Children of the rich]

It would be a mistake to think that the children of the poor are the
only ones who need the physical and moral benefit of normal childish
play. One is forced to the conclusion that many children of the rich
are even more to be pitied, for the shackles of conventionality
enslave them from the outset. Many are _blase_ with opera and picture
exhibits--typical forms of pleasure for the adult of advanced
culture--without ever having had the free laughter and frolic of
childhood. That part of the growing-up process most essential for
character is literally expunged from life for them. One need spend but
an hour in a city park to see that many children are restrained from
the slightest running or frolic because it would soil their clothes or
be otherwise "undesirable." The author recalls a private school for
girls in which laughter was checked at recess because it was
"unlady-like."

[Sidenote: Teachers of games]

In contrast to this barbarous repression are some delightful instances
of provision for normal childish play and exercise for such children.
In one of our large Eastern cities a teacher was employed for several
seasons to play games with a group of children on a suburban lawn to
which all repaired twice a week. This was genuine play, full of
exercise and sport and laughter. In another Eastern city a teacher was
similarly employed for many seasons to coach a Basket Ball team in the
small rear area of the typical city residence. Teachers of physical
training and others are doing much to organize this sort of exercise,
including tramping clubs and teams for cross-country runs, and the
encouragement of Tether Ball and other games suited to limited
conditions.

[Sidenote: Investment-value of recreation]

As a nation we are slow to learn the value of recreation. We go to the
extremes of using it either not at all or so excessively as to exhaust
nervous energy to the point where "the day we most need a holiday is
the day after a holiday." This may be different when we learn more
fully that the recuperative power of short intervals of complete
relaxation has a genuine investment value. The increased output of
energy afterward, the happier spirits, prolonged endurance, clearer
thinking, and the greater ease and pleasure with which work is done,
more than compensate for the time required. It has been stated that
one large manufacturing concern has found it greatly to its advantage
to give a daily