“Stop making that noise!” is a command hurled at the playful boy with such frequency that it no longer excites comment. It is natural for boys to play, yell, make a noise, and wear out clothes. They are the exuberant manifestations of his physical and emotional nature; the expression of the atavistic tendencies of man; the safety valve which relieves the pressure of superabundant vitality. As he is in the savage period of his life he yells like a savage. You may as well tell a pup not to bark as to tell a boy not to yell. It is the nature of the animal. We should recognize this fact by conforming to nature--not opposing it--because it is the normal condition of the normal boy. I have a profound pity for the boy who prefers to sit by his mother’s knee and read a book on his holiday, instead of joining the gang in playing tag or getting up a scrub game of baseball. Such a boy is abnormal; he is not “all boy”; he is either sick or mentally deficient and either condition should inspire the grayest solicitude of his parents as to his future. We do not want to rear a race of anemic runts. The young of all mammals manifest the play spirit as a means of growth. Colt, calf, lamb, kitten, pup, and boy all exhibit this tendency of nature. These things are the cause of growth, not only physical, but mental and moral as well. The educational value of play is one of the most important factors in the boy’s evolution. It is the expression of his being, his growth, his aspirations and his future. By play, he trains his eye, his hand, his mind and his muscles; his moral conceptions are formed; he learns to distinguish between right and wrong, and the recognition of individual and property rights begins to emerge from his nascent moral consciousness. Games with companions develop the social instincts. Through them he first realizes that he is a social unit--a thread in the social fabric of humanity. Action, constant action, is the keynote to his present and the hope of his future. He aches for action. If the boy’s play and noise disturb you, do not squelch him, but rather provide him with a place in which he may exercise these manifestations of his nature without causing you annoyance. A playroom in the house or barn, a tent, the lawn, the park, the great woods of the country are all ideal playgrounds for boys which satisfy the savage spirit of his nature. There ought to be ample room in this great world of ours for the growth and development of our future men.