Miss S. E. Blow 1875 on Kindergarten

"It is truth now universally recognized by educators that ideas are formed in the mind of a child by abstraction and generalization from the facts revealed to him through his senses; that only what he himself has perceived of the visible and tangible properties of things can serve as the basis of thought; and that upon the vividness and completeness of the impressions made upon him by external objects, will depend the clearness of his inferences and the correctness of his judgments. It is equally true, and as generally recognized, that in young children the perceptive faculties are relatively stronger than at any later period, and that while the understanding and reason still sleep, the sensitive mind is receiving those sharp impressions of external things which, held fast by memory, transformed by the imagination, and finally classified and organized through reflection, result in the determination of thought and the formation of character." --Miss S. E. Blow, "the Kindergarten" an address delivered April 3, 1875 before the Normal Teacher's Association at St. Louis, Mo.