The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-05-10
OF
SCHOOL CHILDREN.
AN ARTICLE THAT SHOULD BE CAREFULLY
READ AND THOROUGHLY DIGESTED
BY SCHOOL AUTHORITIES, TEACH
ERS AND PARENTS.

A county superintendent of schools
remarked the other day that one Of
the things he could not understand,
explain or excuse, was the Indifference
of teachers and the parents of pupils
to the unsanitary conditions surround
ing children in country schools. He
said that i'll the majority of country
school houses there was lacking any
proper provision whatever for the ven
tilation of the school room. AS re-
suit, when the children are collected
in the school room, the air becomes
foul before the school day is very old;
and the children becomel anguid, have
headaches, their brains are dull, and
it is more difficult for them to leaLn.
&c.
How prevalent such conditions are
in our country schools | know from
experience a 4 schn'or anil rs Il teach
er, and from observation. In lite a
number of them the only way to get
fresh air into the room is to raise the
windows (even to lower them from the
top is impossible) and have a direct
draft of cold air on the children.
Doubtless this is less hurtful than hav-
ing them breathe foul air. They GER
tainly learn better. once taught
in such a school house. When the pu-
pills became listless and saw several
resting their heads on their hands, /
would have all the children put on
their wraps and then the windows
would be raised for five minutes. Then
all the children would be ready to go
to work again, and recitations were
much better But there is no need of
any school house lacking moderately
good facilities for ventilation. Is the
school house in your district capable Of
being properly ventilated?
A school that attended for several
winters when was small boy was
housed in rather long room. This
room was heated by one large stove.
at one end of the room. The result
was that the pupils in the seats near
the stove was generally much too warm
while those farthcst from the stove
were not warm enough-would be
shivering if the weather was very cold.
Needless to say, the pupils in this
school were nearly always suffering
with colds and more serious ailments
resulting from colds. Being among
the smallest pupils, | hal scat near
the stove, and many time | was POS
itively sick from the excessive heat.
Of course all the pores of my pcrspir
ing body were opened wide, and when
| would 60 out for a play at noon OF
recess, | was in fine condition to catch
cold. If | did not catch it, it was be-
cause already had all my body would
hold. Of course the school house in
your district is not heated in such q
primitive, barberous manner; bnt az.
you sure that it is so heated that th,
health of the pupils is not continuous
ly attacked?
This school house of which / have
just spoken had another peculiarity
The windows were provided with shut
ters of the "venctian blind" kind; but
they could not be opened! The schoo
authorities had reasoned that if the
shutters were put on hinges so that
they could be opened, the hinges
would be broken or the wind would
whip off a shutter and break it. There
fore the shutters were screwed secure
ly in place. AS result, the room was
so dark that one had to give his eyes
three or four minutes in which to
adapt themselves to the semi-twilight
before he could read readily in school
book. 1t is not surprising that some
pupils frequently had headache and
that some had weak eyes. Now, o
course, there is no such idio.ic fea
ture about the school house in your
district; but are you sure that the room
is so we'll lighted that the eyes of the
pupils are not being injured? Do you
really know much about the lighting
heating and ventilation of the room in
which your children spend several
hours every day for some months:
School houses in large cities are sup
posed to be constructed on plans pre-
pared by the best architects, who have
made the construction of school houses
special study; yet even in these it is
found that often the light is so poor
as to make study continual injury to
the eyes of the pupil. May not the
school house in your district have the
same defect.
Last summer there was q sudden
and serious outbreak of typhoid fever
in q certain country school The We'll
at the school house, from which was
drawn the water used by the school
was at once suspected. 1t was thor
oughly cleaned out, and this revealed
that it should have been cleaned out
long before, and that the water in it
must certainly have been capable OF
producing typhoid fever. There is No