At the Conventions

From December twenty-seventh to thirty-first, the American Nature Study Society held its thirtysecond annual meeting in New York City. While most of the discussion centered about methods of teaching nature study in the schools and the content of the program, much interesting information was given about the nature lore schools which are being conducted and other nature projects. The discussions showed how important it is for Recreation Departments to keep in touch with developments in the nature study field, and the necessity for close cooperation between recreation workers and school departments engaged in nature work. Nature lore as a field of leisure time activities is coming to assume increasing importance and the possibilities for the future are great.

With these words, Agnes R. Wayman, Director of the Department of Physical Education and Hygiene, Barnard College, opened the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Women's Division of the N. A. A. F. In addition to the addresses by Dr. Lillian Gilbreth, Dr. Frederick Rand Rogers, Mrs. Aida de Costa Breckenridge and others, there were many reports given as the result of the work of informal discussion groups. These included committees on intra-mural athletics for college women, inter-collegiate competition for women, intra-mural competition for secondary schools, community groups, workshop groups, state organization and a rating plan for membership in the Division.

The play day plan of athletics exemplifying a form of athletics which carries out many of the ideals for the games, the Women's Division rec

ommended as highly desirable.

This plan pro

vides a diversity of sports so that archery, horseback riding, skiing and similar sports may all be included in the intra-mural program as well as the traditional basketball and hockey. It includes whole schools or groups interested or merely teams. It provides for more rather than less competition but of a different kind. For example, if two schools are meeting for play day events, a number of teams will be formed proportionate to the total number of girls who are to participate, every team being composed of an equal number of students from each school. The teams thus formed are designated by colors and color team competition against color team in a number of different events. The emphasis is on the game and participation in it rather than on winning.

Because the Olympic games are to be held in Los Angeles in 1932 the women of the United States must face any problems which may arise from the participation of girls and women in the games. The group of women taking part in the discussion of this subject, representing the women throughout the country responsible for guiding the athletic program of the girls of America, realized keenly the seriousness of the problem. Approving as it does of the play day plan rather than the highly intensive competition represented by the Olympic games, the Women's Division went on record as pledging itself to carry on an educational campaign to encourage all girls to take part in many activities in their local communities rather than to train a few for the Olympic Games.

SOCIAL WORKERS DISCUSS RECREATION

From seventy to ninety percent of delinquency takes place in spare time, stated W. L. Butcher, chairman of the subcommittee on causes of the New York State Crime Commission and executive secretary of the International Boys' Work Council, at the New York State Conference of Social Work in Rochester last November. "One of the chief remedies is recreation led by skillful leaders. The director must match his wits with the alluring attractions of the street. He must be very resourceful. Bad companionship is one of the chief causes of delinquency. Many offenses by children are committed by children in groups of two and three." Non-sectarian clubs or community houses, playgrounds, better housing,

psychiatric and psychological clinics, vocational guidance and placement, were some of the means of preventing crime suggested by Mr. Butcher.

Frederick M. Thrasher of New York University also emphasized the great appeal of undirected street play to the boy. Further, he said that the traditions of the neighborhood, or even the community at large, have a powerful effect upon the psychology of children. A certain neighborhood in Chicago has yielded about the same percentage of delinquency for many years, although successive waves of different racial groups have flowed in and out of the neighborhood. "The acid test of recreation is, what result does it produce in the behavior of the boy? Recreation agencies do not know how many boys are reached by the specific parts of their program, nor do they have standards of measuring the influence of specific activities on boys' behavior. They are not aware of misfits in their program. They should have human cost accounting, such as business houses do. This cost accounting should include the statistical, ecological and case study approaches." Dr. Thrasher's assertion that there is no gang instinct in boys was challenged by several members of the conference.

The Rochester recreation survey was considered. A report on this survey was given by Oscar Kuolt, secretary of the Rochester Council of Social Agencies. He defined recreation as a good use of off-duty time. "It includes self-improvement, play, amusement and service," he said. The Rochester survey, conducted under the direction of C. B. Raitt, was both quantitative and qualitative. It is recognized that the city's recreation problem reaches out 75 to 100 miles from the city, even as far as the Allegheny park system. The proposed program arising from the survey is threefold: First, what can be done immediately with present facilities and a re-vamped staff of workers; second, a five-year program involving more and more facilities and larger personnel; third, a program reaching into the next twentyfive or thirty-five years, involving major acquisitions of park and recreation land and other facilities when the money is available. We have placed the emphasis as a matter of course upon public recreation supported from tax funds. Private agencies and semi-public recreational agencies are primarily interested in character building in recreation.

"We are advised by Mr. Raitt that we should acquire beach and park land now while it is rela

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tively inexpensive. Some kind of city, county and state tie-up in administration is indicated. Our playgrounds are only 17 percent of what we actually need. Only 40 percent of the children can swim. Eighty percent of the children go to the movies, on the average, one and a half times a week.

"Here is a startling fact for you, as it was for us: Fifty-six percent of juvenile delinquency in 276 cases on which records were available, was found within a quarter of a mile of the playground. Now either our playgrounds are too small or the leadership has been bad. I believe the leadership has been inadequate, and this is no reflection upon the director of playgrounds. In some cases the qualification of the playground leader has consisted solely in that he has shaken hands with the friend of an alderman. I believe that the schools should be opened up for recreation. The policy in the construction of our new schools is that there shall be at least five acres of land for every elementary school.

Loss to the Park Movement.-On January 12, 1929, Stephen Mather resigned from the National Park Service because of ill health. He is succeeded by Homer M. Allbright, who has been associated with him in the national park work. Recreation workers everywhere are indebted to Stephen T. Mather for the fine service he has rendered, not only in his work for national parks, but also for state parks and for the entire park movement. Mr. Mather has given of himself, of his money, and all that he has to try to build up park service in America.

In accepting Mr. Mather's resignation, Secretary West wrote:

"The Federal Government, and the American people as a whole, owe you a deep debt of gratitude for the many years of intensely patriotic, self-sacrificing, and constructive service you have rendered in furthering the cause of national parks and making these reservations readily available to all classes of our people.

*

"Under your splendid leadership the people of the Nation have been awakened to the beauties. and possibilities of the national parks and the necessity of conserving these areas for all time. So firmly have you built the foundations of the National Park Service that it is now bound to move firmly onward along the lines of greatest service to the people."

The 1928 Olympics (Continued from page 674)

and did so, running himself blind, but winning by a block.

Before the final, I said to him, "Well, old man, are you coming through?" And he replied, "Mr. Kirby, I am going to win here and I am going to win at Amsterdam." This was not conceit. It was a plain statement of the ambitions of the boy. His goal was set for Olympic victory. He thought of nothing else-neither of opportunities for good times nor for doing any of those things which might have taken the edge off his condition. There was just one big thing-he had the will to win and he won, pumped clean out so that with the last stride over the mark he fell prostrate.

That is a fine object lesson to carry to the youngsters and the grown-ups that we of the Playground and Recreation Association of America have to do. It is generally the will to win in life that wins.

Whether or not women should take part in competitive sports is, as you know, a most mooted question. For years in some sports they have done so. On the Olympic program there has been since 1904 swimming and diving for women; since 1924 fencing for women; and from the time the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, exhibitions in gymnastics for women. And now in 1928 we had for the first time some events in track and field athletics for women. Some of the competitors were very nice and ladylike; some were tough and anything but ladylike. But they were all good sports. And while the 800-meter event for future Olympics was eliminated because of the fear that the strain on the competitors was too great, I personally do not believe that any contestant was physically injured, mentally upset or morally offended by her presence in competition at the games. And I am saying this as being very much of an old-fashioned man, who would like to see all women and girls in their old-fashioned place in the home and out of our offices and not running away with the best jobs in the professional and business world. At the Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, practically a day was given to the discussion of the effect of competition and strenuous exercise upon the female. The Germans had more statistics than anyone else. They were all to the effect that with reasonable precautions a girl could stand the strain as well as a boy, and that no deleterious effect had resulted nor was to be expected, neither

to the contestant, herself, nor to future generations.

Except for the elimination of the 800-meter run for girls, the track and field athletics for 1932 will be as 1928, with the addition of a long-distance walk, or more properly speaking, hike, approximately thirty-two miles.

But I cannot close without paying tribute not alone to Costello and McIlvaine, who won the double-scull, but to that marvelous crew of California, which also had the will to win, first in California and then at Poughkeepsie, and then again in Philadelphia in the Olympic trials, where every crew of note in the country fell before it. And then on to Amsterdam, where from the beginning they had the hard end of the draw, having to row themselves out in practically all of their preliminary heats to meet the Thames Boat Club crew in the finals, who had had comparatively easy going until that time.

To me, the crew, as they took their places in their shell to paddle to the starting line on the canal near Amsterdam, upon which the race was rowed, looked "cooked" and overtrained, and I could not see how they could come through. But at the crack of the pistol, they got the jump of a few feet, and notwithstanding challenge after challenge of the smooth-rowing and courageous English crew, they met each spurt with one of theirs, and brought to themselves, to their university and to their country, another great and wellearned victory.

Never have the games been so popularcrowded grandstands at the finish; and crowds on the banks of the canal at the boat races; crowded steamers at the yacht races; crowded arenas in the pavilions for the boxing and wrestling; crowded stands at the swimming; and the stadium in which were held the track and field sports and the equestrian events filled at all times, and on many occasions jammed so beyond capacity as to leave many thousands clamoring at the gates.

Two one day winter sports carnivals for Community Center neighborhoods in St. Paul, Minnesota, have been outlined by the Department of Parks, Playgrounds and Public Buildings. These programs are put on by the department in cooperation with a committee from the neighborhood.

ONE DAY ICE CARNIVAL No. 1

4:00 P. M.

Skating races for school children
Boys 10-11 years of age-one lap race
Girls 10-11 years of age-one lap race
Boys 12-13 years of age-two lap race
Girls 12-13 years of age-two lap race
Boys 14-15 years of age-four lap race
Girls 14-15 years of age-four lap race
Novelty Stunts

1. Skateless race-Boys 12-14 years of age
Skateless race-Girls 12-14 years of age
2. One-skate race-Boys 10-12 years of age
One-skate race-Girls 10-12 years of age

3. Broom race-Boys 13-14 years of age

(One boy sits on broom; another boy skates and pulls him.)

4. Three-Legged race-Girls 13-14 years of age (Use skate straps for inside legs and skates on outside.)

6:45 P. M.

Speed skating

4 laps-Boys 16-17 years of age

8 laps-Seniors, 18 and over

4 laps-Girls 16 years and over

12 laps-Boys 16-17 years

1 mile-Open

Novelty Stunts

1. Ski-Kjoring-6 laps-Open

(Man skater-belt around waist with ropes attached, towing man or woman on skiis.)

2. Chair race-Boys-Girls under 17

(One girl or boy sits on a kitchen chair

and the other pushes it across the rink to the finish line.)

8:30 P. M.

1. Royal Parade to the Ice Queen's throne

2. Coronation of Queen and fireworks display

3. Fancy and figure skating program

4. Clown stunts and novelty acts

9:30 P. M.

General skating accompanied by band

ONE DAY ICE CARNIVAL No. 2

4:00 P. M.

1. Sled races--Boys 12 years of age and under Sled races-Girls 12 and 13 years of age 2. Short Toboggan races-Boys 12-14 years, two to toboggan

Short Taboggan races-Girls 14-15 years, two to toboggan

Long Toboggan races-Boys and girls mixed 13 and over, four on a toboggan

4. Ski race-Boys 12-13 years of age Ski race-Girls 13-14 years of age

5. Ski-Kjoring-On ice, boys or girls under 15 (One boy on skates with ropes around waist pulls the other on skiis.)

6. Skateless race-Boys 10-11 years of age Skateless race-Girls 10-11 years of age 7. Speed skating-Boys 12-13 years of age Speed skating-Girls 12-13 years of age Note: For events 1-2-3-4 a hill is necessary. Event No. 1 may also be on level ground by starting with a run and flop and going to a dead stop for distance.

7:00 P. M.

220 yd. speed skating-Boys 15-16 years of age 220 yd speed skating-Girls 15-16 years of age 440 yd. speed skating-Boys 17-18 years of age 220 yd. low hurdles Open to all boys

100 yd. backward race-Open

100 yd. pushmo race-Boys 14-15 years 100 yd. pushmo race-Girls 14-15 years (One skater pushed by another who is without skates)

7:45 P. M.

Decorated sled parade by children (similar to doll and buggy parade)

8:00 P. M.

1. Arrival of the King of Winter. Grand parade to throne-Proclamation by the King 2. Circus on ice before throne

Suggestions

Elephants on skates (two men in each elephant) Giraffe on skates (two men in each giraffe)

Hoodis on skates (four boys in it)

Clowns on skates-doing stunts on ice

Clowns without skates-doing stunts on ice and snow

Mut and Jeff stunt on skates or without skates Maggie and Jiggs stunt