KINETO-PHONOGRAPH
1003
KING
self-activity rather than as a process of receiving information. He recognized that in his time the period most neglected was that between the ages of three to six when neither parents nor teachers ordinarily gave special attention to the child's development, and he therefore worked out and applied his principles in a course of training for pupils of that age. One of the surest proofs of the soundness of the kindergarten as conceived by Froebel is the fact that its general principles have gradually worked their way up into the grades of our best schools and are being applied there.
The starting point of kindergarten method is the nature of the child, essentially social and active both physically and mentally. Spontaneous outlet for these natural activities is found in the construction of objects calling forth the child's powers of creative imagination, in storytelling, in singing suitable songs, in organized games calling both for co-operation and individuality and similar social activities.
According to reports received from public-school teachers, children who have had kindergarten training are much better informed than other children, better at drawing, constructive and artistic work, quicker to learn, more imaginative, more enthusiastic, less self-conscious, more self-reliant, more helpful and thoughtful of others, more sociable and more sympathetic both to their teacher and their schoolmates.
In some places kindergartens have been severely criticized and their principles misunderstood owing to the fact that persons were accepted as kindergarten teachers wrho were not properly trained and neither understood true kindergarten principles nor how to apply them. It is essential to the success of the kindergarten that its teachers have adequate preparation for their work, and that in any city where kindergartens are established there be a competent and talented supervisor to see that kindergarten principles are applied intelligently and to give to young kindergartners whatever instruction and aid may be desirable. Otherwise there is danger of their degeneration into mere playschools.
Most of the kindergartens first established in the United States were private institutions. A few were endowed by philanthropists. The kindergarten was first tried as a part of our public-school system in St. Louis about 1873, owing to the influence of W. F. Harris, then superintendent of schools in that city, and kindergarten work is now becoming generally recognized as the first stage of public education.
Kin'eto=Pho'nograph, an instrument that is the result of several separate inventions of T. A. Edison. The kinetograph is directed to catch photographically the action of the players on a stage, while the phonograph at the same time records their words with
the music or any other sounds accompanying the performance. The result is the reproduction of the action and the words of a play or any similar performance, the two being capable of exhibition together at any time afterward. The combined instrument capable of recording words and action simultaneously is one of the most ingenious ever constructed, and was finished by Edison and W. K. L. Dickinson in 1895.
Kinet'oscope, an invention of Edison's in 1894, by which the views taken by the kinetograph are exhibited upon a screen, causing the action of any scene to be reproduced continuously and in proper order and succession, precisely as it was enacted at some previous time.
King of the Golden River, The, is a fairy story told by the Englishman, John Ruskin, to a little girl friend of his, and afterwards published. Three brothers lived in a fertile valley, called Treasure Valley. The two older brothers were hard and cruel, and by their villainy they caused the winds to turn awTay the rain from the valley, till it became a desert. They did not then repent, but brought on themselves a terrible death in their attempt to secure the golden river. The youngest brother was kind and brave of heart, and gained the love of the King of the Golden River; who then found a way to break through the hills into Treasure Valley and bring fertility and happiness once more with the waters of his river.
King, Rtifus, American statesman, was born at Scarborough, Me., Mar. 24, 1755, and graduated at Harvard College in 1777. In 1784 he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress. On the 25th of May, 1787, King took his seat in the convention for framing the constitution of the United States, and, although one of the youngest members, was one of the most active and influential. In 1796 he was appointed minister to England by President Washington^ a position which he filled for eight years. King also served a number of terms in the United States senate. After the expiration of his fourth term in the senate, in 1825, he accepted the embassy to England, but resigned and returned home in the following year on account of ill-health. He died at Jamaica, Long Island, N. Y., April 29, 1827.
King, William Rufus, an American statesman who in 1852 vvas elected Democratic vice-president of the United States, was born in North Carolina in 1786, and died in 1853 in Alabama. King was a prime mover in securing the state constitution of Alabamaj where he had settled as a cotton planter. In 1819 he was chosen one of the first Alabama senators for Congress. In 1844 he was minister to France, charged to persuade France not to join with England in protesting against the admission of Texas into the United States. In 1848 he was senator again, and in 1850 he was chosen
