Ordinary school work is so dependent on health that one wonders how teachers of an earlier generation could have failed to see the absolute necessity of systematic supervision of health. When we think, for example, of the consequences of absence from class exercises because of illness; when we think of a child’s sense organs unable to carry to his mind the full message brought by the sounds and sights of the schoolroom; when we think of the nervous system dull and unresponsive because of malnutrition or hunger,—we begin to realize that the school is concerned in a very vital way with the problem of supervising health.
Treatment of Pathological Cases
In order to exhibit something of the scope of the present movement toward complete supervision of health, we may begin with the extreme cases. In progressive school systems the children who are tubercular or anæmic or otherwise seriously affected are taken out of the regular classes and put where the whole educational program can be subordinated to the one consideration of bringing them back to physical vigor. Often these classes are conducted in open-air rooms, and often the equipment of the rooms includes cots on which the pupils may rest as a part of the regular school exercise.
School Luncheons
A second line of treatment deals with nutrition. The importance of one aspect of this matter is brought out in the following paragraphs:
Long ago Horace Greeley, in an address before a convention of teachers, called attention to one of the most perplexing social and economic problems of the age—a problem which still confronts school authorities of to-day.
“In vain,” he said, “shall we provide capable teachers, and comfortable school rooms, apparatus, libraries, etc., for those children who sit distorted by the gnawings of hunger, ... or suffering from the effects of innutritious or unwholesome food.”
Medical inspection is forcing upon public attention this appalling fact—that a large percentage of children in school are in no physical condition, because of malnutrition, to profit by the present generous outlay of public money for school purposes. Practical educators, everywhere, are agreed that even the most patient, thoughtful effort to train under-nourished children is attended with but partial success. Out of their experience comes this plea—give the under-nourished child body food first, before offering him the wisdom of ages.[88]
In view of the condition in which many pupils come to school, it has been found important for school authorities or philanthropic organizations to provide luncheons. These have been most successful where a small price is charged for the food.
Control of Home Feeding
The influence of this experiment in feeding is important not merely because of the positive nourishment given to the pupils but also because of the example which it sets in proper standards of eating at home. Many families do not know how to feed children. The son of a truck driver who breakfasts with his father on coffee, sausage, and griddle-cakes will spend the morning trying to digest the food which is appropriate to his father’s occupation but not to the sedentary life of the scholar.