DEMONSTRATION PLAY SCHOOL—HETHERINGTON. 693 
(1) The playground is a democratic institution open to all children; 
hence, unless directed, apt to be dominated by the bully or the tough 
gang. It concentrates the bad manners, antagonisms, and vices of 
children; hence it is apt to be a breeding place for evil unless in 
charge of a director who is trained to convert these very tendencies 
into sources of moral discipline. 
(2) The playground brings together a large miscellaneous group 
of children of different ages, temperaments, social training, and habits 
of play. This makes the play organization complex and beyond the 
democratic organizing power or self-control of children. The play 
breaks down without the superior skill and control of the adult leader 
who may, by bridging the difficulties of organization, make the play- 
ground the most efficient agency in existence for training in demo- 
cratic citizenship. 
(3) The playground is an institutional center for child life; a sub- 
stitute for certain educational functions of the home, which the 
home can no longer perform adequately. The supervision formerly 
supplied by the parents in activities in which they were experts can 
no longer be supplied in the new activities. Few parents can be 
experts in child nature or the technique of a vast variety of activities 
that satisfy the progressive educational needs of children. This 
function must be taken over in its large and difficult phases by the 
professional trained leader. His influence should radiate from his 
center of business into the surrounding community, the home, and 
the school. Since the playground is a laboratory of conduct and its 
activities are the foundation for a modern democratic system of 
moral education, the director becomes the main influence for effi- 
ciency in this highest phase of education. 
As the home approaches the apartment type and the family the 
one-child type, under the pressure of modern social conditions, the 
relative importance of the play center and school increases. 
In this social situation child welfare requires a new spirit and a new 
organization of the school and playground. Both are extra-home 
institutional centers of child life and both exhibit the inefficiency of 
an incomplete organization. 
As the playground is a center of life and education organized 
from the child’s standpoint, and the school is a center of child expe- 
rience and education organized from society’s standpoint, the two 
institutions should be combined to unite the two points of view, and 
unify the child’s educational experience. It is not sufficient that a 
- playground space be added to the schooi or that a group of manual 
or other activities be added to the games of the playground. The 
play center and the school center must become one in spirit, aim, and 
organization. 
