The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1911-07-24
DEVELOPING BETTER CITIZENS

That a deeper sense of the respon-
sibilities and obligations of citizen
! ship must be inculC ated In the young,
| and that a healthy mind, a necessity
for wholesome citizenship. cannot
! be built up on a defective body, ave
statements on which stress was laid
at the recent meeting of the National
| educational Association at San
| Francisco On Che home and the
school largely rests the responsible
~ for the first condition, and, it
was emphasized, to the physician,
authorized and supported by the pa
rents, the public must look for the
teaching and the measures to over
| come the physical defects and the
| inimical surroundings which lead
to delinquency and bad citizenship Of
to downright criminality. On the CO.
| operation of these two agencies de
pend the most far-reaching results
| to society and to the nation.
| In a vigorous arraignment of the
| materialistic tendencies of the res
ent day, which appall by reason Of
| the utter carelessness and thought
| lessness of the rights of individuals,
and deploring the general lack OF
discipline and regard for law in the
scramble to secure wealth and n
crafty selfish ambitions, Mrs. En-
mons Blaine laid the responsibility
for these things on the defective
methods of our schools and on the
teachers. whose opportunity Is the
heart of the whole subject. The Ct
yelopment of the commercial spirit
has extended too largely even to the
schools, with inevitable resulting de-
terioration in the quality OF Work
done and a consequent lowering OF
the moral standards of scholarship |
and of citizenship. She sees in TINS
even a menace to our nation, ana |
feels that as a representative govern |
ment we have not altogether made
good to our forefathers, to the world
and to ourselves. But, she says, the
of tomorrow are all in the
lands of he teachers before mater
alism grips them by the throat, ADd |
What possession, she asks, other |
han our children do we treat so
arelessly? There is no higher am
ition and no more important beau
Y than that of making good citizens.
Another essential step in the de-
elopment of rood citizens is the
1rrection of physical defects in the
hildren and the raising of the gen
raj standard of health to the high
ST point To this end a committee
as been appointed by the section on !
Medicine and Public
Health of the American Medical AS
ISOLATION to confer with a like com
mittee of the National Educational |
Association, of which DR.. David
Starr Jordan is chairman, in broad /
of health conditions I
which prevail among children in |
arge cities, and of adolescent all |
lents which have direct bearing
II education This investigation in
ludes, further, the more active CO.
peration of boards of education and
apartments of health TO reduce ,
hid delinquency and crime. DR. w
/. Evans, chairman of the first
lentioned committee, speaking at
he same meeting, said that study of |
he health conditions of the school |
hildren of our large cities and
novements to improve that health
sere as vital in the work of educa
ion as any of the theories of educa-
ion. 1t is also vital in the work OF
medical research. Without doubt, a
arge share of child delinquency is
directly traceable to adolsecent all
nents, and their elimination by |
timely medical attention meets with |
an immediate reduction in delin- |
quency and crime among the young.
The work of the school, on the one
hand, is to endeavor to build up
and greater respect for au,
th0rity and obedience to the law of
the land, to inculcate greater regard
for the rights of others, and to COM
bat the selfish materialistic tenden-
cies of the times, That of the medi-
cal profession, on the other, is to
endeavor by scientific means to re-
move All leAltuIdDIe PhS Sl|di NOANNu"
and to establish satisfactory hygien-
ic and sanitary conditions, 1t may,
therefore, be believed that these two
agencies, cooperating in the prop
er spirit, should be able largely to
overcome the defects of our citizen
ship of which Mrs. Blaine, DR.. Evans
and many others justly complain
journal of American Medical Associ-