etention, in
grasp, and in power. Memory work (the learning of poems, songs, and
formulas) helps to make minds more retentive, while all studies, but
particularly number work, increase mental grasp and power.

Besides body growth and mind growth all children have soul growth. They
develop human sympathy, and they are interested in esthetic things. To
supply these needs the school must give the child literature and art.
Simple these lessons must be, particularly in the elementary grades; but
there is scarcely a child who will not respond to the noble in
literature or the beautiful in art if these things are presented to him
in an understandable way.

The bodies, minds, and souls of children grow. They are all sacred. Each
child needs a normal body, an active mind, a healthy and a beautiful
soul. We dare not develop bodies at the expense of minds and souls, but
neither may we educate minds at the expense of souls and bodies--a
tendency which has been fearfully prevalent in American education.

The most valuable means of securing this all-important growth is "play,"
which Froebel said contained the germinal leaves of all later life.
Growth comes only through expression. One does not develop muscle by
watching the strong man in the circus, but by exercising. The child's
chief means of expression is through play, hence play is the child's
method of securing growth.

In their earliest infancy children play. Their frolics and antics are
really "puppy play," the product of overflowing life and animal spirits.
At this "puppy play" stage, when the child plays merely to work off
surplus energy, the most essential thing is a place to play, and the
school must meet this need by providing playgrounds.

As children grow older they turn to a more advanced type of play.
Instead of romping and frolicking individually they play in groups. It
is in these group plays that the child gets his first idea of the duty
which he owes to his fellows, his first glimmering of a social sense. In
the home and in the school he is in a subordinate position, but in the
"gang," or "set," he is as good as the next. Group play teaches
democracy. More than that, group play has a moral value. Each one must
play fair. Those who do not are ruthlessly ostracized, so children learn
to abide by the decision of the crowd. While children's plays should be
as untrammeled as possible, it is the duty of the school to stimulate
group play by suggesting new games, or