This little book is nothing but a study of the original contributions made to education by the handworkers and mechanics of the race. For a long time the relation between these doers and thinkers was never fairly realized or accepted. They stood apart. They seem to stand apart still. The tool and the man were separated. Sometimes the tool was worshipped, while the man who made it was despised as a slave. There were magic swords, like King Arthur's, made by nameless workers. And yet the study of the human organism was attempted. "Know thyself," cried the great Greek; and the thinkers strove to know themselves.
They strove very honestly. All the great religions are founded in hygiene. But the contempt for hand
prepare themselves in the same way for motherhood. My child does it voluntarily, but others could be taught such plays."
The teacher could not help smiling. Certainly our great doctors have something to learn, as well as a world of things to teach in our schools. Play, as the teacher knew to her cost, is a living through of something that has been already experienced. It deals with memories. The doctor's little daughter played what she knew, and it was her own play. But to impose this mere skeleton of real play on poor children who have never known a morning bath and have never used a hair or tooth brush—what a mockery! The "play" is merely a new task. The teacher knew this very well. She had taken no degrees, and had no knowledge of medicine. But she had had the opportunity of observing the children of the poor, and so she knew that this new play would not even amuse her children, still less make them love the bath or the toothbrush!
