Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association

June 3, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association

“When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely and harmonious.”

“Passivity of attitude, mechanical massing of children, uniformity of curriculum and method are the typical points of the old education. It may be summed up by stating that the centre of gravity is outside the child.”

“Now the change which is coming into our education is the shifting of the centre of gravity. It is a change, a revolution, not unlike that introduced by Copernicus when the astronomical centre shifted from the earth to the sun. In this case the child becomes the sun about which the appliances of education revolve; he is the centre about which they are organized.” (Dewey; Wheeler)

Let’s look back …

The idea of kindergartens began in Germany with Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852.) Germans moving to the US brought the idea over when they settled there. In 1855, in Watertown, Wisconsin, Mrs Carl Schurz, a former student of Froebel, established America’s first kindergarten. (Castle)

In Hawaiʻi, the earliest mention of a kindergarten program is in 1892 in connection with Francis Williams Damon’s work with the Chinese. Damon was interested in Chinese boys, and opened a kindergarten in the Chinese Mission on Fort Street. Charles Reed Bishop provided some financial support.

In 1893, the Woman’s Board of Missions for the Pacific Islands opened four kindergartens specializing in several racial groups: Portuguese, Japanese, Hawaiian and one for children of all other races. (CharlesReedBishop-org)

In Hawaiʻi, free kindergartens began under private support. The Islands’ first kindergarten teacher might have been Miss Birch Fanning, who arrived in Honolulu August 3, 1889.

Although she announced her plans to start her own kindergarten, she ended up as a teacher for Punahou Preparatory School on Beretania Street in 1892. This experience was short-lived, and Punahou did not begin a permanent kindergarten program until 1900.

Because of the success, the Woman’s Board of Missions, founded in 1878, organized four kindergartens in 1893. Separated along racial lines, they were organized for Japanese, Portuguese, Hawaiians, and for a group classified as “other races.” (Castle)

Local training of teachers began two years later for “select young ladies” who “have worked hard and acquired great proficiency in the mysteries of Froebel’s admirable system of training infant minds.”

The programs proved extremely popular; and, the work was exceeding the capacity of the Woman’s Board of Missions. As a result, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association of the Hawaiian Islands was established in 1895. (Forbes)

Because of its newness, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association was soon in search of an educational methodology to implement its mission. Harriet Castle, the guiding spirit of the Association, would be responsible for shaping this direction through importing the academic views of John Dewey, a friend of the Castle family.

Dewey’s theory, which would help to shape education for the 20th-century, resulted from his rejection of the rigid and formal approach to education that dominated schools in the late 19th-century. The old approach was based upon a psychology in which the child was thought of as a passive creature upon whom information and ideas had to be imposed. (Castle)

Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association, one of Hawaiʻi’s first eleemosynary organizations, offered the first teacher training program and free kindergarten to all of Hawaiʻi’s children.

Some of the children were taught in the old Mission School House, “the great single room … on Kawaiahaʻo Street. Cool, spacious, dignified, generous in the proportions of its ample length and breadth, of its lofty ceiling, of its deeply recessed windows….” (The Friend, December 1, 1924)

The early Mission School House, built about 1833-35 was the regular meeting place of the annual missionary gathering, known as the “General Meeting.” This building stood south of Kawaiahaʻo Church, at the foot of a lane. (Lyons)

In 1899, the Henry and Dorothy Castle Memorial Kindergarten (1899-1941) was founded, funded and operated by the Castle Foundation. Mary Castle used a major substantial part of the proceeds of the trust to fund a memorial to her late son and granddaughter. (This program established the reputation and identity of the foundation.) (Castle)

Castle asked Dewey to create a kindergarten modeled upon his educational theories. The facility was built on the Castle family homestead on King Street, where Henry was born and Dorothy spent her early years. The school was later turned over to the University of Hawaiʻi (founded eight years later in 1907) to operate.

Eventually, the teacher training program was eventually moved to what became the University of Hawaiʻi, and the kindergartens were taken over by the Territorial Department of Education. (KCAA)

Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association also established the first public playground in Honolulu in 1911, Beretania Playground, at the corner of Beretania and Smith streets in the heart of Chinatown. It was intended for boys and girls under ten, and for older girls accompanying the very young, and the “play garden” was open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm.

“In recognition of the truth of Joseph Lee’s declaration, ‘A boy without a playground is father to the man without a job’, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association is making a valiant effort … to secure a trained playground worker for Honolulu.” (The Friend, April 1912)

Just like the private founders forming and funding the Kindergarten program, initially, private groups, rather than public agencies, undertook efforts to build playgrounds.

A major objective of private playground organizers was to convince city officials that public recreation ought to be a municipal responsibility. As a result, by the opening decade of the twentieth century most large American cities had established playgrounds owned and operated by municipal governments.

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Free_Kindergarten_and_Children’s Aid-Castle

Socialization and food preparation-Castle Memorial Kindergarten-Castle-1910

Castle Memorial Kindergarten-Castle-1905

Henry Castle and his daughter Dorothy-HMCS

Breathing_Space_and_Wholesome_Play-(TheFriend)

Graduation Castle Memorial Kindergarten-Castle-1905

Honolulu and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 29-Map-1906-Kindergarten_noted

Some Early Playgrounds-GoogleEarth

February 2, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Old Mission School House

“Very soon I gathered up 12 or 15 little native girls to come once a day to the house so that as early as possible the business of instruction might be commenced. That was an interesting day to me to lay the foundation of the first school ever assembled”. (Sybil Bingham)

“Mother Bingham … teaching at first in her own thatched house, later in one room of the old frame house still standing on King Street … until the station report of 1829 finally records, in the Missionary Herald of September, 1830:”

“As evidence of some progress among the people, we are happy to mention the erection of a large school house, 128 feet in length by 37 feet in breadth, for the accommodation of our higher schools, or classes, on the monitorial plan.” (The Friend, December 1, 1924)

“That such structures of native thatch were frail and temporary is evidenced by the next mention of this huge school house which was more than twice as long as the present one, its successor.”

“The fine large school house built at our station was blown down last fall and all the benches, doors, etc., were crushed in the ruins. It was altogether too large, 120 feet long – badly lighted, having no glass windows, the seats and desks of the rudest kind imaginable”.

“Mr Bingham has succeeded in inducing the natives to rebuild it, and when I left home, the work had commenced. It will he almost 66 feet by 30. It will be more permanent than before, and as it is for the accommodation of the weekly meetings, it will be a very useful building.” (Judd, October 23, 1833; The Friend)

“When I was little, very little, I mean, we always spoke of that adobe school house as Mrs Bingham’s school house. The Hawaiians and everybody always thought of it and spoke of it as her school house, because she was the only one of the mission mothers who could manage to carry on school work even part of the time.” (The Friend, December 1, 1924)

“I cannot tell you when the old school house was first opened for a Hawaiian school. It must have been when I was very little, perhaps even before I was born. But I do know that Mrs Bingham and occasionally some of the other ladies taught the Hawaiian Mission School there all the year, until it came time for the general meeting of the Mission in May or June.”

“That was the time when the whaleships might be expected from around the Horn, and if there was to be a reinforcement of the mission, it was appropriate to have it arrive when all the members of the mission were gathered at Honolulu.” (Henry Parker, Pastor of Kawaiahaʻo Church; The Friend)

“We have a very good school house built of mud and plastered inside and out with lime made of coral. It is thatched with grass, has a floor, seats and benches in front to write upon… All our scholars assemble in it and after prayers the native teachers take their scholars into the old grass meeting house, leaving us with about 60, which we manage ourselves.” (Juliette Cooke; The Friend)

“(T)his old room speaks so unmistakably of other days, of other modes of building as of other modes of thought, that one is led instinctively to make inquiry into its origins.” (Ethel Damon; The Friend)

“The desks were long benches, running from the center aisle to the side of the long single room of the building. Attached to the back of each seat or bench was the sloping desk or table, at a proper height for the sitter, and under this desk, was a shelf for books, slates, etc.”

“The school furniture was all made of soft white pine and it was not long before it began to show that not even missionary boys with sharp knives could resist the temptation to do a little artistic carving.” (William Richards Castle; The Friend)

The early Mission School House, built about 1833-35 was also the regular meeting place of the annual missionary gathering, known as the “General Meeting.” This building stood south of Kawaiahaʻo Church, at the foot of a lane. (Lyons)

Very prominent in the old mission life was the annual “General Meeting” where all of the missionary families from across the Islands gathered at Honolulu from four to six weeks.

“The design of their coming together would naturally suggest itself to any reflecting mind. They are all engaged in one work, but are stationed at various and distant points on different portions of the group, hence they feel the necessity of occasionally coming together, reviewing the past, and concerting plans for future operations.” (The Friend, June 15, 1846)

The primary object of this gathering was to hold a business meeting for hearing reports of the year’s work and of the year’s experiences in more secular matters, and there from to formulate their annual report to the Board in Boston.

Another important object of the General Meeting was a social one. The many stations away from Honolulu were more or less isolated-some of them extremely so. (Dole)

Later (1852,) the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society (HMCS – members were typically referred to as ‘Cousins’) was formed in the Old Mission School House as a social organization, as well as to lend support for the Micronesian mission getting started at the time. (Forbes)

At its first annual meeting its president spoke of its year’s survival as having been “amid the sneers of a few, the fears of some, and the ardent hopes and warm good wishes of many.” It is pleasant to feel that sneers have been hushed, fears have been banished and that hopes have been largely realized. (Annual Report of HMCS, 1892)

In 1855, Ann Eliza Clark became a bride in the old school house to young Orramel Gulick, the second president of HMCS. “I was only seven or eight, too little to be allowed to take any part; but I can tell you it was the most wonderful wedding I ever saw in all my life.”

“I can remember all of the bride’s party. There was Charles Kittredge and William Gulick, and Caroline and Sarah Clark. The two girls wore little leis of papaia buds in their hair. I had worked hard all day stringing those leis, so that they should be just right, without any broken petals.”

“I was too little to be privileged to adorn the bride with jasmine buds and her veil, but I remember her lei, too, just as well as if I had strung it myself – it was made of jasmine, of the just-opening buds. And that wedding was the most wonderful one I ever saw in all my life.” (Julia Ann Eliza Gulick, sister of the groom; The Friend)

In 1895, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association was formed, one of Hawaiʻi’s first eleemosynary organizations. It offered the first teacher training program and free kindergarten to all of Hawaiʻi’s children.

The teacher training program was eventually moved to what became the University of Hawaiʻi, and the kindergartens were taken over by the Territorial Department of Education. The image shows the Old Mission School House.

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October 24, 2013 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Some Playground History

Initially private groups, rather than public agencies, undertook efforts to build playgrounds in American cities. Some of the first privately operated playgrounds open to the public were established in Boston in the 1880s, but most cities witnessed a burst of private initiative in the following decade.

Shifting from an initial desire to get children off the streets, the playground movement evolved in the first two decades of the twentieth century into a well-organized and articulate national crusade.

Its proponents saw the playground not only as a refuge from urban perils, but also as a place of social reform. They believed play had educational value, and emphasized that it should be organized and supervised by the director of the playground.

The social mission of playgrounds was emphasized in playground literature across the nation and in Honolulu. In Hawaiʻi, as elsewhere, the goal of playground activities not only included vigorous physical exercise and mental satisfaction, but also the ability to work as a team member and to develop ‘a disposition to strive for high ideals.’

It was felt that playgrounds developed such virtues as: health, physical efficiency, morality, initiative, self-confidence, imagination, obedience, a sense of justice, happiness and good citizenship. At the same time they discouraged such undesirable traits as: idleness, temptation, exclusiveness, social barriers, selfishness, gang spirit, rowdyism, unfairness and delinquency.

Established in 1895, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association and one of Hawaiʻi’s first eleemosynary organizations, offered the first teacher training program and free kindergarten to all of Hawaiʻi’s children.

The teacher training program was eventually moved to what became the University of Hawaiʻi, and the kindergartens were taken over by the Territorial Department of Education, allowing the organization to focus on serving younger children.

Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association established the first public playground in the city in 1911, Beretania Playground, at the corner of Beretania and Smith streets in the heart of Chinatown. It was intended for boys and girls under ten, and for older girls accompanying the very young, and the “play garden” was open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm.

Initially, administration of municipal playgrounds was delegated to existing agencies such as park boards or school boards. However, many cities eventually established special playground commissions, which often led to jurisdictional problems.

Largely through the association’s efforts, a Recreation Commission was established within the city government in 1922, following the recommendations of Henry Stoddard Curtis, a former secretary of the nationwide Playground Association and the author of Education Through Play, who lectured in Hawaiʻi in 1920.

Julie Judd Swanzy, the president of the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association, was named as the Commission’s chair. The association turned its four playgrounds (Beretania, Kamāmalu, Atkinson and Aʻala) over to the city, and promptly opened five new municipal playgrounds: Kaimuki, Dole Park, Kalihi-Kai, Kauluwela and Kalihi-Waena.

By the 1930s and 1940s cities began to consolidate separate parks and playground agencies into a single “recreation” department.

The playground of the early twentieth century represented a significant departure from nineteenth century conceptions of a park. Rather than a carefully laid out landscape, planned as the antithesis of the cityscape, the twentieth century playground was usually of modest size and was conceived as a utilitarian space, sometimes embellished with landscaping effects or architectural detail, but frequently not.

The playground was a setting for supervised play and not contact with nature. The idea of the playground was to provide usable play space close to home in the densely populated sections of the city, not a green oasis set apart from the city.

During the 1930s, the City and County of Honolulu created a memorable set of parks and playgrounds. It was at this time that the concept of organized play in Hawaiʻi found its most architecturally significant expression.

Charles Lester McCoy, who was chairman of the Honolulu Park Board from 1931 to 1941, is remembered today as the “virtual founder of Honolulu’s modern park system.” His personal commitment to parks, combined with his administrative ability to get things done despite the scant resources of the time, profoundly shaped the growth of the city park system at this time.

One of McCoy’s most far-reaching decisions was to employ Harry Sims Bent as park architect in 1933. It is Bent’s work that gives the 1930s parks their ‘art deco’ architectural distinctiveness.

Bent started to work for the Honolulu Park Board on the Ala Moana Park project in 1933. His work at Ala Moana included the canal bridge, entrance portals, sports pavilion, the banyan courtyard and lawn bowling green.

In the smaller parks Bent was often responsible for the overall layout as well as the structures, including walls, comfort stations and pergolas.

During the 1930s he designed the following parks for the City and County of Honolulu: Mother Waldron Playground, Kawananakoa Playground, Lanakila Park comfort station, Kalihi-Waena Playground, Haleiwa Beach Park structures, the Ala Wai Clubhouse and the Park Service Center by Kapiolani Park. (Lots of information here from NPS and KCCA.)

The image shows children with “Breathing Space and Wholesome Play” (The Friend.) In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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