New Zealand children from 1840 to 1890 were subjected to an unusual combination of agrarian existence and an industrial social philosophy in the newly formed schools. When schools became more universal in the expanding industrial society, a new emphasis on the control of children developed, and from 1920 onward, adult supervision in the form of heavily organized sports and playgrounds encroached more and more on the untrammeled freedom of the rural environment.
Returning to his home country of New Zealand, Brian Sutton-Smith documents the relationship between children's play and the actual process of history. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of informants from every province and school district of New Zealand, the author illuminates for the first time the various social, cultural, historical, and psychological context in which children's play occurs. He treats both formal and informal play, as well as the play of both boys and girls.
- ISBN10 0812278089
- ISBN13 9780812278088
- Publish Date 29 January 1981
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 31 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Pennsylvania Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 352
- Language English
- URL http://degruyter.com/search?f_0=isbnissn&q_0=9780812278088&searchTitles=true