Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-09-13

board of education were in sympathy
with the improved playground move
mcnt, but the plan of procedure was
left entirely to the superintendent
The first step taken in securing
material was an attempt to enlist
the interests of members of the city
council, who had under their own
control a supply of unemployed iron
pipe of suitable size for play pur-
poses. A respectful hearing was ac-
corded the superintendent who, in
| few carefully chosen remarks. sue
| ceeded in convincing the council that
the donation of the pipe for the pur-
pose mentioned would be a good in
| vestment for the city. This interest
on the part of our public officials
| gave prestige to the cause, and the
board of education willingly voted
all funds essary to complete the
| equipment
One prominent blacksmith, when
consulted regarding the manufacture
of certain parts of our apparatus,
| said: Eyes, / can make it, and |
| desire to have part in this matter.
| Whatever can be made in this shop
will be furnished at cost"
We are coming, more and more. to
see things in their right relations,
hence the rapid growth in popularity
of the public playground movement.
Jane Addams says: amusement is
stihe the lust for it, while Ebert
Hubbard declares with confidence:
| Take care of the boys and girls and
the welfare of society will be as
| surcd"
1t is generally agreed that the gang
spirit among boys is an indication
of the development of the social in
stinct and that this instinct is nat
ural As the boy associates with his
few friends in infancy, and with the
larger group on the playground at
school, he learns new relations in
life which, as one writer says, "use
the crevices of his time"
DIR. Hall tells us that will is only
a form OF interest, and the late Pro-
| fessor James said: "You can only
get purchase on another's will by
| touching his actual or potential life"
From these statements we may
conclude that interest expresses the
entire personality more completely
than do many of the other mental
attributes. and that interest offers the
| line of least resistance in dealing
| with boys The concensus of opin-
ion is that physical activity is the
key to the organization of young
people, especially among boys, and
the public playground is the logical
place for the wise direction of this
activity.
Roosevelt said to members of the
Playground Association of America:
at is splendid thing to provide
in congested districts of American
cities spaces where children may
play. Let them alone. Do not med
dle.'
Many teachers of experience
| agreed with the idea of providing
the Fairgrounds, but could not in
| corse the hands Off part of it. Ex-
perience has shown that unsuper-
vised Fairgrounds give rise to many
evils and result in a monopoly of
| these grounds by the strong to the
| Il SIS of the weak. 1t has been shown.
also, that the social instinct is not
developed to good advantage by play
| The pedagogy of adolescence may
be summed up in one sentence. in
spire enthusiastic activity" This
word inspire would indicate leader
ship or direction on the part of some
one, and it has been stated publicly
that the ex-president has changed his
| opinion regarding the value of un-
| supervised play.
One OF the great problems of the
| day is that OF providing recreation
and entertainment for young and old
out of working hours. Idleness has
| always been menace to the indi-
vidual and to society, and it is a
lamentable fact that instructive par
entail solicitude wanes under The
hard conditions of existence"
| The testimony of leaders of
| thought and reform is that the super
vised public playground assists in
imparting lessons in the significance
OF cooperation, self-restraint and
| self-government. These make char
acter therefore. there can be nothing
greater in the entire field of educa-
| ton.
Man plays only where he is hu-
man being in the fullest sense of the
word. and he reaches full humanity
only when he plays arc the words
of Schiller. The impulse to play is
universal. and as God gives the in
stinct, the belief is growing that
man ought to provide the play-