Recreation For Teachers Or The Teacher's Leisure Time (1918) (Hardcover)

RECREATION FOR TEACHERS OR THE TEACHERS LEISURE TIME PREFACE Ax this moment of history, when we have cast all our hopes and ideals into the great conflict on which hangs the fate of Democracy, when we are bending every effort to win the war and it seems to us that nothing much matters except to win the war, it may appear almost disloyal to offer to the teachers of the country a book on recreation. Surely this is a time for work and not for play. This must be the first thought of many. But shall we not say rather that this is a time for efficiency If play will help us to win the war, let us have it, and the fact is that play will help us to win the war. The play movement has been officially promoted in Ger many for the last twenty-five years as a war measure. Of all our young men who are called to the colors about one third are rejected as physically unfit, and of those who are accepted fully half the time of training is spent in putting them in physical condition. We are now spending about ten cents per capita for the play of our children, but the Commission on Training Camp Activities has raised three dollars per capita, thirty times as much, for the recreation of the soldiers in the ranks, and at some of the camps at least the soldiers have an hour and a half to two hours a day in organized games as a means of developing physical efficiency and team spirit. It is necessary that those who are coming on to fill the places of those who vii viii Preface have gone to the front shall also have this training. This feeling has been reflected in laws passed during the last two years in the states of New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and California, making a requirement of from two to fivehours per week of play and physical training for all children. This has been done primarily as a war measure. About half our play problem is with the teachers. If they get an enthusiasm for sports and outdoor life, this spirit will soon pervade the student body and we shall not have so much physical unfitness. Both on the part of the teachers and children better health and a more vigorous life are now demanded. It has been difficult to find a name for this volume which will cover the subject matter. In some ways Leisure Time would be a better title than Recreation, as practically all the teachers time outside of school hours is planned for. But one of the major efforts, also, is to indicate ways in which teaching itself may be made more enjoyable, and new elements of pleasure brought into work. The purpose has been, in general, so to organize the teachers leisure time that she may get from it a larger life, more experience, and the opportunity to study and enjoy herself. In a perfect adjustment to individual needs, the problem of recreation for everyone is an individual problem. Recre ation should furnish to every man and woman relief from the monotony and strain of work, and give expression to those impulses and desires which have lain dormant in daily life. To some extent, therefore, the recreation of each individual should differ from that of every other individual, and that of each profession from that of every other profession. But, in a general view, these differences are largely negligible, and the Preface ix recreation needed by all professions whose work is indoors is much the same. The recreation here outlined is well adapted to all adults and to college and high schoolstudents, as well as to teachers, though perhaps the need is greater among teachers than others. The feminine gender has been used throughout, because more than three-quarters of our teachers are women. But some one may say that the recreation recommended is unduly strenuous and adventurous for women, and better suited to men. Women have often hesitated to do many of the things spoken of. But we are on the eve of a new era, ushered in by woman suffrage and the world war. It will offer to women an equal opportunity for life, occupation and experience...