Page 49 - 1913 November - To Dragma

54 TO PRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

tubs are even provided and a trained nurse gives practical lessons in
the cleanliness of the baby.

Swimming classes are provided for the older children, and travel-
ing libraries help them to enjoy and appreciate good literature.

Mr. Perry summarizes the effects as follows:
There is a marked reduction in delinquency as well as a decrease
in lawlessness. A Kansas City judge finds an actual decrease of
seventy-five per cent in the cases appearing before the juvenile courts
in playground districts. There is a lessening of loss of children's
lives due to accident in the streets and near dangerous places. There
is a tremendous Americanizing influence in cities with large immi-
grant populations. The boys and girls work together for a com-
mon whole. The athletic games and sports develop friendliness and
tend to increase appreciation of one another. By the acquisition of
the athlete's "code of honor," the character is influenced for good.
The folk dances, besides the physical benefits they bestow, make the
children feel important, and also should the dances be those of their
own countries, that they are appreciated in America. The large
festivities with which the playgrounds usually end the long sum-
mer season bring the parents together in common good-fellowship.
And the relief which the mothers get from the care of the children
results in the direction of more time and energy to household du-
ties. A l l of the playground activities tend to develop the spirit of
cooperation, and as they reach all classes and all nationalities, "lay
the foundations of a greater social cohesiveness later on."

The public school buildings have been very successfully used as
public lecture centers in many of our cities. The subjects, aimed
to be of vital interest to the people, and yet give much needed infor-
mation, are of all kinds, artistic, intellectual, and civic. They are
often illustrated, sometimes with moving pictures. The lectures
have been on "First Aid to the Injured," with practical demonstra-
tions, and also on the latest scientific methods of curing diseases.
I n one particular center weekly lectures on science were given for
seven years, and examinations held at the end of each term for any
who wanted to take them. In Cleveland, after one of the illustrated
talks on "Mow We May A i d the Fight Against Tuberculosis," the
committee received forty letters from the pupils of the school telling
of sanitary improvements in their homes, made as a result of the
lecture.6 The lectures often aid home study by displaying bulletins
showing where the nearest branch of the public library may be
found.

'Perry, p. 193.