Work Distinguished from Play 31 



amount and kind of work and industry necessary 

 for the proper culture of the growing child. 



First of all, there must be appreciated the sharp 

 distinction between work and play. The latter is 

 spontaneous, allowing the child to follow his caprice 

 of mind. He may take up one play activity and drop 

 it at any moment that another appeals to him more 

 strongly. But with work, the situation is different. 

 The purpose is outside of and not within the per- 

 formance, as in the case of play. The work looks 

 toward some end necessary of achievement and carries 

 with it the elements of sacrifice, of giving out of one's 

 life something that is his very own in order that some 

 other thing may be acquired. In the case of work 

 the normal child probably at first finds almost any 

 assigned task irksome. He feels that he is being more 

 or less unfairly or unnecessarily driven to it and that 

 when he grows to be a man, he will have a lot of money 

 and hire somebody else to do the work. 



All natural, healthy-minded boys are at first some- 

 what stubborn and rebellious in regard to work. 

 No matter how good their parents may be, if merely 

 turned loose in the world without direction and the 

 spur of authority, they will almost invariably avoid 

 manual labor. So it might as well be put down at 

 .once as a rule that every boy who is to become a 

 real worker and an industrious character must be 

 set definitely at his tasks while a mere child and held 

 strictly to then* performance. After much persistent 



