PHYSICAL WELFARE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1939, Page 3

PHYSICAL WELFARE

LEADERSHIP IN RECREATION KINDNESS NECESSARY. VIEWS OF YOUNGER FOLK. Efficient leadership is a basic need in any physical welfare scheme. “A play leader who perfunctorily carries on activities and guards his playground against physical mishap has a job,” says an American authority. “He who adds skill and technique to these duties creates a profession, but he who crowns his profession with consecration and devotion performs a mission, and the children, youths and adults who come to him for play and sport carry away deeper values and greater riches than the mere memory of a happy day, and the community which has entrusted to him the leisure hours of its citizens shall call him blessed.” A committee made up of some of the most experienced recreation superintendents, in an effort to set up standards of selection, training and experience of recreation personnel, states: “The object for which community recreation work is conducted and the ideals of the profession of recreation leaders demand high standards of personal character, devotion to the work and belief in the high calling of the profession. The fact that a large part of the work is conducted on behalf of children necessitates the exercise of the greatest care in the selection of those who are to do the work.” Perhaps the most discerning analysis of playground leadership was made by two groups of children, one in Chicago and the other in New York. These children, in schools, settlements, and recreation areas were asked what qualities they most liked in their leaders. The two outstanding requirements named by these children were kindness and a knowledge of activities, especially games, and skill in performing and teaching them. It is significant that kindness was ranked first by both groups, and that a knowledge of games with ability to teach them was second! Kindness, the supreme qualification, cannot be tested by a civil service examination, and “the lists” might fail, therefore, to include persons with that qualification most desired by the children. Their desire for leaders who can teach games would seem to refute the arguments that “the average boy does not need to be taught how to play baseball and that we do not need instructors in mechanical engineering to conduct classes in top spinning.” We know full well that children want to play, that most children need no urging. Wide experience has also clearly shown that with skilled play leadership a much larger number of children will make use of a given area and enjoy themselves more fully. Various age' groups are guided in activities suitable to their age. The more backward children are encouraged to come forward and with careful guidance take a normal place in the play of the group. Children who are poor in co-ordination need to be given opportunity for practice in various games without being made to feel inferior to the better, players. A well-trained leader is familiar with a wide variety of activities for special occasions and has a store of knowledge upon which to draw in order to add zest and variety to the daily programme.