New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-03
Civ Children and Imagination


1t is a wise child that knows the uses
Of his own imagination-in a metropolis
Therefore we note with all the greater
pleasure that certain discerning Parents
Association of the West Side, made up,
one would fancy, of men and women not
always tied to the treadmill of city
existence, has determined that its children
shall have a gigantic community back
ward as its playground. Most hopeful of
all is the proviso that it is not to be chock-
full of slides and swings and bars and
sandboxes, but that it is to be QUILTED
with Just the youngsters and the scope for
their games.
No parent could make a city child
more precious gift than this one of space
and the necessity for being sufficient unto
himself 1t is a necessity seldom brought
home to the embryo Manhattanite. His
pleasures, like his studies, are thoroughly
systematized as rule, and hopelessly efii-
cient. His sports are tabloid and pre-
digested. Joy mongers leave his guaran-
teed games at the door Of mornings along
with the certified milk. There is far too
much apparatus about his life.
The great danger Of metropolitan child
hood is that the imagination, also, is COM
pressed. It is difficult for the boys and
girls to believe in Jack and the Beanstalk
they who have seen beans measured by
the pound, and in 10 other way. And how
shall they picture Aladdin and his magic
lamp who have never crept into cave
and who know all lights as electric mean
descents?
The average city playground would far
better be stripped Of half or all its appa'
ratus. Then our children might be led to
exercise their flabby initiative and to find
room for some of those old, sturdy outdoor
games that make up our own most shining
memories of childhood.
Backwards are dear to all Of us. They
were the stages for our most joyous tri-
umphs, as knights in jousts, and ladies
swishng the borrowed gear Of our first
long skirts. We stocked huge cattle
ranches there with pedigreed pebbles, and
played bank with green store of goose
berry currency. And sometimes, through
the nodding hollyhock heads, the fairies
peeped out at us as we played.
Some of these delights are necessarily
denied to the little children of the metropo-
lis. but most of them IRE quite possible, if
only we will not hedge them about too
closely with possessions and ready-made
ideas. Now and then you will see the
dreams of one who is an intimate Of the
nymphs in the eyes Of little East Side
girl, dancing to a hurdy-gurdy. But the
TOW automobile dealt cruel blow to fancy
when it supplanted the broomstick as a
steed, and the doll that says Mamma" Of
itself is fact unfriendly to Imagination
because it says no more. The rag doll
was real conversationalist.
This backyard park of the Parents
Association of the Horace Mann School IS
certainly a step in the right direction. 1t
is to be no more than two vacant lots meta
morphosed into playground, where old
fashioned games are to he played and the
keep off the grass" curse of childhood is
to be unknown.
There arc other vacant lots here and
there over the city; sometimes Dough or
two of tree peeping over billboard
takes the imagination captive, as we hurry
past them. The Parents Association OF
the Horace Mann School was able to rent
its lots for comparative song from real
estate dealers interested in the experiment.
Other dealers, also, might be cajoled into
interest or prefer small rental to having
their lots lie idle. Why not an extension
Of the backyard propaganda for as many
as possible of the city's youngsters? Why
not campaign for safeguarding our chill
dren's imagination, as we safeguard their
morals?