Health Work in the Public SchoolsAyres, Leonard Porter
Science
Health Work in the Public Schools
Ayres, Leonard Porter
Public schools -- Ohio -- Cleveland; Schools -- Medical examinations
As the work in Cleveland develops, it should aim to include all those
types of activity which extended and varied experience has shown to
better the health of school children, safeguard them from disease, and
render them healthier, happier, and more vigorous. Among such
activities the following are of special importance:
1. Medical inspection for preventing the spread of contagious disease
and for the discovery and cure of remediable physical defects.
2. Dental inspection for the purpose of securing sound teeth among
these school children.
3. The steady development of the work of the school nurses to the end
that their co-operation with doctors, teachers, and parents may
progressively contribute toward improving the health of the children.
4. Open-air schools for giving to the physically weak such advantages
of pure air, good food, and warm sunshine as may enable them to pursue
their studies while regaining their physical vigor.
5. Special classes and schools for the physically handicapped and
mentally exceptional in which children may receive the care and
instruction fitted to their needs.
6. School gardens, which serve as nature study laboratories, where
education and recreation go hand in hand, and increased knowledge is
accompanied by increased bodily efficiency.
7. School playgrounds, which afford space, facilities, opportunity,
and incentive for the expression of play instincts and impulses.
8. Organized athletics, which aid in physical development, and afford
training in alertness, intense application, vigorous exertion,
loyalty, obedience to law and order, self-control, self-sacrifice, and
respect for the rights of others.
9. Systematic instruction and practice in personal and community
hygiene and sanitation.
10. The progressive improvement of all adjuncts of better sanitation
in school houses, such as sanitary drinking cups and fountains,
systems of vacuum cleaning, improved systems of lighting, heating, and
ventilation.
HEALTH AND EDUCATION AND BUSINESS
There is one condition in the Cleveland school system which rises like
a mighty barrier against the possibility of completely fulfilling any
such program of health education as that outlined in the 10 planks of
the preceding platform. This is the fundamental fact that the
Cleveland school authorities have not yet conceived of health work as
being an integral part of education.
In this city the work of the Board of Education is divided into three
main departments. These are the executive department, the educational
department, and the department of the clerk. The executive department
is under the leadership of the director of schools and it deals with
the business activities of the Board. The educational department is
under the superintendent of schools and deals with teaching.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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