The Child under Eight

the business

ore fully realised the value to humanity of what in childhood goes by the name of play. Froebel had distinct theories about play, and he p

ot derived from observation, that play involves no effort, that it runs in the line of least resistance, and that education through play means therefore education without effort, without training in self-control, education without moral training. The case for the Kindergarten is the opposite of this. Education through play is advocated just because of the effort it calls forth, just because of the way in which the child, and later the boy or girl, throws his whole energy into it. What Froebel admired, what he called "the most beautiful e

Educative Process,

-building and modelling the tender blossoms of the constructive impulse"; and this, he says, is "the moment when man is to be prepared for future industry, diligence and productive activity." He poin

in all probability he knew what Schiller had said in his Letters on Aesthetic Education

lay is another man's work. Nor does it seem to matter whence comes the feeling of compulsion in work, whether from pressure of outer necessity, or from an inner

ery instinct

life, joy, impul

thority, but even from the restrictions of nature or of circumstances since

n order to supply the bodily needs of himself and his family, then he feels impelled to use it. As the activities of his daily life are the only ones known to him, he fights his battles over again, he si

ry, where play, if not too strenuous, understood

children play hunting and chasing games, or find a fascination in making tents, because they are passing

s do not play because they are young, but they have their youth because they must play," play being regarded as the preparation for future

by Professor Royce, viz. its enormous importance from the point of view of mental initiative, is strongly urged by Froebel. Professor Royce argues that "in the mere persistence of the playful child one has a factor whose value for mental i

pment. The lower animal, he maintained, as all will now agree, is hindered by his definite instincts, but the instincts o

strongly suggests that their organisms may especially have significance as places for the initiation of mo

what is within produced by an inner necessity and impulse. Play is the most characteristic, most spir

th a tent because Abraham lived in one, he no doubt enters into the spirit of the thing and accepts it joyfully. But he also annexes the ball of string and the coffee canister to fit up telephonic communication with the nursery." He may play robbers and hide and seek because he has reached a "hunting and capture" stage, but the physiologist points out that violent exercise is a necessity for his circulati

e quick and the dead, and answers, "The quick are those who get o

mes, colour games and shooting at a mark, which need quick hearing and sight, intellectual plays exercising thought and judgement, e.g. draughts and dramatic games. One form of play which seemed to him most important was constructive play, where there is expression of ideas as well as expression of power. This side of play covers a great deal, and will be dealt with later; its importance in Froebe

e reason for the child's ready imitation of all he sees done by others. Another reason for this is that only through real ex

at one blow destroy, at least for a long time, the impulse to activity and to formation if you repel their help as childish, useless or even as a hindrance.... Strengthen and develop thi

also the possession of his own space and his own material belonging exclusively to him. Be his realm, his province, a corner of the house or courtyard, be it the space of

er. And so by play enjoyed in common, the feeling of community which is present in the little child is raised to recogni

st and green moss brought in from the forest. "Each one has finished his work and he examines it and that of others, and in each rises the desire to unite all in one whole," so roads are made from the village of one boy to the castle of another: the boy who has made a cardboard house unites with anot

ern times in Floor Games by Mr. Wells, Magic Cities by Mrs. Nesb

k! They have built canals, sluices, bridges, etc.... at each step one trespasses on the limits of another realm. Each one claims

this period, games, whenever possible, are in common, and develop the feeling and desire for community, and the laws and requirements of

g these games.... Justice, self-control, loyalty, impartiality, who could fail to catch their fragrance and that of still more delicate blossoms, forbearance

all kinds of purposes, of Indian games out of Fenimore Cooper, and of "Homeric battles." It was "part of Froebel's plan to have us work with spade and pick-axe," and every boy had his own piece of ground where he might do what he pleased. Ebers, being literary, constructed in his plot a bed of heather on which he lay and read or made verses. T

ll Cook was not satisfied with the condition of affairs when "school above the Kindergarten is a nuisance because there is no play." His dream is that of a Play

ay is the only possible motive. It is for the coming generation of teachers to act so that the dream of the Play School Commonwealth shall b