The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-09-13
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN. Director.
Y<ashfngton, d. C.
GER oUT AND PLAY.

/ take exercise" Get out and play
That is the latest behest of the most
/ advanced thinkers on the subject of
what is good for uE- They say that
exercise has been made such a serious
matter in this country that it has been
robbed of half it's value-or more.
1t used to be that few in the United
States thought of talking exercise for
its own sake. Then it began to be dis
covered that the liver needs shaking
UP the lungs require deep breathing,
/ the skin should perspire. Forthwith
1.-THE professors of calisthenics and
physical culture came into their own.
These subjects began to be taught in
| the schools and by private savants.
and they were advertised in all maya
zines and newspapers and taught by
correspondence.
All over this broad land people were
set>to work touching their toes eleven
, times before breakfast, lying on their
backs and waving their legs IN the air,
standing before windows and breath
ing deeply, writing, rolling, twisting,
kicking, working at pulleys, manipu-
latins Iudian clubs and dumb bells,
3olemnly sparring with their own i'm
ages in the looking-glass.
The natural tendency of the Amer
lean Is to take things too seriously,
Fenyway, so that he easily fell for this
idea of making exercise a very serious
and conscientious undertaking.
physical culturists, this is all wrong
The trouble with it is that it is no
fun. For exercise is an emotional as
well as a physical thing If you don't
get excited ond forget your troubles.
half the recreative and educational
vakle of the exercise is lost. A wild
chase after your hat in a windstorm
is worth more than week of setting
up exercises, because it contains the
element of exciting play.
A typical representative of this new
play theory is DR.. z. D. Angel, who
is said to have invented more games
than any other one man.
The Necessity of Play.
''Play has a real biological signifi-
cance," said Doctor Angel. 1T has
been part of the life of peoples thru
all the ages Primitive man got his
complete education thru play. He
learned to throw. run. swim. hide,
climb, tussIe. Later he used thistrain-
ing in hunting and fighting. Without
the cunning given to him by the
games of his childhood, he would have
perished- Young animals get their
education the same way. The kitten
who pursues a ball of yarn is gov
erned by the same instinct as the tiger
stalking its food in the jungle. To
preserve the race. there has been
planted in man the instinct of play.
Fortunately, it has been delightfully."-
impelIing force, and SO the instinct of
play, which is simply part of the in
stinct of self-preservation. has done
much to make our lives happier.
Now we are removed from print
tive conditions. but we still have the
same kind of body, and life is still a
competitive proposition. Regardless
Of our power to celebrate, our con-
tinued success still depends on physi-
cal efficiency. And, what is more i'm
moi 60 han
why not utilize in education the most
natural thing we have inherited, the
impulse to play? Why make exercise
bitter dose?"
Doctor Angel maintains, with the
support of most of us who have done
boresome arm exercises in school, that
classroom calisthenics is a bitter dose.
He Esays that physical training as
taught in American schools calls up
visions of a group of children stand
ing between desks and raising arms
and bending legs as directed by a
teacher who is herself, as a rule, any
thing but an inspiring object of physi-
cal perfection. az
eff this performance served its pur-
pose" said Doctor Angel, "in improv-
ing the child's body the same as read
ing, writing and arithmetic improve
the child's mind. we would have fine
physical specimens emerging from our
schools. But we don't. Millions have
been spent on systems Of physical edu-
cation without results at all common
surae with the expense. In other
words, we have hitched onto edu-
cation an artificial group of maneu-
vers that have no relation to life.
Education of any kind is futile if it
lacks in its application to life, either
as a preparation for the work part of
life or as an charging of the oppor
tunity to enjoy life. I defy anyone to
prove that classroom calisthenjes serve
either purpose"
The New idea.
However, of late years an under
standing of the real value of play has
been growing up in the minds of edu-
Gators. Physical training of any kind
is recent innovation in school life.
Not more than 80 years ago classroom
calisthenics was first introduced into
the school, and the first public play
ground is only 20 years old. If the
playground had only come first, all
the time, money and health wasted on
calisthenics might have been saved.
But calesthenics as a panacea for inef-
ffcient human bodies was introduced
to the school boards with a lot of
highbrow language to hide its def
ciencies, and it was accepted by school
boards because of its cheapness.
Teachers taught exercise by rule
without inspiration. No child got any
thing out of it that he kept because
there was no fun in it. 1t was just a
grind he didn't understand.
The first public playground, founded
by private philanthropy, proved that
the child grains infinitely more in both
health and good craftsmanship from
playing games than from artificial ex-
cruises. with the result that schools
and city welfare centers are spending
more and more on Fairgrounds, and
less. on systems of exercise
Doctor Angel had a good opportunity
during the war to prove the import
ance of play in developing health and
morale, while he served as lieutenant
in the medical corps at the naval
training station at Great Lakes, Ill.
He also saw how pitifully lacking
many of US are in the ability to satisfy
the normal play instinct He saws that
he was amazed to discover great num-
bers of men who had never played
any games Also there were whole