The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1912-01-13
GIVES ADVICE ON
SCHOOL HYGIENE
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH HAS
COMPILED BOOK OF INTER
EST TO PARENTS
AND OTHERS.

The state board of health has pub
llshed q booklet dealing with hygiene
and sanitation I'm the public schools,
which should be of great value to
members OF boards of education and
to every teacher and parent. The trea-
tise contains discussions of the follow
ing timely subjects by men promi-
nent in the educational and medical
world. Some remarks about Medical
Supervision of Schools" T. NJ. Koon,
NJ d., member of the state board of
health; THE Importance of Recogni-
ton by the Teacher Of Physically De-
fective Children" DR. w. $. Rankin.
secretary. North Carolina state board
of health; "The Backward Child" j.
H. Kellogg, NJ. d.. member Michigan
board Of health; "rhe Mouth and
Teeth" Russell w. Bunting, d. Sc,
Ann Arbor; Tuberculosis Among Pub
lie School Teachers" and Sanitation
Of School Grounds and Building"
Thomas S. Ainge. sanitary engineer of
the state board of health.
The following from the introduction
to the booklet gives an idea of its pun :
pose:
"One of the earliest requirements OF
the great majority of children is a
| bank in which to save pennies. The
little folks are admonished time and
again that pennies make dimes and
dimes make dollars and this is very
frequently supplemented with the
statement that dollars make happi-
ness 1t is we'll to teach the import
anee of saving early i'm life, but one
factor which is most important i'm
happiness. which children are not
enough taught to save, is health. They
should be admonished that health
makes days, and days make happiness.
They should be taught this early in
| life. When child starts to school, he
should already have been taught (not
simply told. but tausht). that now is
the time to save days as well as dimes.
BY the time a child reaches the gram
/ mar grades, he should have been so
taught that he will demand sanitary
conditions under which to do the most
important work of his life. 1t will be
some time before such generation of
school children is developed, but 1t is
coming rapidly in some localities, and
will be general before a great while.
"Such Inconsistencies as having a
child so seated, as to have the light
coming to his desk from in front. while
he is studying the physiology of the
eye, or. asking him to tell the function
/ of the lungs. while he is in room
of1foul air, because of inadequate ven
tilation. are appealing more and more
to the younger lives, and we'll they
should.
Hygiene should constitute the bull;
of the textbooks on physiology rath-
er than the supplement. Seventy five
per cent Of the teaching of physiolo-
| gy i'm the public schools is Impractical
BILE ard a great deal of il is grossly
incorrest. Hygiene should be the most
easily and efficiently taught of all pub
lie school subjects. because the pupils
can live the principles involved in a
degree not at all possible in history,
| literature or mathematics. The obliga-
ton is upon the teacher to give great
or attention to the subject of hygiene
and sanitation.
ut is good service on the part of
a teacher to send home child who
does not appear to be well. II is a
greater service to foresee, and remedy,
or have remedied, the many conditions
which are responsible for his III
health. and thus save to the child the
loss entailcd by the illness. These con-
ditions may lie within the child him
self, which fact does not at all re-
lieve the teacher from the obligation of
recognizing them and seeing that they
are given prompt and efficient atten-
ton. This general knowledge should
be considered one of the essential
qualifications of every school teacher.
No teacher ever was So well versed in
his special subject as to excuse him
from neglecting to report a case OF
persistent mouth breathing, or of en-
larged cervical lymph glands with rec
ommendation that these conditions be
given prompt attention. Every teach
er should include i'm his professional
reading course at least. one good mag
azine on sanitation"