PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF PLAY. 33 [is Majesty's Chief Inspector for the East Central Division )f England, writes l : " I know cases in which parents have deplored the final lin of their child's education at its Higher School and for its future life, from its having drunk in as gospel, at a so-called Kindergarten institution, this deadly error, viz., that in a truly human education a child should not be able clearly to distinguish whether it is at work or at play. "It is not long since an anxious, affectionate, and am- bitious parent approached a friend of my own, holding high and responsible position in the world of educators, to consult as to the best educational arrangements to be made for the future of his child, and after much thoughtful conference, the parent broke in with : " ' But, surely, from all I hear talked of amongst my own friends and acquaintances interested in education there has been a new system brought in lately that makes everything quite easy to the child, and ensures its success at almost no strain or effort. I forget for the moment what my friends called it. Oh ! I think the name was " The Potsy Wotsy System" " (? Pestalozzian). And in a lecture by Graham Wallas, Chairman of the School Management Committee of the London School Board, on Froebelian Pedagogy 2 occurs a story of an able man, who, when a little boy, objected to his Kindergarten school, be- cause when they worked they did not really work, and when they played they did not really play. For my own part I have but little doubt that children themselves are rarely deceived, but I am not so sure of the teachers ; they lack the inward monitor ; and objective criteria of play have been so many and so various that confidence would seem rash. But the educational issues are so momentous that I plead them as practical justification for this attempt to discuss and define the psychology and philosophy of play. I am unable to offer much in the way of statistical con- tribution of definite experiment, but I hold that we cannot wholly wait till all this has been done. Provisional syntheses must be made from time to time. Just as all men, even those most contemptuous of meta- physics, hold certain ultimate convictions which are meta- physical, and hold them moreover with a blind faith impossible to the metaphysician, so it is not necessary for educationists to study philosophy and psychology in order to hold very 1 Board of Education Report, 1901. 2 Child Life, July, 1901. 3
