The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1913-05-15
the NEED or 4 PUBL PLAY AGROUND
and GYMNASIUM IN VALLEY CITY

Why should attention. time and
money be spent upon properly plan
ming and directing the play time OF
our girls and boys? There must De
good reason and great need for such
an expenditure, for since the orsam'
cation of the playground movement III
1896. over three hundred cities in our
country have organized and have IL
operation Fairgrounds under the sup
eryision of playground directors
Thinking men are beginning to realize
with Lee F.. Hammer that the right
use of leisure is the big social prob
lem of the day"
America may justly be proud OF
her free educational system but, as
the critics are constantly reminding
us. the educational system is still far
from perfect and in many ways fails
to accomplish the end for which it is
intended. David r. Porter who, per-
haps, has criticised the schools as
frankly as any, has given this as his
ideal standard for school life: First
to teach students to know; second, to
teach them to do; and third, to teach
them to be-" He goes on to say: III
YOU draw the conclusion ! have drawn
after very careful study, you will see
that, according to these three great
tests of efficiency, our schools meet,
to any satisfactory degree, only one,
and that is the first one.
The school ought to teach boys how
to gain a large amount of knowledge.
Second it ought to teach boys to trans
late that knowledge into action
Deeper and more fundamental than all
that, it ought to base this action and
base this knowledge upon character;
that shall have found much of its in
spiration in connection with the school
system.
But even if our educational system
should teach boys to do things, that
alone would not fill the need and the
demand of an ideal, education which
also must teach the people to live.
am more and more impressed that we
are turning out Of our educational sys-
tenn, grinding them out by the thous
ands, boys who are perfectly we'll edu-
Gated; they know things, many OF
them can do things; the only trouble
with them is, that they have not any
ife-I mean, spiritual instruction
instruction that alone will send men
out to help other people in the great
fight for life. So that brings me to
the last phase Of this subject, the
question whether or not our schools
are teaching boys to be; whether down
deep below the surface of life our
schools are penetrating into the,
depths of personality, where a ration
al will can be trained, where consci-
ence may be moved and where decis-
ions are made. That and that alone
is the final test of whether school is
living up to the ideal, standard.
For years our school have been
teaching the children and young peo-
pie to know; the vocational branches
i,,tr 70.
Gently are teaching them to do; but in
what better place can they be taught
to be, than upon the playground, the
playground? Upon the playground.
the child is himself; all of the self
thought OF possible criticism or cor
rection is left behind in the classroom
and his own individuality asserts it.
self with all of it's faults and virtues"
its impulses for the good or bad. An
observing, understanding supervisor
may learn more of a child's true char.
acter and peculiar weak points. and
temptations in fifteen minutes oftan
absorbing play than in month Of
close observation in the schoolroom. a,
boy may talk earnestly in ethics class
of the value of honesty, having in
mind the sin and punishment of steal
ing or forgery, and then 90 out into
his own world of play and consider it
rather clever to cheat in the game
whenever the opportunity affords a
chance; or he may see clearly the mar
rowness of selfish nature when that
topic is being discussed, and take ad.
vantage of every chance to make a
"grandstand play" and receive the
. praise of the onlooKer when ii would
have been to the advantage of the
team to sacrifice the chance to anoth-
er man
boy learns that the .:aLitual use