Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-09-11
Get Out and Play
Washington D. c., Sept. IO.--Don't
ny Frederic ,. Hasiein

take exercise Gct out and playl
This is the latest behcst of the most ad-
vanced thinkers on the subject Of what is
good for us. They say that exercise has
been made rich serious matter IN this
country that IL has been robtcd OF hall its
vnlue--or more.
| 1t used to be that few in the United
States thought Of taking exercises for it's
own sake. Then it began To be discovered
that the liver needs shaking up, the lungs
require deep breathing. the skin should
perspirc. Forthwith the professors Of
calisthcnics and physical culture came into
their own. These subjects began TO be
taught in the schools ard by private
savants, and they were advertised in all
magazines and newspapers and taught by
| correspondence
| All over this broad land people were act
| 10 work touching their toes / times be-
| fore breakfast, lying ON their backs and
waving their legs in the air, standing be-
fore windows and breathing deeply,
writhing, rolling, twisting, kicking, work
ing at pulleys, manipulating Indian clubs
and dumb-bells, solemnly sParring with
their own images in the looklng-glass..
The natural tendency Of the American
is to take things too seriously anyway, 10
that he easily fell for this idea Of making
exercise very serious and conscientious
undertaking.
According to The new school Of physicist
culturists, this il all wrong The trouble
with it ia that il il no fun For exercise is
an emotional as well as physical thing.
If you don't get excited and forget your
troubles, half the recreative and educa-
tional value of the exercise is lost. A wild
chase after your hat in a windstorrn n
worth more than week Of setting up
exercises, because IL contains the element
Of exciting play
A typical representative Of this new
play theory is DIR. r. ID. Angel, who is
said to have invented more games than
any other one man.
THE NECESSITY OF PLAY.
"Play has real biological significance"
said DR.. Angel. ''it has been part Of the
lfe Of peoples through all the ages.
Primitive man got his complete education
through play. He learned 70 throw, run,
swim, hide, climb, tussle. Later he used
this training in hunting End fighting.
Without the cunning given TO him by the
games of his childhood he would have
perished Young animals get their eduea-
ton the same way The kitten who pur-
sues bah of yarn is governed 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 q delight
fully impelling force, and 40 the instinct Of
play, which is simply part OF the instinct
Of self~preservstion has done much TO
uake our lives happier.
Now we are removed from primitive
conditions, but we still have the same
kind of body, and life is still competitive
q
celebrate, our continued success still de-
pends on physical efficiency. And, what
Is more important, so does our happiness.
So why not utilize in education the most
natural thing we have inherited, the inn
pulse TO play? Why make exercise bit
ter dose2"
DR. ANGEL maintains, with the support
Of most OF us who have done boresome
arm exercises in school, that classroom
calisthenics is bitter dose. He saws that
physical training rs taught IN American
schools calls up visions of q group of
children standing between desks and rails
ing arms and bending legs as directed by
teacher who Is herself, as q rule, anything
but an inspiring object Of physical per-
lection.
IF this performance served its pur-
pose" said DR. Angel. 'sin improving the
child's body the same as reading, writing
and arithmetic, improve the child mind
we would have fine physical specimens
emerging from our schools. But we don't l.
Millions have been spent on systems OF
physical education without results at all
commensurate with the expense. In
other words. we have hltehed onto educa-
ton an artificial group OF naneuvers that
have no relation 20 life. Education Of any
kind is futile if il lacks In its application TO
life, either as preparation for the work
part of Life or as an enlarglng OF the oppor-
tunIty TO enjoy LIE. l defy anyone 20
either purpose.
TIE NEW IDEA
However, of late years an understand
ing Of the real value OF play has been grow
ing up In the minds of educators. Physlc-
al training of any kind IS a recent innova-
ton in school life. Not more than 80
years ago classroom ealistheaies was first
introduced into the school, and the first
public playground is only 20 years old.
If the playground had only come first, sll
the time money and health wasted on
calisthenics might have been saved. But
ealisthenics as a panacea for inefficient
human bodies was introduced TO the
school boards with lot of highbrog
language TO hide its deficiencies, and II
was accepted by school boards because Of
its eheapnesS.
Teachers taught exercise by rule with
out inspiration. No child got anything
out Of It that he kept because there was
no fun In it. 1t was Just grind he didn't
understand.
The first public playground, founded BY
private philanthropy, proved that the
child gains infinitely more IN both health
and good craftsmanship from playing
games than from artificial exercises, with
the result that schools and city welfare
centers are spending more and more on
Fairgrounds, and less on systems Of exer-
else.
DR.. Angel had a good opportunity
during the war 10 prove the Importance OF
play in developing health and morale,
while he served as lieutenant IN the medi-
cal corps at the naval training station at
Great Lakes, Illinois. He also saw how
pitifully lacking many of US are In the
ability TO satisfy the normal play instinct
He says that he was amazed to discover
great numbers of men who had never
played any game. Also there were whole
companies of foreign-born Americans who
could not speak word of English IL
became apparent to DIR. Angel that a
CRYING need of the recruits WAS simple
game that could be played by large num-
bers of men in small space. So he straight
way invented cage ball, which was first
PLAYED In a detention camp there, later
wont In Eranea With the army aa5 na,x- 4