education by
the natural methods.

A great thought and a great word came to them, all at once--out on the
mountain-side!

Begin with the children before the school age, and call it the
Kindergarten!

Hurrah! They shouted for joy, and ran down the hill to tell Frau
Froebel.

The schools they had started before had been called, "The Institution
for Teaching According to the Pestalozzi Method and the Natural
Activities of the Child," "Institution for the Encouragement and
Development of the Spontaneous Activities of the Pupil," and "Friedrich
Froebel's School for the Growth of the Creative Instinct Which Makes for
a Useful Character."

A school with such names, of course, failed. No one could remember it
long enough to send his child there--it meant nothing to the mind not
prepared for it.

What's in a name? Everything. Books sell or become dead stock on the
name. Commodities the same. Railroads must have a name people are not
afraid to pronounce.

The officers of the law came and asked to see Froebel's license for
manufacturing. Others asked as to the nature of his wares, and one
dignitary called and asked, "Is Herr Pestalozzi in?"

The Kindergarten! The new name took. The children remembered it.
Overworked mothers liked the word and were glad to let the little
other-mothers take the children to the Kindergarten, certainly.

Froebel had grown used to disappointments--he was an optimist by nature.
He saw the good side of everything, including failure.

He made the best of necessity. And now it was very clear to him that
education must begin "a hundred years before the child is born." He
would reach the home and the mother through the children. "It will take
three generations to prove the truth of the Kindergarten Idea," he said.

And so the songs, the gifts, the games--all had to be invented,
defended, tried and tried again. Pestalozzi had a plan for teaching the
youth; now a plan had to be devised for teaching the child. Lov