The School Health Department
The kinds of demands described have led to the development of health departments in many school systems. The various functions served by a school health department have been described by Dr. E. A. Peterson, a health officer in one of the largest cities of the country, in a report from which the following paragraphs are extracted:
The problem of checking contagion is an acute problem in the schools. The facts show that in the early years of a child’s school life he has more of the diseases of childhood than at any other period, especially more than he had when he was at home during the period immediately preceding school. Furthermore, as soon as school breaks up for the long vacation, contagion subsides. The bringing together of large groups of children in schools is one of the most prolific methods of spreading contagion....
But the school health service soon developed far beyond this first stage of merely policing the schools. Indeed, one sees the real justification of a separate school health department if he follows this health department into what may be called its second, third, and final stage of evolution....
Examinations by physicians within the last decade indicate that as many as five per cent of school children suffer from defective vision to such an extent that they cannot see lessons on the board unless they have the services of expert oculists, that one in every hundred cannot hear what the teacher is saying, that ten in every hundred are so “stopped up” by adenoids that attention to school work is nearly impossible until the science of medicine gives them relief.
This drew the attention of the educational world to the necessity of ridding children of these defects in order that they may take advantage of the educational opportunity offered in the schools....
One characteristic development shown at this second stage of school health organization is the employment of the school nurse. The school nurse marks the growth of the health era away from its first or merely policing stage. The school nurse is at once a medical officer and a teacher. She teaches the parents in the home and she teaches the children. She becomes a most important link between the home and the school. Her methods are those of persuasion, not those of the emergency police officer....
Once the idea of making health a matter of intelligent interest took root, it was sure to grow. Correction of physical defects is itself a tardy method of dealing with the situation. Why not prevent the defects? This kind of thinking turned attention to the environment of the child and the necessity of making it as conducive to health as possible....
Finally, it is by no means satisfactory that we should stop with the negative work of preventing disease and unfavorable conditions. We must be positive in our treatment of health. We want more health, more vigor, more efficiency. The fourth stage of medical inspection may properly be called the health development stage and has to do not only with the teaching of hygiene but with the development of higher ideals of wellness, with the raising of the standard of normality, with taking a person who is well and making him “wellest.”...
The department must constantly assume new functions without dropping any of the old. If it is to be an efficient department, it must carry on all of the activities suggested in the summary which can be made up from the foregoing study.
First stage—Inspection
1. Inspection of children for contagious diseases
Second stage—Discovering and correcting defects
2. Physical examination of all children
3. Follow-up work in the home to get corrections
4. Maintenance of school clinics
Third stage—Prevention
5. Sanitary inspection Hygiene of building Hygiene of curriculum Hygiene of instruction Special schools for special cases 6. Examination and inspection of principals, teachers, janitors and other employees
Fourth stage—Health development
7. Health teaching at school and at home
8. Establishing health habits by means of
- a. Toothbrush drills
- b. Handkerchief drills
- c. Bathing, etc.
- d. Health clubs[91]
1. Inspection of children for contagious diseases
2. Physical examination of all children
3. Follow-up work in the home to get corrections
4. Maintenance of school clinics
5. Sanitary inspection Hygiene of building Hygiene of curriculum Hygiene of instruction Special schools for special cases 6. Examination and inspection of principals, teachers, janitors and other employees
| 5. Sanitary inspection |  | Hygiene of building |
| Hygiene of curriculum | ||
| Hygiene of instruction | ||
| Special schools for special cases |
7. Health teaching at school and at home
8. Establishing health habits by means of
- a. Toothbrush drills
- b. Handkerchief drills
- c. Bathing, etc.
- d. Health clubs[91]
- a. Toothbrush drills
- b. Handkerchief drills
- c. Bathing, etc.
- d. Health clubs[91]