tion is one of play. When, on
the other hand, these acts are performed in order to clean up the yard,
or because they have been ordered to be done by a parent, the process is
one of work, for the impulse to act now lies in something outside the
act itself. To compel a child to play, therefore, would be to compel him
to work.

=Value of Play: A. Physical.=--Play is one of the most effective means
for promoting the physical development of the child. This result follows
naturally from the free character of the play activity. Since the
impulse to act is found in the activity itself, the child always has a
strong motive for carrying on the activity. On the other hand, when
somewhat similar activities are carried on as a task set by others, the
end is too remote from the child's present interests and tendencies to
supply him with an immediate motive for the activity. Play, therefore,
causes the young child to express himself physically to a degree that
tasks set by others can never do, and thus aids him largely in securing
control of bodily movements.

=B. Intellectual and Moral.=--In play, however, the child not only
secures physical development and a control of bodily movements, but also
exercises and develops other tendencies and powers. Many plays and
games, for instance, involve the use of the senses. Whether the young
child is shaking his rattle, rolling the ball, pounding with the spoon,
piling up blocks and knocking them over, or playing his regular guessing
games in the kindergarten, he is constantly stimulating his senses, and
giving his sensory nerves their needed development. As imitation and
imagination, by their co-operation, later enable the child to symbolize
his play, such games as keeping store, playing carpenter, farmer, baker,
etc., both enlarge the child's knowledge of his surroundings, and also
awaken his interest and sympathy toward these occupations. Other games,
such as beans-in-the-bag, involve counting, and thus furnish the child
incidental lessons in number under most interesting conditions. In games
involving co-operation and competition, as the bowing game, the
windmill, fill the gap, chase ball in ring, etc., the social tendencies
of the child are developed, and such individual instincts as rivalry,
emulation, and combativeness are brought under proper control.

PLAY IN EDUCATION

=Assigning Play.=--In adapting play to the formal education of the
child, a difficulty seems at once to presen