Source ISBN no:0-521-45062-4 the rebirth of educational toy: It is important to note that the label educational toy is by no means a new invention. The purpose of toys has practically always been educational. it is intresting to note that up to the seventeenth century the word toy was synomynous with "any pretty commodity, a thing of no great value," reflecting the attitudes towards toys. One who may be given credit for a changed attitude towards toys at that time was the English philosopher John Locke, who claimed that toys and play could be used in the education of young children. Locke even produced a toy, a set of letter blocks that was meant not only to teach children the alphabet. Rather than teaching children specific skills, however, these educational devices became "an incentive to keep children indoors, where they could be governed by tutors rather than by their rough brethen on the streets" (Sutton-Smith, 1986, p.119). The first truimphal march of the e...
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