Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-16

were four years or more behind grade.
In a recent report of New York city
schools, Dr. Maxwell, superintendent
of schools, reports that out OF an en-
rollment of 100000 pupils, 250O0O failed
of promotion in q given year at the
regular time
The causes for this apparent retarda-
ton in mental growth are not hard to
find. Marked improvement will occur
where (a) defective conditions OF
growth are remedied and (b) school
activities are adjusted to health and
growth needs.
Development needs are three-fold.
To this end more of manual and in
dustrial training, developmental and
! corrective physical training, nature
study and elementary science, with
playground activities, are needed-in a
word, proper balance of mental ana
physical activities, so that a sound
body and sound mind may be the re-
suit of a course of educational work.
A good deal of halliday work in the
lower grades must be secured, and in
all grades more or less modification or
the regular order of school work. To
have school organization flexible
enough so that boys and girls could
naturally grow under its regime would
be a long step forward in educatlonal
progress.
AT transition periods the lessening Of
stress and strain of all frail and nerv-
Gus pupils whose Inheritance indicates
care at these epochs of life.
At these periods q to years-1S to
Is years. inherited tendencies to weak
nesses of all sorts tend to outcrop.
| Grave ethical defects which are
! foreshadowed in childhood may out
crop to full maturity at these periods
of stress and strain if school work or
! other work overtaXes the young.
The outcrop of juvenile insanity and
the outburst of Juvenile crime occur at
the same age az to Is years..
These matters mean much to edu-
cation. At these periods of develop
ment school and home must adjust
their work to development needs.
In high schools there should be relief
of high intellectual pressure at 1916
/ years, when natures order is physical
and functional development, and not
necessarily intellectual advance. This
is a positive need largely unheeded
today, especially among young women
of the high schools.
The adjustment of school work to
physiological age, especially at puberty,
is necessary. Chronological and physi-
illogical age are not necessarily the
| same, and may differ widely. Weight,
height, strength, scholarship, physical
and mental endurance depend primarily
1 upon physiological, not upon chrono-
i logical age.
1t makes little difference whether
/ pupils know a little more or little less
i of the international work of the
schools. 1t makes all difference wheth-
err the activities of home and school
are such as to call forth the best devel-
Il opment of pupils.
Schools and homes take boys and
girls through the high school and to the
university under high intellectual pres
frN1f
voirs to low ebb, and by such unintel-
| ligent course lay low many of the high
2 est intellectual and moral possibilities
of no small percentage of the young
: life of our time. Whoever draws un-
z duly upon the forces nature has re-
served for development at these times
manufactures for himself poor health.
| Grave ethical defects which are fore
/, Swallowed in childhood may outcrop to
4 full maturity at these periods of stress
and strain of school work or other work
which overtaxes the youth.
Surely they who claim that the TWEEN
tieth century is the Age of the Child
are not wrong-the little people are at
last coming into their own.
/ If out of the literature of the ages
one sentence might be selected as typi-
cal of the spirit of the century, one to
be written in letters across the piue
arch of heaven to speak to posterity OF
the one great endeavor of our time, it
should be HE set a little child in the
midst Of them"
Things which interfere with health,
growth and efficiency and the conse-
quences attending their neglect are
usually not appreciated until poor
health and failure in adult life reveal
the needless loss-the tragedy of many
a life
Remedies
The new law Application by school
authorities; organization suggested for
cities of California;
1. The establishment of departments
of health and development under the
! direction of the board of education.
headed by an educational expert well
qualified in the special work specified
| by the law. The establishment OF an
nual physical examinations of school
pupils to secure the correction of phys
| ical defects, thus maintaining continu-
Gus health and growth supervision OF
children and youths. In larger cities
an examining staff consisting of both
educators and physicians should carry
on this work Los Angeles has an eX-
aiming staff composed of a director
in charge of psychological clinic and
developmental work, and three skilled
physicians, one oculist and aurist,
specialist in children's diseases and
general physician, and a woman physi-
clan in charge of young women.
q The establishment of a follow-up
service to secure the cooperation Of
parents in the correction of physical
defects and other matters pertaining
to the health and growth needs of pu-
pills, the field of the school nurse and
social workers.
g. An organization of the physicians
of the city to supply medical aid and
expert medical service, and in those
cases where the school can certify to
! nf &c 10
supply such service at reduced rates.
This organization must devise some
plan so that the department of health
and development of the schools can
recommend skilled physicians to par
ents desiring such information; and
| further, some good plan of supplying
corrective physical training for indi-
vidual pupils is an essential
| This department in cooperation with
superiutendents, principals and teach
ers: To adjust school activities 10
health and growth needs (school
! studies, school hours, duration of les
sons, frequency of intermissions, more
or less sloyd and manual training,
nature study, elementary science, play
ground activities), modifying the
course of study whenever necessary
and possible to meet the needs of in
dividual pupils; to especially supervise
the training of exceptional pupils
showing mental retardation. deviation
or especial excellence; to especially SUI
pervise the instruction in hygiene. ma
ture study and science throughout the