Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/395



HERE is a distinct advantage in beginning the education of a young child in an institution which is so complete that the pupil may carry on the work of her preparation for life under the same auspices. Few things are so detrimental in education as changing the child about, so as to bring her under the operation of opposing principles, It is hardly too much to say, Better a less perfect system followed out than a number of good systems working at cross-purposes.

The Merill-Van Laer School of New York City provides in its departments a complete course of education, extending from the little one’s earliest days in the kindergarten to the end of school life. Beginning with the most elementary work of the kindergarten system, the child proceeds regularly, by easy stages, to a graduate course, and her progress throughout is directed by the application of the same well-founded principles.

An article in the advertising section of “The Century” for January, 1905, expresses fully, though necessarily in brief form, the principles upon which this School is conducted. Here it is designed to call attention more especially to its Junior Department for young children, the first advantage of which, as already stated, is that it prepares for the Senior Department, since both are inspired by the same methods and spirit.

With most thoughtful parents, the principals of the School believe that young children must be thoroughly drilled in the fundamentals of an English education, and that this is the primary requisite. While nature study and manual training receive their share of attention, they are kept subordinate to the more essential branches that must underlie every school course.

The Junior Department is under the immediate direction of Miss Pryde, a graduate of the Edinburgh Ladies College and the University of Edinburgh, the holder of a degree, also, from St. Andrews University, and formerly head mistress of the Bedford Park High School, London. To her English training have been added several years of successful teaching in America. Believing that laying the foundation for the child’s education in the earliest years is of supreme importance, the principals feel that no one could be better equipped for this work than the head of their Junior Department.

A visit to the School gives one certain well-defined impressions, The location, on a broad Jan 1905,