PORTLAND. OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING FEBRUARY 21, 1909.
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Meet,
new Daucational
from
Movement
Wkict-' Great fee
suits Are Expected
rT EACHING the country child' to
I play, an enterprise in altruism
which has quietly but steadily
grown in extent and utility during the past
ttco years, is assuming proportions now so
great that the spring and summer of jgoQ
promise a development strong enough to
take root all through the states of the mid
dle IV est and middle Atlantic districts.
It is a curious expedient; yet even less
curious as an .expedient than it is as a dis
covery. For tvho, thus far, has so much as
imagined that, the average country child
doesn't get pretty nearly all the play there
'is in the world f
The city man will aver, promptly, it
is for fust that, above everything else, that
people zvant to live.-in the country. The
farmer, though his boy be at that very mo-
mem aoing cnores wntcn never end from
dawn to dark, may declare that the country
boy generally gets a good deal more play
than is good for him.'
Yet it is among those very farmers,
and in sections where every man of them
has sincerely believed his children were liv
ing in a paradise of rural pleasure, thai
the imperative- necessity for systematic '
struction in child's play is being most cor
dially, even anxiously, recognized.
. So it looks fas though this country, be
lieved, the wortd over to be the land where
children rule their elders and range from
play to mischief at their own sweet will,
were just on the eve of awakening to the
fact that' it acts as slave-driver to its child
hood, and, with the awakening,, werf on
the eve of organizing to emancipate; thent
into their rightful inheritance of play.
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Man itiaile th city, God mads the country, but
the l?vil made the little country vUla. Anon.
IT iiappeys tliAt -the., authorship of that fa--
miliary epigram must', remain anonymous.-'
, But it has been the text for many moral
ists, and many educators and has served aa a
text for a considerable portion of the discourse
in WhicJi Professor; Myron-T. Scudder, head of
the .Rutgers Preparatory.-. School, in , Kew
Brunswick, J . outlined the imperativfe need '
and, the vast; possibilities of " the country 'play- .
ground while he - was '.principal of the tate v
Normal School at'New.Plati, N: Y. ' .
V Professor , Scudder : -was -the first ' to' rive
definite, aim. and scope to the movement for the
country playground, and.- when - he, eame
f' ft aire where ' the aim 'must -be. uneauivoca
tic-fihed and the scope nationally broadened, he
tfJrotrsjTct greets? teres jv30?wes jVew?fet?j,jV'.
lound -it necefciary to pianvr.two classes in
one-the" village - boy, arid the country child
properly, soHialled. '
. . "The. case of the village boy," he remarked, ' ditions were favorable.
m the course of his .'Qrganized Jrlay- in a& things are against mm.
Country,", which, has mow .'had .a wide circula
tion,, may . be. said, to be particularly, bad, for,
unlike tho farm child, he usually nas-compara
laed by the well-known; epigram.
"The country child, explains - Professor
Scudder, "would undoubtedly, play more if con-
But, unfortunately,
"In the first place, his parents "are usually
out of .sympathy with play. This -is particular
ly true of farm life. They do not -see the use
tively iittlework to do', and, unless he has op-, of. it. There, is no.'.end-. of , work .to be -done,
portunities oufside of-school for athletics, and and play is considered a, waste of time.'except
ply, he is likely to pass much of his time m , m. the case of very young children."- '
inane - idleness -or, since 'Satan finds mischief - ""Their children donotr need to': run, jump,
for idle Hand, to do. -in-' activities that are far ' . chin themselves, 'strike "and throw. There are
from wholesome.
who, during recent years, has been in positions
where, instead of imagining bucolics, he could
see with his own eyes toward what banal con
ditions rural tendencies conduced.
It was only a little more than three years
ago that the birth of this remarkable move
iiiout occurred, and that in the small, trivial
beginnings which, natural outgrowths of needs
long endured in the silence of habit, so often
astonish a people by suddenly, springing into
national prominence.
The State Normal School of which Pro
fessor Scudder was in charge at New Platz, X.
Y., is located in a village of about 1000 people,
in a prosperous farming section just west of
the Hudson and about as far north as Pough
keepsie. The faculty conceived the idea of
holding Saturday conferences in the neighbor
ing country schools, and teachers, parents and
children, members of local granges, and others
more or less concerned with the life of- the
countryside, were invited to attend. ' - ;
All sorts of subjects were discussed and ex
plained, from cookery to tree grafting. In the
course of the conferences, which was as much
Saturday picnics as they were demonstrations,
the topic, of the natural play, of which ."all; 'the
children seemed to be deprived, came up."
picnic." The athletic standards .of the ; Publ to
School Athletic' League of 'New.' Xok-City--were
adopted, .with the proviso, that . an. appropriate
button should be awarded every child ,w1k at
tained the standard. The country play move
ment was inaugurated.
Almost immediately there followed ' an
amazing demonstration of the truly dire need '
which existed for just such athletic exercise.
At one of the conferences devoted td the
topic of physical exercise, the Normal School's
specialist in- athletics suspended in a doorway
a horizontal bar and put some of the farm .boys
present through the chinning exercise, in' order
to determine how. closely they could conform to
the standards required for boys of similar: ages
in the city of New York, ' ' ' . '. -5
Not one of them could approximate the '
standards and they were the .'boys '! whose
parents held the theory, that ; they became
"strong" by work on the, farm. j -
The movement, urgently requisite as it was, ,.
and pushed with, large enthusiasm by the
teachers of the country schools and ,Uhe ' more
progressive people of the granges, nevertheless
encountered many obstacles. The handicaps of
tradition and the unmitigated "help" of a fam
ily of growing ' children ' on the, innumerable
chores of farm and. home, ' are not to be . dis
pensed very eagerly. '
Many teachers, only too. desirous of intro-.
ducing athletics as a recognized form of in
struction as well' as play, found they might not
essay the innovation without the pcrmi:sion of .
parents; and many parents,1 approached with the
appeal that their boys and girh) be given the
opportunity ;to "make strong and healthy , men
and women, of themselves, positively t refused
the nermission. - .
But the;need was too flagrantly; apparent
for the movement to fail, whatever the. extent of
the individual opposition that at first existed. ;
.- 'With the following June the bull was taken
fairly by. the horns,. and a .field day was held
which proved' to be even more educational for
the elders than it was. for the children." ;r .'
; , There were assembled at Now Platx 1000
people, lialf of them adults" and the other "-half
children who realised ; before nightfall what
happiness, as well as health; could come out of
meetings that made play; fun and happiness for
plenty of ways of developinir- muscle , without
tOT tile - , V. cYr ' . m -n A Iiava I llA ' nnAf aa iYiA TWnt,latw " fnfMIIT mltK B11Ti'iMa4f&Mi - - .(.'.-
j to tte- :-'d,ctxun.'aS'''t6 the Satanic foundation ofViho1-' -Such "is the; deplorable condition -of.
ivocauy.. . j-ttj0 .country' village '""this has 'something 'to-' child in the country and" the small 'village,
the
as
to with bringing about a situation, character- diagnosed by-obe-of the most acute observers,
evefvbodv.;
J ,More complete .organization "was the 'imme
. 3itA Tsii1t. A -markedlv improved attitulo to-
the Ponntrv. RrTinol-ward school nlav was assumed by many pareuU
Athletic League of Ukter County; New . York, 4 who were previously , disapproving. School
followed almost' immediately. It made its ob- - grounds were cleared up, Jams and borse-shed i
it tVint. nf foiorir,,, all forma of eleaii ,'atK-near thft srhoollwuses and at home became tl
8CCne ,01 atHieiie peTlormi".i, mine iiiu iar. i
" crowbar 'or hafed rake handle served the-u-ts of
;Lthe; horizontal bar: . - .
.. Sometimes it cost school or parents a li'-'i
cash;'as often it cost neither a cent.
' , ' CONTIXUED OX 1XSIDF. rACD
letics among, country school children. ; Not only
must they be taught to play, but" their jeachers
must be -instructed in indoor as,weu as outdoor,
games suitable. for' children of various agesl '. ;
It was resolved to bring together the schools
at least once a year for a field day. and a "play
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