activity, no organization from the
association. The rapid shifting of the scenes and the frequent
disputes that arise indicate lack of control. Yet it is out of such
association that the social mind develops and organized action becomes
possible.

If these are the advantages of play, the right to play may properly
demand an opportunity for games and sports in the home and the yard,
and the necessary equipment of gymnasium and field. It may call for
freedom from the school and home occupations sufficient to give the
recreative impulse due scope. As its importance becomes universally
recognized, there will be no neighborhood, however congested, that
lacks its playground for the children, and no industry, however
insistent, that will deprive the boy or girl of its right to enjoy a
certain part of every day for play.

58. =The Right to Liberty.=--The present tendency is to give large
liberty to the child. Not only is there freedom on the playground; but
social control in the home also has been giving place during the last
generation to a recognition of the right of the individual child to
develop his own personality in his own way, without much interference
from authority. It is true that there is a nominal control in the
home, in the school, and in the State, but in an increasing degree
that control is held in abeyance while parent, teacher, and constable
leniently indulge the child. This is a natural reaction from the
discipline of an earlier time, and is a welcome indication that
children's rights are to find recognition. Like most reactions, there
is danger of its going too far. An inexperienced and headstrong child
needs wise counsel and occasional restraint, and within the limits of
kindness is helped rather than harmed by a deep respect for authority.
Lawlessness is one of the dangers of the current period. It appears in
countless minor misdemeanors, in the riotous acts of gangs and mobs,
in the recklessness of corporations and labor unions, and in national
disregard for international law; and its destructive tendency is
disastrous for the future of civilized society unless a new restraint
from earliest childhood keeps liberty from degenerating into license.

59. =The Right to Learn.=--There is one more right that belongs to
children--the right of an opportunity to learn. Approximately three
million children are born annually in the United States. Each one
deserves to be well-born and well-reared. He needs the aff