The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-02-24


loW-pupils. Regular medical instru
ton of school-childrgn in the United
States began in the city of New York
in 1892. Boston followed two years
later, Chicago fell into line in 1896 and
philadelphia in 1897 At present,
medictal inspection is the rule in more
than one hundred cities and four
hundred towns -leaving, however, q
very large percentage of children still
unprotected.
The results have been startling. In
New York, in single year, fifteen
thousand children were found to be
suffering from contagious eye dis
ease and sixty-five thousand other
j children were excluded from school
for various periods because they were
found to be active sources of infection
for various maladies, ranging from
whooping cough to diptheria That is
one of the reasons why the death-rate
in the metropolis has, in the last doz-
en- years, dropped from twenty-five to
eighteen for every thousand inhabi-
tants.
When Johnny Jones comes up to be
examined physically as well as men
tally, before entering school, the wise
physician is not content simply with
making sure that he is not menance
to the other pupils. Johnny's own
well-being- potential president that
he is-remains to be considered
He's stupid boy" teacher says
Iconfidentially to the doctor Hates
to study. Doesn't seem to grasp the
meaning of anything, even when /
write it all out on the blackboard.
When correct him he's inclined to be
sullen and impudent."
Presently the doctor discovers that
Johnny's eyesight is defective. He
hates to read or study because the
print is blurred before his eyes. He
dosen't grasp the problem that the
teacher writes out so carefully on the
blackboard because he can't half see
lit. He is sullen and impudent be-
cause he feels he is blamed for some
thing that is not his fault. 1t is esti-
mated that about one-quarter of all
the incorrigible and backward boys
and girls in the public schools are so
because there is something the matter
with their sight or hearing.
Among one hundred thousand child
rem in New York, nearly one-third
were found to have such defective eye
sight as to require glasses. In Phila-
delphia there were three hundred and
fifty-four pupils who, their teachers
declared, were mentally deficient
plain candidates for the asylum for the
Ifeeble-minded At the suggestion of
the medical inspectors and at a cost
of three hundred dollars, appropriated
by the city council, those three bund.
red and fifty-four children were prop.
Ierly fitted with glasses. The result
was a most remarkable-not to say
hetic-improvement both in schol
arship and conduct. Most of the sup
posed detectives presently took their
places in the grades TO which they
NORMALLY belonged. 1t would be as
feasy as it should be unnecessary to
multiply indefinitely similar instances
Suppose the case be left to stand on
the statement of Doctor Newmeyer, Of
Philadelphia, who has given years OF
study to the subject:
"Truency, child-labor, the juvenile
criminal and the moral mental de
fective. in greater part, have their
origin in the unrecognized, unattend
ed. physically defective pupil
The average school board, if asked
why it had not already established
medical inspection would in most
cases give as the compelling reason
I'VE cannot afford it." Experience
has shown that an inspection complete
enough not only to bar contagious dis
eases but also to detect physical de
fleets in the individual can be made for
about fifty cents year for each pupil
In every school there are consider
able number of pupils that fail, each
June, to make the next grade. They
are obliged to go over the same work
a second time, adding, of course, just
that much to the cost of maintaining
the schools. In every city there are
hundreds of pupils who take nine
years time to complete six years
work. Each of them costs one-third
more to be graduated than the normal
child. Medical inspection would pre-
vent large part of this delinquency
and to the same extent save money
for the boar of education. This saw
ling must be carefully calculated be.
fore it is possible to admit the non
sufficient-funds play even on the gross
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