Posted, without comment, as quotations from Margaret McMillan‘s Education Through the Imagination (2nd ed, Allen and Unwin, 1923):
…”Just as we may meddle too much with a child’s play, we may meddle too much also with his day-dreaming… Doubtless, reverie is a part of the whole process of thinking.” p 18
It is only since the coming of the nursery school in the open that we have a really fair view of what has been done to many young children. Even some in the infant school suffer from various forms of repression. The big classroom, no more than the crowded home, lends itself to the need for motor expression. p34
Play gives comradeship, but also other things. It is, however, the great means towards clearance, or emergence, of clear mind images. Therefore even solitary play is sought. It is not a mere preparation for future tasks of the ordinary kind – fighting, buying, selling, housekeeping etc. Neither is it a mere outflow of exuberant energy. It is a forging on towards a goal beyond – a goal where new experiences as well as new memories will be possible. Its effect as a spiritualizing influence is almost certainly lost sight of. Yet this is its real goal. p179
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