Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-09-05
though an important one.

though an important one
But the teacher can and should see
that the school room, especially in
winter, is kept at a proper tempera-
ture. A thermometer should be kept
in each room.
The temperature should he kept at
from 40 to rs degrees.
If the ~janitor neglects to supply the
heat the school should be dismissed
and the %janitor reported to the super
intendent or school board, or whoever
is in authority over him. When a child
comes into the school room, warm
from play or from running to avoid
hardness, throws off its heavy wraps,
sits down in a cold corner of the room,
or in a draft, the teacher should see to
it that that child is placed in a warm
part of the room, out of drafts. And
if the room is cold, the children cold,
as manifested by coughing and other
wise, and the teacher decides from any
cause not to dismiss the school, he or
she should have the childrentput on
their wraps and see to IL that they
keep them on.
How many pneumonias and pleuri-
sizes we see caused by criminal negli-
gence in this regard-diseases con
tracted that damage the vital organs
OIL boys and girls for life, and bring
them frequently to early graves. If a
child is heard to cough sufficiently to
attract the attention of the teacher,
that child should be placed neal the
radiator or stove. He should be told
the danger of splitting on the floor,
told that all sputum is likely to be
filed with the germs of contagious dis
eases. That when this sputum be-
comes dry and is puverized it floats in
me atmosphere and all the scholars in
hale it and are likely to contract there
by the same disease.
II a child continues to cough, espec-
tally to expectorate land a teacher
should examine the floor daily after
school hours for sputum where every
child sits), and IL sputum be found, the
child should be sent promptly to a
physician for examination, and dis
missed If found suffering from contag-
ious disease. Teachers and whole
schools may be infected becauses of
carelessness in this regard. Tubercu-
losis is very common among children,
especially in Albuquerque. From one
expectoration have been countedd four
millions of bacilli, or enough to infect
every man. woman and child in the
city of London.
Hence for your own safety, you who
are shut up for hours daily with these
children, it behooves you to guard
thoroughly against this danger to your
selves and those in your charge.
There are many little matters that
the careful, conscientious, intelligent
teacher will guard children against.
They will see to it that the windows
and doors are tightly and promptly
closed when our frequent dust storms
appear; and that the delicate child is
kept from playing in the rain when the
"infrequent rain, so dear to the heart of
every child, falls on our desert land.
They will arrange classes or have
recitations standing at care fully regu-
lated intervals that every pupil may
stand or walk as frequently as is con-
sistent with order, and thereby avoid
the restlessness and cramps caused by
sitting long at their desks.
Many of these suggestions are trite
and possibly hardly worthy of men,
ton, and most of them have been
acted upon by every teacher present.
But it is the faithful, conscientious
performance, or lack of performance of
the trite, humdrum, little, everyday
matters of life, that in the aggregate
make, or mar, our success in this
world.