87-185.

COULTER: _Co-operation Among Farmers_, pages 3-23.

HERRICK: _Rural Credits_, pages 456-480.

CHAPTER XVI

RECREATION

114. =Recreation and Culture.=--Besides the economic function the
community has recreative and cultural functions to perform, and these
need recognition and improvement. As the child in the home has a right
to time and means for play, so the community, especially the young
people, may lay claim to an opportunity for recreation; as the child
has the right to learn in the home, so the people of the community
should have cultural privileges. These demands are the more
imperative, because the city has so much of this sort to offer, and
the country community cannot hold its young people unless it provides
a reasonable amount of attractions. It needs no particular institution
to bring this about, but it needs a new spirit to recognize and enjoy
the advantages that are possible even in thinly settled localities.
Every opportunity for sociability strengthens just so much a natural
instinct, increases the sense of social values, and enlarges the
sphere of relationships.

In the community, as in the home, children have the first claim to
consideration. The recreative impulse is strong in them. When they
graduate from the home into the school they find opportunity for the
expression of this impulse through their new associations. On the way
to and from school and at recess they have opportunity to indulge
their impulses and to use their powers of invention. Among the younger
children the desire for muscular activity makes running games of all
sorts popular; as boys grow older they imitate the primitive impulse
to hit and run, so well provided for in games of ball; girls enjoy
their recreation in a quieter way as they grow older, and show a
tendency to association in pairs. Associations formed in play are not
usually lasting ones, but the playground reveals individual
temperament and personal qualities that are likely to determine
popularity or unpopularity. These play associations develop qualities
of leadership, loyalty, honesty, and co-operation that tend to label a
child among his mates with a reputation that he carries into later
life.

115. =The Gang.=--Since play is a natural instinct it is to be
expected that children will seek a natural rather than an artificial
way of expressing the instinct. Organization at best can only direct
activities, giving recognition to the social i