Charities for Children in San Francisco [pp. 78-101]

Charities for Children in San Francisco.
Alexander, led to her assuming the sup port of the class. This was the begin ning of the Silver Street Association.
The Pioneer Society now supports
three kindergartens, all in the low re gions not far from the city front. There
are nine teachers in the three, and sub scribers enough to cover about half the
current expenses, which come to nearly
$5oo000 annually. The rest is made up by
donations, and by various bazars and en tertainments It is managed chiefly by
women, as the by-laws provide that the
"lady members" of the board of direct ors shall constitute an executive committee. A brief, compact report is published
annually, and well distributed.
The Golden Gate Association manages
eight kindergartens in the city, -or,
according to the method of its report,
which treats each class as a separate
kindergarten, fifteen,-with twenty-nine
teachers, besides two outside the city.
The total annual expense of these runs
over $I3,oo000o. The annual subscribers
supply not much more than a tenth of
the necessary revenue; but this does not
include the regular support coming to
the "adopted" kindergartens, from Mrs
Stanford and others, which leaves only
about one-fifth of the annual expenses
of the Association to be made up from
general donations and other sources.
Mrs. Stanford supports five classes in
the city, and had given in all, at the time
of the last report, over $40,000 to the
work. Among the chief supporters of
the kindergartens is the Produce Exchange, which has two classes as its
special possession, and pays a considerable part of their expense. Mrs. Cooper
is president and superintendent of this
association, and it is managed entirely
by women.
The Silver Street Association has
three kindergartens or classes, with four
teachers; and conducts besides a training school, a housekeeping class, and a
Froebel Society. Its expenses run
nearly $5,ooo a year; how much of this
is met from steady sources is not clear
from the report. Mrs. Alexander is the
principal benefactor of this association;
its superintendent, Mrs. Wiggin, has
left the State, and her sister, Miss
Nora Smith, takes her place. The
management of the association is main ly, but not entirely, by women.
Outside of the three associations are
half a dozen separate kindergartens, one in the Protestant Orphan Asylum,
two in the Catholic, one belonging to
the Home of the Ladies' Protection and
Relief Society, one to the Cogswell Industrial School, one to the First Congregational church, one to the Young Women's Christian Association. They publish no reports, and are not more than
mentioned in the reports of the societies
they belong to. Several independent
ones have been started by various groups
but have failed to' get support, and fallen
into one of the associations, usually the
Golden Gate.
The great desire of the kindergartners
is that the kindergartens shall be adopted
as an integral part of the public schools,
thus at once securing financial support,
and reaching all the children of suitable
age in the city. How they plan, in such
event, to keep them clear of the blighting
touch of politics, I do not know. It would,
perhaps, not be impossible, even under
the present charter, to so guard their
management as to keep it non-political.
Two classes were at one time adopted
by the school board, but dropped on account of the expense; and instead, one
teacher was retained to give the primary
teachers instruction in kindergarten
methods. Should the kindergartens be
taken into the school system they would,
of course, cease to be in any sense charities: as it is, they are only in part to
be classed under that head. Any consideration of their educational method
and influence would fall properly in an
article on education; it is only their
especial function in relieving the conditions of life among the poor that should
1890.]