Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-06-03
HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.

HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.
While In recent years there has been
a deepening general impression of the
defective conditions of our schools, DR..
George Woodruff Johnson, in an article
in the North American Review on the
effects of school life on children's
health, points out forcefully the lack
of scientific study and precise infor-
nation, and justifes the statement of
the superintendent of physical training
in the Boston public schools a few
years ago that 1T is scarcely too much
present conditions to estimate the
losses entailed by hog cholera or cat
tie plague throughout the union than
to determine the number of school
children who succumb annually to
school diseases in the United States"
But the reliable data now beginning
to be accumulated in American schools
more than confirm the far completer
information which has been collected
and classified during the last decade
by competent students of conditions in
various European countries. The net
result is showing that there is a sur
prising amount of Ill health among
school children, that though varying in
degree, from slight functional disturb
ances to actual illness, the same NOR
bid conditions are found wherever and
whenever Investigations are made, and
that the percentage of morbidity rises
with progress from grade to grade.
1t is undoubtedly true that condi-
lions in some respects, as in ventila-
ton, cleanliness and other points of
sanitation, have improved, yet the Sc
rious fact is established that school
work is accompanied by physical de-
terioration, so that children contin-
uously in school are of a weaker fiber
and have a less we'll balanced ner-
vous system than other members of
the same family of approximately the
same age who stay at home. The facts
seem to point distinctly to excessive
exaction upon the energies of the pu-
pills or to a similar fault IN provision
for recreation. even where the total
requirement is not excessive. The
very phrase, school diseases" which
has become an accepted usage, carries
an ominous significance. In this coun-
try 1t includes an especially numerous
group of ailments which arise from
nervous arrangement and protracted
! fatigue. An enormous increase oil
nerve disorders has been noted in the
school children in every American city
where the matter has been investi-
| gated, and 1t has been coincident with
the increased severity and elaboration
of the curriculum. The number elimi-
mated by this and kindred classes OF
disease as pupils are transferred from
the grades 10 the high school and dur
ing their progress therein towarC
graduation is positively astonishing.
Excessive requirements indeed ar,
the one fact that seems to be mos
clearly established by all the tests tha
have been applied, although in genera
they are not as complete as they SHOULD
be. mo matter" says DR.. Johnson
what the age, sex, social condition o.
home life of the pupil; no mattel
where he may live. nor in what man
ner Of school building he may b,
housed; no matter how good OF baC
the heat, light or ventilation, how un
suitable the desks. how high the stairs
no matter II much of the study b.
done outside the school proper. one
rule always holds good-the percen
tage of morbidity increases in direc