CHILDREN AND PLAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 145, 21 June 1926, Page 8

CHILDREN AND PLAY.

MUSIC, RHYTHM, AND DANCES.

In an address given by Dr. Mildred E. Staley, M.D., of Remuera. to the Auckland Play Association, the speaker said: "In the League of Nations' children's charter it is laid down 'that for the children mankind must give of its very best.' The report of the American Play Association laid before the League of Nations states that it has some 16,000 directors and enjoyed the co-operation of all educational, civic and welfare associations. The results of a properly devised scheme of physical instruction was absence of fatigue. For example the Dunedin gymnasium class of the V.M.C.A. worked with music, as did also the Manchester Grammar School hygienic classes. The true purpose of the ancient play festival was twofold— first the stirring up of a reserve of nervous energy above that required normally and this without wasted and without fatigue, the ultimate"" object being really civilisation; and, next the development of the aesthetic instinct leading to the arts, crafts and dramatic instincts. In it were utilised music, rhythm and dances to fit the child into the design of the perfect rhythmic order of the universe, thus building up character stable and noble. The child was the only animal that was shut up durinthe best hours of ihe sun and davli-bf Our present schrol buildings kept out the ultra-violet rays, they were overcrowded and the hygienic teaching wa« inadequate. The school should l&d to an eager quest for knowledge and practice, and open-air schools must ere lon •» 7^t en r%* ° r so - re our present stuffy buildings. The new schooU jflould be bungalow shaped, openin- on «oV ld , eS ' f, nd - With sli do P ors The Xnl r d include a™n ro ™<* t£ school after every half-hour lesson. The results, mentally and physicallr, of such a system, which have" already been proSit? OW a 2° t0 «P- «»t 1™