192 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



GAMES AND DANCES FOR CHILDREN. 



(Miss Rebecca Conway, Department of Physical Education, University of Missouri.) 



The use of games for both children and adults has a deep 

 significance for the individual and for the community through the 

 conservation of physical, mental and moral vitality. Games have a 

 positive educational influence that cannot be appreciated by one 

 M^ho has not observed their effects. Children who are slow to see, 

 to observe, to think and to do, may be completely transformed in 

 this regard by the playing of games. 



"The Teddy Bears," Benton school, Columbia, Mo. 



The sense perceptions are quickened, and the child is aroused 

 to quick and direct recognition of, and response to, things that go 

 on around him. The clumsy, awkward body becomes agile and 

 expert; the child who tumbles down today will not tumble down 

 next week; he runs more fleetly, dodges with more agility, plays 

 more expertly, showing, therefore, development of nerve and 

 muscle. 



The social development through games is fully as important. 

 Many children, whether because of lonely conditions at home or 

 through some personal peculiarity, do not possess the power to co- 

 operate readily and pleasantly with others. I have known of cases 

 of peculiar, unsocial and even disliked children who have become 

 popular with their playmates through the influence of games. The 

 timid child learns to take his turn with others ; the bold, selfish 

 child learns that he may not monopolize everything; the unappreci- 

 ated child gains self-respect and the respect of others through some 

 particular skill that makes him a desired partner or a respected 

 opponent. But most important of all, however, in the training 

 that comes through games is the development of the will, that power 

 of self-control which is the highest aspect and the latest to develop. 



