News and Comments
Summer Playgrounds in Philadelphia.
Mr. W. A. Stecher, Director of Physical Education, and one of the staunchest friends of public playgrounds, has presented to the Philadelphia Board of Education the following interesting report of playground activities during the summer of 1909:?
“Sixty playgrounds were opened on July 1st. On account of insufficient attendance, two of these were closed during August. “In all grounds, a record was kept of the number of children attending mornings, as well as afternoons. During previous years, it has been customary to add the morning and the afternoon attendance and take this sum as the total number of children who visited the playgrounds. Figured in this manner, the total number of visits to the playgrounds of the Board was 950,051. “In most cases, however, the same children visit the playgrounds both morning and afternoon. The total secured in the above manner should not, therefore, be taken in arriving at the cost per child for the playground season. This has, this year, been secured by adding 20 per cent to the greatest number visiting each playground in either the morning or the afternoon session. In this report, the cost per child has been figured on this basis, i. e. during fifty-two days a grand total of 617,248 children.
“Eor the first time this year, we took a regular census report of all children who visited the playgrounds. This report gives us the name, age and sex of the child, nationality, grade in school and how far it lives from the playground, if it is a regular attendant and lastly, if it has charge of any smaller children.
“On these census sheets we have the names of 45,325 children, 21,726 boys and 23,599 girls; 35,147 of these (80 per cent), were regular attendants, the balance attending irregularly. “The average daily attendance in all playgrounds was 11,870 children, who during the two months made a grand total of 950,051 visits to the grounds.
“The cost for salaries was $19,810.35 and for supplies $5600.00, making a total cost of $25,410.35.
“The cost per child per day of nine hours was 4 1-9 cents, and the cost per child for the whole season, July and August, was $2.14. “The total attendance in the largest playground (Waterview) was 26,723, with an average daily attendance of 514 children, while the smallest playground (Keystone) had a total of 2967, with a daily average of 56 children. “Looking up the radius of efficiency of school playgrounds, we find that 11 per cent of children live within one-half square of the grounds; 31 per cent come 1 square; 24 per cent come 2 squares; 15 ” ” 3 ” 9 ” ” 4 ” 5 ” “5 ” 2 ” ” 6 ” 2 ” ” 7 ” 1 ” ” 8 ” and over. This shows that, so far as our school playgrounds are concerned, the majority of children, 66 per cent, do not come from a greater distance than two squares, and that 90 per cent live within four squares of the playgrounds.
“Coming now to the ages of visitors, we find that 15 per cent are under three years of age, 3 per cent are 3 years old; 3 per cent are 4 years old; 10 9 6 ” 5 ” 7 ” 9 ” 11 ” 13 7 9 10 9 4 6 8 ‘ 10 < 12 < 14 while 2 per cent are over fourteen years. These figures show that 33 per cent of the children in our playgrounds are six years or under; that 98 per cent are fourteen years and under, while only 2 per cent are over fourteeen years of age. This knowledge is a great help in preparing our future playground teachers, and also in ordering our equipment. “When we come to the question of nationality, we find that 28,753 children (of whom 1652 were negroes)?are reported as Americans. This is 63 per cent of the total. Next we have 4244 children, (about 1 per cent), classed as Hebrews, although no nationality is given. Then come 3289 Russians, 2545 Italians, 2440 Germans, 2404 Irish, 527 English, 411 Poles, and so on through twenty-eight nationalities, down to 2 Chinese, 1 Greek and 1 Cuban.
“These are interesting figures, but it would not be correct to assume that the proportions would be the same were the Board to establish more playgrounds in other parts of the city.
“The census brings forward another interesting fact, and that is that 12,063 very young children are often brought into the playgrounds by ‘young mothers’ (and fathers) where they are kept while the mothers are working to support the family.
“Reporting on the work as a whole, I can say that through the greater stability given to the playgrounds by appointing a principal, who had full control of each ground, much of the friction of former years has disappeared and the results, therefore, have been more gratifying.” Respectfully, W. A. Stecher, Director of Physical Education.
The St. Paul Institute of Arts and Sciences.
“Not a machine by which a few men can do something for the people of St. Paul, but an instrumentality by which all the people of St. Paul may do what they will for themselves and each other,” such is the Institute of Arts and Sciences. The First Year-Book, which has just been distributed, contains two hundred and twenty-five pages of solid food for thought, including a history and general description of the institute, the programme carried out in 1908-09, and descriptions of the several departments and sections. Before the organization of the present institute, most of these departments were working as independent clubs and societies, and to a large extent they still preserve their original form and method. They arrange their own programmes, conduct field trips and public exhibitions, and give courses of lectures both general and technical. These societies cover almost every field of popular interest in art, science, and industry, from symphony concerts and art exhibitions, German and French literature, through flower shows, cookery classes, a camera club and an ornithological club, to evening high schools, not overlooking a course on railroad freight rates.
All these things of course have been done before, time after time, in other parts of the world, but never in just this way, “not by a few men for the people, but all the people doing what they will for themselves and each other.” The citizens of St. Paul have had the genius to create for themselves, upon the basis of organizations already useful, a great social institution. And they have not moved rashly in their undertaking. For two years the experiment was made on a smaller scale, as the Institute of Science and Letters, with encouraging success. Mr. Charles W. Ames, President of the Institute, in his letter presenting the year-book to the board of trustees, says, “St. Paul has now a city-wide organization, so comprehensive, and so democratic, so adaptable to every public demand, that it may open the door of educational opportunity to every citizen and resident according to the individual need and desire.” In his eloquent address delivered at the meeting of organization in May, 1908, and reprinted in this year-book, he says, “It is for our children, and their children, and their children’s children, and their descendants: that they may be content to stay here and enjoy the benefits which we have helped to provide for them, and to increase those benefits continually, and pass them on to the other generations yet to follow. … We shall eat our cake and have it. We shall get the worth of our money as we spend it, and future generations will draw interest from it.”
A Clinical Psychologist for a State School for Feebleminded. Edmund B. Huey, Ph.D., formerly professor of psychology and pedagogy in the Western University of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, has been appointed clinical psychologist to the State School and Colony for the Feebleminded at Lincoln, Illinois.
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