There are many people of middle age in America still who do not believe in play. They grew up without playgrounds themselves and they do not realize how greatly conditions have changed during the intervening years. When the author was a boy in southern Michigan the school session in his country community was only four months a year. Under these conditions the school may rightfully give its entire energy to scholastic subjects and trust to the children finding time for play and industrial training during outside hours. But as the school takes over more and more of the child's time and energy and grows from a 4-month term to a 5 or 10 month term, with a tendency toward a yet longer year, and a yet longer day, it becomes necessary that the school shall make provision for all sides of the child's nature. It is impossible to develop a high degree of motor skill unless the muscles and coordinations are trained during the period of growth. The best time for physical training is the period of the elementary school. During this time there is little physical work; probably not more than 5 per cent of the pupils have regular access to a gymnasium, and their chief source of physical development is play and athletics. The war revealed that about one-third of young men from 21 to 31 were unfit for military service, and the War Department officials tell that at least, half of the physical unfitness would have been overcome if these young people had had proper physical training during their youth. The war has demonstrated the great value of athletic sports in developing initiative, courage, resourcefulness, quickness of though in tie of danger and all the qualities which make a capable soldier. A bibliography is included. (Contains 5 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]