The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-12-23
A Physicians Inspection or the Pub
lie Schools.

A Physicians Inspection OF the Pub
lie Schools.
prominent school official has declared the
sanitary condition of our public schools to be
good. and what is the HERALD that it should
contradict distinguished educator? Be-
sides, dictionaries differ, and the lexicog-
raphers upon whom the Board Of Education
relies may have some new and peculiar
definition for sanitary. But that the pub
lie may see the schools as the pupils see
them we publish this morning some notes
from the diary Of physician who has made
special study Of ventilation. AS he neg
visits he had to depend largely upon his
own eyes, lungs and nostrils for informa-
ton. We would have been glad had
these notes justified the complacency
with which the Board regards the
sanitary condition of the schools,
and had disproved every charge made
in our columns, but the reader will speedily
observe that until now the half has not been
told them. Crowded rooms, closed doors,
ventilators which no one thinks Of touch
ing. thermometers that are never used as
regulators of the temperature, extremes of
heat and cold, children alternately roasted
and chilled, teachers and pupils driven into
sick beds by foul air, and almost univer-
sally lazy. incompetent janitor. All these
undesirable features Of our school system
were found to be even more pronounced
than has ever been suggested by the
HERALD. and were supplemented by evils
not caused by bad air. Worse still. the
proximity of closets and urinals to class
rooms shows that in many cases q double
set of poisonous influences are ut work upon
the children and teachers, and that the
magnificent endurance of the human ply
sique is being more severely tested in our
public schools than anywhere else in the
country.
The first remedy that suggests itself is o
general dismissal of janitors. These men are
undoubtedly valuable at primary meetings
and the polls, where they do valiant service
to the politicians who appointed them; but
let their friends take care Of them. Public
sentiment has got beyond the slaughtering
of children for political purposes. There
are plenty Of men competent and anxious
for janitors' positions, with their free rent,
easy work and large salaries. Teachers
should Mt once be compelled to register
thermometers as checks upon janitors, and
to complain Of every species of neglect
or annoyance from these custodians
of schoolhouses. Whatever employee of
the Board is responsible for the condition
of the closets and urinals referred to should
be dismissed at once-he is already dis
graced for life. Until additional school
accommodation is provided the Board
should comply with the suggestion of our
inspector-that each primary school and
department should arrange their pupils in
two sets, one to be taught in the morning
and the other in the afternoon reason
able degree of floor room and air space
could thus be secured, and the dangers
even of laundering ventilation be greatly
lessened.
We greatly dislike to be alarmists, but the
facts reported to-day and heretofore in our
columns show what shocking ignorance and
neglect exist in an educational system
which costs considerable money and has in
its service large number Of gentlemen and
ladies of high intelligence and honest inten-
ton. There is therefore great reason to fear
that the sanitary condition of many private
schools, seminaries, convent schools and
colleges is fully as bad as that of our public
schools; it may often be worse, for some
show Of inspection is made under the Board
Of EJucntiop