13. How would you change your work in order to accomplish the most possible for the development of children who are now socially efficient?
14. Ought we to expect all children to accept the same social responsibilities, either as to kind or degree, in the school or in their out-of-school life?
15. If children do not work together for common ends in our schools, if the spirit of coöperation and service is not present there, ought we to be surprised at the non-social or anti-social attitude and practice of adults?
CHAPTER XIII
THE PHYSICAL WELFARE OF CHILDREN
Intellectual development, and more especially intellectual efficiency, are conditioned in no mean degree by one’s physical condition. Schools have too frequently, and with justice, been accused of producing physical defects in children. It is coming to be recognized that we must in increasing measure take account of the hygienic conditions under which school work is done, as well as provide for the elimination or amelioration of physical defects. We now have open-air schools for consumptives, medical inspection, and dental clinics. There are some schools which provide school lunches at a nominal price or without cost to the pupils. Corrective physical training is coming to be recognized, along with special playground work. Everywhere appreciation of the importance of physical health as a condition prerequisite to intellectual vigor is leading those who have the welfare of the community at heart to demand that active measures be taken to protect and nourish the bodies of school children. It is the purpose of this chapter to indicate briefly the relation of teachers to this movement for physical well-being.
The demand that light be sufficient and that it come from the right direction is familiar to all teachers. It may be argued that teachers cannot control the lighting of their rooms. The author has known teachers who have had blinds properly placed, walls and ceilings painted or papered with respect to proper distribution of light. Some teachers have even been instrumental in securing alterations in buildings or the erection of new buildings. Teachers who know that the area of windows should be one fourth of the floor space, that the light should be admitted from one side of the room, and that it should come over the children’s left shoulders, may not be able to meet all of these conditions; but they can do all that is possible to ameliorate defects, and can call attention to the dangers which the situation possesses for their pupils’ eyesight by giving or having given tests and making known the results.
Modern school buildings are built with artificial ventilating systems. The success with which any system works depends in no inconsiderable measure upon the teacher. By opening windows in one room the efficiency of the ventilation of all other rooms in the building may be impaired. Failure to note the temperature may mean that children and teacher are suffering from a condition easily remedied by the janitor or engineer. Every teacher should have the temperature of her room recorded on the blackboard, where every one can see it, at least twice during each school session. Needless to say, the thermometer should be accurate, and, if possible, hung in the center of the room, not more than four or five feet from the floor.
Teachers are responsible for right habits of posture. If seats need to be adjusted, the teacher should note the fact and notify the principal. Although special cases may demand expert advice and care, the teacher must hold herself responsible for the posture of the majority of the class. Defects of vision may be either the cause or the effect of improper position of the body, and should bring from the teacher an urgent appeal for careful examination and correction. Frequent rest periods should be provided, the habit of correct posture insisted upon, and simple corrective exercises given by the teacher.
Schoolrooms are not infrequently the center of infection for the community. Any teacher can insist upon separate drinking cups, if sanitary fountains are not provided in the building. When a child appears with a rash, with an abnormal temperature, and not infrequently with only a cough, the teacher should appeal to the principal, the health inspector, or others in authority for the elimination of the child from the group. The author has been in schoolrooms where two or three children in the incipient stages of whooping cough were allowed to infect the whole class. A school superintendent was distressed with what proved to be a veritable scourge of scarlet fever in one of his schools. Upon visiting the school he found one child on the playground proudly showing the other children how he could take flakes of skin from his arm. No one expects teachers to be expert diagnosticians, but any teacher should acquaint herself with the more common indications of childish diseases, and should act promptly when her suspicion is aroused, even though she prove to be wrong in half the cases. If anything is wrong, eliminate the child from the group, suggest that a physician be consulted, and await developments: this is the only safe rule.