128 Heredity and Child Culture 



there will be neither time nor opportunity for 

 the lower traits to develop. Let their energies 

 be directed toward a constructive and creative 

 outlet. 



Some children have to be taught to play, as 

 they seem lacking in initiative in this direction; 

 organized play may have a favorable mental 

 and moral effect. Let us start right in this 

 direction as the habit of happiness may then 

 continue into after life. It may well be that 

 vigorous play in the growing years can have an 

 influence on the prolongation of life and the pre- 

 vention of degenerative diseases; also to raise 

 the question as to whether our unsatisfactory 

 organization of leisure life, through which 

 people get no real self-expression, may not have 

 something to do with the wide extent of func- 

 tional nervous disorders. 



Children of the well-to-do should early be 

 taught to sympathize with misfortune and 

 extend aid where possible. Even a small 

 knowledge of the hard life conditions that sur- 

 round so many people will tend to eliminate 

 the innate selfishness that is so common among 



