Katie’s Free Kindergarten
This document poem is from a collection of papers from 1937 detailing Mrs. Kate Baldwin’s efforts to establish a free kndergarten in Savannah, GA, beginning in 1899. Her children compiled these pages as a memorial to their mother after her death in the 1930s. I hope this poem celebrates women and children and also demostrates how they are both marginalized groups. According to her children, Mrs. Baldwin’s most memorable and valuable contribution was her dedication to establishing a free kindergarten for the children of Savannah and the surrounding area. Her efforts were slow and steady, and she had to fight for every success. I find it telling that it was a woman who recognized the need for kindergarten education; prior to Mrs. Baldwin’s efforts, early childhood education in Georgia was reserved for families who could afford it. I want this poem to celebrate children as well as the fierce, nurturing nature of women. I arranged the poem in such a way that Mrs. Baldwin’s admirable efforts were seen secondary to marriage—often perceived as a woman’s ultimate achievement. The husband’s goals and achivements then become the woman’s focus. Fortunately Mrs. Baldwin had touched enough people that the free kindergarten movement grew, one teacher and one child at a time. It was not her antique furniture or her sewing that Mrs. Baldwin’s children saw as her legacy. It was Kate Baldwin’s Free Kindergarten that was worthy of historical note.
Sketch of the History of the Kindergarten Movement in Savannah, Georgia, in the Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten Records, #2834, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
