Games and Play for School Morale A Course of Graded Games for School and Community Recreation — Text and Context

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In Category - Schools Learning

Authors: Sheppard, Melvin W. [Editor], Vaughan, Anna [Editor] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2008 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Games; Schools -- Exercises and recreations Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 18,703

Reading time 82 min

Text sections 3

The source record for Games and Play for School Morale A Course of Graded Games for School and Community Recreation — Text and Context measures this digital text at 18,703 words, 1 hr 22 min estimated reading time, and 3 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 16.4 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Games,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #24786

An editorial note on how the opening, middle, and later excerpts of this 1920 games manual guide a first reading, focusing on the editors' framing of play as moral education and the graded structure of the games.

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A COURSE OF GRADED GAMES FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY RECREATION

ISSUED BY COMMUNITY SERVICE, Inc. One Madison Avenue, New York City

"MEL" SHEPPARD Department of Recreation and Physical Education

ANNA VAUGHAN Director of Recreation Community Council of Michigan

COMMUNITY SERVICE is the medium through which the residents of a community get together and really become members of that community with a consequent real interest in community welfare, prosperity and stability.

COMMUNITY SERVICE is CITIZENSHIP. It promotes Americanization. It denotes PROGRESSIVENESS. Any individual of the community with a real and active interest in the community is a better citizen.

COMMUNITY SERVICE provides an opportunity for people to meet as folks, as neighbors representing no one but themselves, and the ideas they cherish most. The towering advantage of Community Service is that it is the one movement to which everybody can belong.

COMMUNITY SERVICE is a community organized for service. This community has a real existence with a soul and personality of its own. The Community needs something to do as a community.

COMMUNITY SERVICE is an antidote for idle time. The success of a person or a community is not determined by the number of hours they are busy, but by what they do in their idle time.

COMMUNITY SERVICE offers every stranger who comes to a Community "the glad hand," displays true friendship to them and shows that we as a community care for his welfare.

COMMUNITY SERVICE promotes good will. There is no ritual for Community Service, just as there is no ritual for friendship. Friendship is a fact. Most men and women have a talent for it. Community Service organizes and develops that talent until it is made to render a world service. It makes the community a fact instead of a name.

PEACE TIME service is a war debt that Conscience and Patriotism must pay.

By Anna Vaughan "Mel" Sheppard

It is just as essential that the teacher who enters a schoolroom in September know how to play with children as to teach them. By no better means, perhaps, may the spirit of friendship and co-operation be so thoroughly strengthened and firmly established as through games.

The mental, moral and physical growth attained through participation in games cannot be overestimated. To listen to directions, to understand them thoroughly and to execute them exactly as given require alert attention and accurate motion.

To play fair, win honestly and accept defeat cheerfully, remembering at all times to be courteous to opponents, are invaluable lessons, and conducive to good citizenship.

Active games quicken the sense perceptions. Through them the dull, passive mind is aroused to an active interest in external things to which the hitherto inert body is forced to respond. As a result the child observes more closely, thinks more clearly and moves with greater ease.

To rhythmic games may be attributed the freedom of movement, graceful carriage and appreciation for and response to rhythm by which the child attempts to give expression to his inmost feelings.

By correlation with language, quiet games furnish a successful means for establishing correct habits of speech. Correlated with number, much valuable drill in the fundamental processes may be secured in a most delightful and informal way.

All children love to play, and, cosmopolitan as is the blend of our public schools today, in the recreation period is found an opportunity for universal expression not afforded in other activities of the day. Keenly sensitive to their surroundings, they are quick to catch the enthusiasm of their leader.

The child, timid and retiring of disposition, becomes a creature of initiative, while not infrequently the forward, self-assured child is given a much needed lesson in self-restraint. Through his skill displayed in playing games involving contest, a formerly unappreciated child compels the respect and admiration of his classmates, a tribute that may play no small part in influencing his course in after life.

It is only by getting into the game with the children and encouraging them to play naturally, permitting them to get all the joy there is in the performance hereof, that games may be made of greatest service. The effects of such play cannot fail to dispel the artificial atmosphere which for various reasons permeates many of our schools today, and to establish, in its place, wholesome and natural conditions, that will challenge the child's best efforts and render school life pleasant as well as profitable.

Graded Games for Schools and Community Recreation

The Indoor Recreation Work is given in the form of plays and games.

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The editors, Melvin W. Sheppard and Anna Vaughan, frame the manual with a foreword that insists a teacher's ability to play with children is as essential as teaching them. This opening positions the games not merely as recreation but as instruments for mental, moral, and physical growth—listening, fair play, and courtesy are explicitly linked to good citizenship. The excerpts that follow reveal a graded structure: early games like “Hawk and Hen” emphasize simple chasing and protection, while later ones such as “Boundary Ball” introduce team strategy and spatial boundaries. The progression suggests a deliberate design to build from basic coordination to complex social cooperation.

The Foreword as a Pedagogical Lens

Anna Vaughan’s foreword establishes the manual’s core premise: games are a means to strengthen “the spirit of friendship and co-operation.” She argues that active games “quicken the sense perceptions” and rouse the “dull, passive mind.” This statement is not generic; it directly shapes how the reader should approach the game descriptions. For instance, “Day and Night” requires players to react instantly to a visual cue (a black-and-white disk), embodying the alert attention Vaughan praises. The foreword thus functions as a reading guide, urging the instructor to see each game as a lesson in attentiveness and ethical conduct.

Graded Complexity in Game Mechanics

The excerpts show a clear progression in rules and physical demands. “Hawk and Hen” is a simple tag variant where a line of players, hands on shoulders, must stay aligned to protect the rear. “French Blind Man’s Buff” adds sensory deprivation and verbal disguise, requiring auditory recognition. “Boundary Ball” introduces teams, a center line, and the objective of driving the ball past an opponent’s boundary—a shift from individual to collective strategy. This grading is explicit in the manual’s subtitle, “A Course of Graded Games,” and the excerpts confirm that later games assume mastery of earlier skills like following directions and moving in unison.

Recurring Emphasis on Fair Play and Citizenship

Across the excerpts, the editors repeatedly tie game conduct to civic virtue. The foreword states that playing fair, winning honestly, and accepting defeat cheerfully are “invaluable lessons, and conducive to good citizenship.” In “Day and Night,” captured players are removed—a rule that enforces acceptance of loss. “Bull in the Ring” penalizes the bull who breaks the circle, but the chase that follows rewards the catcher, not the escapee. These mechanics embed the very values the foreword champions. The manual thus presents itself as a tool for Americanization and community building, as the prefatory material on Community Service makes clear.

The Role of the Instructor in Game Execution

The excerpts imply that the teacher’s role is active and interpretive. The foreword insists the teacher must “know how to play with children,” not merely supervise. Game descriptions are terse, leaving room for the instructor to adapt: “Call Ball” suggests variations like forming sides and scoring points. “French Blind Man’s Buff” allows the answering player to disguise his voice, requiring the blindfolded player to listen carefully. The manual trusts the instructor to enforce rules and cultivate the desired atmosphere. This reliance on the teacher’s judgment is a key feature for a first reader, who must decide how to translate these 1920s instructions into a modern setting.

A first-time reader will benefit from reading the foreword closely before examining the games, as it supplies the moral framework that justifies the collection. The graded sequence is best approached sequentially, noting how each game builds on skills from earlier ones. The manual’s brevity—each game is described in a few paragraphs—leaves much to the instructor’s creativity. Readers should treat the excerpts as a starting point for adapting these activities to their own community’s needs, keeping in mind the editors’ vision of play as a foundation for citizenship.

I keep thinking about how that old 1920 games manual frames play as quiet moral teaching, how graded steps let a child grow without noticing. It reminded me of another gentle guide, one that understands boys need room to become themselves: The Boy and the Sunday School A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age Boys — Reading Companion. Both linger because they trust small, patient structures.