ment of play that we must have. It is the oldest educator that we have. By showing our willingness to substitute, we can bring to the child this training, though not in an ideal way, and when the time comes that the community realizes that the children should have the real thing to play with, money will be forthcoming for that purpose.

The opportunities are really great; what we need, first of all, is willingness and conviction on the part of the school superintendent. Secondly, we must have co-operation on the part of the teachers. Thirdly, there should be co-operation with the community. I am positive that we will accomplish something in the Commonwealth if we start with the idea in mind that we will bring this opportunity to every boy and to every girl in the Commonwealth-no matter how primitive in form, but correctly presented and effectively taught.

Recreation in Rural Schools

ARTHUR S. ROLLINS, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS,
LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

A

T the beginning of an address, Rev. J. Franklin Babb, a lecturer of some note, made this reply to the question, Who is an educated man? "He is a man who can do the right thing at the right time and not slop over." I want to paint a very condensed oral picture, and I am going to take for the subject of that picture a boy in a small rural school in New Hampshire. This boy attends a little district school where the enrollment is usually three-never over eight or possibly ten. There is no music taught in the school. He has not the advantages of that sort of recreation. Nohing is known of clubs for boys and girls in that section. There are certain things that he does get. Being brought up in the country and attending this rural school, he could easily tell you the best trout brook, the habits of the animals and the birds in his section. He knows the names of the various trees and a great many of the flowers; in short, he has accumulated a great deal of knowledge that the country boy is able to accumulate. There are several serious deficiencies in his training, among them being the lack of proper recreation and a lack of most of the things that children are at the present time able to get in a well-organized school system. In our recreational work in Lancaster, we have had this year to limit it to the children of the first four grades. We have had two classes on one afternoon a week. The first class has included pupils of grade one, and the second class has taken the pupils of grades two, three, and four. They have been called together in classes in the gymnasium at Lancaster. We have not been able to extend this work to the pupils in the outside schools, but have been compelled by conditions to limit the privilege to the pupils of the Center School. Another year we hope to be able to extend recreation

work so that pupils of all the schools may receive training in organized play and recreation of various kinds.

These are some of the things that I hope we shall accomplish by our recreational work-and in some of these things we have already made a good start. We hope to be able to teach children to play together, and in playing together the three qualities that we want to develop are team work, fairness, and playing according to the rules of the game. When you stop to think of all the misery

and all the uncomfortable situations that are caused in the world by the failure on the part of certain or many individuals to play the game according to the rules, I do not think I need to elaborate on the necessity of our teaching children to play according to the rules of the game. It is a good thing to teach children to play together as a group and not as individuals. The most successful teams are those that play as a unit (in football, for instance) and not those in which the individuals comprising the team are trying to shine as stars. We feel that there is a splendid opportunity to teach the children to pull together and work together in their organized play. A quality that I always admire in any person is the quality of being a good mixer, being able to associate pleasantly and comfortably with his fellows. There is an excellent opportunity in organized play and group games to cultivate that quality in children. I know from our experience in Lancaster this year that some children discover themselves for the first time in organized play. By that I mean that they become aware of their ability to develop into leaders. They find something that they can do better than someone else; and if there is any one thing that is my hobby, it is pointing out something that will establish the child's confidence in himself and in what he is trying to do, and then building on that. Nothing is ever gained by emphasizing to the child what he cannot do or the things in which he should improve, but the moment that you show him something that he can do better than someone else he is on the right track. At least, that is my experience in handling children. I could give countless cases in Lancaster where children have made considerable progress after we had shown them one thing that they could do well. There is

now a boy in his Junior year at the Lancaster High School who is staying for no other reason than that he was shown one thing that he could do better than the other boys. We have emphasized that and have built around it, so that the boy has continued his course now almost through the Junior year. I am afraid almost every day that he will come to me and tell me that he will have to leave school; but I am doing all I possibly can to encourage him on the basis of the one thing that he can do exceptionally well, and I hope to be able to induce him to complete his course. We have one boy in the sixth grade who never made an enviable record in his school work. Last year he became interested in the poultry club and did good work all through the summer. In the fall he had some prize money in his pocket. He has improved one hundred per cent this year. He is no longer a source of trouble to his teacher. He does not hang back in his work. The last report that I received stated that he was doing the best work of any member of the poultry club. That is only another instance of pointing out something that an individual can do well. I believe that organized play gives us the opportunity to point out to the child something that he can do better than someone else.

Another thing that I hope we shall accomplish is a partial solution of our recess problem. I do not know how many superintendents are satisfied with the manner in which the children conduct themselves at recess. I, for one, am far from satisfied with this proposition in my schools. I believe that when we shall have introduced organized play we shall have arrived at a fair solution of this problem. When we teach children in their group activities to have something definite to do, we remove the temptation to get into mischief. A group of grown people soon gets into mischief of various sorts when its members are long idle: what right have we to expect more of children? If adults get into mischief under such conditions, why should we not expect the same of the children?

Now, I have another ambition in this work. I do not know how soon I shall be able to realize it-possibly never-but I hope very much by means of recreation work to prove to the community

the value of activities directed beyond school hours. It is my hope that some time the teachers in my community will be elected with the understanding that their services will be required throughout the year,—or at least a larger part than now, for the direction of the activities of the school children. It seems to me that the teacher is the proper person to direct the club work, to direct play, and to help in planning the vacation time of the children. I would not make that work compulsory-at least, I am not ready to say that yet. I hope that eventually we can demonstrate the value of this work so that the town of Lancaster will consider it advisable to furnish further direction for the summer and vacation activities of the children than it now does.

We have another form of recreation aside from organized play, and it is something of which I am very proud. I refer to the work that we do under the direction of our Supervisor of Music. I am very enthusiastic about my Supervisor of Music-in fact, I am so enthusiastic about her that I have recently built a home in Lancaster and I intend to stay there even after I leave the school work, for no other reason than that my daughter may have the advantage of work under this supervisor. You can readily see that with that feeling we get along pretty well together. There are never any quarrels between us, and I do not recall that she has ever asked for anything that I could possibly grant that I have not been pleased to do. At present we have seventy-five pupils in special class work on the violin, piano, cornet, trombone, flute, and clarinet. We have three orchestras, and in them we are using something like $800. worth of instruments which have been largely earned by the members of the orchestras. They have given concerts and in that way have paid for the larger part of their equipSome generous friends in the town have kindly donated a part of the equipment, but most of it has been earned by the pupils. That is a form of recreation in which I take great pride and for which I am not at all responsible. My Supervisor of Music is wholly responsible for it. I have, of course, been glad to give her whatever I could in the way of co-operation, but she is the person who has put it through.

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