The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1913-06-12
Play Expert Coming
During Summer Term

UUO ivy OUuuJSJuVs SVu Jul
SUBJECT TO BE EMPHASIZED
~ A FATHER OF THE MOVE.
MENT
That no effort is being spared II
bringing to the Normal school orig
inal thinkers and students Of author
lily on special subjects Is seen In thu
coming Of DR.. Henry s. Curtis, who
win give special lectures on play
ground work, during the week OF Jul,
z. DR.. Curtis. with the help Of DR.
Lather H. Gulick. In 1906, organized
the Playground Association Of Amer
lea, Of which he was secretary fol
three years and afterwards second
vice president and secretary Of the
cenmittee on a Normal course in Play
Dr.. Curtis was educa.ee at Olivet
college, Mich, the University Of Mich
.agan, Yale and Clark universities. The
degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy in psy.
chology and philosophy Vas conferred
upon him in 1898. During three sum
mers, he was assistant director and di.
rector and general Director of the
Fairgrounds of New York City. He
has spent one summer in investigating
the Fairgrounds of England and Ger.
many and was, for four years, super
intendent of Fairgrounds in the Dis.
trict of Columbia.
In 1902, an article on Fairgrounds
written by DR.. Curtis and published
In Harper's Magazine led Mrs. Humph.
rey Ward to start recreation centers
in London. During the past two
years, DR.. Curtis has conducted Play.
ground Revivals in fifteen different
cities, and has lectured at many uni.
yersities, colleges and normal schools,
state and other teachers associations,
and teachers Institutes. He is re.
membered as one of the principal
speakers at the North Dakota Educa-
tional Association meeting in Grand
Forks last fall.
Fairgrounds and Recreation Gaining
International Recognition.
That the work with which DR.. Cur.
tbs Is connected is one of major i'm.
p0rtance may be gathered from the
fact that during the first week of
last May, an International congress
was held at Richmond, Va, where ex-
perts from some twenty-five foreign
countries gathered to discuss the sub.
ject of recreation and play. The need
Of such work is shown in series OF
letters issued during the congress by
Charles F. Weller, associate secretary
OF the association, and received by
Prof. T. w. Burckhalter.
Race suicide or loss in quantity
Uf life, has apparently been paralleled
In America by serious loss in quality
or fullness of life," writes Mr.. Weller.
You may test this for yourself in four
ways: ~ List the games played in
childhood by your contemporaries and
learn how few of these are known by
the children of today.
"(2) Observe how passive enter.
tainments, like moving picture shows,
have been generally substituted for
active sports; (3) Read our field. Sec
retaries' survey of various cities
showing As to 81 per cent Of the chill
dren, outside of school hours, inactive
doing absolutely nothing because, as
they say: there is nothing to do
go Learn how the stale, fiat, un.
profitable life of many country CON-
munities is pictured truly by the rural
group who, when questioned as to
what they do in their leisure time, re.
Piled: Sometimes we sets and thinks;
sometimes we jest SETS
while these are principally my
personal observations, they are con-
armed by other speakers at the Re.
creation Congress. Joseph Lee re,
viewed the startling loss of the album
dant play tradition in which America
was especially rich in the early part
OF the century.
Need for Leadership in Reerea alton
Movement.
HE thought modern machinery had
contributed to this decadence by
greatly reducing the number of agri.
culturists necessary. Thus, rural com.
munities have become too sparsely,
cities too closely, settled.
"'Children,, he quoted, inherit the
play spirit but they don't inherit spe.
cific games anymore than they inherit
the Lords prayer There must be
teaching. leadership and encourage.
ment for game playing; but America
has been emphasizing, instead, the ser
tous ideals Of work and profit.
"Feroes and men Of large achieve.
inert In every line have been those
with life enough IN animate thoi,- az