Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium, Jessie Hubbell Bancroft [best books to read for knowledge txt] 📗
- Author: Jessie Hubbell Bancroft
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There is no agency that can so effectively and naturally develop power of inhibition as games. In those of very little children there are very few, if any, restrictions; but as players grow older, more and more rules and regulations appear, requiring greater and greater self-control—such as not playing out of one's turn; not starting over the line in a race until the proper signal; aiming deliberately with the ball instead of throwing wildly or at haphazard; until again, at the adolescent age, the highly organized team games and contests are reached, with their prescribed modes of play and elaborate restrictions and fouls. There could not be in the experience of either boy or girl a more live opportunity than in these advanced games for acquiring the power of inhibitory control, or a more real experience in which to exercise it. To be able, in the emotional excitement of an intense game or a close contest, to observe rules and regulations; to choose under such circumstances between fair or unfair means and to act on the choice, is to have more than a mere knowledge of right and wrong. It is to have the trained power and habit of acting on such knowledge,—a power and habit that mean immeasurably for character. It is for the need of such balanced power that contests in the business world reach the point of winning at any cost, by fair means or foul. It is for the need of such trained and balanced power of will that our highways of finance are strewn with the wrecks of able men. If the love of fair play, a sense of true moral values, and above all, the power and habit of will to act on these can be developed in our boys and girls, it will mean immeasurably for the uplift of the community.
The natural interests of a normal child lead him to care for different types of games at different periods of his development. In other words, his own powers, in their natural evolution, seek instinctively the elements in play that will contribute to their own growth. When games are studied from this viewpoint of the child's interests, they are found to fall into groups having pronounced characteristics at different age periods.
Thus, the little child of six years enjoys particularly games in which there is much repetition, as in most of the singing games; games involving impersonation, appealing to his imagination and dramatic sense, as where he becomes a mouse, a fox, a sheepfold, a farmer, etc.; or games of simple chase (one chaser for one runner) as distinguished from the group-chasing of a few years later. His games are of short duration, reaching their climax quickly and making but slight demand on powers of attention and physical endurance; they require but little skill and have very few, if any, rules, besides the mere question of "taking turns." In short, they are the games suited to undeveloped powers in almost every particular but that of imagination.
Two or three years later these games are apt to seem "babyish" to a child and to lose interest for him. His games then work through a longer evolution before reaching their climax, as where an entire group of players instead of one has to be caught before the game is won, as in Red Lion, Pom Pom Pullaway, etc. He can watch more points of interest at once than formerly, and choose between several different possible modes of play, as in Prisoners' Base. He gives "dares," runs risks of being caught, and exercises his courage in many ways. He uses individual initiative instead of merely playing in his turn. This is the age of "nominies," in which the individual player hurls defiance at his opponents with set formulas, usually in rhyme. Players at this time band together in many of their games in opposing groups, "choosing sides"—the first simple beginning of team play. Neuro-muscular skill increases, as shown in ball play and in agile dodging. Endurance for running is greater.
When a child is about eleven or twelve years of age, some of these characteristics decline and others equally pronounced take their place. "Nominies" disappear and games of simple chase (tag games) decline in interest. Races and other competitive forms of running become more strenuous, indicating a laudable instinct to increase thereby the muscular power of the heart, at a time when its growth is much greater proportionately than that of the arteries, and the blood pressure is consequently greater. A very marked feature from now on is the closer organization of groups into what is called team play. Team play bears to the simpler group play which precedes it an analogous relation in some respects to that between modern and primitive warfare. In primitive warfare the action of the participants was homogeneous; that is, each combatant performed the same kind of service as did every other combatant and largely on individual initiative. The "clash of battle and the clang of arms" meant an individual contest for every man engaged. In contrast to this there is, in modern warfare, a distribution of functions, some combatants performing one kind of duty and others another, all working together to the common end. In the higher team organizations of Basket Ball, Baseball, Football, there is such a distribution of functions, some players being forwards, some throwers, some guards, etc., though these parts are often taken in rotation by the different players. The strongest characteristic of team play is the coöperation whereby, for instance, a ball is passed to the best thrower, or the player having the most advantageous position for making a goal. A player who would gain glory for himself by making a sensational play at the risk of losing for his team does not possess the team spirit. The traits of character required and cultivated by good team work are invaluable in business and social life. They are among the best possible traits of character. This class of games makes maximal demands upon perceptive powers and ability to react quickly and accurately upon rapidly shifting conditions, requiring quick reasoning and judgment. Organization play of this sort begins to acquire a decided interest at about eleven or twelve years of age, reaches a strong development in the high schools, and continues through college and adult life.
Such are the main characteristics of the games which interest a child and aid his development at different periods. They are all based upon a natural evolution of physical and psychological powers that can be only hinted at in so brief a sketch. Any one charged with the education or training of a child should know the results of modern study in these particulars.
The fullest and most practical correlation of our knowledge of the child's evolution to the particular subject of play that has yet been presented is that of Mr. George E. Johnson, Superintendent of Playgrounds in Pittsburgh, and formerly Superintendent of Schools in Andover, Mass., in Education by Plays and Games. The wonderful studies in the psychology of play by Karl Groos (The Play of Animals and The Play of Man), and the chapter by Professor William James on Instinct, show how play activities are expressions of great basic instincts that are among the strongest threads in the warp and woof of character—instincts that should have opportunity to grow and strengthen by exercise, as in play and games. We have come to realize that play, in games and other forms, is nature's own way of developing and training power. As Groos impressively says, "We do not play because we are young; we have a period of youth so that we may play."
The entire psychology of play bears directly on the subject of games. Indeed, although the study of games in their various aspects is of comparatively recent date, the bibliography bearing on the subject, historic, scientific, psychologic, and educational, is enormous and demands a distinct scholarship of its own.
It is highly desirable that a teacher should know the significance of certain manifestations in a child's play interests. If they should not appear in due time, they should be encouraged, just as attention is given to the hygiene of a child who is under weight for his age. But it should not be inferred that any hard and fast age limits may be set for the use of different plays and games. To assign such limits would be a wholly artificial procedure, and yet is one toward which there is sometimes too strong a tendency. A certain game cannot be prescribed for a certain age as one would diagnose and prescribe for a malady. Nothing in the life of either child or adult is more elastic than his play interests. Play would not be play were this otherwise. The caprice of mood and circumstance is of the very soul of play in any of its forms.
The experience of the writer has been chiefly away from dogmatic limitations in the use of games. Very young players and adults alike may find the greatest pleasure and interest in the same game. Previous training or experience, conditions of fatigue, the circumstances of the moment, and many other considerations determine the suitableness of games. To illustrate, the author has known the game of Three Deep, which is one of the best gymnasium games for men, to be played with great interest and ability by a class of six-year-old boys; and the same game stupidly and uninterestedly bungled over by a class of much older boys who had not had previous training in games and were not alert and resourceful. Similarly, the comparatively simple game of Bombardment may be interesting and refreshing for a class of tired business men, while high-school pupils coming to care largely for team play may prefer Battle Ball, a more closely organized game of the same type. In general, boys and girls dislike the mode of play they have just outgrown, but the adult often comes again to find the greatest pleasure in the simpler forms, and this without reaching second childhood.
The index of games for elementary and high schools contained in this volume constitutes a graded course based on experimental study of children's interests. This grading of the games for schools is made, not with the slightest belief or intention that the use of a game should be confined to any particular grade or age of pupils, but largely, among other considerations, because it has been found advantageous in a school course to have new material in reserve as pupils progress. The games have usually been listed for the earliest grade in which they have been found, on the average, of sufficient interest to be well played, with the intention that they be used thereafter in any grade where they prove interesting. This school index by grades, which includes most of the games, will be found a general guide for the age at which a given game is suitable under any circumstances.
The relation of games to a school programme is many-sided. To sit for a
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