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 Teacher's Leaflet No. 7. April, 1920. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 
 
 BUREAU OF EDUCATION, 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 Those who have been the most profound students of education and who have 
 at the same time known best and sympathized most with children and youth 
 and have had a broad vision of life have understood best the value of play 
 as a factor in education. In all countries the best schools for adolescent boys 
 and girls have embodied free play and games as an important part of their 
 programs. Through such plays and games all the powers of youth can be most 
 freely cultivated and the spirit of youth most abundantly continued through 
 the years of adult manhood and womanhood. There is in this country special 
 need for recreation and educational plays in the rural schools. To assist toward 
 the introduction of such plays in these schools, I am transmitting herewith for 
 
 iblication as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education a report on " Recreation 
 
 id Rural Health," recently made to the second national country life con- 
 ference by Mr. E. C. Lindeman, chairman of the conference committee on 
 
 creation and rural health. 
 
 P. P. Claxton, 
 
 Commissioner. 
 
 RECREATION AND RURAL HEALTH. 
 
 Recreation is the positive phase of the health program. It is 
 nature's preventive medicine. While it is evident that all ill-health 
 is not due to a lack of recreation, it is equally evident that a proper 
 regimen of play and recreation tends strongly to prevent physical 
 degeneration. Any leisure-time activity which is pursued without 
 expectation of pecuniary reward may be called recreation. Play is 
 a generic term which embraces recreation but is much more compre- 
 hensive. Play is a positive, constructive term connoting zestful ac- 
 tivity ; it promotes not merely the prolonging of life but the fullness 
 of life. This introductory distinction is made because of the tendency 
 to use these terms interchangeably. 
 
 The task of this committee is to discover the relationship between 
 recreation and health in so far as this relationship concerns the 
 population of the open country. We have approached this task frorh 
 the constructive viewpoint. We are not unmindful of the great 
 amount of work which still remains to be done in eliminating those 
 forms of recreation which are negative in their influence. The 
 
 . 175107°— 20 
 
 Monogram 
 
count v fair, which has rural reasons for its existence, still affronts 
 its rural patronage with cheap shows and gambling devices. The 
 street carnival, with its "fakes'' and its questionable exhibitions, 
 still serves as the first introduction which many country boys and 
 girls have to commercialized recreation. The dance hall, operated 
 in the nearby towns and cities and operated for "revenue only," 
 receives its full quota of patronage from the country boys and girls. 
 Motion pictures which can not run the gauntlet of city censorship 
 may be shown with impunity in small towns. These, and other forms 
 of recreation of a negative sort, have secured a powerful grip upon 
 the life of the open country, and especially upon the life of its young 
 men and women; consequently they impair the health of the rural 
 population. For, health implies more than physical efficiency. A 
 healthy body is a worthy ideal, but without a discerning intellect 
 it may become the enemy of real progress. One may even combine 
 physical fitness with mental alertness and still produce a citizenship 
 unworthy of the duties and privileges of a democracy. These at- 
 tributes may become the sharpened tools of the one who uses them 
 to exploit his fellow man more successfully. Social harmony and 
 spiritual idealism must accompany our health program if it is not 
 to defeat its own ends. 
 
 The committee has also approached its problem in the scientific 
 spirit in spite of the fact that it found itself confronted with in- 
 numerable questions for which the data of science offered no satis- 
 factory answers. The questions which the committee has studied are 
 as follows : 
 
 I. — What elements or phases of bodily growth, mental alertness, or 
 neuromuscular coordination are neglected, receive least attention, 
 or are perverted in the ordinary regimen of country life? 
 
 This is considered to be a primary question. As a part of the 
 health program recreation must be based upon a sure knowledge 
 of what it is to correct and prevent as well as what it is to create. 
 This fundamental question raises the following corollary questions: 
 
 1. Do farm work and farm life in general promote symmetrical 
 bodily growth? 
 
 2. Does farm work tend to overdevelop certain organs, muscles, 
 or functions at the expense of others ? 
 
 3. Is mental alertness sacrificed through the demands of farm 
 labor ? 
 
 4. Does farm work tend to neglect the development of those 
 neuromuscular coordinations which make possible decisive action, 
 enthusiastic response, optimism? 
 
 lut j-n 1929 
 

 
 These questions and a score of others which are directly involved 
 can be answered only by the specialists. This committee can do 
 little more than suggest them, in the hope that after they are thrown 
 into relief they will receive attention, interest, and study. No con- 
 clusions upon which an adequate and constructive recreation pro- 
 gram may be built will have value or safety until these questions 
 have been studied by the physiologist, the psychologist, and the 
 nerve specialist. The conclusions here offered are not based upon 
 adequate statistics or research. They are offered as a starting point 
 for a discussion which it is hoped will be fruitful. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 1. Notwithstanding the fact that farm work provides for an 
 abundance of physical exercise in the open air, observation seems 
 to indicate that : 
 
 (a) Farm boys and girls do not develop symmetrically. 
 
 (b) The work of the farm seems to overdevelop the major or 
 fundamental muscles, while the finer or accessory muscles are 
 neglected. 
 
 (c) Farm life in general does not produce a degree of mental 
 alertness and neuromuscular coordination essential to an enthusi- 
 astic and optimistic outlook on life. 
 
 (d) Observations with farm-reared young men seem to indicate 
 that the foregoing conclusions are at least partially correct because 
 of the relatively more rapid approach of fatigue when placed on 
 a comparative basis with young men of the cities. 
 
 These conclusions are based upon observations such as the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 (a) Farm-reared young men in the Army camps were slower to re- 
 spond to the stimuli of play. 
 
 (6) Farm-reared young men reached the stage of fatigue sooner 
 than city-reared young men in forms of activity requiring the action 
 of the whole body. 
 
 (c) City-reared young men usually excelled at games involving 
 mental alertness. 
 
 (d) Farm-reared girls lack the ability to execute properly the ac- 
 tions necessary in such games as involve the free use of the whole 
 body. 
 
 2. The second conclusion, which is based upon the foregoing, is 
 this : Since nonsymmetrical bodily development is one of the primary 
 conditions of ill-health, the entire question of rural recreation and 
 its relation to health becomes pertinent at the point of determining 
 
the exact nature of the malformation and of providing leisure-time 
 correctives. 1 
 
 II. — What forms of recreation are best adapted for the purpose of 
 acting as a corrective and a preventive for the nomt/ntmetrieal 
 development which appears to result from farm labor and farm 
 life ? 
 
 Obviously this question lias no validity unless it is admitted that the 
 conclusions stated are in a measure correct. Because the committee 
 does believe these conclusions to be, at least in part, correct, it raises 
 this question. If there is something inherent in the vocation of farm- 
 ing which tends toward unsymmetrical bodily growth, then it must 
 be possible to supplement the ordinary regimen of farm life with 
 recreational activities which will offset this deficiency.. In the absence 
 of extended research and reliable data we must base our conclusions 
 upon reasoning and observation. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 1. Since farm boys and girls do not appear to be lacking in size or in 
 weight, and since the apparent malformations seem to be due to an 
 overdevelopment of certain of the major muscles at the expense of 
 the finer muscles, it seems logical to conclude that the following types 
 of recreation are needed : 
 
 (a) Games which involve the free use of the entire body. 
 
 (b) Games which require precision of action. 
 
 (c) Games employing the expression of the rhythmic instinct. 
 
 2. From the psychophysiological point of view it seems also logi- 
 cal that games of the following nature are needed : 
 
 (a) Games which involve cooperative action. 
 
 (b) Games which involve attention, or the use of the higher nerve 
 centers. 
 
 (c) Games which are mentally exhilarating. 
 
 The last conclusion deserves further emphasis. If the ordinary 
 routine of farm life produces a certain mental somberness, it is 
 patent that the recreational life of the country should be active and 
 not passive; it should be not only physically energizing but joy 
 producing. In a very large sense the rural population await in the 
 interest of the satisfaction of their social natures just this type of 
 recreative activity. Group games, organized athletics, folk dancing, 
 community singing — these must be introduced into the life of the 
 open country as a preliminary to an understanding of the distinction 
 between exercise and play. 
 
 1 See paper by Dr. Oscar Dowling, " The Nature of the More Important Rural Physical 
 Handicaps." 
 
III. — Are there certain forms of highly-specialized farm labor which 
 are deleterious to health, and in what manner may recreation act as 
 a corrective ? 
 
 This question is raised in relation to such farm occupations as 
 cotton picking, onion and sugar-beet weeding, and other forms of 
 seasonal agricultural labor which require a difficult and unnatural 
 posture and demand almost the same degree of monotonous attention 
 as that of simple machine labor of industry. 
 
 This is in reality a question of farm labor rather than of recrea- 
 tion. It may also be argued that the number of persons affected by 
 this type of labor is too small to receive national attention. However, 
 if democracy is our goal, we dare not neglect any element of our popu- 
 lation. If this type of occupation is inherently connected with the 
 necessary crop and if men and women and boys and girls must be 
 utilized, there must be some manner in which the attendant evils 
 may be overcome or minimized. If the crop is necessary, then the 
 proper development of those who produce it is more important. 
 This committee believe that in the sphere of recreation there is a dis- 
 tinct hope for ameliorating the results of this type of farm labor. 
 
 The analogous evils of industry are combated with a program for 
 shorter hours, more pay, better working conditions, and a minimum 
 working age. This is the negative phase of the problem. We must 
 do more than recognize and minimize evils ; we must correct them if 
 ever we are to do more than lip-homage to democracy. In the in- 
 terest of national health we must act upon the faith that the persons 
 who produce our goods are more important than the goods. Or- 
 ganized industry is approaching this problem with the introduction 
 of rest rooms, recreation rooms, recreation directors, etc. Agricul- 
 ture must also provide adequately for recreational relief and physical 
 correctives for its specialized occupations if we are to build and 
 conserve the vigor of our rural population. It is the neglected ele- 
 ments of a civilization which always wreck it. Any population or 
 element of a population in which the suppressed desires exceed the 
 normal expressions is dangerous. And play is one of the funda- 
 mental human desires or instincts. 
 
 IV. — What agencies are now at toorh in the field of rural recreation, 
 and what agencies have proposed programs of rural recreation 
 with an avoioed health motive? 
 
 In seeking an answer to this question the investigator is impressed 
 with two characteristics of the rural recreation movement. First, 
 the relationship between recreation programs and the health objec- 
 tive seems to be almost negligible. Second, most agencies dealing 
 
6 
 
 with recreation programs in rural fields use recreation as a super- 
 ficial appeal or as an incidental part of a general institution program. 
 There are, however, a number of agencies of national character 
 which either have definite health-recreation programs or are con- 
 templating such programs. Those which have come to the attention 
 of this committee are: 
 
 1. The United States Public Health Service. This agency is con- 
 ducting a nation-vide campaign in the interest of sex education. Its 
 " Keeping Fit " campaign has already reached a high degree of effec- 
 tiveness. This campaign definitely implies a health motive for 
 recreational activities. Its illustrative charts are widely used; a 
 wider use of these charts in rural schools and churches is urged. The 
 committee has been advised that this agency is now planning to carry 
 this program to the rural districts more effectively. 
 
 2. The National Child Labor Committee, which has rendered signal 
 service through its research work in child labor, has definite plans 
 for the future which will be of intense interest to the rural 'field. This 
 agency is now planning studies which will reveal the relationship 
 between farm labor and health ; these studies will of necessity involve 
 considerations of recreation. A letter from one of the officials of 
 this agency clearly sets forth its purpose. The following paragraph 
 is from a letter written by Mr. Raymond G. Fuller : 
 
 It is an astonishing fact that there exist no scientific data on the effect of 
 child labor on health. We know that premature labor or too hard labor under 
 bad conditions is physically harmful to the child, but the effects have never 
 been measured. The modern studies of fatigue have had to do with adults and 
 not with children. Our committee hopes to do something or to get something 
 done that will give us the data we lack. I have been planning to spend a large 
 part of the winter in study and research in the subject of recreation, including 
 a large amount of field investigation. Following up some psychological studies 
 made several years ago, I am seeking, among other things, to work out for pub- 
 licity purposes as complete as possible a ■statement of tho child-labor evil iu 
 terms of the nature of childhood, in terms of the instincts and their expression 
 or repression. Of course, the psychological statement of the child-labor evil in- 
 volves the psychology of play. 
 
 3. The Boy Scouts of America have always promoted pltysieai 
 activities as an integral part of their general program. The health 
 objective is stressed in their manuals and in their educational pro- 
 grams. This agency is now contemplating a wide extension of its 
 work in the rural field. 
 
 4. The country work department of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association has promoted health as a part of its fourfold program 
 for the boys and young men. Its organized groups carry on recrea- 
 tional activities, study health problems, invite speakers on sex educa- 
 tion, and in various other ways correlate recreation with health. 
 
5. The national board of the Young Women's Christian Associa- 
 tion includes health and recreation in its educational program. It 
 is now carrying on a study of typical rural communities for the pur- 
 pose of expanding this program through its town and country de- 
 partment. It has already held successful health conferences and has 
 distributed health literature which has reached the rural sections. 
 The significant feature of the program of this agency is that it seeks 
 to reach the farm woman and the farm girl — elements of the rural 
 population which have been hitherto sorely neglected. 
 - 6. Various boards of home missions are calling the churches to an 
 awakening of their responsibilities toward the problem of rural 
 health and recreation. In some cases programs of study and activ- 
 ities covering an entire year are urged. Notable in this connection is 
 the nation-wide conference held during the past summer under the- 
 auspices of the Methodist Board of Home Missions. This confer- 
 ence was attended by more than 1,000 rural ministers, who returned 
 to their charges pledged to the execution of this enlarged community 
 task, which includes health and recreation. 
 
 The opportunity of influencing the play life of the country is still 
 open to the religious agencies. The erroneous attitude of inhibition 
 and repression has already hampered the usefulness of the church 
 as a social agency. In so far as the laboring elements of the manu- 
 facturing centers are concerned, the church appears to have sacrificed 
 this opportunity. It is urged that the encouraging steps now being 
 taken by rural churches receive the indorsement and the support of 
 all social Avorkers interested in rural life. 
 
 7. The junior department of the American Red Cross has plans for 
 stimulating a positive health program for rural communities. In 
 some cases this program will undoubtedly embrace recreation as well. 
 
 8. The boys' and girls' clubs, organized and conducted under the 
 direction of the United States Department of Agriculture and the 
 various State colleges of agriculture, have always emphasized health 
 as well as recreation. The 4-H basis of their program includes 
 education of the head, the hand, the heart, and the health. 
 
 9. The community councils, in their proposed extension to the 
 rural field, are contemplating the promotion of health and recrea- 
 ation as distinct community functions. 
 
 10. Community Service (Inc.) has outlined a program of or- 
 ganization which contemplates the organization of rural counties. 
 Since this organization is the direct outgrowth of War Camp Com- 
 munity Service, which was, in turn, the war-time adaptation of the 
 Playground and Recreation Association of America, it may be ex- 
 pected that its program will be specifically a recreational one. The 
 
8 
 
 Playground and Recreation Association of America had already laid 
 plans and had conducted experimental demonstrations of both equip- 
 ment and nonequipment types of recreation for small town and rural 
 communities. 
 
 11. The National Physical Education Service is a branch of the 
 Playground and Recreation Association of America. It is a new 
 service which aims to promote State legislation for physical educa- 
 tion in an aggressive manner. It has brought about a cooperative 
 arrangement with such agencies as the following: The Athletic Re- 
 search Society; the Society of Physical Directors of Colleges; the 
 American Physical Education Association; the National College 
 Athletic Association; the Society of Physical Directors of Normal 
 Schools, etc. 
 
 12. Official agencies within the various States are at work on both 
 the problems of rural recreation and rural health. Fourteen States 
 now have State-wide physical education laws, which in some cases 
 carry compulsory sections for rural schools. The State departments 
 of public health, the State departments of public instruction, the 
 State normal schools — these official agencies await the creation of 
 public sentiment for the completion of their task in this field. The 
 regrettable fact of State legislation for physical education is the 
 almost general neglect to make these enactments effective in the 
 rural sections. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 The brief study which the committee has been able to make of the 
 agencies named leads to the following conclusions : 
 
 1. The number of agencies at work on the problem is sufficient. 
 What is needed is effectiveness, correlation, and extension. 
 
 2. Before any of the agencies can perform its full task a large 
 amount of research Avork is needed; we must have accurate data upon 
 which to build a permanent and constructive health-recreation pro- 
 gram. 
 
 3. The agencies should beware of the danger of jeopardizing the 
 entire movement by duplication of effort. 
 
 4. All the private and semiofficial agencies should cooperate in 
 assisting the official agencies, which alone can produce general results 
 on a permanent basis. 
 
 5. The committee urges general support of those agencies which 
 are making research studies. The real impetus of the movement 
 awaits these preliminary studies. 
 
9 
 
 y. — What constitutes a minimum standard requirement of play and 
 recreation for country school children with the view of maintaining 
 an efficient standard of mental and physical health? 
 
 The committee does not presume to be able to give a satisfactory- 
 answer to this question. It does believe, however, that the question 
 deserves an answer in order to facilitate the work of the interested 
 agencies and in order to offset the occasional, the hit-or-miss types 
 of recreation which are all too prevalent in rural schools. No recrea- 
 tional authorities will agree on an exact minimum requirement, and, 
 of course, the requirements must vary in different communities. 
 What the committee is here attempting to do is to bring together the 
 various standards which have been put forth with a view to the 
 promotion of discussion and experimentation. 
 
 1. Every normal boy and girl in a rural school should be required 
 to take a physical efficiency test ; this test to be repeated at the various 
 age periods. The results of this test should be tabulated in the office 
 of the supervising agency of the county or district. In States where 
 physical education laws are effective this information should also be 
 on file in the office of the State supervising agency. Without this data 
 we can never be sure of the progressive or retrogressive tendency of 
 physical well-being. 
 
 (a) The physical efficiency test offers a splendid opportunity for 
 the correlation of health and recreation programs. 
 
 (b) The physical efficiency test should be preceded or followed by 
 a thorough medical examination. 
 
 (c) In addition to the physical efficiency tests there should also be 
 established certain physical standards for the various ages of boys 
 and girls ; ideals toward which the individuals and the school group 
 strive. 
 
 2. All normal boys and girls of every rural school should have 15 
 minutes of organized and supervised play (out of doors, if possible) 
 every day. This implies that the teacher has been trained to super vis j 
 play and that she shall take part in these play periods. 
 
 3. From the fourth grade and upward every pupil should have the 
 opportunity of engaging in organized group games or athletics on a 
 competitive basis. 
 
 4. In schools where organized group games or athletics on the 
 grade or class basis are impracticable because of small attendance, 
 such play opportunities should be arranged on an inter-class plan. 
 
 5. Two periods each day should be devoted to " setting-up " exer- 
 cises. This requirement is not urged on the basis of physical exer- 
 cise, but on the basis of relieving mental fatigue. Such exercises 
 must be very simple and may even take the form of quiet games. 
 Each period may be short, beginning with a 1-minute period for 
 
10 
 
 the first graders and extending to 10 minutes for the older pupils. 
 This period should be used also for securing a complete change of air 
 for the schoolroom. 
 
 VI. — What are the requin merits for a good game for the rural 
 community? 
 
 This question has been discussed from the broad standpoint of all 
 forms of recreation under Question II. It is here discussed from the 
 standpoint of one phase of recreation, namely, games. To the casual 
 observer this question will appear to have but slight significance. It 
 will be asked. Why should there be any distinction between games 
 for city children and country children ? Those who insist that there 
 should be no such distinction base their philosophy of play on the 
 inflexible and erroneous interpretation of the human instincts. If 
 modern psychology has taught us anything at all of value, it ap- 
 pears to be that instincts are not inflexible, that they may secure ex- 
 pression in at least three or four ways instead of one, and finally 
 that the expression which the instinct secures is almost entirely de- 
 pendent upon the environment. One kind of environment permits 
 the free expression of certain of the fundamental instincts while 
 another totally represses these same instincts. It is on the basis of 
 environmental and vocational psychology that the following require- 
 ments for a good game for the open country are presented : 
 
 1. A good game for the open country is one which is safe to health. 
 Some games which may be played with impunity on the floor of a 
 well-ventilated gymnasium where bathing facilities are also provided 
 are absolutely dangerous to health when played under the condi- 
 tions prevalent in the country. 
 
 2. A good game for the open country is one in which small as 
 well as large numbers may participate. Under urban conditions 
 it is comparatively easy to promote games which involve large num- 
 bers. The natural groups are larger. In the country the numbers 
 are not always available. Children who must attend country schools 
 with enrollments as low as 10 to 15 pupils have as much right to play 
 as children avIio attend city schools or consolidated schools. When 
 the children of the country gather for township or county play 
 festivals they should be prepared to play games which involve large 
 numbers. A careful selection of games for the rural school will 
 reveal the fact that there are many games which comply with this 
 requirement. More of such games — games which may be played 
 enthusiastically by small and large groups — are needed, and it is 
 hoped that the mere statement of this requirement will accelerate 
 their origination. 
 
 3. A good game for the open country is one which may be played 
 by both young and old. This requirement does not preclude such 
 
11 
 
 games as belong peculiarly to youth, but it aims to acid to the re- 
 pertoire a number of such games as may continue in use beyond the 
 period of youth. Rural recreation differs from urban recreation in 
 that there are fewer opportunities of " buying " one's recreation 
 in the country. It differs also in the fact that the rural family is 
 still honiogeneousty related in its recreational activities. A rural 
 playday is a family affair. A country picnic is a family affair. 
 The interest in community recreation will be greatly heightened 
 when the school promotes forms of recreation which may be utilized 
 by the entire family— old as well as young. 
 
 4. A good game for the open country is one which may be played 
 by both sexes. The reasons for this requirement have already been 
 stated, namely, the scarcity of numbers in many rural schools and 
 the family nature of rural recreation occasions. Altogether too many 
 of our games make their appeal only to one-half of the population, 
 the boys and the men. In rural communities, where recreation must 
 be democratic if it is to become an integral part of community ex- 
 pression, it is essential that we provide a large number of games which 
 are suitable for women and girls as well as for men and boys. 
 
 '5. A good game for the open country is one which requires a mini- 
 mum of equipment. The luxuriously equipped gymnasiums belong 
 peculiarl} 7 to the city. Aside from the obvious fact that the country 
 does not possess the, surplus wealth to build and maintain such insti- 
 tutions, there is the psychological value of nonequipment games. 
 The mind is brought into action in play in proportion as we diminish 
 the use of paraphernalia and increase the use of the body, including 
 the nervous system. 
 
 6. A good game for the open country is one which emphasizes the 
 instinct of cooperation. So much of the ordinary life of the coun- 
 try is conducted on the basis of individual action that it is essential 
 to provide recreational activities which promote the ** team spirit." 
 This requirement does not suggest the elimination of such games as 
 are necessary to develop individual initiative and action; it merely 
 urges that these forms of recreation be supplemented with those of 
 a cooperative nature. 
 
 ?. A good game for the open country is one which grows out of 
 the life of the people in conjunction with the community environ- 
 ment. Games, in order to have their fullest influence in the spheres 
 of physical, mental, and social health, should be more or less indige- 
 nous. The test of a good game is this : Will the community con- 
 tinue to play it after the outside stimulus is removed? Has it 
 enough in common with the life of the community to be incorpo- 
 rated into that common life? So much of attempted rural recrea- 
 tion is feeble and temporary because it is grafted from the superficial 
 recreation or amusement of the city ; it has no indigenous relation- 
 
12 
 
 ship to the rural community and its life. Rural recreation, which 
 is merely a cheap imitation of city recreation, can not grip the lives 
 of rural people in a fundamental way. Curiously enough, when this 
 viewpoint is put forth it is always combated by those who insist 
 that the country and the city must be brought together, and that 
 this viewpoint hinders that process. There is no thought here of 
 making it less convenient for the rural populations to come into 
 contact with the best in city life, but that best does not lie in the 
 common forms of city recreation. What we are here presenting is 
 the view that the country has within its own life the necessary 
 resources for producing its own types of recreation. If this is not 
 true, then country life will continue to become more and more a 
 mere supplement to city life. It is chiefly at two points that this 
 process has received its most decided impetus — the points of eco- 
 nomic supremacy and of apparent recreational superiority. A 
 constructive program for making country life satisfying and rep- 
 resentative may w T ell begin at this simple point of creating an 
 indigenous recreation. 
 
 In addition to the suggestions and conclusions presented in the 
 foregoing sections of this report, the committee desires to emphasize 
 the following considerations : 
 
 First. Recreation has physical, mental, social, ethical, and spiritual 
 implications. Those w T ho use recreation as a mere part of an insti- 
 tutional program, or, w T orse still, as a mere gateway to the attention 
 of the rural community, should keep this always in mind. This does 
 not mean that only those agencies which are dealing specifically with 
 the recreational phases of life shall promote recreation. We may 
 all promote recreation, but we must all be careful that the good 
 which we do shall not be the enemy of the best. 
 
 Second. Heretofore recreation in so far as it concerns the rural 
 population has been left almost entirely in the hands of nonofficial 
 agencies. No worthy gains of a permanent nature will be made 
 until all rural leaders and all rural agencies pool their efforts in the 
 demand for officially recognized recreation as an essential to the 
 public w<elfare. When this is accomplished there will still be room 
 for the other agencies and there will still be needed the refreshing 
 and the revivifying influence of agencies which are not subject to the 
 effects which usually result from State-controlled activities. 
 
 Third. We must become conscious of the full implications of play, 
 and we must make this consciousness general. Play is not merely a 
 leisure-time activity; it is not merely an excrescence of modern civili- 
 zation. In fact, spontaneous play and song disappeared when 
 modern civilization came under the sway of machine industry. The 
 rural populations have not yet felt the full deteriorating effects, the 
 nervous disintegration, and the consequent reproductive limitations 
 
13 
 
 of the industrial revolution. The numerical preponderance of popu- 
 lation is inevitably toward the city. The country is. however, still 
 the seed bed of our population, which still must furnish the leader- 
 ship for both country and city. We still have time to orient the life 
 of the open country to those processes which promote straight think- 
 ing, wholesome living, and social harmony. We may still look for- 
 ward hopefully to a countryside which shall be joyous as well as 
 productive, socially cooperative and optimistic as well as economically 
 satisfying. With this vision, play and the playground become not 
 merely the centers for training for physical perfection, but rather 
 the nucleii for making habitual and natural those social virtues of 
 team play, loyalty, obedience to the rules — virtues upon which our 
 future depends. In this light the playground may become the veri- 
 table laboratory of democracy. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 The Recreation Association of America, 1 Madison Avenue, New 
 York City, will furnish information regarding books and pamphlets 
 on play and recreation. For the community leader who is not a 
 specialist in recreation the following selected books and pamphlets 
 will prove sufficient for general recreation programs: 
 
 Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gymnasium. By Jessie H. 
 
 Bancroft. New York, Maemillan Co. 
 Social Games and Group Dances. By J. C. Elsom and Blanche M. Trilling. 
 
 Philadelphia, Lippincott Co. 
 Ice Breakers. By Edna Geister. New York City, The Woman's Press, 600 
 
 Lexington Avenue. 
 Community Recreation. By George A. Draper. New York, National "War 
 
 Work Council of the Young Men's Christian Association, 347 Madison 
 
 Avenue. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 THIRTY SELECTED GAMES. 
 
 Enthusiasm for play programs is often lost because of initial fail- 
 ures. Frequently these failures are due to a poor selection of games 
 for the particular occasion or the particular group. The following 
 selection of 30 games is one that has grown out of a wide experience 
 in rural recreation. These games have been found to be almost 
 universally successful. Of course, a play leader should have a much 
 broader repertoire of games than is here indicated. This list should 
 serve merely as the point of departure for the play program. 
 
14 
 
 In the body of this report the requirements for a good game were 
 enumerated as follows: (1) Safe to health; (2) adaptable to small 
 as well as large numbers (10 is regarded as the minimum number of 
 players) ; (3) adaptable to young as well as old; (4) adaptable to 
 both sexes; (5) requiring minimum equipment; (G) requiring co- 
 operative activity. 
 
 The seventh requirement is here omitted because of its theoretical 
 character. The numerals following the name of each game indicate 
 the requirements which are met by the particular game. Inasmuch 
 as Bancroft's " Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gym- 
 nasium " is the most commonly used text on games, the references for 
 directions are to the pages of this book : 
 
 Name of game- Requirements met. Reference. 
 
 1. Head and Tail Tag (black and white) 1,2,3,4,5 p. 52. 
 
 2. Straddle Ball: 
 
 (a) Line formation 1, 2, 3, 5 p. 407. 
 
 (b) Circle formation 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 p. 358. 
 
 3. Three Deep 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 p. 196. 
 
 4. Squirrel in Trees 1, 3, 4, 5 p. 185. 
 
 5. Numbers Change 1, 2, 3. 4, 5 p. 139. 
 
 G. Dodgeball 1, 2, 3. 4, 5, p. 363. 
 
 7. Circle Dodgeball (Progressive) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 p. 364. 
 
 8. Circle Relay (Spoke Relay) 1,3,4,5,6 p. 70. 
 
 9. Circle Relay (with zig-zag or leap-frog 
 
 variations) 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 
 
 10. Japanese Crab Race (man, monkey, crab 
 
 variations) 1, 3, 5, 6 p. 115. 
 
 11. Pinco-0 1, 3, 5 p. 146. 
 
 12. Overhead Relay 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 p. 424. 
 
 13. Over and under Relay 1, 3, 5, 6 p. 392. 
 
 14. Shuttle Relay 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 p. 173. 
 
 15. Zig Zag Relay 1, 3. 4, 5. 6 
 
 16. All Up Relay 1,2,3,4,5,6 p. 45. 
 
 17. Volley Ball 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 p. 413. 
 
 IS. Hill Dill 1, 3, 4, 5 p. 105. 
 
 19. " I Say Stoop " (O'Grady Says) 1, 2. 3, 4, 5 p. 113. 
 
 20. "Looby Loo" (folk dance) __ 1,2,3,4,5 p. 280. 
 
 21. "Fanner in the Dell" (folk dance) 1,2,3.4,5 p. 265. 
 
 22. Partner Tag _ 1,3,4,5 
 
 23. Triple Tag 1, 3, 4, 5 
 
 24. Oyster Cracker Relay (indoors) 1,2,3,4,5,6 
 
 25. Water Glass ; Relay (indoors) 1,2,3,4,5,6 
 
 26. Apple Basket Relay 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 
 
 27. Potato Relay 1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 
 
 28. Potato Paring Contest (teams) 1,2,3,4,5,6 
 
 29. Corn Stringing Contest (teams) 1,2,3,4,5,6 
 
 30. Skip The Rope Relay 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 
 
 WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1920 
 
iiiiii I ir RftRY 0F C0NGRESS 
 
 021 496 978 6 # 
 

 
 LIBRARY OF CONC 
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 Hollinger Corp. 
 P H8.5 
 
\ 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 021 496 978 6 
 
 Hollinger Corp. 
 P H8.5