126 "THE COMING OF MAN 



The kindergarten period is predominantly sensory, but may 

 easily be made too much so. The young child enjoys run- 

 ning and will soon begin to climb, possibly in honor of his 

 arboreal ancestors. All this is natural and developmental. 

 Sensation, imagination and imitation mingle in varied amounts 

 in the activities of this period. 



Between seven and twelve the social but competitive games 

 appear. Boys and girls play in groups, but every one usually 

 plays for himself. Tag and other running games are the 

 earliest. These still involve the use of the heavier muscles 

 and exercise the largest amount of muscular tissue with the 

 smallest expenditure of nervous energy. These exercises 

 stimulate the growth of heart, lungs and all the visceral organs 

 without over-taxing the very immature brain. If one organ 

 is undersized, it has to work the hardest to meet the require- 

 ments of the game and receives the most exercise and stimulus. 

 Then the child tires and rests. No one can fail to notice in 

 healthy children how rapidly periods of most vigorous exercise 

 alternate with change of play or complete rest. The body 

 grows fast and symmetrically, and the child waxes strong. 



Play still furnishes the best mental training. Watch a game 

 of tag. The sense-organs are all alert. The attention is well 

 focussed. The will is being trained. The child must size up 

 the situation, and grasp the opportunity once for all. He can- 

 not stand shivering on the brink of action. Thinking, willing 

 and doing are united. The same movement is repeated until 

 perfected, and with undiminished interest. The child forgets 

 himself and loses shyness and self-consciousness in the game. 

 As he grows older, the opportunity for skill, thought, plan and 

 strategy, constantly increases. He is learning far more than 

 the rudiments of the art and science of success in life. 



Here he must act on his own initiative. There is no one 

 to keep telling him just what to do or more frequently what 

 not to do. He is placed more nearly in the position of the 

 boy on the old-fashioned farm, who had to help himself out 

 of every emergency as best he could. The heaviest losses in 

 our modern education lie along these lines. 



