hothouses had to pay the price for such a crime against childhood, no one would seriously object; but the child must pay the price himself in a stunted life physically, mentally, and morally, and the Dr. Blimbers pass before the world as great educators. The greatest crime of the age is the one the schools are committing against the lives of little children in tying them down to the cold formality of textbooks and robbing them of the opportunities of growth that nature has provided for them through play.

We are not advocating the elimination of the school studies. They have their place in the education of children. But we do not believe that the child should be required in his school work to solve the problems of the adult and to neglect the problems that appeal to him. His school studies should be adapted to his needs as a child so that he will bring his play spirit into them and enter into them with that enthusiasm necessary to mastering them. Play should be given a prominent place in the school program, and the opportunities it offers should be used to their limit to bring about the child's complete and harmonious development.

TOPICS FOR REPORT AND INVESTIGATION

1. Play in the education of the Greeks and Romans.

2. Play in the education of the French, English, and Germans. 3. The playground movement in America.

4. Physical training in its relation to playground and recreation activities.

5. Play in its relation to physical, mental, and moral training.

FURTHER READINGS

Curtis, Henry S. Education hrough Play. Macmillan.

The Practical Conduct of Play.

Macmillan.

Hughes, James L. Froebel's Educational Laws. D. Appleton & Co.

Hall, G. Stanley. Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene, pp. 73-119. D. Appleton & Co.

Lee, Joseph. Play in Education. Macmillan.

Macmillan.

Strayer and Norsworthy. How to Teach, pp. 138-149.
Tanner, Amy Eliza. The Child. Rand McNally & Co.

CHAPTER V

FROEBEL'S CONCEPTION OF UNITY

CCORDING to Froebel, all things have been created in one "universal, interdependent, interinfluencing, ever-progressive harmony." "In all things there lives and reigns an eternal law." There is not one law for the inorganic kingdom, another for the organic, and still another for the spiritual; but one law pervades the whole. This thought is beautifully developed in Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World, in which he shows that one law pervades the whole creation. If our minds could grasp the creation in its entirety, we should find that there is no conflict either in the various elements of the creation or in physical, social, or spiritual phenomena. When we look at one part of the creation, we sometimes think that we find it out of harmony with the other parts; but such a seeming lack of harmony would disappear if our minds were large enough to grasp the whole. There is in it all a living unity, a complete harmony, because it all sprang from one Being.

We cannot grasp this conception of the creation unless we are willing to regard all things as having originated from one divine mind and to believe that that mind planned all things to work in harmony. Wenac not grasp this beautiful conception of an all-pervading harmony of things if we believe that one mind planned all things and then left them to their own course. Such a creation would not be the product of one mind, but of a multitude of minds. In such a case there would be no harmony among the various phenomena. Element

would be battling against element; every man would be arrayed against his neighbor, and the good of the whole world would not at all coincide with the good of the several parts.

The unity between individualism and socialism is a good example of the harmony that exists between seemingly contradictory terms. On first thought, it would seem that the two conceptions are diametrically opposed to each other; but a closer investigation of individual and social welfare makes it evident that there is no such conflict and that both are governed by the same law. What is really best for the individual is also best for society. The individual cannot, in the long run, bring the best to himself by his own personal aggrandizement; but "he is greatest who is the servant of all." "He that would save his life must lose it." Eventually, by seeking to forget self and to give self in a service of love to others, one brings the greatest good to himself. When Jesus said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," he set forth one of the fundamental laws of human development. The man who is self-centered will not grow. Selfishness will not only impede growth; it will dry up the very fountains of life. One of the most pathetic sights in the world is the man who disregards the welfare of his fellows and seeks to take all things to himself. The highest individual good is also the highest social good. On the other hand, he who does most for himself in the highest and noblest sense of that term does most for his fellows.

The same unity is found in all things-in heat and cold; in pain and pleasure, and even in good and evil. What we now regard as evil is the highest good to the mind which grasps the relationship of all things. There are not two conflicting minds in the universe; one mind is sovereign.

Not only is this harmony universal, but it is interdependent; all things are dependent on all other things. As between the organs of the human body, so there is a bond of sympathy between the parts of the whole: when one gets out of order, the other organs suffer. Not only this; all things are inter-influencing. Each part of the universe is influencing every other part. The organic world influences the inorganic, and the two influence the spiritual. The highest conception reached by Froebel was that this harmony is ever-progressive. It is not a static harmony, but it is one that is constantly tending toward perfection. Thus Froebel does not sympathize at all with the pessimist. He is the king of optimists. He would calm the fears of those who feel that the world is tending toward chaos. It is advancing from chaos to a complete unity with the mind that created all things in harmony.

"The business of the school," says Froebel, "is not so much to teach and communicate a multiplicity of things as to give prominence to the ever-living unity that is in all things." In other words, the essential business of the school is not to accumulate isolated facts, but to emphasize the relationship that exists between those facts and the harmony that exists in all things.

APPERCEPTIVE BASIS IN THE PUPIL

Not only is it the business of the school to emphasize the relationship that exists between things, but the teacher in her daily work must never lose sight of this harmony. There must be an inner connection between the pupil and what he studies; there must be an affinity between the two. There must be in the child's past experience something related to the thing he would learn. Thus we see the importance of the teacher's having a clear con