_The age of leisure._ Youth is, in a sense, the age of leisure. We think of a gentleman of leisure as a person who, by virtue of his being a gentleman, is active in pursuits which are not necessary for the earning of his bread and butter. If he is not active, he is not a gentleman. If his activity does not add to a genuine enrichment of his own life and the life of the community, he is not a gentleman. If he does not know how to play, he is not a gentleman. The same ideas apply in principle to the concept of a lady of leisure. The adolescent youth has many of the characteristics and the opportunities of a gentleman of leisure. These opportunities do not mean an easy life, but a life characterized especially by the freedom to do just the things that he likes to do. These opportunities include, for many happily adjusted personalities, the development of the art of loafing: the substitution for mere sitting, for mere gossiping, for mere eating and drinking, and for degrading pastimes, an active life of restful, satisfying, wholesome self-expression in the play attitude. The high-school or beginning college student is not, as a rule, working for a livelihood, is not held down to the specific demands of a trade, a business, or a profession. He is in a period of preliminary skirmishes, and the public school programs provide liberally for these. He may spend his leisure time in the strenuous work of athletics or of any intellectual, artistic, or social pursuit lying outside the demands of the curriculum; he has time for such excursions. One of the happiest ways of spending his leisure time may be in the enthusiastic pursuit of musical activities. When he gets into college, these opportunities are more restricted; when he gets into his job, they are still more limited. Whatever the line of pursuit, these extracurricular activities are indulged in as a form of play. Nobody, however, can express in play all his intellectual, artistic, and social dreams or urges. Therefore the gentleman of leisure in the high school is forced to make a selection, and, in doing so, he rightly follows his natural bent of mind. If he casts his lot with music, he will train hard, and have the social satisfaction of supporting his musical group. Music becomes a game, involving contests with defeats and victories. It becomes a topic for conversation in social leisure. While the high-school program and the junior-college program do not emphasize rigorous technical training as a part of the academic curriculum, the majority of students get their musical satisfaction from the way in which they utilize their leisure for music. It is significant that at this age the stress is not on the hearing of music but rather on participation in musical performance. This period is the age of action, perhaps the best type of preparation for the listening stage since it follows the educational principle of learning by doing. MUSIC FOR YOUTH