The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-06-22
BASIS
OF EDUCATION
SUBJECT OF FIRST LECTURE BY
PROF. LAYTON 3. EVANS.
He Tells of the Great Importance Of
the Care Of the Teeth and Eyes of
Pupils in Our Public Schools.

The feature at the South Mississippi
College summer school this week will
be the lectures of Lawton B. Evans,
superintendent of City Schools, of At
lanta, Ga. Mr.. Evans began the series
yesterday with lecture on The Phys
ical Basis of Education"
Prof. F, B, Woodley, director of the
summer school, introduced him with
few well chosen words and Mr..
Evans talk showed the years of exper-
fence and knowledge he has acquired
in educational work. He has been sup
erintendent of the city schools of At
lanta, Ca; for several years with 176
teachers under his direction.
His subject, "The Physical Basis OF
Education" was well chosen and clear.
ly discussed. He told of having ply.
sicians examine the public school
childrens' teeth, saying that the basis
of health is commonsense care of the
bodies for the work in this world. In
showing the Importance of care of the
bodies, he quoted DR.. Stanley Hall,
What does it profit a man if he gain
the whole world Of knowledge and lose
his health
The results of the examinations of
the children's teeth by physicians,
were: In the first school of over 500
pupils, only 5 per cent. had sound
teeth, one out of five used a tooth
brush; only one-third of them had ever
been to a dentist and if uncared for
and neglected these children would
reach maturity with bad teeth and i'm
paired digestion. All of them had al
ready had tooth ache. The pupils
were all mill children or children of
people who worked in the mills.
In another school when the child
rens' eye sight was examined it was
found that in the fist grade 10 per
cent had bad eyes; in the high school
one-third had bad eyes. Many people
think just SO the children learn, any
old way will do and don't think of the
suffering of the children.
DR.. Evans spoke of a label he had
had prepared and pasted in the back
of each book in the library. This la
bel read "Take care of your eyes"
followed by some ordinary advice
about the care of the eyes.
"The Americans" the speaker went
on to say "are active, nervous, hust-
ling; the English and Scotch are ath-
letic, they walk a few steps, they say,
and these few steps may be five or six
miles. Then, too, English live in 3 de-
grees less heat than Americans do for
in this country there are super-heated
hotels, super-heated cars. An English
man instead Of turning on more heat
when cold, simply puts on more cloth
ing. Speaking of germs, Mr.. Evans
suggested putting oil on the floor with
brush, thus preventing the dust after
sweeping the school room.
He urged greater care and concern
for the play grounds and often the
most neglected part of the school
house, mentioning magnificent school
buildings with no play grounds and
then telling the Importance of play.
A suggestion which his hearers
echoed heartily was that each county
has a field day and practice basket
ball, running racesF leaping or any
style of athletics suitable, then have
a big day on field day with these
games. A state marathon in which
all the schools Of the state take par
would make the field day interesting
throughout the state. Prizes Offered
to the winners woul make the children
anxious to excel.
Mr.. Evans advised the children t.
keep young and by all means to pla.
something, tennis or basket ball O
some athletic game and learn to ex
cell in it.