The social control of children was a growing concern in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This film opens with young children playing on the sidewalk, unsupervised. To ensure a healthy environment and avoid “criminal propensities” in school age children, several playgrounds and recreation centres are funded by a private philanthropist. Children are supervised and engage in various activities, receiving instruction in various crafts, skills and games, organized by age and gender. Folk dancing is judged appropriate for the girls, where they develop “rhythm and grace”. So too is weaving and sewing. Boys engage in more boisterous and competitive games such as “blindfold boxing”. As the film explains, British children take to these games “instinctively”. Those with foreign parentage develop a love of sport, fair play and manliness, “which mean so much to a country”. Over a million children had participated in the program in the decade ending in 1921.

“The Educational Playground”, 1922, film, 12 minutes 34 seconds, Graphic Consultants collection, accession number 1972-0105, Item number ISN 192038, Library and Archives Canada.

Film editing by Annie Slotnick. Musical direction by Ewen Farncombe.

Songs:

The World is Waiting for The Sunrise - Isham Jones Orchestra -composition: Lockhardt; Seitz (1922)

Nobody Lied - Majestic Dance Orchestra -Arthur Hall-composition: Norman; Weber (1922)

Bees’ Knees - Ted Lewis and His Band -composition: Lopez & Lewis (1922)

Further Discussion

Sangster, Joan, "Creating Social and Moral Citizens: Defining and Treating Delinquent Boys and Girls in English Canada, 1920-65," in Contesting Canadian Citizenship: Historical Readings, ed. Robert Adamoski, Dorothy E. Chunn, and Robert Menzies (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2002)

Hogeveen, Brian, ‘The Evils with Which We are Called to Grapple’: Élite Reformers, Eugenicists, Environmental Psychologists, and the Construction of Toronto’s Working-Class Boy Problem, 1860-1930." Labour/Le Travail, vol. 55, Spring 2005, pp. 37-68.

Murnaghan, Ann Marie F. "Exploring Race and Nation in Playground Propaganda in Early Twentieth-Century Toronto." International Journal of Play, vol. 2, no. 2, 2013, pp. 134-146