Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-03-06
CHILDREN AND SCHOOL DESKS

rnap and vim. not bigger than
minute. hut taking three grades every
year. what of him1 lie reaches up and
cranes his neck an awryi perhaps
doubles one knee under him 20 mako
him bottor able TO reach the normal
desk lie too Ia twisted and stretched
in a way that may bc natural for
"a rattle snake but FAR rom normal for
o. boy lie also represents "a fair per
contago of the class And the rcsults2
Am the children In that room who do
not size up with the average child In
that grade are distortiug thcr healthy
hodios into human caricatures while
they arc developing their brains and
making life pheasant for teacher"
while Il is truly said the statistics
are not always reliable they are often
the best method of presenting an idea
in a gct-at-able concrete manner In
1901 lu switzerland OF 2.3l4 school chill
dron examined, 246-1O per cent sho wed
doformity OF the spine, Hagomann,
in Moscow found 70 per cent IN 1924,
kohlbach, reports from ST. Petersburg,
20 per cent OF deformity IN 2,s83 eX-
omincd Whitman states that IA New
York curvature OF The sTano is next
to- howlogs the most prevalent de-
formitY. In examining tho attitudes
of 1.lNi children seated In the Boston
schools IN 1904. ToWne observed 81 per
cent iu faulty pastures, predisposing to
SPINAL curvature.
Tho Importance OF this matter oapc
home 50 forcibly 20 tho sohoolhouse de-
partmont of education of Boston that
remedial measures were taken under
consideration with the result that the
mower Boston schools are fitted with
adjustable chairs and individual desks
They have abandoned entirely the old
idea OF htung the child TO the desk
and now nc the desk to tho child. no
matter how large or small he may be-
Furthermore the chair r. 20 construct
ed and On such relation 20 the desk
that the easy restful attitude IL tho
correct and normal and and not one
I'm which the child Is twisted like a
lop-sidcd corkscrew.
And the gis OF All this? Simply that
the Utah boys aud girls are as price-
less as the girls and boys OF Boston or
any other city or state, and the sug-
gestion Is respectfully submitted 10 tho
legislature that among the many im-
portant measures which they are con-
sidering for the wcifaue OF the chil-
dren Of Utah, they consider this one
looking TO the prevention OF physical
deformity. Tor after an the moral.
spiritual and mental development Of
the child depends 10 a great extent
upon a harmonious physical mechan-
ism. No matter how bright a boy may
be III he shutters and llsps and every
time he recitos the class roars. he win
not progress. DE win draw into a men
t,l shell Of reserve and stagnate. OF
what use is a good brain t. a girl IL
she has am avoidablo twist IN hor back
which wasn't avoided? Her life Is more
or less ruined A dishguring scar or
dragging limp may make a hopeless
neurasthenic out ~ the brightest boy
or girl In the village.
As 70 the bill Il need not and should
not be radical at all. But say II em-
bodies the thought that every new
schOolhouse erected and in refurnlsh-
Ing schools alread built adjustable
chairs and individual chairs be adopted.
No hardship is worked on anyone, no
property 10 discarded or destroyed and
in 10 years every school boy and girl
in this state viii be provided with a
desk or chair which fits him or ner.
il this is done another big stride I'm
preventive medicine will have been
taken. JsLIOYD WOODRITFF.
Philadelphia, Feb. 2S. 1909