Civics and HealthAllen, William H. (WIlliam Harvey)
Science
Civics and Health
Allen, William H. (WIlliam Harvey)
Hygiene; Public health
Whether the hours of study at school and at home are excessive cannot
be learned from treatises on pedagogics or physiology. Because children
differ in vitality as in ability to learn, the maximum limit for study
hours should be determined by the individual child's physical
condition. When the Japanese went to war with Russia the highest
authority in the field was the army surgeon. To this fact was largely
due the astonishingly small amount of sickness and the high fighting
capacity and endurance of the Japanese, working under unfavorable
conditions. No board of school superintendents or board of directors,
no state superintendent of schools or college professor, has the right
to compel or to allow study hours beyond the maximum compatible with
the individual student's physical condition and endurance. The
physician responsible for school hygiene should have an absolute veto
upon any educational policy, method, or environment demonstrably
detrimental to children's vitality.
6. _Establishment of a "follow-up" plan to insure action by parents to
correct physical defects and to attend to physical needs._
The advantages of _getting things done_ over _doing things_ have been
repeatedly emphasized. In smaller cities and in rural districts it is
particularly important for schools to get things done better by
existing local agencies, such as churches, health and street-cleaning
departments, hospitals, clinics, medical and sanitary societies, trade
unions, young people's societies, and women's clubs. Where parents who
have been followed up and taught, obstinately or ignorantly refuse to
attend to their children's needs, the segregation of the physically
defective or needy will encourage the cooeperation of children
themselves in persuading parents to act intelligently for the child's
sake. No child wants to remain "queer" or "dopey" or behind his peers.
The city superintendent of schools for New York City has asked for laws
compelling parents to permit operations and punishing them for
neglecting to take steps, within their power, to remove physical
defects discovered at school.
[Illustration: TEACHING A MOTHER TO CARE FOR ONE CHILD INSURES
BETTER CARE FOR ALL HER CHILDREN]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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