Thomas E. Petri: “today the House considers H. Con. Res. 47, Commending the Establishment in College Point, New York, of the First…”

“today the House considers H. Con. Res. 47, Commending the Establishment in College Point, New York, of the First Kindergarten in the United States. The resolution honors the first free Kindergarten established in the United States in 1870 by Conrad Poppenhusen. I would like to note for the record that Margarethe Meyer Schurz--wife of Carl Schurz--opened the first Kindergarten in the United States in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1856. The following is an article from the August 19, 1998 Capital Times (Madison, WI) detailing the work of Margarethe Schurz that led to the first U.S. Kindergarten in Watertown, Wisconsin. [From the Capital Times, Aug. 19, 1998] Aug. 27, 1832: 1st Kindergarten Sprouts; Schurz Wanted the Best Education for Her Daughter (By Kathy Maeglin) As a young mother in Watertown in 1856, Margarethe Schurz wanted her little daughter to have the educational advantages she would have had back in their native Germany. So Margarethe invited four little cousins to come to the house each day for games, singing and crafts. She had been an early student of the ``kindergarten'' movement in Germany, and now she was employing what she had learned in her own frontier home. As word of Margarethe's ``class'' spread, friends petitioned her to let their own children join in. The group moved to a more convenient location downtown, and thus the first kindergarten in America was created.…”