Nowhere else is the law of child development shown mote strikingly than in the play of 

 children. To the adult this impulse to play seems almost insane in the hold that it has upott 

 the child; but here again Nature is not in error. We wonder at the persistence with which 

 children play and we may well consider their types of activity. As has been well Isaid, all 

 good play has in it the elements of work and all good work should have in it the elements of 

 play. Is it then possible to distinguish between work and play? By some play is regarded 

 as simply pleasurable activity. But fortunately for most of us genuine work is often pleasur- 

 able and it occasionally happens that genuine play becomes far from pleasant. By others play 

 is defined as a pleasurable, purposeless form of activity, and this applies to most play. In cer- 

 tain cases, however, children indulge in forms of play for the express purpose of acquiring 

 skill, as in jumping, running, throwing, etc. It does not meet this objection to say that the 

 purpose must be a useless one, since this form of skill acquired may even be the means of saving 

 the individual's life. Play may be defined as the purely voluntary expenditure of energy. 

 There is no impelling force, other than what may be called the "play impulse" itself. The 

 distinction between play and work rests upon the mental attitude of the^child towards the 

 activity, one may change to the other instantly and in the same game one child may be play- 

 ing while another is working. The impelling force that changes the activity to the form of 

 work may come from without, or may arise from within the mind of the child as a sense of 

 duty, pride, loyalty, ambition, etc. When a hungry child is eating his dinner he is not play- 

 ing, however pleasurable may be the exercise. When, as his young sister's guest of honor, 

 in one corner of the sand-pile or in the shade of the old apple tree, he obligingly nibbles a 

 cooky or sips imaginary tea, he is playing. Psychologically there is no distinction to be made 

 between play and the recreation of the adult. 



It remains to consider why children the world over possess this intense play impulse and 

 why they play as they do. The theory suggested by Schiller and later elaborated by Spencer is 

 that they are working off, by this means, their superfluous energy. That this theory can not 

 completely explain the play of children is at once shown by the fact that they often continue 

 to play long after the siiperfluons energy is exhausted. Furthermore, many forms of work 

 would be equally serviceable in enabling them to dissipate energy. A second theory advocated 

 by Lazarus and Gutsmuths is that children play for purposes of relaxation and recreation. 

 There is no question but that when children are kept quiet for an hour or more in the school- 

 room the desire to play is intensified, but that the theory can not completely explain the play 

 of children is at once shown by the fact that children are ready to play from the time that they 

 open their eyes in the morning until forced to close them again at night. Furthermore, it is 

 known that a change of work can furnish relaxation. These two attempts to explain physio- 

 logically the phenomena of play are plainly incomplete in what they attempt to explain and 

 do not account at all for the forms of activity seen in natural play. 



A theory which not only explains fully and completely the play of children, but that of 

 young animals as well, is found in Groos' biological theory, based upon the theory of culture 

 epochs. The child is in that stage of development which represents the hunting stage of the 

 race, when the most varied activity of muscles and senses was demanded. The motor and 

 sense centers in the child's brain are now ready to be developed and are demanding exercise. 

 The forms of activity required, in order that the individual brain may be developed as was the 

 race brain, must correspond with the primitive activities. In operating upon the child the 

 biogenetic law implants in him an instinctive impulse to use his muscles and senses and to use 

 them in a certain way. The resulting activity we call play. This impulse is as powerful as 

 it is because of its great importance to the child and a generous proportion of his life is set 

 apart by Nature for its operation. If we watch a group of boys engaged in plays of their own 

 devising we will at once discover what the primitive activities really were; running, jumping, 

 dodging, whirling, striking, kicking, wrestling, boxing, hiding, climbing, digging, swimming, 

 throwing, yelling, etc. The average boy can think of no higher paradise than a complete 

 camp, located alongside a beautiful sheet of water, with a full equipment for hunting, fishing 

 and boating. In the case of the girls at play some of the rougher elements are eliminated and 

 for these are substituted certain phases of the domestic arts, including the care of dolls. In 

 their romping games the girls just as they are caught instinctively scream, in striking contrast 

 with boys, which may be explained by assuming that in primitive times the women habitually 



Elled for help in times of danger, while the men reserved their strength for the encounter, 

 we could get a composite scream from the girls of all nations of the earth it would probably 

 ry closely represent the original female cry for help. 



27 



