THE FUTURE OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT BY HENRY S. CURTIS Olivet, Michigan Something more than a year ago a law was passed in the state of New York requiring two hours and forty minutes of physical training per week for all the children over eight years of age, with three additional hours of military training for the students in the high school. After six months' trial this time was increased to four hours and forty minutes per week for all children, and the military training thus far promises to be almost altogether physical training. Half of the salaries, of the physical directors required up to twelve hundred dollars are paid from state funds. This promises to be the most significant thing that has happened thus far in the way of securing organized play and physical education to all children of any state. Something over two months ago the state of California passed a law providing for a state director of physical training and requiring two hours per week of play and physical training for all the children in the state of California. These laws promise to reach all the children in the state and for a sufficient length of time to furnish real physical and social training. They will cover fairly well the school year. We do not wish to mechanize play or to deprive it of its initiative. We all believe in free play, but anyone who realizes the results of free play as it has been practiced in America up to the time that the play movement was organized, realizes that it has meant mostly free loafing, that it has copied the morals and manners and sportsmanship of corner loafers and idlers, and that it has not produced the type of physical development or an outlook upon life such as America should seek to encourage. The child will always get plenty of free play whatever organization of play activities the community may undertake, for there are twenty-four hours in the day, school does not take more than five hours in most cases, and no school system except a Gary is attempting to secure much more than one hour a day of organized physical activity. It does not seem possible that the municipal playground can ever provide an adequate amount of play to children. It always requires a special trip and a certain amount of effort to go to these playgrounds because they are by themselves. Weak children are apt to be bullied by strong children, and it is only those who excel in games and sports who go regularly. The organization of groups of children who come from all quarters of the city and who vary from hour to hour and day to day is almost impossible. And these playgrounds are not securing the training in general which organized play should secure. I kept track for a considerable time of the attendance at one of the best known municipal playground systems in this country a year ago, and concluded that if this time were distributed. among all the children of the city, it could not amount to more than a minute and a half a day for each child. I doubt if there is a muni cipal playground in America that is furnishing the equivalent of five minutes a day for the school children of the city, or that it is furnishing an amount of play that is at all comparable to a single recess in any of our school systems. However, the way is now open for a very much larger development of play in connection with the schools. In the first years the great trouble was that the school department went out of existence in the summer and there was no one to take charge of anything. Now in most of our city systems there are at least certain rooms that are being maintained for children that have been left behind, certain gardens at least are carried on during the summer, and some of the domestic economy and manual training rooms are in operation, and in most cities there is at least some organized play under the school department. The number of these activities is increasing from year to year and it is plain to see that this is rapidly growing into a four-term school, a fourth term, however, which will be quite different from the other three terms, but which will be perhaps a great deal nearer to the ideal of the future than has been the old-time school of the three r's. All the normal schools in Missouri are now on a four-term basis, those of Texas have ten weeks' summer school, and the Normal College at Greeley and the Normal School at Gunnison go on a ten-weeks' basis next year, with the probability of this being increased to twelve weeks and becoming a regular four-term school. The Normal School at San Diego goes on a four-term basis next year, and there is a strong probability of this becoming general. of a Over a good share of the country there is practically three months of the summer vacation. No child wishes to play for ten or twelve hours a day, and the playground alone cannot possibly meet this problem. The solution which is plainly suggested is that the school authorities should organize this summer term so as to give to children that sort summer which they ought to have. This means, I think, domestic economy and manual training for all; gardening for the older children; organized play for perhaps two hours during the day; and excursions to all the nearby points of interest. All of the older boys should be organized into troops of Scouts, and all of the older girls. should become Camp Fire Girls. Such an organization would furnish a variety of activities for the children such as would make the day worth while. It would take up most of the time that is now spent in loafing on the streets, and instead of reaching five or ten per cent. of the children each day, as the municipal playgrounds usually do, it would reach all the children and furnish them a much greater variety of experience than the ordinary playground does. PATRIOTIC ECONOMY BY EVERETT MORSS Boston The necessity for patriotic economy will be evident if we think of finance in terms of labor instead of in dollars. We have natural resources and we have capital invested in the tools of production, but even with these facilities our productive capacity is limited by the supply of labor. By labor we mean the personal service, whether of brain or of brawn, of the forty million of us who are engaged in gainful occupation. To carry on the war we shall spend at least twelve billion dollars per year, or thirty-three million dollars per day. This is as much as Great Britain is spending and fifty per cent. more than Germany is spending, and the figures are so huge that few of us appreciate what they really mean. Europe is already so deeply in debt that she may never be able to pay, and we are on the road to the same condition. Balance of trade statistics indicate that we have made an extra profit from foreign business since 1914 of five billion dollars, or about two billion dollars per year. The effect of this in enriching the country is suggestive of the result of three years of impoverishment at the rate of eight billion dollars. Our normal annual savings are about four billion dollars, and not only will our war expenditure absorb all of these savings, but we must find eight billion dollars in addition. During the past three years our present allies have obtained much assistance from us, but as there is no country to whom we can turn we must carry our burden alone. Our savings go into public and private improvements, including the extension of business enterprises. These savings will not be available for war until we stop federal, state, municipal and private improvements; until we forbid all issue of securities except under federal license, following the example whereby England reduced the issue of industrial securities from $468,000,000 in the first half of 1914 to $11,000,000 in the same period of 1917. The danger of a food famine has been brought home to us and we are making a real effort to reduce consumption, though our efforts to increase production are being seriously handicapped by the high price of labor. Immediately after war was declared the President warned the country that everyone should produce more and consume less. The idea that business was to be suddenly reduced by a wave of economy was a shock to business men and the cry "business as usual" was spread over the country and caused the President's appeal to be forgotten. Not only are people spending as usual, but many conscientiously believe it their duty so to do. Every dollar spent means the consumption of labor. We shall not be far wrong if we say that every four dollars spent consumes a day's labor, and that every twelve hundred dollars spent consumes a year's labor. A war expenditure of twelve billion dollars will consume the labor of ten million people; twenty-five per cent. of our total labor supply. This added demand comes during the greatest labor famine in our history, which has increased commodity prices eighty-five per cent. since 1914. We have reached a point where the increasing demand reduces the efficiency of labor and thereby reduces the supply, and we are facing a further rise in commodity prices, perhaps to exceed present conditions in England, where prices are up one hundred and twenty per cent. The most effective remedy is to decrease consumption, and it is imperative that every one should make a drastic reduction in personal expenditures. The example must be set by the rich, but every man, woman and child must be drawn into the movement until patriotic economy becomes the greatest fad the country has ever known. Our young men who try to avoid military service are "slackers." Every one of us who will not economize to help the war is a "slacker." Who will fail to spend less when he realizes that every four dollars saved is a day's labor contributed to the war? It is not a question whether your income justifies an expenditure, but whether the country can afford to let you spend. Even to prevent hardship we have no right to spend to keep people in their usual employment, for only by a process of readjustment can we obtain the labor necessary for the war. Already the government is resorting to price fixing and other dangerous experiments, because we can no longer submit to the law of supply and demand. We cannot increase supply, but we can so reduce demand that the available supply shall meet our needs and so keep prices within bounds. With two million men in cantonments or in tents there are houses enough for the rest of us. We can reduce the famine in wool and cotton by wearing our old clothes. We can stop the purchase of automobiles, so that the factories and their operatives may produce motor trucks, air craft and munitions. We can use the automobiles we now have less freely and save gasoline. We can reduce the number of our servants and let our wives and daughters do more of the work. We can do away with the wastefulness of charity entertainments if we go less to the theatre and give the money saved to charity. The real horrors in Europe are not on the firing line, but amongst the civil population, who are pinched for the necessities of life and in many cases dying of starvation. If each one of us is not willing to make sacrifices for the war, Germany was right when she characterized us a "Nation of Slackers." EDUCATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS BY JANET R. RANKIN School Service Secretary, Madison, Wisconsin I once asked an expert educational investigator why certain extensive tables (which seemed nonessential) had been included in a monograph of his, published at the expense of a city board of education. The reason he gave for including the tables was that other experts might want to make a study comparable to his, and that these tables must be included in order to give them the basis on which to work. Certain other important data had been excluded from this study for lack of space. The net result was a monograph which was scholarly, no doubt, but which was open to the criticism of being without appreciable bearing on the practical problems of school administration. The average investigator of educational conditions, particularly the graduate student and professor types, seems open to the charge of being more interested in dissecting the evil than in remedying it. The school survey, for example, tells the school board and citizens what is wrong. Too often, finding the remedy is left to local ingenuity or is at best accorded a postscript. The doctors diagnose, but refuse to prescribe. to A recent city survey investigated teacher training and service. It defined standards. It analyzed the teaching force. It published table after table of numbers (not percentages) showing local conditions. It devoted a number of pages describing method and findings. At the end of the chapter, in two paragraphs, were made the recommendations. A typical one was in these words: "Some means should be devised to make attendance in summer schools more general among the teaching force." "Some means!" Superintendent and school board, left with several hundred such recommendations, may be pardoned for feeling that surveys are more of a nuisance than a help. The educator initiates a study by drawing a questionnaire which he does his best to make foolproof and expert-proof. As his returns accumulate, he makes table after table, boiling down results into compact and aggregated form. It is astounding how often the educator feels that at this point his work is done. Seldom does Seldom does he blue-pencil replies for illuminating devices and suggestions. He will incorporate any number of tables in his study, and even repeat their findings. in narrative form, but the "how" of improvement, this is rarely if ever found. Take for example any study of retardation. You will find detailed discussion of the manner of conducting the study of the standard for measuring average or slow progress, of the comparative findings of Judd. Strayer, Thorndike, Bachman, or Cubberley. You will find extensive and detailed tables of results. What you will not find is analysis of how to attain a greater proportion of normality per grade; how to eliminate failures; how Superintendent A succeeded with subject promotions; how Superintendent B inspired his teaching force to co-operate in reducing the fail ure evil. An interesting comparison might be made between educational investigations made for educators and business investigations made for the practical man of affairs. Recently I was requested to overhaul the manuscript for a book to be issued by a commercial publishing house as one of a series of helps to business men in various lines. This manuscript of about 150 typed pages plus illustrations was concerned with the problems of the wholesaler. Its basis was an investigation into the proportion of sales, receipts devoted to advertising, stationery and supplies, salesmen's salaries, returned goods expenses, etc., etc., in a number of houses selling groceries, shoes, dry goods, and other commodities. Data was secured through questionnaires, interviews, and correspondence. The making of the book took approximately four months of a man's time. To one accustomed to the methods and manners of educational investigations, this book was a surprise. Material on the manner of conducting the study and tabulating the findings was compressed into half a preface page. The findings were split into about twelve brief tables showing "typical" and "attainable" cost percentages in each of the various departments. From an educational point of view, the fashion of "interpreting findings" was unique. Each paragraph was a "how" paragraph,-how to use form letters effectively; how to eliminate or reduce the returned goods evil; how Wholesaler A analyzed his sales territory for profit; how Wholesaler B re-arranged his building for economy and efficiency. With each reporting of a figure from the tables of findings went a cleancut analysis of what that figure meant in business efficiency, and the concrete methods to be found helpful in attaining it. The investigation results (only the results, by the way; not the preliminary tables) were given place; but their practical bearings were the points emphasized. The dollar is the unit in business; in education. the unit is the child. With due regard for the inevitable difficulty of measuring educational results and defining educational standards, does it not seem that the business investigation is more considerate of the dollar than the educational investigation is of the child? Might educators not gain considerable advantage by a study of the practical methods of making and presenting studies in the field of business? MOTIVATED READING BY EVA A. SMEDLEY There are many schemes being tried out for giving school-credit for home work. Here is an original scheme for motivating the reading lessons by having the home give credit for school work. a Briefly stated the plan is this: Once a month each pupil in the eighth grade reads something to his father or mother which he has studied at school. Then the child writes note to the teacher telling whether he held the attention of Also the one to whom he reads his auditor. sends a note to the teacher, giving the pupil a mark on the reading. This mark appears on his report card, above the mark given by the teacher as his home-mark in reading. The plan is explained to the parents in the eighth grade council meeting of parents and teachers held the first week of school in September. It is understood that the marks of the parents and those of the teachers will differ greatly, but that it is no criticism on either that they differ, as the points in good reading under consideration would not necessarily be the same. Then, too, as little Sarah Cobb said: "Our parents can't know how much work has been done to get us ready to read so well to them." All the selections studied are really worth-while literature, so that the parents feel that it is an enriching experience for them as well as being one which makes stronger the bonds of common thought and common knowledge between parent and child. It also encourages the habit of reading with the thought of dividing with others the good things one finds. To quote one from among many who speak of the subject matter appreciatively, a father who had been a school superintendent wrote: "I got much more out of 'To a Waterfowl' from my boy's reading than from my own reading of it a few years ago." The teacher has one major point on which she is working each month. The class knows just what it is. They understand that the teacher's mark is given with that point and those made in previous months in mind. Frequently they tell their parents what the class is striving to accomplish, as the notes clearly indi cate. These notes from the parents are very valuable to the teacher. She understands the home and the child better for them. They are always kindly and cordial, and often quite suggestive, so that the teacher can fairly see and hear the child and can know whether he has done his best, or has lowered his standard of accomplishment when the inspiration of the presence of the teacher and of the class is lacking. She knows the boy who needs to be reminded that his best is none too good for his mother. She recognizes with joy the child who under the influence of the parents' sympathetic interest rises to greater heights in his home reading than in the class study. It gives an added incentive to the study of the month to be able to go home at the end of it and to show real, recognizable progress made. The children in their notes sometimes tell how they know that they held the attention of the one to whom they read. Laura wrote: "I held my mother's attention very well. She lay down and was almost asleep, but I made it as interesting as I could, and soon she sat up and listened very attentively." Nora, who knows that her too rapid reading is a serious fault, wrote: "I read slower than usual. I held my mother's attention all the time, but I did not hold my father's all the time as he was eating." Mayshell, who is learning that one must watch as well as read, wrote: "I read pretty well to my aunt last night. I held her attention and could tell that she was enjoying it from the way she laughed and from the expression of her face." Grace wrote: "I read to both my mother and my father and held their attention very well. To prove that I held their attention I asked my mother to tell me the story, which she did. While I was reading my father corrected me several times, so that I know they were both listening carefully." Sometimes the parents give the teacher suggestions as to teaching. Here is a note which shows that the father clearly recognizes just the faults his boy needs to correct: "Stanley's reading shows good appreciation of thought, good inflection, and fair naturalness. His enunciation is poor, due to the fact that he does not use his lips enough. Some exercises that would compel clearcut use of tongue and lips would help him." Two months later this same boy had the encouragement of bringing a note which said: "Stanley's enunciation is good." The following shows how well another father understands a common fault in reading, and better yet how he appreciates good oral interpretation of poetry: "It was very gratifying to both Mrs. M. and myself to hear Helen acquit herself so well in reading 'Lines Suggested by the Graves of Two British Soldiers.' She seems to avoid the placing of undue emphasis upon unimportant words in a sentence, which is so common a fault with young readers, and expressed the exact meaning, at the same time paying close attention to the meter." Another father wrote: "Warren read very well this morning. There is a decided improvement in both his enunciation and emphasis. If he read a little more slowly I think a tendency to repeat would be corrected." A mother touched upon another common fault: "I enjoyed listening to the reading of this poem very much. A few lines I did not understand, but Anna explained most of the poem to me. Anna does not stop at some places long enough to let Continued on page 354. equipment, and grounds-which the high schools cast off. The next great problem in American education. is to magnify, dignify, and intensify the elementary school. The junior high school has taken the two upper grades away from the elementary school. In this we rejoice. In this we have had a large part. That was the problem until it was achieved. But it has left the elementary school in a worse Boston, New York, and Chicago, October 11, 1917 plight than before. It practically removes all hope in most cities of having any men in elementary schools. THE CONTENTS. The Enlargement of Music Work in Public Schools... The Mission of the "Moonlight Schools" Oscar H. Benson.. The Future of the Play Movement............ Patriotic Economy.. Educational Investigations. Motivated Reading. Editorials: Justice to Elementary Schools. Notable Service Ended.. The Columbus Test........ Addison B. Poland. Seattle Newsboys Authors Who Are a Present Delight. Oregon to New England.. ........ PAGE 339 341 342 343 345 346 847 348 349 350 350 351 351 351 ....... 352 352 352 352 353 354 The Brady Scheme.. Edwin Markham Home-Landmark... The Week in Review. Civic Pride and Public Service. Daily Bible Readings for School and Home —(III.).. 354 "Denatured History". 354 United States Food Administration... 355 355 So Say We All of Us. 356 356 1917 Summer School at University of Pennsylvania.. Book Table... Educational News. 358 Every section of the country should have a special train to Atlanta. JUSTICE TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Shall the elementary schools continue to wear the old clothes of high school boys and girls? That is a question that has been raised and that cannot be suppressed. In the Philadelphia Ledger, September 12, Superintendent A. S. Martin of Norristown, Pa., had an article on "Inequalities of Expenditure in the Public School System." It is the ablest presentation of comparative cost of elementary and high schools that we have seen. It presents with great thoroughness the facts as they appear officially for New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. As usual, a city that is hard hit yells at the umpire. We are grateful for the study. It is of inestimable service. We think it silly for any city to whine at facts. When every player muffs the ball it makes mighty little difference which muffs the most. On the other hand we have no interest in any effort to show that the city high schools in those six cities get too much for buildings, equipment, we are intensely supervision and teaching, but grateful to Superintendent A. S. Martin for giving renewed and definite emphasis to the vicious neglect of the elementary school buildings, equipment and teaching. Far be it from us to object to all the high schools get, but we protest against the elementary schools wearing out to a finish the old clothes-buildings, This is no argument for or against men principals. We merely state a fact. It is a condition and not a theory that confronts the elementary school of the future. We recently heard a prominent business man who is also much interested in education say: "I was the youngest of three boys and I hated school until I got to college because I always used the books my brothers had made very much secondhand." One of the great sayings of John H. Francis, now of Columbus, is: "The elementary schools must be made as spectacular as high schools before they can get public attention." Everywhere we hear it said as an argument for the junior high school that the elementary school needs "the old building." Denver has taken one of her very old buildings and has made it absolutely as up-to-date as though it were new. It can be done anywhere. Pass the slogan along the line-all along the line: "No more old clothes for elementary schools." The kindergarten and the primary school are full of "pep." They are spirited, have games and all sorts of fun. No one hears of "drill"-boring-before the fourth grade, but it is about all one does hear in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. These are the very boys and girls to make school and community games, picnics and pageants wildly successful. Those are years in which teachers and supervisors putter, nag and boss most excruciatingly. The burden of the song of the teacher in this grade is all too apt to be: "You'll not get promoted." Let the three elementary grades have a place, a purpose, a mission, a message all their own. Let no teacher be better equipped or better paid than the elementary teacher. NOTABLE SERVICE ENDED In the death of Henry B. Brown, president of Valparaiso University, on September 17, America loses one of the most serviceable of her educators. Valparaiso University is an institution with a clientele as unusual in quality as it is vast, and the credit for what it is and for what it has achieved in forty-four years is due to Henry B. Brown and O. P. Kinsey, who was the choice of Mr. Brown as a co-worker in the early days of the institution. Valparaiso was one of five institutions of its class,-Ada, Ohio; Highland Park, Iowa; Fremont, Nebraska; Commerce, Texas,-all daugh |