THE DEMONSTRATION PLAY SCHOOL OF 1913.4 
By Cyark W. Heruerineton. 
THEORY OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PLAY SCHOOL. 
A.—THE IDEA SUMMARIZED, WITH COMMENTS. 
The play school is a school ‘organization with its program of activi- 
ties and methods based on the central idea of uniting the sponta- 
neous play life of the child who needs and desires leadership, with 
society’s demand that he be instructed. It is an effort to solve the 
problems of elementary education by harmonizing the child’s extra 
home educational experiences through combining in one institution 
the functions of the play center and the functions of the school; 
hence the term “play school.” 
Further, the plan correlates, through a simple administrable 
grouping of the chid’s natural activities and through an expansion 
of the idea of leadership, many of the apparently divergent ideals 
and methods in modern education which began with Rousseau, and, 
stimulated by recent profound social changes, have resulted in great 
educational restlessness and experimentation. 
For the little children the plan absorbs naturally what is sound in 
the results of educational experience since Froebel’s time and extends 
the process to the tender years of infancy. Fer.the larger children 
it brings together in a practical school scheme and extends down 
the scale of years the valuable results and the ideals that initiated 
them in many recent educational efforts, namely, the outdoor school, 
the vacation school, gardening, manual training, organized excur- 
sions, camps, activities of the Boy Scouts and Campfire Girls, “ train- 
ing for citizenship,’ intensive individual development, ete. 
The plan correlates and gives a balanced relationship between 
physical education, moral education, and cultural education. It lays 
the real foundation for vocational training and guidance. Above 
1 A report to Prof. Charles H. Rieber, dean of the summer session of the University of California, on the 
Demonstration Play School conducted during the summer session of 1913. The part of the report explain- 
ing the theory of the play school and describing its activities is an amplification of the brief outline sub- 
mitted to Dean Rieber in the winter of 1912. The first draft of this report was submitted to several educa- 
tors for criticism, and the author is especially indebted to Dr. E. C. Elliott, of the University of Wisconsin; 
President E. C. Stanford, of Claik College; Dr. C. E. Rugh, of the University of California; and Prof. M. V. 
O’Shea, University of Wisconsin. 
Reprinted by permission from the University of California Publications, Education, vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 
241-288, July 30,1914. The second part, ‘‘ The Summer Demonstration,’’ pp. 279-288, is here omitted. 
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