Lessons and play used to be as clearly marked off one from the other as
land and water on the older maps. Now we see some contour maps in which
the land below so many feet and the sea within so many fathoms' depth
are represented by the same marking, or left blank. In the same way the
tendency in education at present is almost to obliterate the line of
demarcation, at least for younger children, so that lessons become a
particular form of play, "with a purpose," and play becomes a sublimated
form of lessons, as the druggists used to say, "an elegant preparation"
of something bitter. If the Board of Education were to name a commission
composed of children, and require it to look into the system, it is
doubtful whether they would give a completely satisfactory report. They
would probably judge it to be too uniform in tone, poor in colour and
contrast, deficient in sparkle. They like the exhilaration of bright
colour, and the crispness of contrast. Of course they would judge it
from the standpoint of play, not of lessons. But play which is not quite
play, coming after something which has been not quite lessons, loses the
tingling delight of contrast. The funereal tolling of a bell for real
lessons made a dark background against which the rapture of release for
real play shone out with a brilliancy which more than made up for it.
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