The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-28

New York City. Nov. 27.--one of the biggest things in New Yorkss great up- lift work is the using of school build ings as vacation sch ools in summer and as recreation centers in winter There was time when every school house in the land was solemnly locked in the afternoon of the school day. and after the end of spring term, ana kept sacred to the memories Of the three R's" until the next opening time. Modern philanthropy has added anoth. CT R Right living to "readtn' ana 'ritin' and 'rithmetic" and has asked that the schools be opened TOT us teaching This is to be taught through playgrounds, recreation centers and public lectures, and New York Is lead- ing in the new work hat has opened now world. Already the biggest edu- cational work is being done here, where from an ever-increasing foreign population the department of education is making good American citizens to grace this the largest Irish. the larg- est Jewish and the third largest Ital- ian city in the. world.
 Out of a population of 100000 there are s96,000 children enrolled In the schools. To many thousands Of. these inc closing of the doors in summer would mean a tragic thing, for coming. as thousands do, from congested dis trlcts where sometimes two whole fam flies live in one room, they would. be forced to an intolerahle vacation ex- istence on the streets. So the schools are reopened each summer for several weeks work and are given oyer as play centers for certain hours of the afternoon and evening. Thirty-six of the city's 511 school buildings were opened last summer as vacation schools and thirty-one are now used as recre- ation centers, twenty for men and boys. eleven for girls and women. The average daily attendance at these schools is about 10000, and the cost to the city for salaries Is about el7o.- d00 year, but 1t is considered money we'll spent.
 The vacation schools run for six weeks each summer, and in these the children who wish may study sewing. dress-making, millinery. chochet. em- broidery domestic science, basketry, ohair-canfng, wood work, iron-work, burnt leather, and such things, accord Ing to sex and inclination. Last year six of the schools had special classes for immigrant boys who wished to study English in order to go to work. It Is expected to maintain in the fu- ture two or three schools for this specific work. In the summer after noons these schools were opened as playgrounds. There were forty-eight school playgrounds last summer, in- cluding six outdoor ones and twenty one kindergartens. For dight weeks during, the summer they were kept open from half past 1. to 5 o'clock and there were instructors to teach the children how to play.
 Does 1t not seem odd that there are children in the, world who do not know how to play? Yet there are thousands of them. Play is not natural to the children of the slums. Guarding and fighting seem to come easier. To those the Department of Education has come, aB Jean Val1ean. came to little oosette. and, placing toys in their hands. it has said play" and with no Thenardiers standing by to interfere they are trying. Those who came from the Old World had never learned how, even when the fields were near, and those who were born in the slums of New York had nowhere to play until the Association for Improving the Con dition of the Poor and the Outdoor Recreation League made playgrounds