OUR PLAYGROUNDS.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 277, 18 July 1918, Page 3

OUR PLAYGROUNDS.

Our growing realisation of the value of education play, which is probably one of the happiest results of child study, is bringing with it the conviction that we have been very short-sighted in not providing sufficient suitable play areas for the children living in many of our urban and suburban districts. Although New Zealand i> but a young country, overcrowded play gronds are much too common in our cities, and many of the children of tlv: present generation are growing up under conditions distinctly worse than those of the past generation in respect to space for daily play. True, the matter has not yet become acute here, as it has, say, in < row ded parts of New York, where 1 have seen three thousand children in orv school, with no more playing space than that provided by the basement of the school building itself. Hut the case is already bad enough here, and will grow worse all too quickly if we fail to grapple with the difficulty, and overcome it while we may. Of course we shall have to spend large sums to acquire areas sufficient for the purpose, but if we realise that the expenditure will bring in a tine return in the improved quality of our future citizens, the funds will be forthcoming. If it were a matter of physical health alone, I believe the event would justify an outlay sufficient to enlarge every unduly small playground. But we can cxp°ct far more than this — nothing less, indeed, than an improved mental and moral fibre. The old idea that play is merely an amusement something supplementary to the real business of life—is not true of the child. Play, with him, is life His interest is there; his effort is there. For him to play is to work, lie docs not realise that this is his preparation for his life’s work; for him play is the all-absorbing work of the present. Surh play as this is educational in the sense of Dewey’s famous dictum: “Education is not preparation for life; it is life.” It would be interesting to speak of the social education of play, and also to deal with the various categories of play, surh as experimental play, constructive play, acquisitive play, imitative play, and dramatic play, and to show “how each of these contribute to the hygiene of the mind and the spirit, contributing som** element to the wholeness of the man towards

which all education should consciously be directed,” but the scope of this short paper will not allow. For play there must be space. Probably the most universal characteristic of children’s play is activity of the whole body. It has been estim ited that in the eighth year (base ganus outnumber all others in the ratio of 2 to 1, and they become more popu lar until the tenth year. Distant playing fields visited once or twice a week cannot provide for such activity. Space must be easily available many times a day. For the strenuous team games, which become popular with early adolescence, marking a growing men tal development, we shall probably never U able to provide fully in every playground, but it would be possible for our Education Boards to do what has been doae in Edinburgh, and, no doubt, in some other cities. There in different suburbs the Education Board owns grounds with the necessary fa< ilities for national games. By means of a rota each school within convenient distance receives its fair share of the use of the grounds, so that all in some measure are provided for. 1 think we have not yet fully realised how the development of a cooperative spirit, engendering selfsacrifice and loyalty, as well as other admirable qualities, makes such games as football and cricket almost of supreme value in character building, when they are played under suitable conditions. In the school playground itself, if space cannot be tound for these games, provision should be made for other team games, such as basket ball, so that children may by daily play develop the co-ordinate spirit essential to good citizenship. But I have not space to discuss in detail how the playground should be laid out, so as best to achieve its pur|H>se as the home of educative play. The first requirement is spice! 1 suggest that Parliament should order a return showing: 11) The number of playgrounds in New Zealand with sufficient area for the number of children to be accommodated. (2) Th* 1 estimated cost of making good the deficiency Then a scheme for the immediate or gradual acquisition of the necessary areas should be at once set into opera • tion. Such a work is of national imjjortance, and is not unworthy of »he consideration of statesmen! H. G. COUSINS, M.A.