Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-03-10
Our Public Schools.
Hygiene and Health.

The gravest responsibilities of school
boards are those in connection with
the heating and ventilatlng of school
rooms. for the health of the teachers
and the pupils and the efficiency of
the work depend on these.
There was time when the ordinary
stove was the best possible means of
heating rooms, but more efficient and
healthful means have been devised for
doing the same kind of work with
greater economy OF fuel. Among these
may be mentioned the hot.air furnace.
steam heat, and hot water. In the
more modern school buildings one or
the other of these methods of heating
is to be found in successful operation.
BY the old stove heating method it is
an imposslbility to maintain an equable
temperature throughout large room.
Those who sit near the stoves
are suffering from the heat; those who
are at distance from it suffer with
the cold. In either case there is a
great waste of energy that, by a better
method OF heating, might be utilized
IN doing better work upon the part of
both teacher and pupil. But the most
important consideration is the health
OF those who have to work in such
rooms. "One-third of the population
OF this State spend one.fourth Of their
life in the school room during the
formative period of the body when
most susceptible to injurious influences.
From unhygienic conditions of the
school room and its environments
the life and the health of pupils are
continually and dangerously menaced."
The cost of lnstallment of these new
methods and appliances for heating
and ventilating school rooms is no
reasonable argument for their non-
introduction. They do not cost SO
much ss the impaired health of the
pupils and perhaps lifelong suffering
and misery entailed by the old stove.
heating method. Many an individual
has gone down to an early grave. or
been handicapped thro life, by disease
which had its origin in improper meth.
DDS of heating and ventilation in the
school room. If the improved meth.
ods are so necessary in the home, they
are still more necessary where the
young are congregated by stoves for
six hours of the day, thlrty-six weeks
in the year.
There is story of an old teacher
who, after the dismissal of the school
for the day used to turn to his assis.
tant with the request, "Please throw
open the window, and let out the re.
mains of the senior Glass; Had the
ventilation of his room been what it
should have been there would have
been no remains OF the senior Glass;
to let out.
'Tis not the work and worry of the
schools that is blighting child life so
much as It's the unhygienlc conditions,
both at home and in the school room,
under which that work is carried on.
Thousands of boys and girls have
received their education in the public
schools of Cresco. How many of these
have been crippled IN health, and con.
sequently in life, from the poor heat.
ing and ventilation Of its school rooms7
God alone knows!
Is 1t not time that some improve
ment should be made in this line7 1t
is hardly reasonable to suppose that
the taxpayers of this community
would hesitate to vote the funds nee
essary for this purpose if called upon
to do so. 1t is to be hoped that they
may have this opportunity of showing
their interest in the welfare of ths
schools and those whose formative
period of life is spent in them.
H. B. L.