The Philippines: Past and Present (Volume 2 of 2)Worcester, Dean C. (Dean Conant)
History
The Philippines: Past and Present (Volume 2 of 2)
Worcester, Dean C. (Dean Conant)
Philippines; Philippines -- History -- 1898-1946
From the beginning, other branches of the government have clearly
seen that no agency is so effective as the Bureau of Education in
the dissemination of knowledge among the people. It has therefore
been called upon frequently to spread information, either through
classroom instruction or through the system of civico-educational
lectures established by an act of the Philippine Legislature. The
Bureau of Health has frequently requested it to instruct the people
in the means to be used for the prevention of diseases, particularly
cholera, smallpox and dysentery, and has always met with a ready
response. Great good has doubtless been accomplished in this way,
but with regret I must call attention to the fact that in connection
with a matter of fundamental importance the Bureau of Education has
signally failed to practice what it preached, or at all events what
it was requested to preach. The Philippines are constantly menaced
by epidemic diseases, such as cholera and bacillary dysentery, while
amoebic dysentery occurs in every municipality in the islands and is
a very serious factor in the annual death-rate, hook-worm disease is
common, and typhoid fever is gradually increasing in frequency. The
question of the proper disposition of human feces is therefore one
of fundamental importance. It seems incredible, but is nevertheless
true, that in connection with a large majority of the modern school
buildings which have been erected there are no sanitary facilities
of any sort whatsoever. The condition of the ground in the rear of
many of these buildings can better be imagined than described. This
state of affairs not only sets an evil example to the children, but
exposes them to actual danger of infection with the above-mentioned
diseases. In many of the special provincial government towns where
a great effort has been made to have the people clean up, I have
found school grounds and the private premises of school teachers,
including, I regret to say, those of American school teachers, to be
in a more unsanitary state than were any others in town; and finally,
in despair of securing improvement in any other way, I have fallen
back on the courts and caused teachers responsible for such conditions
to be brought before justices of the peace and fined.
The Teachers' Camp at Baguio was long maintained in a shockingly
unsanitary condition; and as a result many persons who went there
seeking health and recreation became infected with intestinal
diseases, and were incapacitated for work during more or less prolonged
periods. In dealing with this situation I finally resorted to radical
measures, but got results.
Such a state of affairs is wholly incomprehensible to
me. School-teachers should be the first to set the people practical
examples in sane living, which means sanitary living, and should
improve the great practical opportunity afforded by the public schools
to bring home to their pupils certain homely but much-needed lessons
in ordinary decency.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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