But the Division of Medical Inspection must go farther than this. The physician must join with the psychologist and the educator in scientific research to determine the conditions best suited to the education of the child. Shall blackboards be of slate, composition board, or glass? Shall they be colored black, green, or ivory white? Is light chalk on a dark ground better or worse than dark chalk on a light ground? Is prismatic window glass superior to plain? To what extent is glare from polished desks detrimental to eyesight? How large must be the type in textbooks in order that young children may easily read it? What variations from the present school program are necessary in order to make adequate provision for change in the use of different sets of muscles, and relief from nerve strain?
These questions and hundreds of others are facing educational authorities. The method of answering them affects not only the children of one city but the children of all cities throughout the country. Everywhere schoolmen are on the alert to gain information which will help in solving these problems.
In addition to regular work of inspection and examination, the doctors and nurses of Cleveland spend a great deal of time in conferences with parents, talks with teachers, lessons and talks to children, toothbrush drills, and the like. The importance of work of this kind can hardly be overestimated, but it must be far more than "talks at people." It should be the aim of the Department of Medical Inspection to establish right habits in regard to health. For this reason, although both methods are helpful, drill in the use of the toothbrush is more effective than lectures on the need of using it. As a result of the work of doctors and nurses, Cleveland's children,—and her teachers as well,—should not only believe in plenty of sleep, but should go to bed early; not only disapprove of too much tea and coffee, but have strength to refuse when it is offered. Through classes for the anemic and pre-tubercular, the public schools help each year between two and three hundred children. This is worth doing, but they will render a far greater service to Cleveland if, in addition, they succeed in giving to 80,000 children, so firmly that it will never be broken, the habit of sleeping winter and summer with wide open windows.
The dentist, the oculist, the physician, should come to be regarded, not as dispensers of cures nor sympathetic listeners to hypochondriacs, but as leaders to whom intelligent people go in order to forestall trouble,—specialists in health rather than disease. Leading its future citizens to form right habits of thinking and acting in regard to health is one of the greatest educational services which the public school can render.
Ten Types of Health Work
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.