American playgrounds, their construction, equipment, maintenance and utility ...

Front matter

Book._

Copyright)) .

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Chapter I— What is Suitable Provision for Public Physical Welfare ? 15

II — What Does a .Playground Include? .... 23 III — Why Have Playgrounds at Public Expense? '.'. . •.,. . . . 33

IV — Trained Supervision and Guidance .... 39 V — Instructors : Sources, Requirements,

Salaries 45

VI-rr= School Yard Playground Requirements. 50

PART TWO — Organization, Construction and Equipment. VII — Importance of Proper Equipment 56

VIII — Apparatus for the Playground and Outdoor Gymnasium 60

IX — A Recreation Center for a Town — By

William L. Coop 69

X — Playgrounds in Waste Places 74

XI — Details of Playground Organization, Construction and Equipment — By Arthur Leland 79

PART THREE— Special Points for Supervisors and Instructors. XII — Personal Hints to Supervisors — By Arthur Leland 92

XIII — The Matter of Discipline 95

XIV — Suggestions to Instructors in Municipal Playgrounds and Gymnasiums — By E. B. DeGroot 98

XV — Suggestions to Instructors in General —

By Jay W. Seaver, M. D 106

XVI — Making Children Generally Useful ....108

XVII — Playground Programs and Methods ...112 Section Two — How to Begin and Continue Systematic Work — By Miss Gladys Abbott 118

Section Three — Progression in School Games — By Wm. A. Stecher and George Wittich 166

Grading of Games 169

Combative and Competitive Features. 171

XXII — Interesting the Big Brothers, Fathers

and Uncles 173

XXIII — Sand Gardens for the Little Children . . . 180

XXIV — Dancing in the Open Air 184

Section Two — Folk Dances : American and European — By A. J. Sheafe 194 XXV — Swimming, Wading and Water Sports. 200

XXVI — Pyramids and Tumbling 204

XXVII — School Gardens 207

PART FIVE— The Chicago Method in Action

XXVIII— The South Park System— By H. S. Curtis and E. B. DeGroot 212

PART SIX — Miscellaneous Information

XXIX — Country and Village Organized Recreation — By Myron T. Scudder 222

XXX— * Games for Country Use — By Myron T.

Scudder 226

XXXI — How to Inaugurate a Local Movement — By Joseph Lee and Lee F. Hanmer 233

XXXII— Three Age Periods of Child Play— By

Joseph Lee 237

XXXIII — History of Playgrounds with a Chronology 239

XXXIV — Social Conditions in the Playground —

By Henry S. Curtis, Ph.D 253

Quotations and Extracts :

Place of Play in a Democracy — By Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 258 Play and Dancing for Adolescents — By G. Stanley Hall, Ph.D 259

What is Dancing? — By Melvin B. Gilbert 260

A Boy Learns Citizenship in Group Games — By Joseph Lee 264

Playgrounds and the Physical Training Profession 264

Beginnings of Social Movements — By R. W. DeForrest . .263

Recreation for Girls in Cities — By Jane Addams 260

Playground and Kindergarten Methods — By Frank E. Parlin 261

Educational Value of Right Games and Right Supervision — By Dudley A. Sargent .262

Grown-up Folks Need the Play Spirit — By J. J. Kelso . . . .265

Early Efforts at Amherst College — By Paul C. Phillips . . .266

State Extension Plan \ . . . 267

A List of Available Books 268

Preface

A book of practical information is not a short cut to success, a labor saving device to enable a reader to dispense with purposeful thinking. A book of this type is an aid to more systematic work by showing guide posts by which a reader may be better able to know which roads to use and which to avoid to reach a certain destination.

This particular book is not about play and games abstractly or theoretically, so much as it is a book of service. Neither is it a literary production. It is definitely a compilation of information on how to apply practically various methods of physical training and recreation to men and women, boys and girls, in outdoor gymnasiums, playgrounds and school yards, under everyday American conditions.

Considerable has been well written in permanent and temporary forms on the history, philosophy and psychology of play ; there has been much written on the desirability of games and recreation with special application to the relation of such activities to our social, moral and educational life. But there is very little available on the practical, technical side, and not much that shows how and where to provide the necessary additions to our lives.

Theory and practice need to go hand in hand as soon as the ideas first advanced have had general recognition as facts ,* perhaps sooner. Those who have done the pioneer work have made possible the advanced efforts of today ; have made necessary such a book as this, which, being a pioneer in its class, is perhaps subject to some shortcomings. Such as appear may be removed in subsequent editions. The editor will be pleased to receive criticisms and suggestions from any source.

Those who have a general or philanthropic or sociological or educational or any other interest in the possibilities of playgrounds should know something of their practical aspects. Those who are to teach the children and older folks by personal contact must have technical knowledge unless their efforts are to fail or do positive harm. The managing committees and board members, the municipal officials and the auxiliary society members, should have some of it also, if foino other reason than that the problems sure to arise may be intelligently understood and dealt with wisely. We should all learn from the combined experience of those who have traveled along the road just ahead.

This book is intended to supply the needs mentioned as well as to give a somewhat comprehensive general idea of the meaning and scope of these efforts for the welfare of the people, — not only the physical welfare but the social, educational and ethical as well. And, let us add, the business or commercial also.

The commercial value of rational physical training, of proper recreation and play has not been much dwelt upon ; but this is a very important point in America where we all come to think so generally and constantly in terms of dollars ; to apply the rule and plumb to every new suggestion. The playground movement in its pure form will stand all such tests that are applied fairly.

No book, or instruction in any form, can make it unnecessary for a teacher to work for success, use common sense in applying knowledge to conditions, and take exceptions to rules laid down, whenever necessary. This applies to this book, to any other book and to all books written or to be written. Book knowledge — rules of procedure — programs of exercise — methods of administration — are excellent tools. Tools are made to use to produce results when combined with brain product, and satisfactory results come not otherwise. But books of the right sort can help, and will surely help, if rightly used. This book aims to present some gathered material to meet the needs of the day; to serve present purposes under conditions that have been outlined ; to be of real use.

Concerning the now quite general recognition of the need and importance of play and games, nothing special is said here. This information and worthy consideration of it can be obtained from several sources. A list of titles is printed at the end of the volume.

Specific acknowledgement of assistance given by individuals and organizations in the preparation of this book is made elsewhere. There has been an interesting exhibition of a desire to lend all aid asked for that would assist in extending the playground movement. For this the editor is personally grateful, not so much for his own sake as because it enables a more serviceable publication to be offered to the public. It is a pleasure to do work when there is cordial co-operation such as has been experienced in the compilation of the following material. That "American Playgrounds," may be of definite service in extending the work it outlines, is the wish of

THE EDITOR.

July, 1908.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

A book of this character is necessarily prepared with considerable assistance. No one person could make it of so much general and specific value as is possible by combining selected wisdom from many minds and experiences. The editor is especially indebted to the sources mentioned here as well as to those who have given permission to republish extracts, which are credited in each case where such reprints are made. Aside from these aids, special thanks are due and are hereby extended by the editor in his own behalf and for those who may be benefited by the result as set forth in these pages, to —

To Mr. Joseph Lee, the oft-styled "father of American playgrounds" in their present modern form, for permission to make use of his many writings on the subject, and for reading the manuscript in advance of publication and making suggestions thereon ; and for other valuable assistance.

To Mr. William L. Coop, for his willingness to give time and thought to matters concerning equipment and its practical use, and help in various ways which have been of particular value.

To Mr. William A. Stecher, editor of "Mind and Body" and supervisor of physical education in Philadelphia public schools, for valuable information.

To Mr. Edward B. De Groot, director of gymnastics, athletics and playgrounds in the Chicago South Park System, for material aid in several ways.

The Playground Association of America, especially Dr. Luther H. Gulick, its president, and Miss Grace E. J. Parker, its financial secretary, for information and material for illustrations.

To the Narragansett Machine Co.; the Children's Playground League, Rochester, N. Y. (W. J. Smith, treasurer) ; the South Park Commissioners, Chicago; the Special Park

II

Commission, Chicago (A. W. O'Neill, secretary) ; the Playground Commission, Los Angeles, Cal. (Bessie D. Stoddart, secretary) ; special thanks are due for material for illustrations.

A considerable number of the drawings for apparatus exercises in Chapter ly are adapted from Puritz' "Code Book of Gymnastic Exercises," English edition.

Among the books and periodicals of which more or less use has been made for consultation or for extracts are : "Mind and Body," "American Gymnasia," "Playgrounds" ;

"How to Tumble," Butterworth; "New Games and Sports," Alexander; "Playground Games," Chesterton; "Maypole Possibilities," Lincoln ; "Popular Gymnastics," Betz ;

Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1903 ; reports of various local playground associations and committees.

Part One

Why and How to Provide for General Exercise and Recreation.

"Play is motor poetry." — G. Stanley Hall.

"One former is worth one hundred reformers." — Horace Mann.

"Men grow old because they stop playing, and not conversely, for play is, at bottom, growth." — Hall.

"The plays of adolescence are socialistic, demanding the heathen virtues of courage, endurance, self-control, bravery, loyalty, enthusiasm." — Gulick.

The good old swing of the rhyme writers, in the shade of the old apple tree, was transferred from the country farm yard to the town back yard, then to the city porch, then it assumed the artificial imitation form of the wooden swing of slats and paint, and next there was no swing; there was no room for it in the then current type of city civilization. Now the playgrounds are bringing back the really acceptable forms of the original swing — just a rope and a board across the bottom.

CHAPTER I.

WHAT IS SUITABLE PROVISION FOR PUBLIC PHYSICAL WELFARE?

A Summary — Definite Attention to Physical' Needs of Up-growing Generations — A Phase of Civic Betterment — Supervised Play One Means — Indoor Gymnasiums and Other Aids Needed.

A fundamental feature of every normal human life being its physical condition, intelligent provision of means to maintain and improve that condition needs no apology.

Suitable provision for public physical welfare is found scarcely anywhere in American cities or country districts, except where it has been artificially made during the past thirty years and less.

That this made-to-order method has been necessary is due to conditions of today's mode of living. We live largely in artificial surroundings day and night, in most cities. The same conditions are fast coming to the smaller towns with the advance of modern labor-saving devices.

Our short cuts to what we hope will be success in material things are also short cuts to physical deterioration ; and to moral and mental non-training as well.

What little has been done so far to restore certain necessary physical activities and interests to our abnormal lives, and to the lives of children for the next generations, is but a beginning, but one phase, of the work going on in many ways and through many agencies to bring back a more normal mode of every-day existence. Physical welfare is not divorced from general welfare ; the physical is not the whole ; it is one part, but a part so important that its neglect is a crime even if not always so recognized.

We of today must do something for the benefit of those who will live here sixty years and more from now as well as for our own good. This generation and the one immediately preceding it have been living more and more on the energy stored up by grandfathers and great-grandfathers — and mothers. (We must not forget the mothers, past, present and to be.) Unless we look out for our own physical selves, and especially ensure that the children of today do so, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to be physically bankrupt.

If we spend all the money we are fortunate enough to inherit from ancestors, certainly we can have none of it to benefit our descendants. Just as true it is regarding inheritance of muscular and nervous capital — physical efficiency.

The people provide mental education for their children ; they should provide motor education quite as freely and universally. "Muscular knowledge was fundamental in the race, and it is the basis of all true learning in the individual."

Proper motor education gives to every individual boy and girl ample opportunity for muscular exercise by systematic methods for recreation through play and games, and for true development through these agencies of "health as well as the physical, social and moral well being."

To enable the desirable work to be practically carried on, several methods have been found suitable. First among the artificial modes of physical activities is gymnastics, which came by importation to Germany and other European countries from Greece and Rome, and thence to America. In this country the freer life and thought eventually made for a freer mode of excercise, in athletics and also the games. During the past twenty years, and especially during the past ten years, has come what is generally called the playground movement. Really this is an important phase of the larger movement to make more use of natural outdoor possibilities for sane living, as is pointed out elsewhere in this chapter.

In Chapter II it is shown that "suitable provision for public physical welfare" calls for several features harmoniously coordinated and systematically supervised. This book deals specifically with the playgrounds and their allied features.

As playground activities in their modern aspects are comparatively new to America, and not very old anywhere, it is only just now that we are getting the necessary attention to the subject. Thanks to the activity and persistent propaganda of local and national societies and individuals in past years, and thanks during the past two years to organized national efforts of the Playground Association of America, the attention of authorities of cities and states and of the nation is being guided to the central fact that Twentieth Century conditions make not only desirable but absolutely necessary some definite attention to the physical needs of the up-growing generations of both sexes.

The playground movement is one of the desirable ways through which this demand can be met. Playgrounds, meaning places for children to play, and for older folks to rest, walk and ride, as well as play, were comparatively numerous in some cities two decades ago and more, But just a place, just a lot of land open to public use, will not answer the requirements. Experience has taught this and re-taught it. There is play and there is play. There is play that grows like a weed and never gets beyond the weed state ; and there is play that has careful cultivation so that it becomes a useful plant. The latter kind is required to accomplish results worthy of efforts expended. This is the kind that all wise investigators and expert students contend for, as soon as they get far enough into the subject to truly appreciate practical conditions.

Directed or supervised play is necessary. This means somebody whose definite duty it is to direct and supervise. Following the trail we quickly see that directors and supervisors must be trained. Until almost the present day there have been no accessible means for such special education, beyond the incomplete possibilities of the school of experience. Now we have two or three normal and training schools of physical education paying particular attention to the subject and two or three local organizations conducting their own instruction classes. We have not yet reached the point, as they have in Germany, of special normal play schools for teachers ; but as most of the inspiration for what is being done for playgrounds in America came from Germany, directly or indirectly, it may not be long before this fundamentally important part of the work is inaugurated here, in some form.

It was just stated that playgrounds offer one way of caring for the physical needs of men and women, grown up and growing up. Playgrounds, even the best of them, seldom do much in winter except to provide skating and possibly sliding and tobogganing, in a large section of the country, and not very much anywhere in stormy weather. This means that there must be serviceable shelter and some provision for indoor work. A playground building is as important, certaintly, as an open-air space. It is a question not entirely settled which should come first, the building or the outdoor space. Both should go together, that is certain, but if there absolutely cannot be more than one, which shall it be? This is a point calling for more consideration than can be given here, but it is worth noting in passing.

The outdoor playground with proper space for athletics as well as gymnastics and games, supplemented by a wellequipped building which includes a gymnasium as well as baths, lockers, etc., and a swimming pool in some form, may make a complete plant. About the only place in America at this writing where this ideal has been reached is in the South Park System of Chicago. It is now being extended to other places as opportunity offers. Elsewhere the idea is adopted in part and incompletely. In many cities it is the ideal in mind, but in Chicago by reason of exceptional conditions the whole plan outlined and other desirable features as well are daily working as a model for the rest of the country, and in many respects for all the world. As one observer has expressed it, this city has been able to skip over ten to fifteen years of growth and produce the complete system immediately.

Boston, where the present playground and outdoor gymnasium scheme first took tangible form in this country, about twenty years ago, has not kept up to the times in some respects, although always one of the leading cities of the country in all matters of physical training, health education and recreation, as well as social betterment. Chicago took Boston's idea and showed its real possibilities under American city conditions. Boston has just (1908) provided for a comprehensive system of physical training under control of the public school committee which includes playgrounds heretofore conducted by the park department and by private philanthropy, as well as gymnastics and athletics.

Part of a General Modern Tendency.

The growth of the playground movement should have a direct interest for the increasing thousands and millions of people who are personally concerned with matters of suburban life, life in the open, getting back to nature, and so on. All this line of effort has a common end : the making of life more worth living under conditions that exist; the improving of conditions so that instead of trying to escape from steel fetters of present civilization we may willing remain in the embrace of velvet supports and guides. However divergent the various movements toward this ideal, however crude some of the methods, however imperfect some of the individual workers and dreamers may be, the end sought is worth striving for.

The playground movement is just as much a part of the general tendency of modern people to escape from the armor of city discordancies as is the development of suburban estates, city beautification, clean streets, removal of eye sores in city and country, and all the other elements that tend to make for practical aesthetic environments.

As these paragraphs are being written there is in the United States a representative of a French association whose purpose is to create an international organization to work along these lines. In the United States at the present time are several organizations of comprehensive nature doing the same thing. Among them are the American Civic Association, Massachusetts Civic League, Rhode Island League of Improvement Societies, and many more that are local and sectional in scope.

All these interests should be tied up with the playgroud movement, and it with them, so that playgrounds and all the means for open-air enjoyment, recreation and definite exercise might be admittedly a part of the broader purpose. Playgrounds are not a means in themselves, apart from other interests, but are just one expression of the underlying truth that has been a long time coming to be believed by Americans, — that men and women are created to enjoy life, not to be slaves to their surroundings all the time ; and to enjoy life good health and physical efficiency is a fundamental need. Hence the use of playgrounds, athletic fields, gymnasiums and open-air recreation facilities.

As playgrounds are likely to be always parts of the general scheme for civic betterment — to make better the appearance and living conditions of towns and cities — it is important that there be "comprehensive planning and clear thinking; a careful study of actual conditions, physical, economic and social, based upon the best expert advice obtainable." The tendency to make playgrounds educational adjuncts or fundamentals observed in some places is not likely to prevent the same or other playgrounds being classed with the serviceable parks in the city systems.

Growth of the Movement.

An idea of the growth and scope of the playground movement may be had from these general facts of recent origin, covering some phases of development in America :

The amount of money spent and appropriated for playgrounds and accompanying features during six months ending May, 1908, was estimated at $6,000,000.

In the ten years ending 1908, covering practically all the present period of rapid development, about $50,000,000 has been used in the same way. Included in this sum is over $11,000,000 applied to the equipment and general conduct of Chicago recreation centers, $750,000 for San Francisco recreation centers, and $15,000,000 for New York City athletic fields, playgrounds, etc. These figures are not exact but approximately so. They are quoted to figuratively indicate the size of the work going on.

New York City employs over 1000 teachers in various forms of summer playground and recreation center work.

In 24 cities in 1905 there were 87 playgrounds ; in 1907 in the same cities there were 169, an increase of 94 per cent, in two years. In the same cities in 1905 there were 73 park and municipal playgrounds ; in 1907 there were 108, an increase of 48 per cent, in two years. In 1905 there were 160 playgrounds of all kinds ; in 1907 there were 247, an increase.

of 54 per cent, in two years. These figures do not represent all the playgrounds in the country, but those in 24 cities from which statistics were gathered,

During the years 1906-8 more than a dozen cities in which playgrounds had been previously maintained by private philanthropy, made appropriations for their conduct or created departments for direct municipal control and administration. This is evidence of growing recognition of the real need and value of such features of public utility. Over 65 cities now conduct playgrounds.

There have been isolated instances of reduced appropriations just as appropriations are occasionally unreasonably reduced for public education, usually for purely local reasons. Playgrounds of a right type are equally essential with schools; both may suffer from legislative or political shortsightedness here and there but the general trend is in all respects rapidly progressive. In the early development of playgrounds there is likely to be — has been — over-enthusiasm and wrong emphasis on some particular points, but usually this is due to misconception or misdirected zeal rather than to any reason justifying the withdrawal of public support.

The tendency seems to be for as willing public support with money and official interest as has been ever given to a movement to benefit the people fundamentally. Those who hold tied the municipal purse strings may here and there for a time fail to appreciate the value of prevention and decline to grasp the proven fact that such methods as are provided in recreation centers are true educational and social preventives of powerful value.

History tells us that the first "theorists" who advocated free public schools in the United States had fully as much trouble to educate official minds and get public financial support as the playground advocates are having now. History, studied intelligently, is a wonderful teacher and a great encourager of patient waiting; not idle waiting but busy, working, propagandism with continued practical results for proof.

The development of the playground movement is proceeding at a very satisfactory rate in all ways. Mistakes of the early period are being made good and there are increasing indications that the work is being taken seriously, — that it has mostly passed the "fad" stage and become a staple requirement, This is, generally speaking, the view that is being taken where state laws are passed and advocated.

Such laws authorizing playgrounds and other means for rational physical training in cities have been passed by the legislature of New Jersey, have been under consideration in the legislatures of Ohio and Massachusetts and are favored for early action in several other progressive states. The Massachusetts bill would authorize each town and city of 10,000 population to maintain and carry on at least one public recreation center "of suitable size and equipment for the purposes of play, recreation and physical education." The funds would be raised by taxation or bond issues "as for other public necessities or improvements."

The present interest in what are generally called playgrounds is an outgrowth from the older work of physical training which was, until a few years ago, confined to gymnasiums. But the playground movement was not directly started in America by the physical training profession nor by any member of it; it got its initial impetus from social workers, educators and those men and women who were free enough from conventional methods of procedure to recognize the value of play and recreation when rightly used and guided. Now directors of physical training are alive to the value of the newer form of what is naturally a part of their work and are becoming prominent in advancing its interests. This points to the time when the present occasional combination of gymnasiums and playgrounds will become the general rule, all under the supervision of technically educated and fully competent instructors. Time is required to make necessary adjustments between new and old methods but the tendency is in the right direction.

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Chapter II. What Does A Playground Include?

Definition of Names — Recreation Centers — Gymnasiums — Buildings — Supervision — Adminstration — Using a Plant — Recreation and Athletic Fields.

In speaking or thinking of playgrounds it needs be remembered that this title is somewhat loosely applied. For instance, the dozen Chicago South Park establishments are commonly referred to as "playgrounds," when as a matter of fact playgrounds form but one feature. Each of the fully equipped establishments there includes : an athletic field, outdoor gymnasium and playground for men, another for women, children's playground, sand court or pit, outdoor swimming pool ; field house in which is a gymnasium for men, another for women, baths, lockers, etc., as well as a lunch room, assembly hall ; and other features.

To call all this a playground is hardly accurate and causes a public misunderstanding of just what is being talked about. A playground anywhere is not a gymnasium ; the two names do not mean the same thing and ought not to be misapplied. Playgrounds offer one excellent means for education in "progressive public hygiene" for young and old ; gymnasiums offer another means. A playground may be outdoors or indoors, but is usually regarded as an outdoor feature. A gymnasium may be either in or out of doors but is usually indoors. Where several features are combined in one place the term "recreation center," seems proper for general use ; or "neighborhood center," if the establishment deserves that comprehensive title.

These are somewhat technical points but some definition is desirable for sake of accuracy. After all, the name is less important than to have the necessary work done by some effective means. In this book the term "playgrounds" is generally used as it is now commonly understood, although a distinction in terms is observed in some instances.