constant factor in all grades of animal life. The swarming insects, the playful
kitten, the frisking lambs, the racing colt, the darting swallows, the maddening
aggregation of blackbirds—these are but illustrations of the common impulse of
all the animal world to play. Wherever freedom and happiness reside, there play
is found; wherever play is lacking, there the curse has fallen and sadness and
oppression reign. Play is the natural rôle in the paradise of youth; it is
childhood's chief occupation. To toil without play, places man on a level with
the beasts of burden.
The Necessity for Play.—But why is play so necessary? Why is this impulse so
deep-rooted in our natures? Why not compel our young to expend their
boundless energy on productive labor? Why all this waste? Why have our child
labor laws? Why not shut recesses from our schools, and so save time for work?
Is it true that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy? Too true. For proof we
need but gaze at the dull and lifeless faces of the prematurely old children as
they pour out of the factories where child labor is employed. We need but follow
the children, who have had a playless childhood, into a narrow and barren
manhood. We need but to trace back the history of the dull and brutish men of
today, and find that they were the playless children of yesterday. Play is as
necessary to the child as food, as vital as sunshine, as indispensable as air.
The keynote of play is freedom, freedom of physical activity, and mental
initiative. In play the child makes his own plans, his imagination has free rein,
originality is in demand, and constructive ability is placed under tribute. Here are
developed a thousand tendencies which would never find expression in the
narrow treadmill of labor alone. The child needs to learn to work; but along with
his work must be the opportunity for free and unrestricted activity, which can
come only through play. The boy needs a chance to be a barbarian, a hero, an
Indian. He needs to ride his broomstick on a dangerous raid, and to charge with
lath sword the redoubts of a stubborn enemy. He needs to be a leader as well as a
follower. In short, without in the least being aware of it, he needs to develop
himself through his own activity—he needs freedom to play. If the child be a
girl, there is no difference except in the character of the activities employed.
Play in Development and Education.—And it is precisely out of these play
activities that the later and more serious activities of life emerge. Play is the
gateway by which we best enter the various fields of the world's work, whether
our particular sphere be that of pupil or teacher in the schoolroom, of man in the
busy marts of trade or in the professions, or of farmer or mechanic. Play brings
the whole self into the activity; it trains to habits of independence and individual