1 8 PARKS 



In educational systems two general methods are employed in hand- 

 ling the children from the kindergarten to the eighth or ninth grade inclu- 

 sive. These are as follows: (/) Grouping of all grades from the kinder- 

 garten or the first grade to the eighth grade inclusive in one center. This 

 is the common practice in rural districts and in most small urban centers, 

 although this practice is still prevalent in many cities. (2) Grouping of 

 all grades from the first, including the kindergarten, to the sixth inclusive 

 in one center; and all the grades from the seventh to the ninth, inclusive, 

 in another center. The former is known as a primary school and the latter 

 an intermediate or junior high school. 



These groupings are important in view of the growing feeling that 

 playground areas for children of this age group, particularly the primary 

 group, should be a fundamental part of the equipment of every properly 

 equipped educational center, and that the school has a very definite respon- 

 sibility in the provision of both indoor and outdoor facilities for the fullest 

 possible expression of the play impulses and needs of children. 



There are a number of reasons why the school should assume this 

 responsibility. 



a. The play impulses, needs and desires of children bear the most 

 profound relation to their growth and development, or, in other words, 

 their education. This is the basic reason why every school center should 

 provide play space and equipment. 



b. The distribution of primary schools, combined primary and inter- 

 mediate schools, and, to a lesser degree, of the junior high schools, is 

 based upon reasonable walking distance from the homes of the children. 

 This applies to the rural district except in the case of the consolidated 

 school, as well as in towns or cities. This principle of reasonable walking 

 distance is exactly the principle fixed upon by the city planners and recre- 

 ation planners for the distribution of children's playground areas. 



c. Next to the home, the school is the most important center of the 

 daily life activities of children for the greater part of the year. It is therefore 

 poor economy for a community to plan these centers in such a way that 

 the play needs of children must be provided for elsewhere. 



d. On every children's playground there is need of certain service 

 facilities such as drinking fountains, toilets and shelter, all of which can 

 be supplied through the use of the school facilities without duplicating 

 their cost, as would be the case if separate areas were provided. To a con- 

 siderable extent the same is true of playground equipment of other kinds. 



A more or less ideal community plan, therefore, for children's play- 

 ground areas, would be to have as many of them as there are primary and 

 intermediate schools, with the possible addition of areas here and there 



