THE POWER OF PLAY

The Place and Power of Play in Child-Culture

GEORGE HAMILTON ARCHIBALD

AUTHOR OF " »1BLK LESSONS FOR LITTLE CHILDREN " BTC.

SECOND EDITION

UNIVERSITY

OF

' "••__>

LONDON:

ANDREW MELROSE 1 6 PILGRIM STREET, E.G.

INTRODUCTION

IT is not the purpose of this book to discuss the psychological aspect of play, but rather to treat the subject in a popular and suggestive manner. Psychological works on the subject have been consulted and are frequently quoted, but the discussion has been carried on with the aim of removing, if possible, the fears and perplexities of the parent and the teacher, and to show that the deep-seated and unconquerable love of play is not something that has to be opposed and suppressed, but rather fostered and cultivated.

The pietist Tollner once said : " Play, of what- ever sort, should be forbidden in all Evangelical schools ; and its vanity and folly should be explained to the children, with warnings of how it turns the mind away from God and eternal life, and works destruction to their immortal souls."

Such sentiments as these are nowadays seldom entertained. Thanks to Froebel, Dickens, and

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vi INTRODUCTION

other reformers, there is a brighter ami a happier era dawning for the child. Child-study is opening new fields of research, each of which is bringing the child into clearer prominence; and there is hope that in the near future the God-given, instinctive love of play, instead of turning the child " away from God and eternal life," will be used by parent and teacher as a strong ally in bringing him nearer to the Father in Heaven, and as a potent factor in keeping him from straying from the path that leads to the Eternal City.

If this book helps to remove some of the misunderstandings that rise mountain-like between parent and child, if it will assist in bringing the parent and teacher into closer and truer sympathy with the growing, developing boy and girl, it will have served its purpose.

CONTENTS

CHAP. pAaB

I. THE CHILD WHO PLAYS . . . * . 1

II. THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY . . . 43

III. Two KINDS OF PLAYERS ... 78

IV. MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY ... 84

V. THE SABBATH AND PLAY IIK

"Deep meaning oft lies kid in childish play "

SCHILLER.

Do ye hear the children weeping, 0 my brothers,

Ere the sorrows come with years ? They are leaning their ycung heads against their mothers,

And that cannot stop their tears. The young lambs are bleating in the meadows,

The young birds are chirping in their nest, The young fawns are playing with the shadows,

The young flowers are blowing towards the weat ; But the young, young children, 0 my brothers,

They are weeping, bitterly ; They are weeping in the playtime of the others,

In the country of the free."

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

UNIVERSITY

OF

THE POWEK OF PLAY

CHAPTEK I. THE CHILD WHO PLAYS.

"The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls PLAYING." — The EibZe.

"T)LAY,>J says Froebel, "is not trivial. It is -*- highly serious and of deep significance. Cultivate and foster it, 0 mother. Protect and guide it, 0 father."

The play instinct affords the teacher and parent a ready opportunity of training the child into right ways of living. The more energy the child possesses, the better; the more energy he is endowed with, the greater are the possibilities of his life.

A superabundant nervous force is generated in every healthy child. Some of the energy is used by the involuntary muscles — in breathing, digesting the

2 THE POWER OF PLAY

food, and circulating the blood. The superfluous energy must be thrown off ; therefore the child runs and races, shouts and plays. If we compel a child to keep still, we repress his energy ; and this irritates and injures his nervous system.

It is not always the boy at the head of the class who makes the greatest or best man. Often the one who is so fond of play that he is called " dullard " and " dawdler," ultimately proves to be the most useful man.

Napoleon was " forty-first in his class in the final examination"; he wrote to his father telling him that if the list had been printed upside down, he would have been at the head.

" Isaac Newton was at the foot of his grade at twelve. He showed neither ability nor industry."

Charles Darwin was not an industrious boy. He writes : " To my deep mortification, my father once said to me, ' You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching ; and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family ! ' '

Eobert Fulton was a " dullard."

George Eliot learned to read with difficulty. Her husband writes : " Hers was a large, slow-grow- ing nature."

Nansen's brothers and sisters called him the " Dawdler."

Herbert Spencer was inattentive and idle; and

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 3

the first evidence of his remarkable powers of concentration was the formation of a collection of insects, which he had been encouraged to make by his father.

The French biographer of Eosa Bonheur, — E. F. Ellet, — in Master s-in- Art t writes as follows : " Kosa, now in her eleventh year, generally contrived to avoid the schoolroom, and spent most of her time in the grassy and wooded spots afforded in the Bois de Boulogne and other environs of Paris. . . . With her passion for independence and out- door life, incurred almost daily the reprimands of la Mere Catherine, who was distressed at her neglect of school. . . . Eosa was placed with a seamstress in order that she might learn to make a living by her needle. Nothing could have been more disagreeable to the poor girl than the monotonous employment to which she was thus con- demned ; and whenever her father came to see her, she would throw herself into his arms in a passion of tears, and beseech him to take her away. . . . More than ever perplexed what to do with her, her father now left her for a time entirely to her- self ; and Eosa, full of unacknowledged remorse for her incapacity and uselessness, sought refuge from her uncomfortable thoughts in his studio, where she amused herself with imitating everything she saw him do — drawing and modelling day after day

4 THE POWER OF PLAY

with the utmost diligence, happy as long as she had in her hands a pencil, a piece of charcoal, or a lump of clay."

We have without much thought endorsed the maxim, " All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," but the tremendous possibility of character- building through play has been, so far as the vast majority of parents and teachers are concerned, left unappreciated. The average parent has felt that the love of play was something to be overcome by the child, and that until he had subdued it he would never become a useful man. We have forgotten that, when the proper time comes, the absorbing love of play will pass out of his life, just as with the ten-year-old the delight in " make-believe " has passed; and it will do so as naturally and readily as the tail of the tadpole is absorbed into the useful legs of the frog. The more enthusiastically a child plays, the more enthusiastically will he, at the proper time, enter upon business or his other mission in life. The hilarious enthusiasm of child- hood and youth will in time develop into the eager earnestness of the business man, the soldier, the missionary. A child-life without play means a whole life of limited possibilities.

Marie Corelli fittingly says : " Happy in these days of vaunted progress is the dull, heavy boy who cannot learn — who tumbles asleep over his books,

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 5

and gets a caning, which is far better than a " cramming " ; — who is plucked in his exams, and dubbed 'dunce* for his pains; — the chances are ten to one that, though he be put to scorn by the showy college pupil loaded with honours, he will, in the long run, prove the better, aye, and the cleverer man of the two. The young truant whom Mother Nature coaxes out into the woods and fields when he should be at his books, — who laughs with a naughty recklessness at the gods of Greece, and has an innate comic sense of the uselessness of learning dead languages which he is never to speak, — is probably the very destined man who, in time of battle, will prove himself a hero of the first rank ; or who, planted solitary in an unexplored country, will become one of the leading pioneers of modern progress and discovery."

Dr. G. Stanley Hall, speaking of Christianity and physical culture, says : " By weight the adult human body is nearly one - half muscle. The muscles are the only organs of the will, and are likely to share its strength or weakness. Muscles have done nearly all man's work in the world. They have tilled the soil, built cities, fought, written all the books, and spoken all the words. Through all the past, men have been the strivers and toilers. There is a sense in which all good conduct and morality may be defined as right

6 THE POWER OF PLAY

muscle habits. More than this, just in proportion as muscles grow weak and flabby, the chasm between knowing and doing the right, in which so many men are lost, yawns wide and deep ; and as they become tense and firm, doing becomes — as F. W. Robertson was wont to say it should — the best organ of knowing. Eational muscle culture, therefore, for its moral effects, — often for the young the very best possible means of resisting evil and establishing righteousness, — is the gospel I preach to-day, a gospel so reinforced by all the new knowledge we are now so rapidly gaining of man's body and soul, that it is certain to become a dominant note in the pulpit itself, just in propor- tion as those whose vocation it is to save souls realise that they must study to know what the soul is. " We are soldiers of Christ, strengthening our muscles not against a foreign foe, but against sin, within and without us. We would bring in a higher kingdom of man, regenerate in body ; make it more stalwart, persistent, enduring, taller, with better hearts, stomachs, nerves, and more resistful to man's great enemy — disease."

In German life, during the past century, the significance of play as a developing factor can scarcely be over-estimated. The possibilities of play in maturing the physical nature were appreciated by Gutsmuth, and in 1796 began a movement

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 7

which has continued and increased until the present time. This remarkable interest in play was the cause of the establishment of public playgrounds all over Germany. But the importance of play as a developer of the inventive and creative instincts — that is, as means to increased brain-functioning p0wer — is only now being comprehended. These playgrounds are now used for much more than as mere developers of muscles, for, under the supervision of men trained to understand the relation of play to the development of the higher faculties, they do much for muscle, mind, and morals.

In America, large sums of money are being spent on the establishing of playgrounds ; and if England is to keep pace with her competitors, she must awake to the realisation of the need of opportunities for placing play within reach of the masses of the children of the working classes. Philanthropy which would encourage the growth of all that is best in life, can find no better field for its activities than the establishment of well- equipped public playgrounds in needy districts.

The young of all animals play, and the richest lessons of life are learned through that play. If, for example, you will study the play of rabbits, you will find the mother-rabbit teaching the little ones to run quickly in and out of the burrows, or in-

8 THE POWER OF PLAY

citing them to chase one another through the thorn hedges or barbed-wire fences. The young of goats, though reared in a city, will in their play leap high in the air, learning all the time to jump from crag to crag, the natural habitat of the wild goat. The parent lion or tiger, though a prisoner in the menagerie, still teaches the cub, though it will never know freedom, to leap from an imaginary ambush on to the back of imaginary prey.

W. J. Long, in Ways of the Wood Folk, writing about beavers, says : " All the building is primarily a matter of instinct, for a tame beaver builds miniature dams and houses on the floor of his cage. In vacation times the young beavers build for fun, just as boys build a dam wherever they can find running water. I am persuaded also (and this may explain some of the dams that seem stupidly placed) that at times the old beavers set the young at work in summer, in order that they may know how to build when it becomes necessary."

Eeferring to the play of young bears, he says : " There were two of them, nearly full- grown, with the mother. The most curious thing was to see them stand on their hind-legs and cuff each other soundly, striking and warding like trained boxers. Then they would lock arms and wrestle desperately till one was thrown, when the other promptly seized him by the throat."

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 9

When we remember that the bear uses his fore- paws to catch fish and frogs, to break to pieces stumps of trees where honey is stored, to strike his enemy, or when in a close encounter to hug and squeeze him to death, or to wrestle until his op- portunity comes to strike with his powerful claws, we readily see in the plays of the young bear the " germinal leaf of later life." The natural play of kittens teaches them to detect and secure their food, as well as to escape from or fight their enemies. The plays of all animals are the " germinal leaves of later life."

The play of a little girl is par excellence with dolls. Does a boy play with dolls ? If so, how much ? Just as much as he will have to do with the care of the babies by and by; or, it may be said, just as much as his ancestors before him have had to do with the care of the children. The little girl learns more of the real duties in the home through her make-believe play with her dolls, tea-sets, cooking- stoves, etc., than she will learn in all the schools of domestic economy ever established.

But educators, unfortunately, used to think that they had discovered a better way than the natural way, and our little children were, and still are, forced, against all the instincts of life, away from their play into schools, where in many cases play is rarely permitted. As a result, they are suffering

io THE POWER OF PLAY

from arrested development of the will, as well as of the emotions and the intellect. No wonder Froebel insisted, "Would'st thou lead the child in this matter, observe him. He will show thee what to do." Let no one think, then, that when a child is playing he is wasting his time. Some one has said that a child's play is his religion. At any rate, we may be sure thaf. what work is to a man, play is to a child ; therefore, " Guide it, 0 father ; foster it, 0 mother."

Patterson Dubois says: "What sadder sight is there than a child without childhood ? I often see a certain blind man grinding a little hand- organ, as he stands by the hour on a Philadelphia curb-stone. Alongside of him stands a young boy, presumably his son, who is there just to take care of the sightless man. It sometimes seems to the observer that the deprivation of that faithful boy is even more pathetic than that of the afflicted man. The boy stands, with nothing to call out a boy's activities and interests. His life is all care and responsibility, with no freedom, no activity. Yet he seems patient and cheerful. There are children held fast in shops and factories, and children held fast in palatial nurseries, without companions, without a real child-life."

Dickens, in describing a gay scene at the Hampton racecourse, says: "Even the sunburnt faces of gipsy children, half -naked though they

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS n

be, suggest a drop of comfort. It is a pleasant thing to see that the sun has been there ; to know that the air and light are on them every day ; to feel that they are children and lead children's lives; that if their pillows be damp, it is with the dews of heaven and not with tears ; that the limbs of their girls are free, and not crippled by distortions, imposing an unnatural and horrible penance upon their sex ; that their lives are spent, from day to day, at least among the waving trees, and not in the midst of dreadful engines, which make children old before they know what childhood is, and give them the exhaustion and infirmity of age, without, like age, the privilege to die."

The aim of all parents and teachers is, of course, to guide the child in his growth so that he will develop into a good man. But what is a good man ? Suppose we should eliminate from the child's dis- position all the instincts, traits, characteristics, which, as adults, we conceive to be undesirable, would we have a good child and afterward a good man? Should we banish all cruelty, all com- bativeness, all selfishness ? Are we sure that, if we could do so, the results in the last analysis would be desirable ? To remove all selfishness from a little child, so that, as he grew, he would not know what selfishness meant, would

12 THE POWER OF PLAY

be, to say the least, to exclude the possibility of experiencing the joys of unselfishness. To eliminate all the cruelty from mankind would be a mixed blessing. For example, who would be the fisher- men and the butchers ? " We do not need them," cries the vegetarian. But who would plough the fields and dig the gardens ? Who would destroy the destructive gipsy and the coddling moths ? For in these processes, numerically at any rate, more death and destruction is wrought among the worms, ants, and other insects than by all the butchers in the world. When we come to think of it, there is, after all, some virtue in these things that we have hitherto called faults.

Hodge says 1 : " Probably the best way to teach selfishness is to try to teach unselfishness too early. The passion for ownership is coextensive with life. It is an expression of " The Will to Live." It is as universal as hunger. It begins in the living series when an amoeba swallows a particle of food. By the effort put forth in the act of swallowing, the particle become the amoeba's property for the sus- tenance of its life. With man, it is the foundation of government and of social organisation, as well as the chief incentive to labour, invention, and discovery."

If we study the child in the light of history, par- ticularly in the light of the history of evolution, we

1 Nature Study and Life, by C. F. Hodge.

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 13

find that the child has bound up within him the traits and characteristics of all the life that has gone before him. He is a bundle of inheritances. He is what his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather have made him. Indeed, there is wrought into the pos- sibility of his life instincts from all the life of the race that has preceded him. As a child develops physically, he passes through all the stages through which the race has passed. Drummond puts it clearly when he says : " The science of Embryology undertakes to trace the development of Man from a stage in which he lived in a one-roomed house — a physiological cell. Whatever the multitude of rooms, the millions and millions of cells, in which to-day each adult carries on the varied work of life, it is certain that when he first began to be, he was the simple tenant of a single cell. Observe, it is not some animal-ancestor or some human progenitor of Man that lived in this single cell, — that may or may not have been, — but the individual Man, the present occupant himself. We are now dealing not with phylogeny — the history of the race — but with ontogeny — the problem of Man's Ascent from his own earlier self. And the point at the moment is, not that the race ascends ; it is that each indi- vidual man has once, in his own lifetime, occupied a single cell, and, starting from that humble cradle, has passed through stage after stage of differentiation,

14 THE POWER OF PLAY

increase, and development, until the myriad-roomed adult-form was attained."

As with the physical, so with the mental and moral. The failure to appreciate this principle of evolution has led us into gross error in the past. We have treated children as if they were little adults, and we have sought to develop in them adult characteristics. We have forgotten that in their development they repeat the history of the race, and it is well that it is so. The child could not understand history or appreciate and venerate the past if there was no responsive chord in his experience that could be touched.

In play a child repeats the activities of the race. " Why is it," asks Gulick, — an authority on the ques- tion of play, — " that a city man loves to sit all day and fish ? It is because this interest dates back to time immemorial. We are the sons of fishermen, and early life was by the waterside, and this is our food supply." Just as the race passed through the myth and legend periods of its development, so the little child passes through the periods when myth and legend appeal to its soul as nothing else can. Just as the race passed through the period of savagery, and later developed a rude tribal organisa- tion, so do children. The fourteen-year-old boy, with these inherited instinctive tendencies, appears at times to be little more than a savage, and for a

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 15

season delights in the activities and propensities of his savage progenitors. Should we try to eliminate this phase of his nature ? If we could do so, what would the result be ? Professor James, in his Psychology, says: "If a boy grows up alone, at the age of games and sports, and learns neither to play ball, nor row, nor sail, nor ride, nor skate, nor fish, nor shoot, he will probably be sedentary to the end of his days ; and though the best oppor- tunity be afforded him to learn these things later, it is a hundred to one that he will pass them by and shrink back from the effort of taking the necessary steps, the prospect of which at an earlier age would have filled him with eager delight." As with these physical activities, so with traits of character. If they do not become reflex in childhood and youth, they will atrophy and pass away.

If the process of evolution were completed at birth, we should do well to endeavour to eliminate all selfishness, pugnacity, cruelty, from the child's life ; but such a process is not completed until he has reached his full physical growth, and not even then. To force his development would be to cause arrest of development in the next stage. We must study the child if we would undentand him. We must have our aim clearly in mind, lest we crush out too soon " characteristics upon which

16 THE POWER OF PLAY

future strength depends, and inculcate in a hotbed growth virtues which, from force of early growth, failed of a robust and vigorous maturity." Evolu- tion does not destroy, but rather builds upon, the past.

But let us go a step further. The aim of the educator is, not to eradicate, but to build upon. Take, for example, pugnacity. To eradicate all the pugnacity from a man's character would be to rob him of a very necessary and valuable possession. It is better to build upon the tendency, and turn it into the right channel for character-forming.

Dr. G. Stanley Hall, in his latest and greatest book, Adolescence, says : " An able-bodied young man who cannot fight physically, can hardly have a high and true sense of honour, and is generally a milksop, a lady-boy, or a sneak. He lacks virility, his masculinity does not ring true, his honesty cannot be sound to the core. Hence, instead of eradicating this instinct, one of the great problems of physical and moral pedagogy is to rightly temper and direct it."

The good man is not the man who never fights, but rather the one who fights, and fights hard, for the right, and in defence of the weak and down- trodden. The man who cannot fight is not the strongest man. As with pugnacity, so with cruelty, selfishness, anger, and other so-called evils. But

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THE CmrfiTWHO PLAYS 17

how are we to harness these valuable instinct possessions, and change this raw material of the soul into forceful character ?

It is inherent in the young of all life to play, and our aim is to show how the games and the plays of children develop not only a characteristic tendency like pugnacity, but all the possessions which they have inherited. Seeing that play has a spontaneous interest in the child's life, it becomes a most valuable ally to the parent and teacher.

Dr. Hall, in Adolescence, discussing the ques- tion of play, says : " The antithesis between play and work is generally wrongly conceived, for the difference is essentially in the degree of strength of the psycho-physic motivations. The young often do their hardest work in play. With interest the most repellent tasks become pure sport, as in the case Johnson reports of a man who wanted a stone pile thrown into a ditch, and by kindling a fire in it and pretending the stones were buckets of water, the heavy and long-shirked job was done by tired boys with shouting and enthusiasm. Play, from one aspect of it, is superfluous energy over and above what is necessary to digest, breathe, keep the heart and organic processes going; and most children who cannot play, if they have opportunity, can neither study nor work without overdrawing their sources of vitality. Bible

i8 THE POWER OF PLAY

psychology conceives the fall of man as the neces- sity of doing things without zest ; and this is not only ever repeated, but now greatly emphasised, when youth leaves the sheltered paradise of play to grind in the mills of modern industrial civilisation. The curse is overcome only by those who come to love their tasks and redeem their toils again to play." What constitutes a strong character ? Two / most important traits are forcefulness and altruism. Let us discuss these. Do the games develop force and altruism ? Just as the blacksmith's arm becomes strong through continued strenuous use, so a trait of character is developed by effort. In no way can a child be so powerfully induced to put forth strong effort as in the games he plays, and each effort will help him some other to make. Effort is aroused through the passion to succeed, and thus will is developed and forcefulness cultivated. It , matters little how a trait is produced, so long as the man possesses it ; if you can call forth forceful- ness in your boy by making him work, by having him perform tasks of drudgery, well and good. But the occupation will lack the enthusiastic interest of the games, and as a consequence the child will fail to put forth his best effort, and will suffer from arrested development. The appeal must be made either through his spontaneous interests or through those other interests closely associated with them.

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 19

As with force, so with unselfishness. Unselfish- ness is not an early product : it displaces selfish- ness only gradually. "First the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear." The ear of the corn must first grow large and rank, and afterward comes the full corn.

With the early stages of adolescence co-operative group-games are played (see chart on page 20). This co-operation in play gradually brings a child into right relations with his fellows. A cricket or base-ball club composed of ten-year-old boys will elect a new captain three times a week. Five years later the organising instincts have developed to such an extent that once a year is often enough to elect a new captain. In these group- games the player finds his right relation to his fellow, and to the whole. He knows that too frequent change will bring defeat to his side ; so he sinks his own personal desire, for the good of the whole. Up to this time he cared only to show off his individual ability as a player ; but now he is learning to obey the leader, and sacrifice himself. He knows that, if he does not do so, he must soon be relegated to the substitutes' bench or the second eleven.

Play develops a reverence for law and order. True, there is not much love of order or law in the little child's play ; but, as the period of adolescence

20

THE POWER OF PLAY

approaches, the love of more orderly and better organised games is apparent. Professor E. P. St. John of New York, working over information gathered by Dr. Luther Gulick, has made the following chart, which illustrates the point : —

PLAYS AND GAMES OF BOYS.

Age.	Individual Play.	Competitive Group-Games.	Co-operative Group- Games.
	Blocks.
	Sand.
1 to 7	Running. Cutting.
	Shooting. Machinery.
		Tag.
		Hide and Seek.
to		Marbles.
12.		Ball.
			Base Ball.
12			Basket Ball.
to			Football.
24.			Hockey. Tennis.

It will be observed how largely the co-operative spirit develops after the twelfth year. Now, as never before, the boy is learning the lesson which every good citizen must sooner or later learn, namely, that he has become amenable to law. Thus, in

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 21

play respect and reverence for law is fostered; and because of the absorbing interest in the sport the lesson is very readily learned, and is also deeply impressed.

Under the inspiring conditions of a keenly- contested match, the boy learns ^the importance of individual duty. One weak spot in the team means almost certain defeat for the whole. So he does his best. From game after game thus played, the player comes gradually to see the attitudes of mind and conduct which will bring him into proper harmonious relationship with his fellows : a most important lesson for the " Men of To-morrow " to learn.

True it is, that the force and the unselfishness thus produced by games may be rough and ready in character, but it is real force and genuine unselfish- ness— not of the hotbed type. Out of this raw material — out of this strong, even rank, growth — will come the higher types of Christian manhood.

George E. Johnson says : " We may over-cultivate selfhood, and develop an egotist ; we may under- develop it, and produce a weakling. We may over-cultivate the instinct of pugnacity, and develop a brute ; we may under-cultivate it, and produce a coward. We may over-cultivate play, and develop a sport ; we may under-cultivate it, and produce a being devoid of enthusiasm, force, or ambition in

22 THE POWER OF PLAY

life. It is when the higher evolves from the lower that we can hope that the highest type of man- hood will be developed."

Froebel says : " It is by no means, however, only the physical power that is fed and strengthened in the games ; intellectual and moral power, too, are definitely and steadily gained and brought under control. Indeed, a comparison of the relative gains of the mental and of the physical phases would scarcely yield the palm to the body. Justice is taught, and moderation; self-control, truthfulness, loyalty, brotherly love, courage, perseverance, prudence, together with the severe elimination of indolent indulgence."

Hughes says : l " The old idea, that the mere storing of the memory was the highest work of the teacher, made it difficult for teachers to believe that one could seriously suggest that play should be made an organic school process, to be systematic- ally carried on as a regular means of educating children. At first the suggestion met with ridicule only ; then leading minds acknowledged that play might be of advantage, as a rest and a change from severe mental work; next it dawned on a few progressive teachers that play was really better than formal physical exercises for training the child physically in varied activity and in natural

1 Froebel's Educational Laws, by J. L. Hughes.

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 23

gracefulness ; until now the world is beginning to understand that Froebel made play an organic part of his educational system — not alone for recreation and relaxation, nor for physical culture only, but as the most natural and most effective agency for developing the child's physical, mental, and moral nature, and for revealing and defining its individuality."

Play is so entirely different from the old- school processes, that its recognition as a means of educating children has completely altered the standpoint of educational thinkers, and has done much to free them from the dogma that " know- ledge alone is power."

One-sidedness in character-building must be avoided. There are few all-round men. The educa- tion which does not produce all-round character is defective. To illustrate : The millwright who constructs a great fly-wheel frequently casts it in three sections, each of equal weight, otherwise the complete wheel would be " out of balance," and when set in motion would not run even and true. All schools of psychology divide the human mind, like the fly-wheel, into three sections : Knowing, Feeling, and Willing, or the Intellect, the Feelings, and the Will. The man who merely knows is not the powerful man. To know without having the power to do is to be weak indeed. The great man

24 THE POWER OF PLAY

knows and feels and acts equally. To have a strong intellect without a kind heart to guide it, is to be like the blind man who, well armed, shot friend and foe alike. Feelings must not carry away judgment, or inspire to action beyond the power of the will to perform. This is the psychological basis for all education, secular or religious. Our schools have erred in the past because of our abortive efforts to make the child know. We have forgotten that it is just as important for the child to feel as to know ; indeed, feelings should precede knowledge. To constantly cram a child with knowledge, without developing in him a love of things learned, or the power to practise them, will develop one-sidedness.

Hence the value of play and manual training : they develop the power to do. Hence also the value of having the child study and care for flowers, birds, animals, etc. ; for, while all help to develop the power to know, these activities help to cultivate the power to love and to do.

Hodge, writing on the subject of play, says:1 " Play is coming to be recognised more and more as an important factor in life and education. Nothing as fully brings into healthful activity every function and power; so that Froebel truly says, 'A man is a whole man only when he

1 Nature Study and Life, by Professor C. F. Hodge.

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 25

plays.' Play of the young is generally preparatory to activities of adult life ; pet-plays prepare, as nothing else can, for the most important of all functions, the care of the young. The care of the pet involves the same reasoning, the same thinking and feeling, and willing and doing, as the care of the child."

Elizabeth Harrison says : l " Hence the value of toys : they are not only promoters of play, but they appeal to the sympathies and give exercise to the emotions. In this way a hold is gotten upon the child, by interesting him before more intellectual training can make much impression. The two great obstacles to the exercise of the right emotions are fear and pity. These do not come into the toy- world ; hence we can see how toys, according to their own tendencies, help in the healthful education of the child's emotions — through his emotions, the education of his thoughts ; through his thoughts, the education of his will, and hence his character. One can readily see how this is so. By means of their dolls, waggons, drums, or other toys, children's thoughts are turned in certain directions. They play that they are mothers and fathers, or shopkeepers, or soldiers, as the case may be. Through their dramatic play they become interested more and more in those phases

1 A Study of Child Nature.

26 THE POWER OF PLAY

of life which they have imitated ; and that which they watch and imitate, they become like."

To teach a child fifty verses of Scripture without helping him to put one of them into practice, or to have him memorise verses from the Bible without cultivating a love for the Book, is positively harmful to the child's character. It is better to love the Bible than to know it. A child seeing his mother's love and reverence for the Book may learn to love the Bible long before he knows it. Love for a thing, power to do a thing, and know- ledge of a thing must all be intimately associated. Love for the Bible, power to do what it teaches, and knowledge of the Book must go hand in hand. Mere knowledge is not power. The strong character is the one who knows, and feels, and acts.

Play teaches a child to act. Play develops the will The will is the putting into practice power of the soul, and play makes the child act readily and quickly. Play develops the motor side of his nature. Our methods of education have been developing the sensory system and allowing the motor to take care of itself. Play puts the motor system on a level with the sensory, it bridges the mighty chasm between knowing and doing. The inherent, persistent, unconquerable love of play in the child is after all one of nature's efforts to develop an all-round character.

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 27

Hughes says : l " The rapidly changing con- ditions of a good game, and the complications incident to a keen struggle, afford perfect op- portunities for motor development. No other pro- cess so completely develops the mastery of the mind over the body, and so fully trains the body to respond perfectly to the mind, as a good game. The brain, the motor system, and the entire body are co-ordinated in their action, until the expert player performs feats of agility or skill which to the unpractised appear to be almost impossible.

" The moral effects of play are most important. The play of a boy corresponds to the work of a man. Every quality that is requisite in the man to make him completely and honourably successful, is necessary to complete success in the plays of the boy.

" The weakening self-consciousness of childhood, the most restrictive influence in a child's life, is overcome by social intercourse on the playground, under the stimulating conditions of co-operative effort to achieve success.

" Personal fear goes out of a boy's life after he has had a few years' experience amid the inspiring struggles incident to outdoor sports. He learns to think only of his predominant aim, and loses his weakening self - consciousness in the desire to achieve the end directly in view."

1 FrocleVs Educational Laws, by J. L. Hughes.

28 THE POWER OF PLAY

What, then, shall we do with this play-loving, active child ? How shall we manage him ? Froebel says : " I can convert childish activities, amusements, occupations, all that goes by the name of play, into instruments for my purpose." We must harness the child's activity and put it to use. More positive teaching is necessary. The gospel of Chalmers was impregnated with the thought of the "expulsive power of a new affection." He who would train the active child, must learn the expulsive power of a new activity.

The young child is very suggestible. Negative " don'ts " have very little prohibitive force with him. Cease saying " don't " and learn to say " do." The " don't " method may appear to be the quickest, but it is not the most effective. Much of the punishment administered is the result of the break- ing of unnecessary negative commands. The fewer the prohibitions, the fewer will be the punishments. Never prohibit anything you cannot prohibit. Two parents discussed the question of " do " and " don't." One of them, a mother of three " stirring " children, recognised for the first time that she had been making mistakes just at this point, and determined that for the future she would cease the negatives and use the positives. A week later this mother remarked to her friend : " I have been led a pretty chase this week. Ever since I saw you, I have

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 29

been trying to find something for my children to do" She was one of those mothers, and their name is legion, who have not cultivated the art of keeping the children busy. " Don'ts " had always been readier for her than " Dos," and she found it next to impossible to change the habit of ten years in ten days. It had not occurred to her to save the old magazines and illustrated papers, so that when the children had nothing to do, she could keep them busy cutting out the pictures. She had never thought of buying a little box of paints, so that, when the children were tired of cutting out pictures, they might paint them in all sorts of fanciful colours. She had never appreciated the advantage of keeping a bottle of paste at hand, so that when the children were tired of cutting and painting the pictures, they could paste them together in original and fantastic fashions, and thus develop their artistic and imaginative faculties. She had not cultivated the art of suggestion, and was therefore greatly handicapped in her work of child-training. One mother allowed her children to paste the pictures they had cut and painted upon the nursery wall. This was certainly something novel in the art of decoration. The room was a gem in its way ; and in the process of adorning it the children were kept busy, the play instinct was harnessed, and the all-creative

30 THE POWER OF PLAY

instincts were brought into action. Below are some horses which were cut from paper by a ten- year-old boy without using a pattern. His mother had encouraged him to observe the horses and to use his scissors and pencil, and these are the result of his observations. The first is a city carriage

horse, and the second is the result of his impres- sions after watching a working horse in the country, which had broken the rope that fastened him and was running away.

Another mother has two or three globe fly- catchers, and in the summer an important item of

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 31

her boy's routine work is to take the flies out of doors and set them free. Thus she harnesses his activity and broadens his love and sympathy for the lower creation. The parent must cultivate the art of helpful suggestion, and be always on the outlook for occupation which will use the activity instinct. Here are some more suggestions.

Give the children a black-board. Give them scis-

sors and coloured pencils with which they can make paper dolls, etc. In one home the children made croquet sets out of green peas and wooden toothpicks. Large dried green peas were soaked in water, and from these and the toothpicks the children readily manufactured mallets, balls, and hoops. One boy, when he tired of croquet sets, made a waggon from the same materials. Give the children reins with

32 THE POWER OF PLAY

which to play horse, beads to string, materials for blowing bubbles. Be sure that they have a sand pile to play in ; give them blocks in abundance, a tool-box, pictures, scissors, and paste.

Mrs. E. E. Kellog, in Good Health, makes the following suggestions : " Among fascinating occupa- tions for the very little ones is that of sorting and classifying objects of different colours, shapes, and sizes; corn, red, white, and yellow; beans,black,brown, speckled, and other large seeds ; pebbles, light and dark; buttons, scraps of pretty cloth; various coloured papers ; large glass beads ; coloured wools. These are all suitable for this purpose. When obtainable, half-inch cubes, spheres, and cylinders, which can be purchased both coloured and uncoloured, will keep the little fingers, eyes, and brains busy stringing them on a shoe-string, or a tape with needle attached. With a little suggestive help from the mother, something of form and number may be learned through their use. Empty spools, or the contents of the button-box, may be used for stringing when the beads are not obtainable. Blocks of wood — oblongs, triangles, squares, octagons, and other mathematical forms which anyone familiar with the use of a saw can provide from pieces of board — offer almost endless possibilities for the construction of houses, furniture, ladders, railways, or any other objects which the imagination of the child or the

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 33

fertile mind of someone suggests. We recently read of one mother who provided for her little ones a pounding-table, with hammer and nails, which they drove to form patterns of fences, bridges, elevated rail- ways, tables, and numberless other things. Pins, and a cushion in which to stick them, might be utilised in the same way. Sand and pebbles are always favourites with the children. A low table, with a deep tray just covering the top and filled with sand, is most serviceable ; but a pan, filled with moist sand, placed on a sweeping-cloth or on an old sheet upon the floor, will answer very well. The filling of bottles, pails, or other dishes with the dry sand, the pressing of moistened sand into patty-pans to form cakes, or the shaping of it into a flower garden, in which to plant small stems and twigs, will furnish the wee ones employment for a whole morning. For the child of six or seven, the sand pan offers possibilities almost without limit. In the sand he can represent mountains, rivers, and all geographical formations ; make the hut of the Esquimaux, the adobe house of the Mexican, and the dwelling and environments of people in other localities. He can make letters, figures, pictures, and all manner of designs in the sand. If it be feared that the sand will make too much dirt indoors, we suggest that a child's broom and dust- pan be kept in some convenient place, and that 3

34 THE POWER OF PLAY

the little ones be taught to sweep up their own litter when they have tired of the work in the sand. This will occupy them anew for a time, and will be of value in more ways than one. Cleaning-up is a process which should follow all the children's occupations.

" The modelling of familiar objects in clay, dough, putty, or warm beeswax ; the blowing of soap bubbles; outlining of designs with some kind of flat seeds, as split peas, or lentils ; the braiding of strands of bright-coloured cloth, or the stringing of soft pieces to be made into rugs, are other pleasing employments for the little folks."

Set the children to tell stories to one another, or to their dolls. Children in the very imaginative period of life enjoy telling stories of their own construction. As soon as they can write, have them write some of these stories. Two friends, who were engaged in an absorbing conversation, were greatly disturbed by a girl of eight years. Presently one of them, who knew that the child had lately learned to write, said to her : " Eleanor, you told me a beautiful fairy story one day. I wonder if you could write it out for me now ? " The following, with the omission of the original illustrations, was the result : —

" Once upon a time there lived some dewarfs and they lived in this funny house, and one of the

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 35

dewarfs name was Dan and he wore a funny suit and they called him Dan Dan the funny man and one day Dan was walking in the woods and he met a beautiful girl and she said Hallo, Dan and Dan said How do you know thats my name. Oh she said I heard your brothers call you that. But said Dan that is not my name, my name is Dan Dan the funny man. Yes she said. I know that but I thought that you would be cross. They went home together and while they were eating there a funny funny little man came and stood on the table and put his hands in his pockets and said. Ladies and gentlemen and all at once he blew his horn and seven little rats and seven little pumkins came and he said change and at once carriages and horses stood before them and the funny man said, Get in, and they obeyed and they drove away and they lived ever after in houses of gold."

It is unnecessary to state that the two friends enjoyed an undisturbed conversation. But what was equally important, the child, instead of being repressed, was given an opportunity for developing her imagination and for improving her powers of story- telling, to say nothing of the opportunity for practice in her newly-acquired accomplishment of writing.

Give the children material for making toys,

36 THE POWER OF PLAY

rather than toys ready made. Keep them supplied with pieces of cloth, buttons, hooks and eyes, etc., with which to make dresses for their dolls. " A wise mother trained her little daughters, by the use of doll patterns, to understand dressmaking so well, that when they grew older they could make all their own gowns, with the assistance of patterns." Eemember that the children are not naturally lazy ; they are full of energy and ready for action. If a child ever develops into a lazy man, it is because he has been taught to hate work, which has always been presented to him in unattractive forms.

Therefore, instead of teaching the young child to sew by making table napkins or such things for her mother, or by making dresses for herself, interest her in the more attractive occupation of making dresses for her dolls. There is to the child a vast difference between hemming big table napkins for ordinary table use, and cunning little ones to be used at a doll's tea-party. The more useful employments will come all in their own good time. Kemember that play is a child's work.

Mr. James P. Upham, who for over twenty-five years has been connected with the premium depart- ment of the Youth's Companion, states that for prizes the boys are most likely to choose "some- thing they can make something, or do something with, or to earn something with." Thus the scroll

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 37

saw has been by far the most successful premium ever offered by the paper ; likewise, the most popular premium for girls has been the Kensington patterns for art work. The following list includes the most popular premiums as determined during a period of twenty to thirty years : The camera at present, microscopes and telescopes, magic lanterns, soldering casket, glass cutter, pocket tool-holder, outfit for making initial jewellery, carving tools, pocket-knives, materials for building canoes, Florentine bent iron- work, Weeden's engine, materials for a model motor, toilet hair-clippers, oil-painting outfit, water-colours, etc., celluloid decorating outfit, dolls, collection of puzzles, megaphone printing-press, and certain books. In general, educative toys were considered un- successful as premiums, as also were electric toys on the whole. The latter were not nearly as popular as steam toys.

A most interesting study, investigating the favourite plays of the Worcester, Massachusetts, school children, was made by Mr. T. E. Croswell, and the results published in the Pedagogical Semin- ary, volume vi., No. 3. One thousand boys and nine hundred and twenty-nine girls answered, among others, the following questions: " 1. What toys or playthings do you use most ? 2. What games and plays do you play most ? 3. Which of these are your favourite ? 4. Name other games and play-

THE POWER OF PLAY

things which you used when younger." The follow- ing chart shows one of the results of this study : —

THE TWENTY-FIVE LEADING AMUSEMENTS. Total, 1000 Boys, 929 Girls.

	Boys.	Girls.
Boys.	*	'£	*	9
	1»	4	0	-S
	9 o	•g	.2	•S
	§	|	33	0
	m a	1	*	£
1. Ball .	679	241	409	67
2. Marbles .	603	115	130	21
3. Sled	555	110	498	69
4. Skates .	538	168	412	113
5. Football.	455	157	1
6. Tag ...	356	73	442	93
7. Relievo .	336	126	194	48
8. Hockey, Polo, Shin- \	313	53	8
ney . . . /
9. Checkers	277	87	189	34
10. Hide and Seek	241	74	427	132
11. Waggon, Express . 12. Dominoes	188 185	35 42	7 133	26
13. Top	176	28	11	...
14. Play Horse .	166	26	47	3
15. Cards .	163	34	151	51
16. Bicycle .	160	78	86	45
17. Snowballing .	123	14	98	3
18. Swimming . . 19. Kite	119 107	26 5	15 12	2
20. Black Tom and \ Black Jack. . /	102	26	97	14
21. Horse Cobbles	88	5	7
22. Books, Reading	87	7	108	22
23. Fishing .	80	19	7	1
24. Boat	78	18	27	4
25. Leaves . .	75	2	112	6

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS

39

	Gii	-Is.	Bo	p,
Girls.	£	9	£	<3
	|	*	1	£
	1	o	•-B a	1
		1	*	1
		6
1. Dolls .	621	35	39	6
2. Sled .	498	69	555	110
3. Jump Rope .	480	60	13	1
4. Tag	442	93	356	73
5. Hide and Seek	427	132	241	74
6. Skates .	412	113	538	168
7. Ball	409	67	679	241
8. Play House .	365	54	59	5
9. Jackstones	341	63	28	2
10. Play School . 11. Doll Tea Set .	257 242	32 73	69 8	1
12. Doll Carriage .	233	80	5
13. Relievo .	194	48	336	126
14. Checkers	189	34	277	87
15. Hop Scotch .	154	21	16	...
16. Cards .	151	51	163	34
17. Croquet .	148	52	62	3
18. Dominoes .	133	26	185	42
19. Marbles.	130	21	603	21
20. Leaves . ,	112	6	75	2
21. Hoop .	110	14	71	33
22. Books, Reading	108	22	87	7
23. Flowers .	102	1	32	1
24. Drop the Handker ) chief . . j	101	11	22	2
25. Snowballing .	98	3	123	14

40 THE POWER OF PLAY

The following were the leading amusements of boys in Brooklyn — total number, 205 :l —

Mentioned Favourite

by with

1. Ball 151 68

Base Ball alone . . .101 53

2. Marbles 109 15

3. Sled 100 9

4. Skates 89 17

5. Football 73 16

6. Top 64 7

7. Tag 51 5

8. Snowballing .... 48 5

9. Checkers 45 15

10. Pass Walk .... 40 5

11. Hide and Seek. ... 39 5

12. Sleigh Riding .... 37 5

13. Prisoners' Base ... 36 2

14. Snap the Whip ... 33 1

15. Swimming .... 28 9

16. Dominoes .... 27 2

17. Puss in Corner .... 27 1

18. Play Horse .... 24 6

19. Bicycle and Velocipede 23 6

20. Lotto 22 4

21. Waggon 20 4

22. Kick the Can .... 19 2

23. Kites 19 0

24. Shinney 18 0

25. Messenger Boy ... 17 8

All these interests should be studied by the parent, so that he may be ever ready with a sugges- tion, and thus keep the child busy. Soon the

1 From article on " Amusements of the Worcester School Children," by T. R. Croswell, published in Pedagogical Seminary.

THE CHILD WHO PLAYS 41

child thus kept employed will learn to find activities for himself. Every time the child is repressed, the sympathy which should exist between parent and child is lessened ; while every time there is an outlet furnished for his activities, the love and friendship is deepened.

Hughes says : l " Self -activity is impossible under restraint. The child loves to do right better than to do wrong, to be constructive better than to be destructive. The well-trained teacher can change the centre of interest without coercion, and without interrupting the operation of self-activity."

Interfere as little as possible with the child's play. Suggest certain activities when necessary; do not do so when unnecessary. Do not have the child to depend on you to supply activities any of tener than you can help it. Keep him busy ; but as soon as possible have him suggest his own activities, and also those for the other children. It is exercise of this sort that develops the creative instinct. The men who can create something are the men in demand all the world over to-day.

Oftentimes toys are chosen for children with little thought. When purchasing toys, aim to get those that will keep the children busy. Eschew the mechanical toy, which interests them only until the novelty wears off. As has been said, give them

1 FroebeVs Educational Laws, by J. L. Hughes.

42 THE POWER OF PLAY

materials out of which they can make their own toys, and thus harness their play and activity instincts as well as develop their imaginations.

Pets are of great value to children. They stimulate the growth of the emotions as well as develop the power to do. Caring for pets makes children careful, and tending them makes children tender.

The dog is the most popular pet of all. Of 2804 children, it was found that 42 per cent, of them was most fond of the dog ; 2 7 per cent, of the cat ; 6 per cent, of canaries ; 5 per cent, rabbits ; and so on in the following order : horses, parrots, chickens, ponies, pigeons, squirrels, fish, lambs, monkeys, goats, doves, cows, etc.

" The boy without a playground is father to the man without work " ; and it might be added, the boy without pets is father to the vandal and the prize-fighter.

CHAPTER II. THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY.

rilHE child who does not play is a much more serious •*• problem than the child who does nothing but play. The child who plays needs a director ; the child who does not play needs a doctor. The child who does nothing but play can be taught and trained through his love of play ; but the child who does no playing must be regenerated in nerve and muscle, and first be brought to love play. The playless child is the little old man, and will soon become a most unfortunate case of arrested development. The dwarf is a case of arrested development. He did not grow in the growing time of life, and now it is too late to make up the deficiency. The qualities which can only be developed in a child through play are dwarfed in that child who cannot or will not play. The over- studious child is in greater danger than the over- playful child. The parents and teachers of the studious child are apt to overlook the fact that

43

44 THE POWER OF PLAY

the child does not play enthusiastically ; and because of the false distinction they make between work and play, are flattered rather than alarmed : the result is arrested development.

The rose which human fingers have hastened in its unfolding will never develop into a full-sized and perfect flower. Forced development leads to arrested >< development in the next stage. Bryan says : —

" Many things which would be grossly immoral for the adult have no moral significance whatever for the child. The child's standard of morality, so far as he can be said to have a standard, does not come to him so much by intuition as by precept, and not so much by precept as by unconscious suggestion and imitation. Nothing could be more deadening to the development of the child than an attempt to make it conform in every way to the moral standard of the adult. Because the naked child manifests no sense of shame, he is not therefore disgracefully immoral. Because the child, under the vividness of the imagination, does not adhere literally to the truth, he is not therefore a liar. Because the child connives in every connivable way to attain some desir- able end, he is not therefore a trickster; and because the child appropriates that which does not belong to him, he is not necessarily a thief, as his father would be under the same conditions.

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 45

From the standpoint of the adult, these things would all be gross breaches of morality, but from the standpoint of the child they have but little moral significance. The time will come when they will have great moral significance.

A precocious sense of moral development must be avoided during early years, as well as a morbid sense of moral delinquency. Better no sense of morality at all, than that the child should either hold himself up as a bright and shining example of right conduct, or that he should be taught to magnify his mistakes into unpardonable sins. It is not good for the child to be acutely conscious either of his goodness or his badness. The normal child will be occupied with something other than self ; that is an adolescent experience. We often teach a child to discern right from wrong, and admonish him to cleave to the one and forsake the other, only to find that, despite our teaching, the second state of that child is worse than the first.

Montaigne says : " Our work is to train men ; not souls, not bodies, but both ; they cannot be divided."

In the past we have been in the habit of talking about saving souls, as though a man's soul could be saved apart from his body. Jesus healed men's bodies. The teacher of the mind or soul

46 THE POWER OF PLAY

must study the body. There is as much danger of extreme spiritualism as of extreme materialism ; the church of the past half-century has suffered quite as much from the former as from the latter. We must not divorce body and soul The inter- dependence of mind and body is well recognised. There are few sympathisers with that spiritual hero of the fourteenth century who wrote on the wall of his cell, "A pale face, a wasted body, and a lowly demeanour are the marks by which a spiritual man may be known." Weak and helpless women are going out of fashion ; the sooner they go, the better. George E. Johnson, Massachusetts, says : " The day is coming when each child in our public schools will be considered as .a being with a body as well as with a mind."

Children are afflicted with many physical defects, and are often wrongly punished because of action or inaction resulting from them. Study well, therefore, the physical defects of the child. When we recognise that a child is ill or defective, we become more tender in our treatment of him. The bigger the child, the better ; the more pounds he weighs, the better. Genius is sometimes done up in small bodies, but, on the average, the heavier the child, the better. It is a striking fact that the truant boys of Massachusetts weigh less than boys of the same age who are not truants.

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 47

The following figures, given by Roberts, make this difference apparent: — '•

Age. Number of Boys.

13 14

13

14 15

112 84 37

233

55 26 11

92

Where found. Public School

Truant School

Weight.

87-49

93-98

105-24

28671 Average, 95-57

83-30 85-98 9400

263-28 Average, 87*76

showing a difference of 7'81 Ibs.

Again, here is a chart showing the average weight in public schools of boys aged 1 1 years : —

Grade. 1 .	Number of Boys weighed. • • • 59
2 . 3 . 4 .	. 311 . 665 . 546
5 . 6 .	. 123 33

Weight.

63-4 63-5 68-0 69-2 71-3 73-3

Here we find 59 boys who are far behind the other boys of their age, and these weigh only 63 Ibs. ; while 33 boys, who are far ahead, weigh 10 Ibs. heavier. In England the social classes are

48 THE POWER OF PLAY

more clearly divided than in America. The following figures are from English schools.

CHART SHOWING DIFFERENCES IN WEIGHT. 2378 BOYS.

riaq. Number Average

Class' Weighed. Weight.

150 78-07

Public School .

Middle

Elementary

Royal Military College

Factory Children

Industrial Schools

686 68-00

181 67-08

840 65-01

341 67-04

180 63-02

2378

In England, " Public schools " are the best schools of the country (for example, Eton, J:lugby, and Harrow), while the Industrial schools are practic- ally reformatories. Observe the difference in the weight between the best and worst nurtured classes. It has been found that there is a difference of five inches in the height of individuals of twenty-one years of age in the best and the wort$ nurtured classes in England.

As a result of the " Child-Study Investigation " carried on in the public school of the city of Chicago from March, 1899, to June 23, 1899, Mr. W. S. Christopher says " it is clear . . . that on the average those pupils who have made great intellectual advancement are on the whole taller,

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 49

heavier, stronger, possessed of greater endurance and larger breathing capacity, than those who have made less advancement."

The bigger the child, the better ; therefore care for his body. Speak seldom to him about what "tastes good," but often about what will make his body strong. When he has a pain or an ache, trace it back, if possible, to some over-indulgence. Praise the strong and manly; speak with pity of the weak. Inspire him to self-control and to the development of his body. Choose carefully the food to be placed upon the table. Self- sacrifice on the part of the parent is necessary for the welfare of the child.

Elizabeth Harrison says i1 "In a thousand such ways can children be influenced to form judgments concerning lines of conduct, which will help them to decide aright when the real deed is to be enacted. I know of the Kindergarten - trained five-year-old son of a millionaire, who refused spiced pickles when they were passed to him at the table. 'Why, my son/ said his father, 'do you not want some pickles ? They are very nice/ * No/ replied the boy ; ' I don't see any use in eating spiced pickles. It doesn't help to make me any stronger; my teacher says it doesn't.' If this kind of training can be carried out, such

1 A Study in Child Nature. 4

50 THE POWER OF PLAY

a childhood will grow into a young manhood which, when tempted, can easily say, 'No, I see no use in that. It will help to make me neither a stronger nor a better man.'" The great lesson in life, and the most difficult to learn, is the lesson of self-control. It is not more parental control that is needed, but more self-control on the part of the child.

Froebel, in his Education of Man, says : " In the early years the child's food is a matter of very great importance ; not only may the child by this means be made indolent or active, sluggish or mobile, dull or bright, inert or vigorous, but indeed for his entire life."

Again, Froebel says : " Parents and nurses should ever remember, as underlying every precept in this direction, the following general principles : that simplicity and frugality in food and in other physical needs during the years of childhood enhance man's power of attaining happiness and vigour, — true creativeness in every respect. Who has not noticed in children over-stimulated by spices and excess of food, appetites of a very low order, from which they can never again be free — appetites which, even when they seem to have been suppressed, only slumber, and in times of opportunity reappear, to rob man of all his dignity, and to force him away from his duty. It is

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 51

far easier than we think to promote and establish the welfare of mankind, and here it is easy to avoid the wrong and to find the right. Always let the food be simply for nourishment ; never more, never less. Never should it be taken for its own sake, but for the sake of promoting bodily and mental activity. Still less should the peculi- arities of food, its taste or delicacy, ever become an object, but only a means to make it good, pure, wholesome nourishment. Let the food of the little child be as simple as the circumstances in which the child lives can afford, and let it be in proportion to his bodily and mental activities."

When the child complains of headache, do not always sympathise with him, but inquire what he has been eating, or what time he went to bed last night. Get from effect to cause every time. When the boy does not want to play, find the cause in wrong eating or drinking. If he be sleepy or cross, if he works badly at school and loses his place in the class, help him to see what is the cause of the trouble. Here is a little fellow who was well trained. He said to his mother, " Mother, I think the cobbler across the street has been eating something that didn't agree with him." " Why ? " said the mother. " Well, you see, mother, yesterday he allowed me in the shop and told me a story, and I told him one, but to-day he is so

52 THE POWER OF PLAY

cross he wouldn't allow me into the shop at all. I suppose he's been eating something that wasn't good for him/' It is quite likely that the boy's judgment was wise.

The mental education of the child is so closely connected with the physical education, that it is of the greatest importance that the physical develop- ment should be of a high order. To this end each individual child should be studied carefully. Not only should his own physical nature be studied, but also the physical natures of his father and mother, of his grandparents and great-grand- parents, so that tendencies to any hereditary diseases may be anticipated and guarded against. Such foresight and care can guide and tide a child over critical periods until he finally quite outgrows his weaknesses.

It is of the greatest importance that the child should have a normal physical foundation, iu order that the training of the senses may be carried on to the best advantage. If a child's eyesight is not good, his perceptions of the things around him will not be correct ; if his hearing is dull, he will miss many things, and probably get wrong ideas of many others.

Perhaps the most important sense of all to train is the sense of touch. For through it he learns more than through any other sense. A child can

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 53

never have a correct idea of the shape of a thing until he has touched it, handled and felt it. He can never have a correct idea of a distance until he has measured that distance by walking it. He should therefore be allowed to handle everything around him, and to experiment for himself. All his learning should as far as possible be connected with some physical activity : he should make things and do things with his hands.

The sense of sight should be carefully trained. From the very first he should be taught to notice and observe things, in order that he may gain the power to see quickly and accurately. His sense of hearing, too, should be trained. These things can be done by bringing him into close touch with nature. If the animals, birds, insects, trees, and flowers are his friends, he will have plenty of practice in observing and seeing and hearing. He will learn to look for the smallest things about each one, to listen for the calls of the animals and the noises of the insects, for the notes of the birds, and the rustlings of the wind through the trees.

The world is half-full of people who, having eyes, see not ; and having ears, hear not. It is a foregone conclusion that the child who starts out in life handicapped with physical defects — bad eyes, ears, throat, teeth, etc. — will be found to fail in the race for life in these days of keen competition.

54 THE POWER OF PLAY

Dr. Topleitz examined 2000 day-school children in New York City, and found 1260 of them suffering from some defect of ear, nose, or throat.

Forty-seven per cent, of the children in day schools have been found to be defective in sight.

Conrad in Germany found 45 per cent, defective. Hippel „ ,,38

Kotelman „ ,,59 „

Erusiman in Eussia „ 61 „ „

Carter in England ,,49 „ „

Allport in Minnesota ,,32 „ „

Eisly in Philadelphia ,,46 „ „

Showing an average of 47 „ „

Eecent tests in Chicago revealed that 32 per cent, of the children entering the public schools were defective in sight. The percentage was increased to 43 per cent, at nine and a half years, and receded again to 30 per cent, at thirteen and a half years.

The result of Dr. Eeichard's extended investiga- tion on the hearing of children shows 22*27 per cent, defective. Dr. West found 41 per cent, of Worcester public school children below the ninth grade defective in sight. For the ninth grade the effectiveness was 18 per cent.

The Child Study Monthly reports the following

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—"An interesting case, showing the effects of eye- strain, is that of a son of a principal of one of the Chicago schools. In Kindergarten and first grade he was restless, easily tired, and so irritable by the close of the day, that parents were annoyed and puzzled. Though naturally a nervous child, he had never shown chronic bad temper before. His mother had her eyes examined and glasses fitted, and experienced so much relief, that, merely as an experiment, the boy was taken to an oculist. Glasses correcting the marked astigmatism in otherwise normal eyes solved the difficulty." What might have been the result had he been the child of poor and heedless parents ?

The superintendent of a school for the blind made the statement to the writer, that out of the one hundred and fifty scholars in his charge, fifty of them would never have been blind if they had had proper care. While visiting one school, this superintendent found a child nearly blind. When it was proposed to remove her to the blind school, the authorities of the day school protested against such action. When examined, the child was found to have but three two-hundredths of perfect sight. A few months more in that day school, and the child would have been totally blind.

One mother punished her child again and again for inattention. A few months later, that same

56 THE POWER OF PLAY

child had to undergo a serious operation upon her ears and throat. Fancy the mother's remorse.

Here are a few simple and well-known tests for the eyes, such as are used by any oculist : —

Hold this diagram of a dial two feet from the face, and examine it with each eye in turn. In perfect vision, all the white lines will be seen with equal distinctness ; but if any appear blurred or tinted, astigmatism is present.

ii'jjli1 "sir

SELECT THE BLACKEST LETTER,

If you can see these lines with equal sharpness, you have excellent sight, but if they appear blurred, or the spaces look tinted, you are suffering from astigmatism.

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 57

To see all these lines distinctly is a proof of good vision.

If this arrangement of parallel lines confuses and tires the eyes after gazing at it fixedly for a few seconds, your eyes are more or less astigmatic, and you should seek advice for them.

Defect* of eyesight reqoirihg correction by the use of spectacle* are purely mechunt- «*!, and can be so corrected by the proper adjustment of perfectly made lenses that their effects will be entirely obviated. This print should be read easily at fifteen Inches from the eye. If you cannot do so you should wear spectacles. It does no» pay to buy cheap spectacles. They distort the rays of light, disturb the angles of vision, cause pain and discomfort and injure the eyesight. When it is necessary .to hold work or rending matter farther than fifteen inche* from the eyea in order to see distinctly, it is a sure sign of failing Axion, and much annoyance 4ittomfort and pain will be prevented by having a pair of cUwe* fitML

UNfVERSITY

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No. i.— Pearl.

The absurd prejudice that some people have against the use of glasses, influenced by their regard for their personal appearance, is indulged in at the ultimate cost of good

No. 2. — Nonpareil.

sight — or perhaps loss of useful vision. The earlier these refractive troubles are attended to, the less powerful the lens that has to be worn. This allows

No. 3. — Brevier.

a margin for future changes. But it is in view of the abnormal deviation from the healthy eye which must come as we advance

No. 4. — Bourgeois.

in life that the judicious use of glasses is of so much importance, preventing, as it does, congestive states of

No. 5. — Small Pica. the eye, which tend to morbid changes, ending,

No. 6.— Pica. it may be, in glaucoma, or cataract.

No. 7. — Great Primer.

The wearing of shades over the

No. 8.— Double Pica.

both eyes: better that

In perfect vision, the smallest type should be read without difficulty at a distance of fifteen inches. If this cannot be done, suitable spectacles should be obtained without delay.

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 59

Taylor in his book, The Study of a Child, says : " In a spelling class the other day I asked the students to criticise the work of their classmates, and to mark the misspelled words. One of them complained to me that her critic had marked three words in her writing speller that were correctly spelled, though they had been spelled aloud for her guidance. The next day I took occasion to speak of the matter, assuring them that each critic would be held responsible for his work. As the class was dismissed, the critic mentioned came to me and confessed. I asked why she did it. She replied, * My eyes ! I suppose it must be my eyes/ Examination showed that she was right, and her many blunders were all explained."

Again, Taylor says : " I had occasion once to reprimand, for the third or fourth time, a young woman who had been giving me much anxiety by her repeated indiscretions. She smiled as I spoke of her offences, and giggled as I assured her that she was at the point of suspension. In surprise, I asked her why she received my reproof with such levity. She answered that often when she wanted to cry she laughed, and that often when she wanted to laugh she cried. With a word or two I excused her from the room, and sought further light. It came from a friend, who said,

60 THE POWER OF PLAY

* That young woman has suffered from childhood with epilepsy. For a year or more she has been so nearly well that her parents were assured last summer by her physician, that if she could be sent among strangers for a while she would probably forget her affliction, and in her new surroundings attain perfect health and self- control. She undoubtedly told you the truth about her crying and laughing muscles becoming crossed at times. Epileptics can hardly be expected to be either intellectually or morally normal.' "

We are indebted to the Child Study Monthly and Journal of Adolescence for the following: " Philip (aged eight years) spent two years in the lowest primary grade. He made no progress whatever. His younger brother entered the same grade and was promoted in one year. The principal sent Philip to the second grade out of kindness. One more year passed, and still Philip could not read, write, spell, or cipher. The principal read something about Child-Study. He took Philip to a surgeon and had the fungus growths (adenoids) cut out of his nostrils. The principal said nothing of this to anyone. In a short time the principal's children in the second grade came home and told with wonder how Philip had distanced them all. The teacher could

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 61

not understand the cause of the marvellous change in Philip. In a few months he stood at the head of the second grade. For three years he had not heard with any clearness his teachers or his mates. There are hundreds of defectives who have been thus helped by Child-Study, and thousands who await the teacher."

In an average class of forty-eight pupils, the teacher will find six pupils so dull of hearing in loth ears as to be greatly handicapped in all oral work, and six others who are considerably handi- capped unless they sit on the proper side of the room to favour the better ear. In other words, at least one-fourth of the pupils in school have a defect serious enough to demand attention. Some one has said, " Children's ears should be examined — not cuffed."

Dr. Homer Smith of Norwich, N.Y., says : " Children suffering from Hyperopia (or far-sighted- ness) study and work only by an abnormal effort of accommodation, and, varying with the degree, study becomes more and more difficult. Such children detest study, are thought to be indolent, and can only be driven to close application. They delight in outdoor games, are physically robust, but may as a result (in some ways) be mentally un- developed. The parents of such children do not appreciate how irksome becomes continued use of

62 THE POWER OF PLAY

the eyes for near work, nor how fatiguing is such exercise to them. To laziness and heredity, and not to an infirmity, we often attribute the cause.

"Myopia, or near-sightedness, is the result usually of a prolongation of the optic axis, with the far point of distinct vision at a definite distance ; this distance, of course, varying with the degree of myopia. The sufferers from myopia cannot see clearly beyond a certain point in low degree, say about forty inches. Objects within this distance are seen clearly ; and in a certain sense this is an advantage, in that objects are appar- ently larger and are seen with less effort; but its disadvantage lies in their inability to see beyond this point. The myopic are given to sedentary occupations, they cannot partake in outdoor games, they become ill developed mus- cularly, they prefer home amusements and reading when they should be with their fellows in the open air ; they are inattentive to black-board work, and are reproved for that which is no fault of theirs.

" It is little short of marvellous to note the change which properly fitted lenses make in both these cases. Children are the same the world over: they are eager to learn, and they rejoice in outdoor sports as well. With corrected vision

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 63

the myope leaves his books and blocks, to join in bat and ball ; and the hyperope will take his share of school work without complaint ; and that natural balance which now ensues between brawn and brain exists, to the perfect development of a sound mind in a sound body."

The child who does not play is often found to be suffering from adenoid growths and enlarged tonsils. These fill up the cavity behind the nose and mouth.

In such cases there is always a low power of resistance against disease. If the case is a bad one, the child is pale and poorly nourished. He will become round-shouldered, have a muffled voice and snuffling respiration. The nose and cheeks fall in and present pinched features. The arch of the palate rises, the incisor teeth overlap, the mouth hangs open, and the muscles become flabby. Then is contracted the habit of mouth-breathing, and the air, not warmed, or moistened, or filtered, meets the unprotected pulmonary tissues. The sense of smell atrophies, and a great protector of health is lost. Loss of hearing is sure to follow. Speech is affected, and there is inability to concen- trate the mind. The desire to play passes away, and the temper and disposition and intelligence depreciate, and soon is resultant in a serious case of arrested development.

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THE POWER OF PLAY

The following chart will give an idea of the large number of children defective in hearing : —

Doctor.

Place.

Number.

Defective.

Pritchard in Russia examined 1055 found 22 per c
Sexton	New York	570	13
Weil	Germany	5905	31
Worrell	Terre Haute	491	25
Gelle	Paris	1400	25
Maure	France	3588	17
Lunin	Russia	281	19
Parr	Scotland	600	28
Schmegelow	Copenhagen	581	51

The following are some very simple and well- known tests for the ears which can be made by any teacher or parent : —

HEARING TEST. — " In the hearing test a watch should be used which has a clear distinct tick. With normal hearing such a watch, when fully wound up, should be heard ticking plainly at a distance of 36 inches from the ear. To pre- vent any mistake, however, it is well to ascertain, by trying the watch on several people who have good hearing, how far away others can hear the ticking of the timepiece in question. In making the test, one should get a friend to hold the watch and to measure the distance at which the ticking can be heard. The person to be tested should be seated in a quiet room, so that the ticking of a clock or other sounds cannot interfere. The eyes

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 65

should be covered, and the ear not under examina- tion should be closed to sound. The watch should be brought close to the ear first of all, and then drawn away in a direct line until its sound ceases to be heard. This test should be verified by hold- ing the watch more than 3 feet away, then bringing it slowly nearer until the ticking is perceptible. Granting that the watch can be heard normally at 3 6 inches, the distance at which a defective ear hears it gives, by comparison, a measure of the defect in hearing. If only heard 1 2 inches away, the ear has only 12-36 (or J) the hearing power it should possess ; if heard only 9 inches away, J normal hearing, etc."

G. E. Johnson of Andover, Mass., has made a care- ful study of children's teeth. He says : " It is well known that with the advancement of civilisation there has come an increasing tendency to physical degeneracy in many particulars. This is especially noticeable in regard to the jaws and teeth of the present generation." l According to Dr. Rose, only 2J per cent, of Eskimos have defective teeth, 3 to 10 per cent, of Indians, while, according to Johnson's studies, 97 per cent, of Andover school children have defective teeth.

Dr. Dennison Pedley, in England, conducted an examination of the teeth of 3800 school children,

1 "A Study of Andover Children's Teeth," Pedagogical Seminary.

5

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from three to sixteen years of age. 75 per cent. ( of these children had diseased teeth. This is better than the figures which the Andover children show. At Andover the teeth of 497 children were examined: 96*6 per cent, were defective. Besides the decay of the teeth, there were numerous abnormalities. 26 per cent, had teeth pointing upward and outward, or jaws meeting at either front teeth or back teeth only, thereby interfering greatly with mastication of food. Two children were unable to bite the little finger when inserted between the front teeth. Out of 165 children in one building, 136 had green stains more or less marked. 87 per cent, of the 497 never, or rarely, brushed their teeth; 23 of them never made any pretence of caring for them; 63 per cent, of the children over six years neglected to clean them, and even 23 per cent, of the High School pupils were guilty of like neglect. It is generally supposed that it is of little or no use to care for the baby teeth. The mouth, when rendered foul through the decay of food and teeth, becomes a veritable hotbed for the lodgment and generation of disease germs, an " entrance gate " for infectious diseases. The immunity of the physician from infectious diseases is due far more to cleanliness of mouth and person than to anything else.

Booker Washington says : " In all my teaching

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I have watched carefully the influence of the tooth- brush, and I am convinced that there are few single agencies of civilisation that are more far- reaching.

"Many children suffer from diphtheria who never would do so if the mouth were kept clean, and the teeth, the baby teeth, in a good state of repair. Of 3000 Americans over twenty-five years of age, only seven had all four of the sixth- year molars. Why? Largely because of the diseased companions among which these teeth came to live. Of 1840 cavities in baby teeth, only 48 had been filled ; that is, 2*6 per cent. The great question of physical welfare, especially in the case of children, is the question of nutrition. That which is digested and assimilated, rather than that which is swallowed, is the principal thing."

Proper mastication is necessary to proper diges- tion. Proper digestion is necessary to good temper. Good temper is necessary, on the part of both parent and child, if punishments are to become less frequent. This is the relation of punishment to physical defects.

John Dalziel, a sympathetic lover of the child, has given us the following incident : " Many instances of apparent stubbornness on the part of the children have come under my notice, which upon a thorough investigation have been found to

68 THE POWER OF PLAY

arise from some defect in the organs of sight or hearing, such as astigmatism or a deformity in the ear.

" The head of a child may appear normal to many persons, indicating in some cases more than ordinary intelligence, while there exists such a condition that it is impossible for the child to understand some propositions, even when expressed in simple terms.

" The appearance of the eye-ball is not an indica- tion of the power of seeing in any individual, a fact attested to by oculists and understood by many educators ; but that there is still a great deal of ignorance of the laws governing mind-develop- ment, which should be known to every person entrusted with child-cultivation, is manifest from the treatment of children by both parents and teachers.

" One of the most painful instances of the belief of the innate badness of some children came under my notice a few years ago in the city of Phil- adelphia. The mother's statement in this case was, ' That ever since he was a baby he had given her a great deal of trouble, from a habit of knocking things over.' As his eyes were perfect, and he could see the objects and play with them, his parents did not suspect there was any defect in his sight; and consequently he was punished for

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 69

what appeared to be wilful mischief, and that which seemed still worse — trying to lie himself out of punishment by saying he did not see the things there. This determined persistence in lying was the cause of all his afflictions; it was, however, accompanied by an aggravating habit of making grimaces at the person questioning him, a sure sign of natural depravity. As is frequently the case with children when they know that they are being punished wrongfully, this boy resented the ill- treatment by stoic endurance while under the rod, thereby gaining the additional stigma of being vicious and incorrigible.

"With such a character, gained at home, he was taken to an asylum for feeble-minded infants, for the purpose of being disciplined. At first, in the new surroundings, he brightened up ; but it was not long before the teacher had full evidence of his obstinacy.

"The importance of beginning right was fully understood ; and the teacher, taking an object in her hand and holding it before the boy's face, asked him, while he was to all appearances looking directly at it, ' What is the name of the object in my hand ? ' The child twisted his face up, and with a grimace asked, ' What object ? ' Here was confirmation of the bad character he brought with him. His head was held face to the object

70 THE POWER OF PLAY

and a correct answer demanded ; then followed the usual answer, ' I cannot see anything.' For such obstinacy and prevarication there was but one remedy.

" The child was desirous of pleasing his teacher, and watched her closely, so that he could occasion- ally name the object held up ; this, however, only made his conduct at other times less tolerable. As a crucial test, the teacher would hold a pin before the boy's face, and upon his statement that he could not see anything, the point would be brought in contact with his nose, producing a cry and the statement that 'It is a pin.' Severe punishment followed this experiment.

" Fortunately for the child he became sick. An oculist, after examining him, stated that there was a defect in his sight, but the exact nature of it was not easily determined.

" After this the child was treated less severely ; but all his endeavours to prove himself truthful were futile, and the poor little fellow pined away slowly and died, without any adequate cause in the shape of physical disease.

" At the request of the oculist, the boy's brain was given to him for examination ; he found that the nerves of sight were disconnected, which would render it impossible for the child to see any object in front of his face, but that he could see

THE CHILD WHO DOES NOT PLAY 71

all objects on either side of him ; and only by twisting his head and shutting an eye could he be able to see things in front of him.

" The remorse felt by his former teachers can be readily understood ; but what a picture it is ! Who can appreciate the acute mental suffering of the infant when punished by its mother for untruths it did not tell ? Think of the effect upon the mind of a child, deprived of food, kept in confine- ment, and flogged for failing to comply with requirements it had no means of comprehending ! "

In a certain High School a boy who was called " incorrigible " by all his teachers passed into another department. He was in the habit of thrust- ing a pin or his penknife into the boys who were seated alongside of him. This performance was repeated over and over again. He was usually sent from the room, and afterwards severely punished. At last he came under the care of a teacher who had great sympathy for boys. This teacher carefully observed the actions of the lad, and made up his mind that there must be some reason, other than pure badness, which prompted him to such vicious action. He suggested to the boy's father that the lad should be examined by a phy- sician. The father replied, " All he wants is plenty of punishment." However, a physician was called, and the boy was carefully and thoroughly examined.

72 THE POWER OF PLAY

It was found that one of the lungs was almost gone, and the other somewhat diseased. It was then observed that these "incorrigible" actions occurred in the afternoon, and particularly on days which were close and muggy. The teacher and physician gave it as their opinion, that in acting as he did the boy was fighting for his life. In the close room he could not get sufficient air to breathe, and he knew that after such serious misdemeanours he was sure to be sent to the principal for punishment, and that outside of the room he could get air to breathe.

Such instances and statistics as are here given must certainly bring us more into sympathy with our children. Before punishing, we must be sure that there is not some physical defect which leads to wrong action. Dr. Bedder says : " Whenever a race attains its maximum of physical development, it rises in energy and moral development."

The child who does not play is a more serious problem than the child who does nothing but play.

CHAPTEK III. TWO KINDS OF PLAYERS.

Would you know how to lead the child in this matter ? Observe the child ; he will teach you what to do,"

/CHILDREN differ ; no two are alike. There are, V however, certain positive types, and this chapter will deal with the Restless and the Quiet types, in contrast. These may be called the Motor and the Sensor types. The poet has appreciated the differentiation when he speaks of " men of thought" and " men of action."

Let us consider the differences. The motor child is very quick to act : for him to think is to act. All his ideas seek to find their outlet in bodily activity. He wants always to be moving, acting, doing. A lad who, while rapidly swinging his feet, was asked by his teacher, " What are you thinking of?" said, "I was thinking if my feet were ponies, how I would go ! " This is a case in point. The sensor-minded child is slow to act. He does not manifest the great bodily energy of

73

74 THE POWER OF PLAY

his motor brother. His energy runs to thought: he is content to sit comparatively still; he turns things over in his mind before he puts them into action. While the motor boy is in danger of thoughtless action, the sensor is in danger of actionless thought. He is contemplative, quiet, serious, and retiring. Not that he does not play ; but his play, at any rate until he is thoroughly aroused, is of a quieter type. He is fond of the company of his elders. He and his grandfather are good friends : they love to be together ; he is "grandfather's darling." Not so the motor boy: he is grandfather's horror. He is nearly always making the people who live with him uncomfort- able by his noisy actions. He is impulsive, thoughtless, and rash ; he is boisterous, explosive, and naturally rude. Sometimes he can hardly be trusted to play with other children. He may possess no more energy than the sensor child, but what energy he has finds its outlet in bodily activity. He is always getting hurt. The motor- minded child of three years is usually ornamented with several black-and-blue spots, the result of hasty indiscretion, which his more cautious brother escapes.

All young children are very " suggestible," but the motor child is more readily suggestible than the sensor. He does things with a rush ; he is the

TWO KINDS OF PLAYERS 75

hustler and the bustler; he is always on the qui vive for what is going on. Not only is he very suggestible, but he makes many suggestions. He is always ready to give advice. The adage, " Think twice before you speak," is the suitable one for him. Not so with the sensor child : that caution is out of place for him. It may be absolutely harmful to him ; for his tendency is to think, not twice but many times, before he acts.

Another adage in common use is, " Children should be seen and not heard " ; this maxim must not be applied to the sensor child. Comparatively speaking, he does not want to be heard. He is secretive and retiring, and if not corrected will spend his life in retirement and seclusion. We should ask him what he is thinking of, encourage him to talk, and help him, by speech and action, to give expression to himself.

The motor-minded child is always ready to commence something new : he is quick to begin a thing, but slow to finish it. He likes changes : he is apt to become the " rolling stone that gathers no moss." The motor child loves to " show off " : he is always talking about the things he is going to do. He is a boaster ; he is apt to be domineer- ing, and wants to lead the other children in their games. He loves to play with children whom he can control. Because of his enthusiasm he is a

76 THE POWER OF PLAY

born leader, but there is danger that he will not think enough to lead wisely: that after an ex- plosion or two of great talk and boast he will collapse, and give place to one more thoughtful than himself.

The sensor child does not want to lead, but usually prefers to follow. He occasionally makes a suggestion for a game, and it is usually a wise one. Someone else, however, is apt to become the leader in that game. He always looks before he leaps, but there is a danger that he will not leap at all ; and if not trained rightly, the world will lose the influence of a life that would otherwise be a thoughtful power. Both of the children may be self-conscious, but the motor child shows his self-consciousness more than the other. He shows off in great style, wants everyone to see his im- portance ; and if this tendency is not corrected in his early years, he will have to learn through bitter experience.

The motor-minded child of four or five years cries loudly when he is hurt; he is the "cry baby." There is a loud explosion; a grief which is soon over. The sensor-minded child grieves more quietly. He gets the sulks and shrinks within himself. His sensitive nature is easily offended. We must not take a stick to him, as we might do to the motor-minded child. It would

TWO KINDS OF PLAYERS 77

reak his heart. We cannot break the heart of the motor-minded boy ; he has the safety-valve of demonstration, through which he lets off the steam : but the sensor child is easily driven away, and there is danger of quickly losing him from onr heart's sympathy, love, and control.

The motor child is very demonstrative. If he finds that he loves you, he will say so; he will hug and kiss you and tell you that he loves you " a hundred times," " a thousand times," " a million timeS*' The other child loves you just as well, but says less about it. Perhaps he shows it more by his quiet actions than by many words.

The motor-minded child asks many questions: the sensor asks comparatively few. Not that the sensor child has any less curiosity than the motor, but the latter must speak what he thinks. The sensor child listens and learns from the other's questions.

The motor child jumps to conclusions : he does not wait for proofs, but at the least sign makes up his mind. He does not differentiate carefully. Without sufficient data, he draws his conclusions, and is often led into impulsive and mistaken actions. One can always tell what he is thinking about. Every expression on his face is the reflec- tion of his thought ; he is as easily read as an open book. The teacher can see by his expression

78 THE POWER OF PLAY

whether he is pleased or displeased. Not so with the sensor child. The teacher finds him a difficult pupil to understand, and only after continuous questioning can she discover whether or not he has grasped the thought. The motor boy wants to guess at things. He loves to guess. He commits to memory with ease ; for memory- work does not make him think : he does it automatically. To make such a child commit to memory is surely an educational blunder. We must make him think, think, think. He wants to act, act, act. He is always ready to give attention, but he will not for long give his undivided attention. In preparing lessons he is superficial. He will tell his mother that he knows his lessons, when, as a matter of fact, he only thinks he knows them : he has skimmed them, as he skims everything else.

The motor child commits a dozen acts of dis- obedience to every one the sensor child commits. For the motor child to disobey does not, comparat- ively speaking, mean much : he acts so quickly, so impulsively, so thoughtlessly, that he disobeys before he knows it. Not so with the sensor. His acts of disobedience are more thoughtfully com- mitted : they are premeditated. We call the motor-minded child a disobedient child ; but, as a matter of fact, his many acts of thoughtless dis- obedience are possibly altogether not as great as

TWO KINDS OF PLAYERS 79

one of the sensor-minded child. Consequently the parent who does not understand the difference, fails to deal justly.

The question will of course be asked, Are there not children who are half sensor-minded and half motor-minded ?

All the children who have come under the observation of the writer have, on a reasonably intimate acquaintance, been easily placed in one class or the other; but the subject is open for further investigation. It is certain that in almost every family of four children both types may be easily discovered. At all events, there are a sufficient number of extremes to make this study well worthy of attention.

We see these different characters among the biographies of Scripture. It is easy to place Peter : the rash, impulsive, boastful, energetic, suggestible, demonstrative, talkative, self-assertive, enthusiastic, motor-minded disciple. It is not difficult to class John : the thoughtful, the one who shows us so much of the deep things of God, who deals with eternities, and with great heights and depths of things spiritual ; John, the quiet, retiring, contemplative, modest, cautious, undemonstrative, sensor-minded disciple. John, however, was one of the sons of thunder. How are we to harmonize this fact with the quiet, retiring, gentle disposition

8o THE POWER OF PLAY

described ? One characteristic of these deeper natures is that when they are aroused they speak, and speak with the voice of thunder. Arouse this sensor-minded child, and he will show all the reserve fire of his nature. Nor will it be easy for him to get back his habitual calmness. Once more, we see the difference portrayed in the hustling, bustling, impulsive Martha, and the quiet, retiring, comtemplative Mary.

It cannot be said that the one type of character is more excellent than the other. The world needs both. Education and training should bring to the child that which he needs to make him an all- round character. Education, however, cannot begin until the child is understood.

How shall we train these different natures ?

1. THE MOTOR CHILD.

This child is sure to be doing something all the time ; idle hands he cannot have : he must act. If he is not given the right things to do, he will do wrong things. Certainly if he is not kept busy at the sort of work he needs, he will keep himself busy at the very sort of thing he does not need. The secret of training this child lies in harnessing his energy, and turning it into the channels necessary for his best development. His games,

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if they are left to himself to choose, will be games of action and not of thought. Thought-games are the very ones he needs, and these must be sug- gested to him.

First. Get him interested in such thought- games as draughts and checkers.

Second. Give him complex things to do. Do not, however, tax him with more than he is able to bear.

Third. When he gets into trouble through hasty actions, point out to him the fact that he has acted without thought, and therefore must suffer.

Fourth. Keep him from jumping to conclusions. Help him to weigh evidence carefully.

Fifth. As often as possible let him work out his problems alone. Assist him only enough to keep him from being discouraged. Give him lessons that will make him think. Keep away those of a rote character.

Sixth. When you read or tell him Bible stories, choose the stories that will help to correct his impulsive disposition. Show how the heroes were calm, thoughtful, self -controlled. Make large in the story the characteristics that you would develop in the child. Do not discourage him : inspire him.

Seventh. Keep him much in the society of

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those rather older than himself. As has been seen, he prefers the society of children whom he can control.

Eighth. When he studies, send him to his own room, where he can be alone. Every motor influ- ence about him attracts his notice.

Ninth. Suggest things for him to do, rather than for him to don't. To tell this boy not to do a thing, almost makes him want to do that very thing. It certainly makes it harder for him to refrain from doing it. Kemember that he is very suggestible.

Tenth. Be careful how you dress him. Put the quiet colours on the "show-off" boy, and shield him from any parade before others. Prevent him from hearing his own praises sung. Earely, if ever, have him recite or sing alone before strangers and seldom before friends. Keep him from taking part in entertainments, or from anything that will pamper him in his love of showing off his self- importance.

2. THE SENSOR CHILD.

First. Keep in company with him.

Second. Encourage him to talk, and so give expression to himself.

Third. Suggest things for him to do: get him to act.

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Fourth. Encourage him to lead the other children in the games, etc.

Fifth. Let him recite or sing in public. He lacks self-confidence.

Sixth. In some things he is easily discouraged. In these encourage him. Praise him for small successes.

Would you know how to lead the child in this matter ?

Observe him. He will tell you what to do.

CHAPTER IV. MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY.

IMAGINATION AND PLAY.

ULLY says : " I often wonder, when I come across some precious bit of droll infantile acting, or some sweet child-soliloquy, how mothers can bring themselves to lose one drop of the fresh exhilarating draught which daily pours forth from the fount of a child's phantasy."

Beware of arrested development. All healthy children love to play ; but healthy young children, especially, enjoy the play of "make-believe." Here is a little fellow who buttons up his coat, pulls down his cap, swells himself out, puts his shoulders back, and cries, " I'm a policeman " ; here is another, who throws an imaginary bag over his shoulder, loads himself up with "make- pretend " letters, and cries, " I'm the postman." Where can there be found a better opportunity for helping a child to understand the duties, hardships, etc., in the life of the policeman and

84

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the postman than during the period of " make- believe play " ? The child, in impersonating the policeman, the postman, his grandmother, the kitten, the bird, or any other character, learns to enter into the life and to understand the feelings of that other as he can do in no other way. The child who misses the opportunity to play in such a fashion will suffer all the days of his life from arrested development.

Dickens wrote : " I often consoled myself by impersonating my favourite characters in the books I had read. I have been Tom Jones for a week together. I have sustained my own idea of Koderick Eandom for a month at a stretch. For days I can remember to have gone about, armed with the centre-piece out of an old boot- tree, the perfect realisation of Captain Somebody of the Eoyal British Navy in danger of being beset by savages, and resolved to sell my life as dearly as possible."

I heard of a little fellow who played all day long that he was a coal merchant. He dragged his little four - wheeled cart to the side of an imaginary ship, loaded it with imaginary coal, dragged it off to his fancied customer, and delivered it. He repeated this action again and again. He was so interested in his play, that at night, when on his knees for his evening prayer,

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he said, "Dear God, make me a better coal merchant." Was there ever a more beautiful prayer, or a more natural one ?

Elizabeth Harrison writes : " A young mother, whose daughter had been for some time in a Kindergarten, came to me and said, ' I have been surprised to see how my little Katherine handles the baby, and how sweetly and gently she talks to him.' I said to the daughter, 'Katherine, where did you learn how to talk to baby, and to take care of one so nicely ? ' ' Why, that's the way we talk to the dolly at Kindergarten ! ' she replied. Her powers of baby-loving had been developed definitely by the toy baby, so that when the real baby came, she was ready to transfer her tenderness to the larger sphere."

The wise teacher or parent will find that the secret of success lies in working with nature — not against it. But let us go a little deeper into the subject.

The imagination is that power or faculty of the mind with which we consciously weave, out of past memories, new ideals or images. Phantasy is a similar power, but used sub-consciously or uncon- sciously. We dream when in a state of phantasy. New imaginings or images are made from past memories. There is nothing new under the sun. It has been said there is nothing absolutely new

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in the Book of Kevelation. There are new com- binations of past memories, but nothing in itself really new. " One time," says a student of birds, who had a short while before been observing the games of children in the Kindergarten, " I dreamt that I saw a beautiful goldfinch. I was very anxious to see it at close quarters. All at once I fancied myself stooping down and holding up my hand above my head. I was pretending, as the children do in their games, that my fingers were the branches of a tree. The goldfinch came and lit upon one of them. I caught him, and examined him at my leisure. There was nothing new in the dream. The goldfinch and the games were all past memories, but I constructed these past memories into new forms."

Imagine an outfit with which to travel to the North Pole. It would be necessary to go on ice, through the air, upon the water, etc. What would the outfit consist of ?

We can think of the combination of a sledge, a boat, a balloon, and even a steering gear for navigating through the air, yet we have imagined nothing really new. We have put old things together and perhaps made new combinations, but nothing absolutely new can be imagined. All dreams are images made, when in a state of sub- consciousness, out of old ideas. All ideals formed

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while conscious are also made out of past memories.

A child can only make a mental picture out of past materials, and with him materials are not abundant. Hence the picture in the child's mind is apt to be far from true and very primitive. Dr. Lange, speaking of his childhood, says that, when the story of the flood was discussed, his childish fancy pictured the chaos to be such a flood as was often caused by the river Saale, which flowed near his house. The mist that rose from the water in the mornings and evenings was the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters. On the shore, where there were many reeds, Moses was exposed in his little basket ; while his sister, in the neighbouring field, watched the fate of the little fellow. From the same stream rose the seven fat and seven lean kine of Pharaoh. At the point where it was particularly deep the children of Israel crossed, etc.

Fifty children, eight years of age, were asked the question, What do you think God looks like ? .

Their answers are most interestimg. Here are some of them :

I think God is like a man, but He is holy.

I think God is like an angeL

I think God is like a good man.

God is a good man; He speaks very cleverest words.

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God is like sweet flowers.

God is like a big ball of light

God is like a fire.

God is like a cloud.

God is like a great man.

God has a nice face.

God is like a good man, and very quiet.

A child, seeing the white fleecy clouds rolling by, asked, very naturally, " Auntie, is that God's hair blowing in the wind ? "

In a study on " Children's Attitude towards Theology," Earle Barnes found similar ideas. He says : " Of the three members of the Trinity, God receives far the most attention from children under twelve years old. When they refer to Him, they speak as of a great and good man. ' I think God looks like a human being ; but looks more kind and good, and shines like the sun/ ' God looks like any other man ; but He is greater and wiser and smarter.' 'There is a beautiful throne, on which God is sitting, with a crown on His head, a sceptre in one hand and in the other a globe. Rays of light are going out from Him in all directions, and light the whole place/ The little four-year-old girl already quoted asked: 'What does God eat? Is it chopped grass ? Doesn't God have any dinner ? Did Robinson Crusoe live before God? Who was

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before God ? Is rain God's tears that run out of the sky ? How did God put the moon in the sky ? ' '

This agrees perfectly with the study made by Dr. G. Stanley Hall, in which he found the little Boston children saying that — " ' God is a big, perhaps blue, man ; very often seen in the sky, on or in the clouds, in the church, or even in the street. He came in our gate; comes to see us sometimes. He lives in a big palace, or a big brick or stone house, in the sky. He makes lamps, babies, dogs, trees, money, etc., and the angels work for Him. He looks like the priest, Froebel, papa, etc.' They like to look at Him, and a few would like to be God. 'He lights the stars, so He can see to go on the sidewalk or into the church.' Birds, children, Santa Glaus, live with Him ; and most, but not all, like Him better than they do the latter."

The son of an artist thought that the moon had been painted in the heavens, as his father painted trees and figures on his canvas. A three-year-old child fancied that the moon was a balloon which had been fastened to a string, and that the string having broken, it had flown away to the skies.

Children from the second until at least the ninth year live as it were in two worlds. For convenience let us call them the world of " realism " and the world of " make-pretend." The first might

MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY 91

be called a lower world and the second a higher. Many young children live more than half the time in this upper realm of "make -pretend." The practical question cornes to us, " How shall we deal with the children who live so much of their time in this world of fancy ? " Should we tell them fairy stories ? Should we tell them fairy stories on Sunday ? What shall we do when they tell us the monstrous stories of their imaginations ? What about Santa Glaus ? One parent says, " These things are not true, and I will not encourage the child in deceit." Another sees in them the possibility of great development in character-building. Which is right ?

It should be remembered that as the love of play is universal with all children, so is the love of story. The fondness for fairy stories, or the interest in " making - believe," is not perverted desire, any more than is the natural interest in play. All young animals play. Child-training becomes, therefore, a question of working with nature by appealing to these spontaneous interests in child-life.

Logically, the ruling-out of fairy tales, myths, and legends, because they are not absolutely and really true, means depriving the child of much food for his development. It is like clipping the wings of the mind, for the imagination is to the child what wings are to the bird. If we

92 THE POWER OF PLAY

decide against Santa Glaus, we must, if we are logical, decide against the fairy story, the myth, and the fable ; indeed, all Mother-Goose tales must go, and most of the nursery rhymes. It will not do to allow the child to pretend that the stick is a horse, that the doll is a real live baby, that the sofa-end is a stage coach, or the box a grocery store. All dodging plays and games of pretence must be put away. It will be readily seen that thus the child is deprived of much that he loves and much that is helpful to him.

Taking Santa Glaus or the fairy tales out of a child's life is like taking sunshine out of day. Sidney Smith says, " If you make children happy now, you will make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it." " But," says the earnest, anxious mother, " I will not deceive my child." It is just here that the mistake occurs ; for, after all, it is the spirit in which the thing is done that makes all the difference.

Here is a woman who, when talking to the dog, says, " Come along, little doggie, and I will ask the old lady that lives in the cupboard if she has a bone for you." " Old lady," she gaily says, as she opens the cupboard door, " have you a bone for my doggie to-day ? " Now, there is no old lady in that cupboard. "But she is only in fun," we say. Exactly ; so it is with the Santa Glaus myth, the

MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY 93

fairy tale, the horse stick, and so on. We must talk about Santa Glaus in the same spirit that the woman talks to the " old lady in the cupboard " ; that is, in the spirit of " make-pretend," or " let's suppose." Now, when we come to tell the Christ tale, we must speak in a different tone and spirit. Here we are in the world of " realism." But how can the child discern this difference ? Easily enough, and soon enough. It is the spirit and tone and the demeanour that make the difference. " Make the myth as gloriously impossible a one as you can." Miss Poulson says, " Tell it to them in merry mood and laughing mien, and with funny shrugs and winks. Be wholesomely humble and ignorant. Tell it as you would dodge them ; and when they learn the truth, let it go." Who cannot remember when he came to himself and said, " What a goose I was to think that stick was a horse ! "

In the same way with the Santa Glaus myth : let the children come to themselves, and it will be a joy to them as long as life. Where is the grey- headed man who does not look with joy upon the " Santa Glaus " days ? The child thus taught will never look back and say that his mother has deceived him.

The extreme position in this question is the dangerous one. We must neither deceive the child nor hinder him from living in his natural and

94 THE POWER OF PLAY

beloved world of make-believe. We must neither deceive his intelligent judgment nor starve his vivid imagination. And there is no need for doing either. It is one thing to dodge a child, it is another to deceive it. It may be a wise and necessary thing to evade a direct answer for a time, but the occasion will come when direct issues can be no longer put aside. There is no need, when we are telling a child a fairy story, to inform him that it is not a true tale ; nor is there need to go out of the way to tell him that Santa Glaus is a myth But the time will come (the later the better, perhaps), when the growing intellect will demand explanation, and then it must be given. Imagina- tion must be fed, but not at the expense of intellectual deception. There is one comfort about it all, and this is, that imagination will continue to feed upon the myth, legend, and folk-lore, even when reason and intellect recognise them as fiction. We can all remember that for years after we knew the truth about Santa Glaus, we still con- tinued to hang up the stocking on Christmas Eve. Keason and imagination are allies, not enemies. George Albert Coe sums the matter up thus :

"One extremist would feed the reason and starve the imagination, while the other would stuff the imagination without reference to the reason. The present tendency is toward the latter extreme, and the current is setting so strongly that way, that a warning is needed lest we prolong for another generation

r* CF

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the difficulty with biblical wonder stories that has so seriously troubled the last several generations. If we do not believe that a serpent spoke articulate language, or that the sun stood still at Joshua's command, we should not teach these stories as though they were truisms. If we doubt them, we should not teach them as though we did not doubt. As soon and as far as any child shows an inclination to discriminate literal truth from imaginative forms, the literal truth should be given together with the figure that clothes it. This does not imply the foisting of theories or of debated points upon children who are not ready for them, but it does imply fidelity to the truth as we see it. Only through such fidelity can we prevent catastrophic doubts in later life."

But to return to the question of the value of make-believe plays and games.

Here is a make-believe game as played in one of the Kindergarten departments of a crowded city school in England.

Rhyme for a Nutting Game in an imaginary wood (suited to the intelligence of a class of children aged 5J years):

1. "Come and let us ramble

Through the wood to-day ; Bring your lunch in baskets. And we'll all be gay. Merrily we walk along, With a happy shout — Under bending branches, Peeping all about.

2. "See that pretty squirrel

Running up a tree ! Do you think he's frightened — Just by you and me? Here's a fine big nut tree — Shake it ! See them fall ! So full are all the branches, There's plenty for us all.

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3. "Fill your little baskets- Some for Mother dear ; And some we'll take to school, For those who are not here. Now, happy little children, Tired with work and play, We will all go Home, And come another day."

L.R.

Baskets filled for " Mother dear " and for " those who are not here " will develop unselfishness in the child quite as well in the realm of make- believe as in that of realism.

Here is another game for the little people. Instead of imaginative drill, this is a splendid substitute. Drill as usually conducted is merely imitative, but all make-believe play tends to develop the creative and inventive instincts. One hour of make-believe play is better than five of mere physical exercise, provided the former can be so conducted as to act as a developer of all the muscles of the body. This game illustrates how this may be done :

SANTA GLAUS GAME.

This is the way the snow came down in North- land, till at last the ground was white.

(Raise the arms. As arms are lowered, move the fingers one after the other, imitating the falling of snow.)

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Santa Glaus drove his reindeer over the snow. (Eun about making-believe drive.) His feet grew cold and he warmed them by hopping. (Spring from ball of one foot to the other,

raising foot high in the back.) He warmed his fingers by blowing on them. This is the way he took presents from his pack.

(Imitate unloading a pack from the back,

first one hand and then the other.) The children were fast asleep. In the morning they found that Santa Glaus had left them a toy elephant that moved his head. (Twist head to right, bend. Raise, face front, bend. Raise, twist to left, bend. Repeat movements, with continuous motion.) They found a jointed doll.

(Arm movements, leg movements, bend

forward at hips.) And a little drum.

(Clap hands, in imitation of beating a

drum.) And a jumping- jack.

(Jump lightly, landing on balls of feet with legs a little apart, at the same time clapping hands over head. Jump back to position, and bring hands to

sides.) 7

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The children were so happy, they skipped about while beating the drum.

(Skip, either sideways or forward, around

the room.)

When Santa Glaus got home that night he was very tired, and he sat right down, like this :

(All sit down.) And he put his head down, like this :

(All put heads on arms.) Then he closed his eyes and went sound asleep.

(Have children pretend that they are asleep, and keep them so until they are quiet and rested and ready for next exercise.)

Martin Luther, writing to his child about heaven, says : " Grace and peace with Christ, my dear little boy. I am pleased to see that thou learnst thy lessons well, and prayest well. Go on thus, my dear boy, and when I come home I will bring thee a fine fairing. I know of a pretty garden, where are merry children that have gold frocks, and gather nice apples and plums and cherries under the trees, and sing and dance and ride on pretty horses with gold bridles and silver saddles. I asked the man of the place who the gardener was, and who the children were. He said, 'These are the children who pray, and learn, and are good.' Then I

MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY 99

answered, ' I also have a son, who is called Hans Luther. May he come to this garden, and eat pears and apples, and ride a little horse, and play with the others ? ' The man said, ' If he says his prayers, and learns, and is good, he may come ; and they shall have pipes and drums and flutes and fiddles, and they shall dance, and shoot with little cross-bows.' Then he showed me a smooth lawn in the garden, laid out for dancing ; and there the pipes and drums and cross-bows hung. But it was still early and the children had not dined, and I could not wait for the dance. So I said, ' Dear sir, I will go straight home and write all this to my little boy ; but he has an Aunt Lena that he must bring with him/ And the man answered, ' So it shall be ; go and write as you say.' There- fore, dear little boy, learn and pray with a good heart, and tell Lippas and Jost to do the same, and then you will all go to the garden together. Almighty God guard you. Your loving father, Martin Luther."

The Great Teacher is the great teller of stories. It is said of Jesus, " Without a parable " — that is, without a story — "spake He not unto them." Stories must fit the stage of development in which the child is living. The child we are now con- sidering— the child who is living in that stage when the imagination is in process of rapid development —

100 THE POWER OF PLAY

must be largely taught through the myth, the legend, and the fairy tale.

The following story, by Maud Lindsay, is a beautiful illustration of the use of the fairy tale in moral teaching. It is all the better for not being absolutely true. It is just the sort that will attract and interest : —

WHAT THE STARS SAW.

The long, peaceful night was just changing into morning, and the calm Moon, surrounded by her Star-children, was listening as they in turn told what they had seen.

Said the first Star: "In an old apple tree I saw a dear little mother-bird spreading her warm wings over her babies in the nest, and the wind gently rocked them all to sleep."

Then said the Moon : " You, my child, beheld a beautiful sight."

Said the second Star : " I saw a little dog, with a sore foot, limping along the street, and a boy picked him up, saying, " Why, you poor little thing ! Ill take you home, and feed you, and give you a nice piece of carpet to sleep on, and make your foot well ; and, as you seem to have no home, you shall live with me."

The Moon said again : " You, my child, beheld a beautiful sight."

MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY 101

The third Star said: "I saw a stranger travelling along a dusty road. He stopped at the cottage and asked for a glass of water ; and a bright- eyed little maiden very gladly ran to the well and brought some water to him, after which he felt much refreshed, and soon reached home."

And again the Moon said : " You, my child, beheld a beautiful sight " ; and she also went on to say that, if we only look, we can see beautiful things by night or by day, for the world is full of them. Then all the Stars listened, for the calm Moon was ready to tell what she had seen. She said, " I peeped in at an upper window, and there I saw three little children at their mother's knee, thanking the Heavenly Father

'For rest and food and loving care.'

Then said the Stars : " Ah, dear mother ! you very surely beheld a most beautiful sight ! "

Elizabeth Harrison writes : " Over and over again did my children ask for the stories of those old Greek heroes. At last a child said, 'Let's play Troy.' 'How can we?' said I. 'Oh, don't you see ? ' was the ready answer. ' The chairs can be the walls of Troy — just so ' (arranging them in a circle, backs turned outward) ; ' this table with four legs can be the horse — ever so many of us can

102 THE POWER OF PLAY

get in under it and be the Greek soldiers, while the rest can push us into the city ; then we can get the beautiful Helen and take her home/ So eager were all to attempt the dramatising of the stories told, that chairs and tables were soon arranged, and the various names of the heroes to be represented were selected. One chose to be the strong Achilles; another the good Diomed, whom the gods helped in the fight; another was Ajax, the brave ; another was Hector ; and so on, until all the more heroic characters were chosen. The beautiful Helen was to be represented by a dear little fair-haired girl of four, a favourite of all. To test them, I said, ' Where is Prince Paris ? Who will be Prince Paris ? ' There was a dead silence ; then one boy of six, in scornful astonish- ment, exclaimed, * Why, nobody wants to be him — he was a bad, selfish man/ ' Well,' said I, ' the tongs can be Paris ' ; and from that time forward, whenever they cared to play their improvisation of the old Greek poem, the royal Helen was gravely led into the walled city of Troy, with the tongs keeping step at her side as a fit representation of the inner ugliness of weak and profligate young princes. I merely relate this incident to show that when children have been led to represent the good and true, they do not wish to play a baser part."

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For a few years — notably the fourth, fifth, and sixth — the normal child lives in a world where the imagination fairly runs riot.

During this stage they tell stories that can be rated among the most marvellous productions of fiction. When to believe what they say, and when not to, is the query. Oftentimes during this period they themselves do not know whether what they say is true. There is a time when the little fellow scarcely realises whether the stick he is riding is a real horse or not. It is very real to him.

A minister's son said to his father, " Papa, you should have seen the bicycle go down our street all of itself. No, papa ; there was an elephant on top of it, and another elephant on top of him ; and the bicycle struck a stone on the corner, and one elephant was killed and the other one turned into a man."

Another boy said, " Mother, see that lady on the wall. She looks like a queen ; she opens her mouth and laughs at me. I open my mouth and laugh at her. Do you see her ? " The mother sees a zigzag crack in the plaster, but the boy sees a queen.

The question is, How shall we guide these imaginative minds ? How can we be most helpful to them ?

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Richter says : " Such a child should not be branded as untruthful. His imagination should have plenty to feed upon, plenty to work upon outside of everyday trivial matters. In simple justice he should receive help and training in distinguishing between fancy and fact. He is entitled to as sympathetic a training in accuracy of speech as would be given to a child who had some special difficulty in enumerating correctly.

" To tell this child that he is lying will help to make him a liar. All the forces of his mind are impelling him to conjure up these curious con- ceptions : the imagination is struggling for develop- ment. He cannot cease his thinking, and he has not learned to control his speech. He is not untruthful ; but if those who ought to know better impress it upon him that he is, he will soon come to think that such is the fact, and as a consequence his character will be injured. Guide the child into right methods of expressing himself, but think twice before you tell him that he is untruthful."

There are times when thoughts more weird than those of the bicycle and elephant stories rush through the mind of the adult. The adult has learned to keep them to himself. The child has not : that is the difference. The child in this period needs materials with which to play. Through suggestion and his love of play direct

MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY 105

and develop the imagination. These tremendous stories of his do not need repression so much as the imagination that makes them needs direction. Give him blocks, and set him to work making locomotives, horses and waggons, or temples and cities. When he comes to you with his mind filled with these imaginative, fantastic stories, set him to work in the sand-pile. Give his imagination something to feed upon, some definite play- work to perform. Harness this child's imagination, and turn it into play-channels that will afterwards merge into useful helpfulness.

Katherine Rolston Fisher says : " The elaborate toys of to-day are, from an educational point of view, pernicious. They not only rob the child of the pleasure of using his imagination, they tend to rob him of the faculty itself. Give the children ideas, not things ; they will find material in which to embody the thought. To a restless four-year- old, scrambling aimlessly about the piazza, it is suggested to play that the rocking-chair is a ferry- boat. At once he undertakes the multiple role of captain, engineer, deck hand, and steam whistle. The rail becomes the pier, the bar which fastens the shutter is twirled to imitate the sound of a chain tightening upon the windlass. He projects his mental state upon his environment. Demand the realistic in art and literature if you will, but

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remember that abundant opportunity for the free play of the imagination is a right as well as a delight of childhood.

" Children revel in the make-believe. A three- year-old girl cooked day after day on a stove made of a piece of cardboard with four holes in it, resting on four blocks. One day a matter-of-fact visitor, moved by unnecessary pity, bought for the child a toy stove, with an oven-door that would open and lids that would ' take off.' After a brief season of pleasure in the new plaything, both it and the old makeshift were abandoned. Its completeness left no field for the exercise of the imagination or ingenuity. The little girl lays aside her big doll, with a wardrobe as complete as her own, and spends hours fashioning odds and ends of material into garments for a twopenny china baby.

"A certain imaginative little girl was never willing to go to bed and be left to herself. She is always happy when impersonating someone, so her mother proposed one night that she should play she was going to a ball. In imagination she put on her satin dress, long gloves, slippers, etc. Auntie was the coachman, who took her to bed ; and she was very ready to go, for the sake of getting started. The next night she went to California to visit some friends. Her mother wrote

MAKE-BELIEVE

out a ticket to give the

traveller took a sleepkijfcar,

reported a d^igh&ul wip. 3lotherplans,V'aJ^new

journey for ijgy^every GiMft now,'~ani.«e goes

happily off to bed."

No matter what occupation in life the child will follow, the more his imagination is developed and controlled, the more successful will he become in his life's work. The keener the imagination of the lawyer, the plumber, the minister, the better workman will he be. If the carpenter can see the house built before the foundation is laid, he can plan his work in such a manner as will save time and money. To have to do a thing to see how it will look, is the result of an undeveloped imagination : it is a case of arrested development.

It is said of Tissot, the French artist, that after studying the manners and customs of the people he painted, he would just draw his picture in outline ; then, summoning all the powers of his imagination, he would think until he saw the whole picture clearly before him, then he would paint it.

The treatment necessary for a child with a very vivid imagination will of course be vastly different to that necessary for his more prosaic brother. Many children are punished for telling untruths which, as we have seen, are not untruths at all. The children never mean them to be such ; but,

io8 THE POWER OF PLAY

coming as they do out of a vivid and uncontrolled mind, they startle us, and we are apt to punish thoughtlessly. The imaginative child needs direc- tion rather than punishment. By every means he must be helped to bring his abnormal imagina- tion within bounds. If he is not so helped and trained, he will in later life be carried away with every wild-goose scheme that presents itself. His judgment will not be stable, and his life will be a record of helpless drifting hither and thither. On the other hand, the child with little imaginative power must also be assisted in his development. He lacks power to express himself ; and in the endeavour to describe something he has seen, he stutters and stammers. We must have patience with him, and give him many opportunities for practice in self-expression. The child's imagination can be stimulated through the use of building- blocks : give him as many as he can use — not thirty but three hundred. Suggest that he should build them into all sorts of fanciful shapes. Keep him constructing. Let him build castles in the air, and then in sand. Select toys for him with great care. Give him material for making houses, rather than houses ready made. Give the girl the material for making and dressing the dolls, rather than the dolls all ready dressed. A cart-load of sand would be invaluable. I have heard of a child

MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY 109

who was kept busy for many an hour during house- cleaning time by his mother's wise suggestions. With the dry end of a rope he painted the furniture all over the house — or imagined that he did.

The parent can also make use of the imagination in reproving the children. The story is often better than the stick, and many of the best lessons the child learns come to him through an appeal to his imagination in the story. The following is a case in point : —

A little fellow was playing bubbles. The rule was that he must take the soap out of the water when he had finished with his bubbles. He wearied of his play, and, going to his mother, said, " Will you tell me a story ? " The mother asked him, " Did you take the soap out of the water ? " The little fellow replied, " Yeth, I gueth tho." But his mother " guethed " not. Indeed, she knew that the soap had not been taken out of the water. What should she do ? Many mothers would have taken the boy by the hand, led him to the water, put his hand down into it, and, when the soap was found, said, " Now then, you have told me a lie." Thus would have come the clash of wills. This mother knew a better way. " And you want me to tell you a story ? " she said, as she took him on her knee. Then she told him a story from the Book of Kevelation. She described the pearly

no THE POWER OF PLAY

gates, the jasper walls, and the golden streets of the New Jerusalem. She pictured Heaven as the beautiful place, until the littie 'fellow cried, " Ithent it gloriouth ? " Then tJa.e mother finished the story, saying earnestly, " a^fr no one ever entereth there who loveth and^njftketh a lie." The little fellow sat thoughtfulhyWfeoment, and then slipped from his mother's krree. As he toddled off he said, " I gueth I better go and thee about that thoap ! "

A wise mother will never punish a child by threatening him with, or putting him in, a dark room. There is no place for such punishments as an appeal to the "Boo man," the "Blackman," or the " policeman." Children have already enough childish fears. When it is necessary to punish the child, punish him ; but never, unless you would make a coward of him, appeal to such fears as that of the dark room, or the "Boo man," or other of the mythical goblins.

Teach him to fear only the result of wrong- doing. Teach and train the mind from effect back to cause. If he ever has a pain, let the cause be spoken of. Lead him to understand that for every broken law of God, suffering must follow.

Is your child afraid in the dark ? Then remem- ber he needs sympathy and help. Punishment will not cure him. Deal gently with him. He cannot be cured in a day ; you will need long, long

MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY in

patience in helping him to overcome his weakness. Do not test the child greater than he can bear, but little by little help him to repose his confidence in the loving Heavenly Father. Tell him in a simple natural way stories of birds and animals who never think of being afraid in the dark ; or stories of children who are not afraid, or have overcome their fears ; of brave knights who were brave children. Acquaintance with such characters will help to strengthen him for the battle which he has to fight.

It is really not much use either to reason with or to scold a child who is afraid in the dark. The imagination is keen and vivid, and because of this many children suffer acutely. It is well to ignore the particular fear, and keep the child as nearly as possible from anything and everything that will cause him to be afraid.

A wise mother writes of her little girl : " As soon as I became aware of her fear, I gave orders to have the lamp lighted a little earlier, so as to avoid her becoming aware of the increasing dark- ness ; and I did all in my power to amuse her, so as to keep her from thinking of it ; and I had a light burning all night in her bedroom. It took me a long time to overcome this nervousness ; but I succeeded at last, and now she will go anywhere over the house without the slightest fear.

112 THE POWER OF PLAY

" At one time I found it necessary to have every room lighted ; and I would wander round from one to the other, talking to her from wherever I might be, and at length getting her to come to me, even though she could not see me. I soon saw that reasoning with her was useless, so gave it up, insisting also upon the other members of the family doing the same ; we simply surrounded her with light, whilst we ignored her fears ; and by degrees I was able just to have a subdued light, and then entered the dim apartment, where I would call her to come and see something; then came, still by degrees, a really dark room, which was entered as a matter of course ; then a second dark room, till at last I had the joy of knowing that the terror had either been forgotten or outgrown — I think the latter."

Perhaps the following verses may be helpful to your child, and assist him to overcome his fear in the dark : —

AFEAID IN THE DABK.

Who's afraid in the dark?

"Oh, not I," said the owl,

And he gave a great scowl,

And he wiped his eye

And fluffled his jowl 1 "Tu whool"

Said the dog, "I bark

Out loud in the dark — Boo-oo I *

MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY 113

Said the cat, " Miew ! I'll scratch anyone who Dare say that I do Feel afraid— Miew !"

"Afraid," said the mouse, "Of the dark in the house ; Hear me scatter, Whatever's the matter — Squeak ! "

Then the toad in the hole, And the grub in the ground, They both shook their heads, And passed the word round.

And the birds in the tree, And the fish and the bee, They declared all three That you never did see One of them afraid In the dark.

Think more of the environment of the child than of the child himself. Make it gentle and strong and pure. Keep the intellectual air invigorating and the moral atmosphere bracing, and there will be little fear of the child.

A thoughtful Kindergartener writes: "During the first year I worried myself nearly into nervous prostration studying how to cure Horace of making faces, Thomas of tattling, and Eoy of lying. I conscientiously took up every little detail of faulti- ness and dealt with it especially. The work that year was worse than a failure. The atmosphere of 8

114 THE POWER OF PLAY

the Kindergarten was unendurable. The children were a constant shame to me, and I a source of discomfort to them. In spite of my efforts to improve them, each child added to his own faults the faults of the others; and in each one was developed a spirit of criticism and correction that was worse than all else."

Beware of the child who, when you tell him a story, is always asking, Is it true ? A normal child is not analytical. The child who cannot take things for granted, who is always wanting to know " if it is true," is a little old man. He is losing his childhood, and will soon be a case of arrested development.

Lengthen the childhood of the child. Keep him in the world of play and make-believe as long as you can, and teach him by and through his love of play. The child who is forced to walk too soon will have, his legs bowed and twisted. The child who is hurried out of the imaginative period of development will have a bowed and twisted mind. Forced development is dangerous. " When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child; lut when I became a man, I put away childish things." It is better to train children to be good children, than it is to train them to be good men.

CHAPTER V. PLAY AND THE SABBATH.

SHOULD CHILDREN PLAY ON THE SABBATH?

"I must not work, I must not play, Upon God's holy Sabbath day."

THE child's muscles are set for action. God created them so. To teach a young child this doleful rhyme is to work against all the natural God-given instincts of his life, and nothing will do more to drive from his heart a true love of and reverence for the Sabbath day.

A false distinction between work and play, and a misconception of the proper place and use of play, are responsible for much that has been harmful to the child and destructive to his love for the Sabbath day.

The child must not be governed by the same standards as the adult. What may be wrong for the child's father may not necessarily be wrong for the child himself.

us

Ii6 THE POWER OF PLAY

The child who, in the period of riotous imagina- tion, tells remarkable stories of his fancy, is not to be judged a liar, as his elder brother would be. NOT is the little child who shows no sense of shame to be branded as grossly immoral.

God looked upon David as a man after His own heart ; yet David practised polygamy. David lived in the comparative childhood of the race, and God did not judge him by an adult standard. The history of the race is repeated in the child.

Shall the children be allowed to play on Sunday ? If the parent judges by an adult standard, the reply will probably be in the negative.

Play on the Sabbath day may, in itself, be no more immoral than eating, or sleeping, or walking. The object of a parent should be to breathe into the child's Sabbath the spirit of reverence. Play may be the very best means of imparting to the child a genuine love and appreciation for the day. Through play on the Sabbath the child may receive his first experiences in nursing the sick, helping the missionaries, teaching a Sunday-school class, and other activities which, in reality, are impossible for the little child.

Our Puritan forefathers judged all ages by adult standards. They did not appreciate the fact that there is play and play; they forgot that play was not in itself an evil , they forgot that one " do "

PLAY AND THE SABBATH 117

was worth a thousand " don'ts " in the eradication of evil : hence the absolute prohibition, the drawn blinds, the ultra-puritanical Sabbath, now happily past.

Since play in itself is not immoral, the question is, How can we use it for developing righteousness ?

Froebel says, " I can convert childish activities, occupations, amusements, all that goes by the name of play, into instruments for my purpose." Here is the parent's opportunity. The muscles of the child are set for action : " all Consciousness is Motor ! " God never intended the child to be quiet on the Sabbath. If He had, He would have created him with less energy on that day than on any other. Since these muscles are set for action, and the child longs to be doing something, teach him the Bible through his love of action. Give him Bible blocks, and set him to manufacture tabernacles and temples. Through his love for movement, develop his morals and train his intellect : have him build an Eastern house, a sheepfold, a tomb, a city wall, gates, etc. Dissected Bible maps ; pictures of Bible animals, with Bible references to them noted in the margin ; pictures of Bible trees, birds, butterflies, bees, etc., are useful to have on hand for Sunday occupations. Have the children paste in a scrap-book a picture of some Bible story, and then write their version of the story on the opposite page.

n8

THE POWER OF PLAY

Child-study has shown us that the riddle-and- puzzle interest in children is greatest at nine and thirteen years of age respectively. At

90

80

70

60

so

40

JO

20

W

«

« « I

AGE 4

8 tO 12 14 16 IB 20

PUZZLE INTEREST PIDDLE

this time Bible riddles and puzzles, enigmas and acrostics, can be used to teach him Bible facts. Bible pictures may be pasted on cardboard,

PLAY AND THE SABBATH 119

then cut into numerous pieces and made ready to put together at some unoccupied hour. A sand-table is invaluable for making mountains, rivers, and lakes, and together with the blocks for building cities, temples, houses, sheep-folds, etc., a few woolly toy sheep, with some crooks cut from paper for shepherds, and some small sticks for people, will not cost much, and will do wonders towards developing the religious imagination of the child.

The journeys of Jesus traced in the sand map of Palestine will never be forgotten. The more the child learns through "the muscle sense," the more he will remember. Eeserve many of these games especially for the Sabbath day. Put them away during the week. Keep what might be called a "Sunday reserve." They will come with great freshness on the Sabbath.

Nature is a wide-open door into the child's life. His natural love for animals, and his interest in butterflies, bees, beetles, birds, and such like, is a splendid point of contact. The marvellous revela- tion of God in the abundant life all about us, and the child's natural interest therein, should help toward an easy solution of the problem of Sunday occupations.

Again, the child who impersonates another, enters into the experiences of that other life. Imper-

120 THE POWER OF PLAY

Bonification is one of the first steps to future know- ledge. The child who in her play with the doll impersonates the mother will, as never before, study the actions of the real mother with the baby. She now has a new interest, her observation must be keener. She seeks to train her muscles to do as that real mother does. The child who hears a story and never impersonates the hero or heroine of that story, will not be greatly helped by it. The story will soon be forgotten. It is what we do that we remember best. It is muscle- training that builds character. Muscle-training is will- training. The will is the putting into practice power of the life.

It is said that Florence Nightingale's first surgical case was the binding up of a dog's broken leg. The desire to help the dog had been inspired by her make-believe nurse play. Could one find a better occupation for the Sabbath day?

The child who plays nurse to the sick doll never forgets the art of nursing. One who makes up a bundle, fastens it on the doll's back, and calls her doll " Christian," will never forget the Pilgrim's Progress.

By the right use of the play-instinct the parent has it in his power to develop that which the child lacks and to strengthen the weak places in his character.

PLAY AND THE SABBATH 121

To summarise : —

1. The Sabbath should be a Happy Day. — Rest is not idleness. Rest comes from doing things that are delightful, rather than from slothful indulgence. Not only give the children things to do, but give them pleasant things to do. All that is pleasant is not wrong. We are in danger of presenting the Sabbath day to the children in such a way that they will dread it. We tell the children that they ought to love it, but we often insist upon occupa- tions which make the day most distasteful. Make the day a happy one. Sympathetically study your child. If this were done, and reasonable and right occupations provided, there would be developed in one generation a reverent and holy love for the Sabbath day.

2. The Sabbath should "be a Home Day. — It should be the father's day with the children. It should be a relief, rather than an additional burden, to the mother. The pity is that the door of larger social life has been opened. The Sabbath should be a family day; social, and largely social, but practically limited to the family ; a day of rest from all social cares ; a day when, as a family, all worship together in the house of God ; a day of such busy, happy, home activities, that it will become endeared to the children ; a day upon which the sweetest fragrance of home memories

122 THE POWER OF PLAY

will be unmarred by tedious tasks and unscarred by unnecessary admonitions.

Francis G. Peabody, writing on the Effect of the Home upon the Boy, says : " It is not, as many suppose, his bad companions, or his bad books, or his bad habits : it is the peril of homelessness. I do not mean merely homelessness, — the having no bed or room which can be called his own, — but that homelessness which may exist even in luxurious houses : the isolation of the boy's soul, the lack of anyone to listen to him, the loss of roots to hold him to his place and make him grow. This is what drives the boy into the arms of evil, and makes the street his home and the gang his family ; or else drives him in upon himself, into uncommunicated imaginings and feverish desires. It is the modern story of the man whose house was empty ; and precisely because it was empty, there entered seven devils to keep him company. If there is one thing that a boy cannot bear, it is himself. He is by nature a gregarious animal ; and if the group which nature gives him is denied, then he gives himself to any group which may solicit him. A boy, like all things in nature, abhors a vacuum ; and if his home is a vacuum of lovelessness and homelessness, then he abhors his home."

3. The Sabbath should be a Holy Day. — The life

PLAY AND THE SABBATH 123

of the parent permeates that of the child. Emerson says, " Your life thunders out so loud, I cannot hear what you say." " Show me the parent, and I will show you the child."

The Christian parent whose holiness does not reach down to a tolerant regard for others, who has not learned to suggest into the lives of his children the sweet influence of a true Christian gentleness, will probably never be able to impart to them a reverent regard for God's day. An orthodox puritanism alone will not carry a reverent spirit into a child's life. A father who goes to church simply because he feels he ought to, and the mother who prohibits certain activities on the Sabbath because she wants to make the day different from other days, will not succeed in imparting a holy devotion to God and His day. Only those who live on a high plane of devotion to God, whose lives are being changed by their religion, and whose love and gentleness are revealed in every word and act — only such will be able to convey to the child a spirit of true reverence for the Sabbath day.

Printed by MORRISON <fe GIBB LIMITBD, Edinburgh.

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