The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-19
RURAL SCHOOL LETTER NO. 4.
Health Supervision in Rural Schools

(From U. s. Bureau of Education Bulletin. Organized Health Work in 1 Schools, by Ernest Bryant Hoag, M. D.
 Health work in rural schools pre- SentS some problems entirely different from those found in large villages and in cities. s..-...
 Rural schools. are, with only a few exceptions, entirely unprovided with health supervision of any nature. Yet
 these are the very places most in need of it. In the larger centers competent
 doctors are available, and in the cities free medical and dental clinics may always be found, but in the country medical and dental attention Is often difficult to obtain.
 Again, people in the country are little inclined to seek aid from physl clans or dentists, simply because they have not yet been educated to do so except in serious cases. It therefore happens that children of the rural schools are in general (contrary to the general impression) more in need of medical and dental attention than the children of larger communities. There is also a common impression that country children are naturally more vigorous than city children. This ought to be true, but unfortunately 1t is not. In general food is not as we'll
 
 the city; the available variety is small CT; the houses and schools are less well ventilated, everheating in winter is common; tuberculosis Is not so well understood and the chances for ''house infection are therefore great CT; and general public sanitation is almost without exception neglected in the country.
 Children in the country are more exposed to unfavorab1e weather con ditions than are city children. They often walk long distances in extreme heat, cold, or wet; and sit in school with damp clothing or wet feet. They almost invariably wear too much clothing indoors in cold weather, and are consequently overloaded in the school room and then are chilled the way home. Under such condi- tions it is no wonder that colds and other respiratory disorders are com mon, and that many country children are out of school on account of various kinds of sickness. @
 The sanitation of rural school Is usually very bad. The comm on drink ing cup hangs from a nail over the water pail; floors and desks are often very dirty; ventilation is a negligible quantity; outdoor toilets are in un- speakaible condition; washing facilities are fether not provided at all. or con sist of a pail of water, a dirty tin bas- in, and one common towel
 What Health Supervision May Rural Schools Have?
 Under such conditions, how many rural schools obtain some sort of health supervision? Two plans are possible: First, the teacher herself may be obliged to assume the entire responsibility ofseshealth- supervision; second, county health officers may un- der some conditions act: as school health officers for part or all of their respective counties.
 The latter plan is the more desir- able one, and county health officers ought to be appointed on full time at adequate salaries. A plan of this kind would demand the services of we11-trained men, and would consider ably enlarge the field of preventive 1 medicine in the country. State aid might and should be given to the 1 maintenace of such county health of | hcers, just as it is now given to rural ! schools. At present the county health l officer is often an incompetent medi- cal man; with the plan suggested, | none but competent men,, to whom l are offered adequate salary and req | sonab1e tenure of office, should be 1 considered.
 In many cases the teacher herself | will have to do the best she can, en- tire1y unaided. She should be pre- pared to observe and to recognize the | ordinary defects of school children. | The normal school ought to offer 1 courses for such preparation, but | where the teacher has not had train ing in a normal school she should ac- quire information in the best manner possible. In order that she may get E it, county superintendents should pro vide study courses and obtain the ser vices of competent physicians for spe cia1 lecture and demonstration work with the teachers.
 superintendents would do well to follow the plan of Michigan, Mime sota, and Virginia, and employ a spe- cialist to visit many schools of the State as possible, in order to instruct teachers on school and child hygiene