seventeen to twenty-three. Of the first two periods he says, children before seven
rarely play games spontaneously, but often do so under the stimulus of older
persons. From seven to twelve, games are almost exclusively individualistic and
competitive, but in early adolescence "two elements predominate—first, the
plays are predominantly team games, in which the individual is more or less
sacrificed for the whole, in which there is obedience to a captain, in which there
is coöperation among a number for a given end, in which play has a program and
an end. The second characteristic of the period is with reference to its plays, and
there seems to be all of savage out-of-door life—hunting, fishing, stealing,
swimming, rowing, sailing, fighting, hero-worship, adventure, love of animals,
etc. This characteristic obtains more with boys than with girls." "The plays of
adolescence are socialistic, demanding the heathen virtues of courage,
endurance, self-control, bravery, loyalty, enthusiasm."
Croswell[6] found that among 2,000 children familiar with 700 kinds of
amusements, those involving physical exercises predominated over all others,
and that "at every age after the eighth year they were represented as almost two
to one and in the sixteenth year rose among boys as four to one." The age of the
greatest number of different amusements is from ten to eleven, nearly fifteen
being mentioned, but for the next eight or nine years there is a steady decline of
number, and progressive specialisation occurs. The games of chase, which are
suggestive on the recapitulation theory, rise from eleven per cent in boys of six
to nineteen per cent at nine, but soon after decline, and at sixteen have fallen to
less than four per cent. Toys and original make-believe games decline still
earlier, while ball rises steadily and rapidly to eighteen, and card and table
games rise very steadily from ten to fifteen in girls, but the increment is much
less in boys. "A third or more of all the amusements of boys just entering their
teens are games of contest—games in which the end is in one way or another to
gain an advantage one's fellows, in which the interest is n the struggle between
peers." "As children approach the teens, a tendency arises that is well expressed
by one of the girls who no longer makes playthings but things that are useful."
Parents and society must, therefore, provide the most favorable conditions for
the kind of amusement fitting at each age. As the child grows older, society
plays a larger rôle in all the child's amusements, and from the thirteenth year
"amusements take on a decidedly coöperative and competitive character, and
efforts are ore and more confined to the accomplishments of some definite aim.
The course for this period will concentrate the effort upon fewer lines," and more
time will be devoted to each. The desire for mastery is now at its height. The
instinct is to maintain one's self independently and ask no odds. At fourteen,