Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1913-09-19
WHAT Ais JOHNNY?


John doesn t learn his lessons. lie is
inattentive I'M the schoolroom. The
teacher says he won't study.
He falls behind his class. He fails to
pass his examinations. Presently hit
runs away from school. John gets the
reputation Of being very bad boz.
The community makes John 80 to
school. It does nothing to find ont that
he is fit to go to school. An examination
five minutes long might show that John
cannot more than half see to read.
Ii is hard to be attentive in the
schoolroom when the diagram on the
blackboard looks like a blur. How can
a kid pass his examination when it
makes his head ache to read the ques-
tions? John knows that it ism It his
fanlt> that he appears stupid. He feels
that he ism t being treated fairly. He
doesn't see why teacher should be al.
ways picking on him.
Perhaps the proper fitting of pair
of spectacles might change John into
a good scholar and at least fairly
good boy. 1t has happened in hundreds
of cases.
Look at the Facts
Out Of 100000 school children ex.
amined in New York city, nearly 80
per cent were found to have such
defective eyesight as to require spec.
tacles. In Philadelphia 1854 children
were discovered who could not read
ordinary writing on the blackboard
at distance Of twenty feet. In Bos.
ton 20 per cent of all the, pupils test.
ed suffered from defective vision. Al.
mr. Cd o1 <hoon ahs1lvo,o
the books as, 'stupid-subnormal.''
Many Of them were "stubborn and i'm.
pertinent
In Philadelphia, when a case of de.
fective eyesight is discovered, and
the parents cannot afford to buy spec.
tacles, the city furnishes them. In
one year the city council appropriated
the vast sum of $500 for the purpose
With that money 1854 bad and delin.
quent children were fitted out with
spectacles. The result was that most
Of the children went back to their
regular classes and showed vast
improvement in both scholarship and
department.. Cleveland does the same
thing. Last year it cost $500.
Spectacles won't transform every
school Ounce or devil into teachers
pet. But it will help greatly, and it
costs very ittle-very much less than
it costs to put through the same grade
for the second time even ten of the
5000 pupils who failed to pass their
examinations and win promotion in
Chicago last year.
1t is possible that John is little
hare of hearing. He MAYS very
iFely to-have bad teeth, which af-
feet his digestion, give him headaches,
make him nervous and hard to get
along with.
Dr.. Osler, the greatest medical au-
thority in the world-he is not a den
tist-says that bad teeth are great
er curse to the race than alcohol.
John may suffer from adenoids,
which affect his general health and
help to make him a poor student. He
may have some one Of the so-called
minor communicable diseases, such as
trachoma, ringworm, conjunctivitis,
or scabies. He may indeed. Out Of
GA, 900 school children examined by
medical inspectors in New York city
in 1910, not less than 2S6,000-43 per
cent-were so afflicted.
-. Medical Inspection
And now for moment forget
what may happen to John. Has a
community which forces all it's chill
dren to go to school. any right to force
them to run the risk OF catching any OF
all of these attractive d1seasese >
There is dispute the country over
a. to whether the work Of medical in.
spection should be done under the di:
rection Of the board of education OF
the city health department. In Chi.
cage it used to be done-under great
difficulties-by the inspectors of the
health department. These inspectors
are young physicians, who are paid
only 500 month for half their time
and have all the medical inspection
work-in and out of the schools-o1
their hands. They were underpaid ant
overworked.
Commissioner of Health Youns
takes zthe position that all the work Of
medical inspection-both for contagi
Gus disease and for physical defects
should be done under the direction O
his department.
Contagious Disease
It remains true, Of course, that ev
cry fall, when the public schools op
en-, the cases; Of diphtheria and othe
contagious diseases start to climb
Usually they are at their lowest i
July and August, during the summe
vacation, when the children are wide
~ scattered. When they come te
gether again in September eac
oolhouss Is like ,upless plrope
sss