Play as Natural Behavior
The change in attitude from that of the old-fashioned school to that of the modern school is traceable in part to practical experience and in part to a general and fundamental change in the philosophy of life. To-day there is the profoundest respect for all that is natural. The theological attitude of medievalism and of the Puritans that the body is the baser part of self has disappeared with the development of the biological sciences. The social sciences, too, have contributed the lesson that all human behavior is in accordance with certain natural laws. The philosophy of naturalism thus accepted has profoundly modified the views of parents and teachers with regard to the play impulse in children.