Читать книгу Farm Boys and Girls - William A. McKeever - Страница 12

First of all, we must ask, What are the ordinary forces which need to be brought into service in the development of children? At the head of the list, we should name play, as furnishing a great variety of instructive activities; then, work and industry; after that, the recreation that comes properly after the performance of work. So, we have with all their implied meanings the three great child-developing agencies: play, work, recreation. Now the question naturally presents itself, Can the ordinary farm life be made to furnish in right amount and proportion these three essential elements of character development?

1. Play.—The necessity of indulging and training properly the play instinct of the child is becoming so fully appreciated of late that many of the state legislatures, and even the national Congress, have seen fit to make it a matter of deep concern. In order that all children may have full exercise of the divine, inherent right to play and to learn through play, many so-called child labor laws have been passed. These enactments have prescribed conditions under which children will be permitted to work at gainful occupations, and in the majority of cases they have strictly forbidden such child labor below the ages of fourteen to sixteen.

But the foregoing efforts in behalf of the young have been of a somewhat negative sort, merely guaranteeing the child the right to play. On the positive side, much is also being done. The scientific students of child life have been pointing to the great benefits of play and to the present need for larger means and fuller opportunities for play on the part of the masses of children. As an outcome of all this research and public agitation, there is now in progress a general movement which looks to the placing at the disposal of children everywhere the equipment and apparatus necessary for building up the character by means of play experience. The large cities are expending millions of dollars on municipal playgrounds, and the towns and rural communities are catching the spirit also.

It has been shown beyond a question that adult life can be prepared for and enriched in many ways by means of scientifically provided play during childhood. Two or three results are especially sought through the playground training: (1) better physical health and increased power to resist disease; (2) enlarged opportunities for the outlet of the spontaneous activities through the use of the hands and other parts of the body; (3) the provision of a powerful deterrent of evil thought and deed and of juvenile crime; (4) the manifold opportunities for learning how to get along with one’s fellows and to treat them in fairness and justice.

Plate III.