Educational Issues in the Kindergarten (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... that the child get his full share of each variety of play and that its free character be maintained." 1 The argument advanced is vitiated by the fallacy of the assumption-whence it proceeds. The distinction between play and work does not imply that different activities are bound forever to their respective forms. The same activity may take on at one time the form of play and at another the form of work. The difference between activities depends upon the tendency to assume preponderantly one or the other form. Through a tacit recognition of prevailing tendency, the common sense of mankind has relegated some activities to the class of play and others to the class of work. The housemaid who knew she had become a Christian because contrary to former practice she always swept dust from out the corners and from under the bed divined truly the criterion of work. She knew that the purpose of sweeping was a clean room, and that she was the instrument of this purpose. Activities which offer scope for originality will tend to assume preponderantly the form of play; those which do not permit original action will tend to assume preponderantly the form of work. There is, therefore, a maximum possibility for play in dramatic games and in building and ar 1 The Place of Industries in Elementary Education, Katharine Elizabeth Dopp, pp. 116, 117. rangement exercises, and a minimum possibility for play in cooking, laundry work, sweeping and dusting. It is true that from time to time little children imitate these several activities for the pleasure of the imitation. Such pleasure, however, must wane with their enforced repetition, and it is impossible to make them integral exercises of the kindergarten without changing play into work. Moreover, it is...