dreadful and evil, but it gave the opportunity to demonstrate the qualities of manhood, unselfishness and love which twenty centuries of Christian faith have generated and nurtured in the human heart. These volumes worthily present with fullness and vividness the incidents, methods and results of the work of these two great undertakings of "Yankee" energy and love. THE POEMS OF ROBERT BURNS. The Poet of Religion, Democracy, Brotherhood and Love. Edited by James L. Huges. George H. Doran Company, New York, This is a handsome new edition of Burns, edited by one who is well known in educational circles. There are many well chosen and well executed illustrations. The charm of these poems will never lose their luster. Everybody loves this poet. The present volume will grace the parlor or library table or serve the purposes of the English Department in the High School or College. TOUCHSTONES OF SUCCESS. By 160 Present-Day Men of Achievement. The Vir Publishing Company, Philadelphia. A very unusual book, in which a large number of men distinguished for the success of their careers have given their own judgment of the sources and influences which account for their success. We can think of no more stimulating volume with the exception of the Bible, to hand to an adolescent boy for a Christmas or birthday gift. It is one which any man or woman may well consult with frequency and thoughtful attention. METHODS AND RESULTS OF TESTING SCHOOL CHILDREN, By Evelyn Dewey, Emily Child and Beardsley Ruml. E. P. Dutton & Company, New York. Price $5.00. A Manual of Tests used by the Psychological Survey in the Public Schools of New York City. The manual contains social and physical studies of the children tested. The purpose held in view was to aid in the establishment of a suitable psychological clinic for normal children and to discover whether or not mental tests accurately analyze and describe an individual. The children's home conditions were investigated. This manual is one of the most suggestive and authoritative of the many books on psychological tests that are now appearing as this modern method grows in the educational consciousness. A DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE, ART, PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE OF2EDUCATION FRANK HEREWER, A. M., EDITOR CONTENTS Play and Education. Rolland Merritt Shreves. 349 The Lyric (Poem). D. Hugh Verder. 360 Latin, One of the Essentials of the New Curriculum. Mary L. Cobbs. 361 Art Caltare a Vital Factor in Public Education. Mary R. Kitchen. 367 370 Another Observation from Problem English Teaching. A. Bess Clark. 371 The Need for a More Scientific Attitude in Education. The Greeks and Death. (Poem.) Heien Cary Chadwick. Outline Study of Twice Told Tales. Maud E. Kingsley.. Book Reviews. BOSTON 381 387 388 398 411 416 Published by THE PALMER COMPANY, 120 Boylston Street LONDON, B. C.: WM. DAWSON & SONS, Ltd., CANNON HOUSE, BREAMS BUILDINGS Entered at the Post Office at Boston, Mass., as second-class mail matter. Copyright 1921, by The Palmer Company. Price 40 Cents $4.00 a Year Standard tests having been accepted as an effective gauge of pupil advancement or retardation, how best can they be applied? Opinion seems to be fairly well sustained that measurement of pupil ability and diagnosis of pupil difficulty can only be really effective if applied by the classroom teacher. HOW TO MEASURE By G. M. WILSON, Professor of Vocational Education, Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and KREMER J. HOKE, Superintendent of Schools, Duluth, Minnesota. A particularly helpful manual of this sort for the classroom teacher who wishes to make intelligent use of standard tests for measuring the ability of the individual pupil and for testing the efficiency of methods of teaching. It explains the purpose and the use of scales and standard tests and in the first eight chapters provides actual plans covering the most practical tests now available for measuring pupil intelligence and advancement in each subject of the elementary curriculum. One chapter is devoted also to the measurement of high school subjects; another to the measurement of general intelligence. Chapter eleven provides a brief explanation of as much of the science of statistics as a teacher needs for purposes of intelligent measurement, and the final chapter is devoted to the general subject of the teacher's use of scales and standard tests as compared with other methods of measurement and grading. This is a book that every class teacher will need an excellent book to be read and discussed in Teachers' Reading Circles. See that it is included in your professional library. Another invaluable book for teachers' personal reading and for group study. in the Reading Circle is BONSER'S THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM A stimulating and constructive study of the school program of studies with special emphasis on greater pupil activity along natural and normal lines of child develovment. Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature VOL. XLI. of Education FEBRUARY, 1921 Play and Education No. 6 ROLLAND MERRITT SHREVES, PH.D., DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, KEARNEY, NEBRASKA, ♣T would be well to begin with, to suggest some of the particular aspects of play from the point of view of education. We shall show briefly its place in the history of education and the changing condition in regard to it at the present time. 1. Play in Greek Education. The Greeks had a clear conception of the value of play. To them it represented the most fundamental and useful of the human arts. It served to develop and make beautiful the body, which was an object of beauty to the Greek mind. Play was encouraged in the school and in life generally. The most unsightly object was the human body that lacked symmetry and proper development. It was through play, organized in various games, largely competitive in nature, that this ideal of physical beauty was best realized. The education of the Greek people would fall short of the present rating in our minds if the element of play had been made to occupy a less prominent place. 2. Play Life of Ancient Rome. When we turn our thought to Rome, their notion was much the same in regard to play as with the Greeks. The Romans, like the Greeks, believed in agility of the body and mind, and found play to be one of the means of realizing these ends. The Romans did not have the clear conception of physical beauty that is represented in the Greek education and art, but they did see the need of play in the development of the body fit for military service and for the chief duties of the state and nation. They regarded play as the most wholesome means of developing both the body and mind. It is strange that when the value of play was realized so far back as in early Greek and Roman history, its significance should be so completely lost sight of at any later period; but unfortunately this was the case, as will be seen in the period of the Medieval Ages. 3. Scholasticism and the Play Spirit. In the period of the Medieval Ages the conception in regard to the value of play had changed very greatly. The introduction of Christianity had led to the misinterpretation of the significance of play. It was regarded by some of the leaders of Christian thought that their only duty was to pray and serve their God in some form of religious worship or ceremonies. It was thought many times that the play spirit represented the earthly, or mundane. The spirit of God in man should triumph over such earthly things. It was, therefore, considered to be man's duty to suppress the play spirit. This doctrine continued to spread until it practically encircled the world, and it is only in modern times that we are beginning to break loose from its effects. 4. The Renaissance and Play. The period of the Renaissance introduced the beginning of a brighter period for the child. The doctrine of the need of suppressing the play spirit had failed. Under such conditions the body grows weak and the face and character lose their expressiveness. We then have an object to be pitied rather than admired, as the Greeks did admire physical beauty. Vitina de Feltre helped to restore the child to his own birthright by pointing out |