Playground

“ His playground is the pavement, and the only amusements he takes kindly to are those which are not inconsistent with his lying on the flat of his ragged back, or curled up dogwise in sunny nooks and corners. ”

“ But the path beside the wall is seldom lacking in attractions. It is the daily playground of the children from the cottages which lie back from the road between where the wall ends and the big barn juts out endways on to the footpath. These cottages are but two in number and have all the picturesqueness of old gables and steep stone-slab roofs. Hoary and bent and lined with the passage of years they seem to speak of old age in every feature. But they echo to-day with the sound of children’s voices, and their old stone flags speak from morning to night with the patter of little footsteps. ”

“ But if, in less than a year, such a city could spring up mushroom-like from the soil, with a mere used-up playground set about with toy-palaces as its nucleus, what might it not do within a decade under a new dispensation? ”

“ To get the playground on the roof of the school house recognized as the public playground seemed a long step toward turning it into a general neighborhood evening resort, that should be always open, and so towards bringing school and people, and especially the school and the boy, together in a bond of mutual sympathy good for them both. ”

“ As soon as it grew warm enough to play outdoors without just racing around every minute to keep from freezing to death, the dolls and their mothers went out to a great pile of rocks at one end of the bare, stony field which was the playground. ”

“ The place is a fine playground, with its soft, grassy carpet, and noble old trees. It is the sort of park which adjoins country houses of wealthy old English families, where years of training have brought to perfection the trees planted by previous generations. ”

“ It is too crowded, and there is nothing but asphalt playgrounds, with no shade till late. Yet the children swarm, and when you see them sitting listlessly, doing absolutely nothing, in the broiling dirty streets outside you can’t wonder. I am having the playground shelter scrubbed out with carbolic daily, lined with some flowers in pots, and filled with small tables and chairs for the little ones. ”

“ The block comprises sixteen one family and sixteen two-family houses. Their appearance is very attractive. On the west and the north is a new, wide city playground, giving a clean sweep of sun and breeze. The houses surround on three sides a large gravelled central area which creates a private playground—an obvious advantage for the little ones who would be out of place in the big, public playground designed for older and more active children. ”

“ This suggests to me that the playground should be something more than a place for working off steam and keeping children out of mischief. It should be a place where children form permanent associations. ”

“ This is a favourite playground of the children, and{99} when the sun is setting, the older people of the poorer classes rest upon the worn-out benches that project from the stone parapets, enjoying the cooling breezes that evening brings. ”

“ The playgrounds of schools are of inestimable value, and we quite agree with one who said: "If we can only afford one of the two—the playground or the school—have the playground first and afterward the school." The small parks and playgrounds of the cities are a great blessing to the little folks. ”

“ Each block has its own playground for small children, provided with swings, slides, sand piles, and so on, and thus the little ones in every part of the city are able to enjoy the advantages of outdoor play under the eyes of their parents and without their having to cross a street. ”

“ So it is plain that the books we place in our summer playgrounds must be of the most popular type. Easy books, picture books, fairy tales, stories, histories, books of travel, and books on games and manual arts are the ones most in demand. A knowledge of the district in which the playground is located is also necessary. If the children have a school library and are accustomed to reading, the books sent to the playground will differ from the kind sent to one in a foreign district where little reading has been done. ”

“ Outside, in the playground, there should be opportunities for physical development, for its own sake: swings, giant strides, ladders laid flat, slightly sloping planks, and a seesaw should all be available for constant use; if the children are not warned or given constant advice about their own safety, there is little fear of accidents. ”

“ And so the playground movement has gained rapid headway. Playgrounds have been established, and placed in charge of competent and enthusiastic leaders, who are teaching the children something they never should have unlearned. ”

“ The playground is an essential field in the preparation of good citizens and it is not to be wondered at that in country communities, where all provision of recreation is difficult, and no public provision of playgrounds is thought of by those in [Pg 100] authority, that young people and working people, indeed all classes of the population, tend to move away. ”

“ An interesting application of the play motive is being tried at the Teachers’ College playground, by the same teachers who are conducting the kindergarten. There is an outdoor playground for the use of the younger grades after school hours. Instead of spending their time doing gymnastic exercises or playing group games the children are making a town. ”

“ The child is to be pitied who has not at some time revelled in a packing-box house big enough to get into and furnished by his own efforts. But a "village" of such houses offers a greatly enlarged field of play opportunity and has been the basis of Miss Mary Rankin's experiment on the Teachers College Playground. ”

“ It is so long since the state made it law that a playground should go with every public school, five since as secretary of the Small Parks Committee I pleaded with the Board of Education to give the roof playground to the neighborhood after school hours. ”

“ They should have access to the garden and playground, and all the incitements to activity should be there—similar to those of the Nursery School, or those provided by the London County Council in parks. The bare wilderness of playground now so familiar, where there is neither time nor opportunity for children to be other than primitive savages, does not represent the outside world of beauty and of adventure. ”

“ What normal, wide-awake child enjoys sitting in a company of silent grown-ups?
Landscape art pure and simple does not interest the average child to any extent. The love of nature in early years is due in a measure to the exhilarating effect of air and sunshine, The great out-of-doors is a glorious playground in which the child delights to sport like any other healthy young animal. ”

“ These children, little trotting things from three to five years old, have a large playground, open in summer and covered in winter, and a spacious school-room, in which they receive little lessons in singing, A B C, and so on. ”

“ When treated on broad lines, such areas become public parks, and afford open breathing places for the residents, and, if near centers of population, may well be equipped with playground facilities for the children. ”

“ But it is only necessary to have once seen the joy with which the children of our crowded cities hail the formation of such a playground, and the use to which they put it, to be convinced that the trouble of acquiring it, or the cost of laying it out, is amply repaid. ”

“ The kindergarten department playground has piles of sand for the little folks, and they begin their engineering and their landscape gardening in the bright sunshine there. In the halls we saw two ping-pong tables, and certainly the physical side of the young ladies’ training is not neglected. ”

“ HIS GAMES It would be impossible to describe the thousand and one uses to which the West Side boy puts his playground. After all, the street is not such a bad place to play in if you have known nothing better; and as you tumble out of school on a fine afternoon, ready for mischief, it offers you almost anything, from a fight with your best friend to a ride on the steps of an ice wagon. But certain games and sports are so universal in this district as to deserve separate mention. ”

“ You can see the woodland and empty part—all that is left wild. That big patch there is pasturage—they keep their own sheep and cows. There are gardens and meadows. Up in the corner is the children's playground, bathing pool, and special buildings. Here is the playground for grown-ups—and their lake. This big spreading thing is the guest-house and general playhouse for the folks—ballroom, billiards, bowling, and so on. Behind it is the plant for the whole thing. The water tower you'll see to more advantage when we land. And all around you see the homes; each family has an acre or so. ”

“ The best playground is the home yard, where mother can keep an oversight; where other children can come so she knows the playmates, and where the child is kept in sympathy with home influences. For indoor play, there should be a room kept sacred to the uses of childhood. In this way both adults and children have more freedom, with less conflict of comfort and convenience. For children under three or four years this room will naturally be the nursery ”

“ In the sense in which a playground is a school—a playground without rules or methods or a director—there is a school of the woods. It is an unkept, an unconscious school or gymnasium, and is entirely instinctive. In play the young of all animals, no doubt, get a certain amount of training and disciplining that helps fit them for their future careers ”

“ Playground.—A small tract of land, usually adjacent to public schools, providing space for ball games, gymnastic and play apparatus, and in most cases a small building used as an office and storage place for apparatus. ”

“ Part of the playground has been made into a school garden, and here every pupil in the higher grades has a garden plot, also instruction which enables him to grow successfully some of the commoner fruits and flowers. ”

“ The moral influence depends, however, on having ladies who will go to the playground, teach games, act as umpires, know and care for the children. These I hope to find more and more. Until now, except at rare intervals, the playground has been mainly useful for the fresh air it affords to the children who are huddled together by night in small rooms, in the surrounding courts. The more respectable parents keep them indoors, even in the day-time, after school-hours, to prevent their meeting with bad companions. ”

“ For the little ones, there is the kindergarten at Kellogg Hall, and out of doors beside it the playground, where the tots make cities out of sand and [260] find other pleasures. And we must not forget the Children's Paradise, the completely equipped playground in the ravine at the northwestern part of the grounds. I remember hearing Jacob A. Riis, the father of the city playgrounds, say in one of his lectures: "They tell me that the boys play ball in the streets of New York and break windows when the ball goes out of the way. ”

“ Community Buildings.—The larger appreciation of the importance of play and recreation in rural life has brought attention to the lack of physical equipment. Every rural community needs a playground large enough to include a good baseball diamond and a basketball court, and a building where indoor sports, gymnasium work and basketball games can be held. ”

“ In the city, however, especially in the congested districts, which are the only ones known to immigrants when they first come, the child cannot play in his own yard, for there is [158] nothing that can be called a yard. The alternatives are the city streets with their manifold dangers, or the public playground. From the point of view of physical safety as well as in giving a place for more wholesome play, the public playground is obviously the more desirable. ”

“ We have not utilized the school plants completely unless they are used for recreation and social centers by adults. Fortunately, a school plant that provides for the constructive play and recreation activities of children is also most admirably adapted for similar activities with adults. The playground, gymnasiums, swimming-pools, auditorium, club and social rooms, library, shops, laboratories, etc., make a complete social and recreation center for adults. ”

“ The boys’ playground is a large open paved courtyard, destitute of grass, trees, or shrubs; but in the private gardens in the rear, trees, shrubs, and flowers are to be found, having a pleasant appearance. A little way beyond, we find St Andrew’s, Holborn, and in the open churchyard surrounding the church are many trees, but not much cultivation. ”

“ The Governor of New York, campaigning for re-election in the fall of this year (1914) , advocated that public schools should be surrounded by playgrounds at “no matter what cost.”
Tremendous impetus has been given to the playground movement throughout the entire country by individuals and societies organized for the purpose. Wise men and women have expounded the social philosophy of play and recreation, pointing out that these may afford wholesome expression for energies which might otherwise be diverted into channels disastrous to peace and happiness ”

“ There are now thirty-five such centres, which, without paralleling or infringing upon the work of other social agencies, greatly widen the scope of the city’s social service. These parks comprise a playground with baseball diamond, tennis-courts, an outdoor swimming-pool, playgrounds for young children, and a field-house containing a large assembly-hall, club-rooms, a branch library, and shower-baths with locker-rooms for men and women. Skating is offered as a winter diversion, and the halls may be used for dances, dramatic, musical, and other neighborhood entertainments. ”