Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

THE WORLD AT PLAY

within the unit but does not invite traffic through it. The interior is restricted entirely to residential use and, ideally, about ten per cent of its area is devoted to small parks and recreational spaces.

City Planning Pays. The report of the Advisory Committee on City Planning and Zoning, appointed by Secretary Hoover, is enthusiastic about the results of city planning. As to the importance of parks and playgrounds, the report

says:

"A lawn around the home is the best place for very small children to play, but public playgrounds and athletic fields are needed for organized games for larger children and adults. The increasing dangers imposed by rapidly moving traffic further emphasizes the hazard of streets as play space.

"The need of more public open spaces of all kinds is one of the consequences of apartment house living and must be borne in mind as apartment house areas develop.

"A great country park, desirable as it is, is now generally recognized as a supplement to, not a substitute for, smaller parks convenient to the people, who need ready access to trees, grass and open space.

"Public recreation facilities are as important to the village as to the large city. Every form of wholesome recreation for adults helps to check unwise movement of population to larger cities."

The Children's Museum.-A word in behalf of the Children's Museum appeared in the Boston Herald, signed by C. J. Douglas: To the Editor of The Herald:

May I call attention to the brilliant educational work that is being carried on by the children's museum on the shore of Jamaica pond? Here objective teaching is employed, without cost to the pupils, and with most remarkable results. Thousands of children go there annually with eager interest in the things seen and learned. Some go independently on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, while others go in classes from the public schools, accompanied by their teachers.

Children are natural scientists, and have an insatiable curiosity about everything in the little world in which they live. Their interest is mainly in things which their eyes can see and their hands can handle. They are "from Missouri," and want to be shown, and it is the business of the children's museum to show them. A character

5

istic of youth is an eagerness to "see it with his own eyes." This interest in things is utilized here, under the guidance of able and specially trained teachers, to direct the pupils to an enthusiastic search for such scientific facts as are important for him to know. They are not so much interested in books or abstractions. Their world is one of concrete objects and concrete activities. I think it was Huxley who expressed the opinion that it is ridiculous for a boy to know much about Euclid, and nothing about the properties of the sand pile in his yard. The purpose of the museum is not to force information into the minds of children against their will, but rather to arouse and secure their cooperation. For in one important sense we cannot do much for children, but we can do very much with them. Teaching reaches its highest attainment when it inspires the pupil to enthusiasm and joy in the search for truth.

The city of Boston, realizing the great value of this work, affords help in the matter of house rent, but aside from that the entire expense of this enterprise is borne by individuals. The growth of the museum has made additional funds necessary. Where can a dollar be invested to better advantage for community betterment? Societies that repair human wreckage are important, but here is the building of new craft with possibilities of future usefulness and power that cannot be foretold. The one looks toward the scrap heap and the night, while the other faces the morning of a new full day, and with influence that may extend through the generations to follow. Is not such a beneficent enterprise worthy of generous support?

A man never stands so straight as when he stoops to help a child.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

Professional Recreation Leadership*

By

WILLIAM BURDICK, M.D.

Director, Playground Athletic League, Baltimore

Social workers for a long time felt that devotion and the reforming spirit was all that was necessary, but now they are advertising the fact that social work requires a school and that the social work profession is a profession and a business enterprise. If various professions are taking the attitude that apprenticeship, training and specialization are necessary, we have but to consider that education was once in the same state that we in the recreation movement are in today with reference to theory and training.

The teachers of ancient Greece and Rome were slaves and did not have great standing, particularly if they were paid for teaching. The early teachers of Maryland were bondmen-men who bound themselves out for a certain length of time and became teachers until they released themselves from debt. It is not everywhere yet settled that the superintendents of our schools shall devote themselves wholly to the profession of education, for in many places they still spend part of their time in business and in law.

So it seems to me that there must be leadership for leisure time. There is a certain confusion, of course. Unfortunately, many people seem to think that if we use the word "recreation" we have covered everything, whereas it seems to me to be very clear that the recreation of the adult, the play of the child, the sport of the adolescent, are entirely different in their purposes and in their methods.

It seems to me we should be very clear that play is the basis of education of the child, that competitive sports and athletics are at least 85 percent participated in by boys and will soon be, perhaps, by that number of girls, and that the recreational relaxation of the older persons requires an entirely different type of leadership. Play is a part of the education of the child and it requires

Stenographic report of address given at Recreation Congress, Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 6, 1927.

just as much, if not more, careful leadership as teaching in the public schools.

We have been talking about programs of athletics for boys and girls most of the time. A great deal of our handcraft activities is adjusted to the ages of 11 to 15. We have also talked about relaxation and recreation for older people, but it seems to me we have not a proper full-rounded right type of program yet on account of our lack of knowledge of the child.

The infant up to a year old-we don't know what he ought to do. We don't know much of anything about the child up to three and very little about the child to ten. It seems we need definite leadership in play and in the education of the child, and in his direction in accordance with the stage of his growth, both in body and mind. We need to give him an opportunity to express himself.

Again, we have got to know definitely when we shall do the kind of teaching that we are suggesting. Do we know when we ought to teach. boys and girls swimming? Is there a general idea throughout the country that boys and girls should be taught swimming at six, eight or nine years?

A survey of 3600 boys in the public schools of Baltimore showed that the average boy learned to swim at 13, and eighteen percent of them learned to swim between 11 and 15, and the same figures hold true with the girls. In other words, we have not learned yet the real facts as a basis of our profession.

Again, we have been using swimming almost entirely as a matter of speed and activity. We have not used it for skill and endurance, and have not counted the values in behavior that come from competition, or the sport and joy that comes in the use of the water. We must give help to the public from our experience so that they will

TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP

not have too much delay in wandering around because of their lack of knowledge and in order that they may also gain the advantages of social ideas and ideals.

Are we clear in regard to athletics? Programs of athletics vary throughout the country. It does not seem to me that we know the real or right attitude of the boys, or what ought to be the attitude of the adults in relation to them. In other words, it does not seem that we are furnishing leadership; we haven't the knowledge. We are assuming our own impulses and our own urges are sufficient excuses for what we are doing.

Perhaps the children are right and we are assuming too many things. Are we assuming that the adolescents are fundamentally right and not giving them the value of our beliefs or the results of our experiences in leadership?

Leadership, according to the dictionary, has several definitions in accordance with the necessities and responsibilities. One idea of leadership is taking somebody by the hand-personal contact. That is one definition and that, it seems to me, is early leadership as we should give it in childhood. Then the dictionary goes on to say that leadership means going in advance, and that it seems to me, is the enticing or luring of youth by means of the way we conduct ourselves. And finally leadership means to advise, and that is the form of leadership we use with adults.

If we follow this plan we shall aid youth in its transition from regard for the letter of the law to the spirit of the rules. I have great belief in the honesty and fairness of young people.

We believe that we must use these sports and games for youth so that they may gain self-control, a healthy mind and body, temperance in their individual relationships and courage in their relationships to other people. If we do that, we shall sympathize with the youth movement and get inspiration and help from it and when we try to be of service we shall have a sympathetic attitude.

Leadership in recreation ought to mean that we do everything to make life more abundant by glorifying work, because the work then will be enjoyed better on account of the relaxation and the refreshment of the spirit after toil. In that way leadership, and leisure time leadership (which I think is a better term to cover sports, play and recreation), will become a profession, and not a mere retention of knowledge. It will be an occupation to which one devotes himself and which he understands. Then it will not be a

7

trade in which we act upon rules. methods and devices; but it will be a vocation in which we have expert knowledge of service to others and financial rewards will not be considered as the real standard of our success.

Does that mean that practice will not count and we shall have the stiff standardization of the efficiency engineer? No. I believe that practice precedes progress. On the other hand, we go only a certain distance by means of practice. Then we must think the thing over; we must theorize about it and take on some more practice and then more theory and then more practice, and so we go

on.

It seems to me we are just on the edge of learning things that are going to make great progress for us in all education.

Professional leadership requires development. That does not mean just growth. The difficulty perhaps with all new movements is the fact that growth inside and increase in volume are the important things. That is growth, true enough, but the tendency is to become muscle-bound and one. is unable to use the skills so necessary. Our present growth requires a great deal of analysis. It may be too fast. Rapid growth does not necessarily mean the best growth. Poplar and willow are not the best kind of woods. Again, all growth has its limits.

Development, on the other hand, is the real play plan. It means the freeing of the individual from the case which envelops him. It is the unfolding gradually by degrees of a finer and. better sort of man and woman. That means we have not increased in size, but rather that we have new forms which are now unknown. It requires the assimilation of the right kind of material and facts, and not merely a great amount. It ought to be more economical as we do it more efficiently. It should be slow enough to be well grounded and strong like oak. It has no limits when properly directed.

PAMPHLETS RECEIVED

Annual Report of Park and Recreation Commissioners of Worcester, 1926

Annual Report of the Milwaukee Municipal Amateur Athletic Association, 1927

Amateur Sports Calendar and Book List-Milwaukee Municipal Amateur Athletic Assn.

Recreation in the City of Yonkers, N. Y.-1927 Report. Pontiac-Division of Recreation-Fifth Annual Report, 1927

Reading, Pa.-Board of Recreation Report, 1927
Report on a Town Plan for Arlington, Mass., 1926
A Model City Charter-Published by the National Mu-

Responsibility of Industry for Recreation*

The section at the Memphis Congress on industrial recreation had three excellent papersby Alfred H. Wyman, Secretary of the Park and Playground Association of St. Louis, C. R. Wood, Director of Recreation at Durham, N. C., and Chester Smith, Director of the Department of Public Recreation, Board of Education, Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Mr. Wyman, whose personal acquaintance with recreation maintained by industry extends back many years, recounted the first informal beginning of industrial sports. This arose naturally from the desire to play, and to have competition in sports. Frequently and quite naturally they took the names of their firms and began to look to the plant manager for a place to play and such financial assistance as they could beg. Managers began to realize the advertising possibilities and charged expenses of this kind to their advertising budget, which was "mistake number one." "Mistake number 2 soon followed in the wake of number 1. The honor of the team should be upheld and in order to uphold it better talent must be hired by the plant, and it was. During the winter men were hired who could play baseball. Surely they worked-some more than others. Mistake number 3 soon cropped out causing considerable discontent and why should it not? Here were two men working at similar jobs, both getting the same money, one doing the work to the best of his ability—the other one- well, he played baseball and was not of course expected to endanger his digits." Professionalism killed this expansion. Meanwhile, however, the problems remained, that of safety within the plant, lost time due to overindulgence and dissipation on the part of some workers, pay day brawls were not uncommon, saloons were numerous and well patronized.

The second revival of athletic activities in industrial plants began about 1917 with more skillful direction and a greater emphasis on mass play and inter-departmental activities. But here, too, competition became stronger and rivalry too aggressive. Industry was again guilty of padding teams with college stars, of part time labor for athletic purposes, of soft jobs, of the employment of "ringers." Thousands of dollars were spent

*Report of section meeting at Recreation Congress, Memphis, Tenn., October 5, 1927.

on equipment and maintenance of hundreds of athletes, who were supplied with everything they needed in the way of equipment and uniforms. with no questions asked about shoes or baseballs or uniforms when lost.

The awakening came in 1921 when industry felt the reaction following the war. Seventy-five percent of the industries promoting recreation and welfare work discontinued these activities or cut them to a minimum. A significant thing is that those who had built their recreation program sanely are still in existence, those who organized their athletic associations on a representative, democratic and "pay as you go" basis,-represent atives of the employed force managing, through committees, the many phases of sports, with membership dues to pay all the bills other than the maintenance of the athletic fields themselves. Dues averaged about 50c a year and were sometimes taken from the workers' pay envelopes at their request. The executive committee, generally consisting of representatives of the different activities and of the different plant departments, managed all the affairs of the association with sub-committees to direct each sport. There are many instances in which these associations used. athletic fields and gymnasiums supplied by the industry and many additional instances in which they used local Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. buildings, school buildings, armories, public parks and playgrounds and other facilities. The associations were often energetic also in securing small plots of play space within the mill yards and in the neighborhoods of the plants for all kinds of volunteer play activities-volley ball, horseshoes, playground ball, hand ball courts, basketball, etc. Frequently picnic kits and athletic material were.

available.

Mr. Wyman summarized his experience in dealing with industrial participation in an athletic recreation program as follows:

1. It is necessary to organize a plant athletic association which is representative of the employees.

2. Membership in the association must be voluntary and the membership a paid one.

3. It is most desirable for the management to employ a recreational director as the position is too large for a part-time worker and the presence

RESPONSIBILITY OF INDUSTRY

of a director insures a more comprehensive program.

4. The organization of efficient committees under a competent chairman is necessary to promote all phases of sports.

5. The recreational needs of a community should also be taken care of. This should include

playgrounds for the children. If playgrounds are already established, the association should identify itself with the municipal recreation department in a cooperative way.

6. The association should promote activities for the masses and eliminate whenever desirable "Varsity" teams.

7. Where championship contests seem necessary, the winners of each league should be taken to play out the championiship contest.

8. Employees should work at least six months before becoming eligible for membership in a league or department team. It is not necessary, therefore, to eliminate him from other competitive games.

9. Through bulletins, reports and newspaper articles, employees, public and management should be kept posted as to past accomplishments and scheduled events still on the calendar.

10. It is most desirable that a corps of efficient athletic umpires and referees, who are not participants or members of the association be retained and paid.

11. It is necessary to supplement the athletic program with social events such as picnics, dancing, Christmas celebrations, stag parties and other social events where the family can participate.

12. Keep athletics amateur. Discourage the hiring of a man because of his athletic ability.

13. It is not necessary, however, to eliminate a good workman who has a trade because of his past participation in professional athletics. He can be of great assistance as a promoter and organizer.

14. Encourage the type of sports that appeal to the older man, such as volley ball, horseshoes, trap shooting, playground ball, etc.

Mr. Wood recounted from his experience, especially in the south, much the same history. He emphasized even more strongly the desirability of industry supporting a community recreation program managed and supported by the tax payers in which industrial workers can find their opportunity, and pointed out how frequently industrial plants had been willing to put at the disposal of public recreation departments the facilities

which they own.

9

He recited the experience of

his own city, Durham, N. C.

"Durham, North Carolina has been noteworthy in this respect. The largest industries of the city have cooperated with the City Recreation Commission in every possible way. The largest manufacturers of hosiery in the south, the Durham Hosiery Mill, has turned over its complete facilities to the city. This layout consists of athletic field, two community buildings and two completely equipped and enclosed playgrounds. The program conducted at this center is for the entire community and not for the constituents of the mill. The Liggett-Myers Company, one of the largest manufacturers of cigarettes in the world, made the last annual community tree possible by erecting a handsome well lighted Christmas tree, speaker's stand and amplifiers for the exercises held at Christmas time. The Pearl Cotton Mill has allowed the Commission the unrestricted use of its grounds and recreation building which had been closed soon after the war. The Durham Cotton Manufacturing Company's park, one of the best equipped of the city, is used for all forms. of community recreation under the direction of city playground leaders. The activities consist of movies, swimming, boxing and wrestling and group and mass games for children and adults."

Mr. Smith, in preparing for his part in the meeting sent letters to a number of industrial executives asking for an expression of opinion concerning the value of recreation as a means of promoting happy contented employees. The following questions were asked:

"Do you believe industrial employees produce more when they are able to find recreation for themselves and families during their leisure hours?

"If proper recreation is a desirable contribution to ideal living conditions for industrial employees, what interest should industry take in bringing about proper recreation facilities in the community?

"I have in mind particularly the advantages of municipal or community recreation for the families of the employed rather than plant recreation for the worker himself.

"What is the responsibility of industry for recreation in the community? How far should such responsibility extend? What action should result from such responsibility?"

The conclusions drawn by Mr. Smith from the answers received are as follows:

« AnteriorContinua »