Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-09-13
PLAY ANDD CITIZENSHIP
By H. Addington Bruce


CAYS DR.. Edward B. Pollard, in state
ment I commend to every parent who
~ is honestly DESTROYS of helping his boy
or girl grow to be good citizen.
''The child who has been taught to play
and play properly can never become an an
archist."
An overstatement one may be inclined to
account this. Yet back of it is the certainty
that if study is made of the life histories of
"Bolshevists' "Reds," and other anti-gov-
ernmentalists, it will be found surprisingly
often that in childhood they were denied
adequate opportunity to play or failed to play
as children normally do.
And between this fact and the fact Of their
subsequent hostility to accepted forms OF
social organization there Is demonstrably a
relation other than mere coincidence.
The normal play of children includes
group games that foster directly the spirit
of obedience to rules Qaws), the sense OF
social solidarity, and ability to appreciate
the fights Of other people. On the playground
the child learns that the will OF the In
dividual must to a certain extent yield to
the will of the group, that selfish desires must
often be sternly repressed, and that mutual
give-and-take is indispensable.
Fortified by this training, this salutary dis
cipline of play, the child later is able to ad-
Just himself with ease to the requirements
of business and social intercourse.
He "gets on with others because he has
unconsciously learned how to "get on" He
lives an orderly life because he has learned
to appreciate the Importance of law and order.
And this social conformity and adaptab1llty
promote his progress in whatever vocation he
chooses.
Very different is the after-career Of chill
dren who have been playground failures
or who have never had real chance to learn
playground lessons.
Their ego overdeveloped by the solitari-
bod hn
social contracts of late life mean continual
friction. They do not "get on" at all we'll
with others, and as a consequence they do
not prosper. Thence results an intense feel
ing of bitterness, or an intense feeling of in
feriority, or, more likely, an intense feel
ing Of both bitterness and inferiority.
But it is not in human nature to admit
willingly, even to ones self, that one is an
inferior Particularly is one reluctant te
admit this if ones ego is overdeveloped. The
natural tendency then lis to ascribe ones
troubles to conditions outside ones self.
Also, the wish will be strong to alter ex;
ternal conditions so that the personal de.
sires may have freer play. Helpful to this
end will be a change in the social structure
since the embittered one has learned by sad
experience that the existing social structure
denies free expression to his oVerdevelopd
go.
Hence, anarchistic, bolshevistic teachers
will find in him ready student, and in time
he may himself blossom into an anti-govern-
mentalist leader. Thus his cheated childhood
avenges itself and becomes a menace to the
society that did not insure, through the edu-
cation of play, his proper preparation for
the tasks, responsibilities and adaptations OF
manhood.
OF course, not all ti-governmentalists
are thus made But it seems safe to say
that they would be few, very few, of them
if play as an essential in training for citizen
ship were given, both by parents and by ma
tional lawmakers and administrators, the
recognition it ought to have.
Copyright, 1921, by The Associated News
papers.)