The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987, 1915-06-16
A Talk 10 the School Teachers OF
1915.

The time is approaching when you
will begin your schools, and when 1
will begin to see by my annual visits,
how the schools are getting along.
AS more will be required of you this
year as respects sanitation, than has
ever been required before, 1 thought
it not amiss to have little confiden-
tial talk with you before the schools
open. If could have kept my class
of teachers at what it was II years
ago, the task would be very much cas-.
Ter on me, and more profitable to you.
But many who taught at that time
are out OF the business now. A few,
very few have died. A considerable
number have married, many have gone
to seek greener pastures, and are
teaching in other places, and all these
places have had to be filed by new be-
ginners, and will have to learn santa
tion from the beginning. More things
will have to be done this year than
formerly. And 1 am giving you this
talk to indicate to you what these
things will be. In the first place I
shall want the school grounds to be
kept in better condition than ever be-
fore. The play ground is just as i'm
portant as anything pertaining to the
school. The yard around the school
house il permitted to grow up in
briars and bushes.to the very door of
the house always indicates a careless
teacher on the inside. The develop,
ment of the bodies of the children, is
just as important as the development
of their minds. Let the play ground
then, be looked after at the very be-
ginning of the school. If the house
has been built il the woods, and old
rotten logs and stumps and brush are
still there, put the larger boys and the
larger girls to work to have them piled
and burned. If you will manage to
make the children think it is play in
stead of work, the task will be very
much easier. In the school house a
broom should never be used. A mop
costs very little more than broom,
and hopping off the floor is more in
accordance with modern sanitation,
than sweeping. Mop the floor and
dust off the furniture with wet rag
and you keep the dust OFT of the
lungs, and if there are any disease
germs in the dust of the school, you
avoid scattering the disease by using
the mop instead of the broom. The
law in Kentucky does not require this,
but it does in many of the States, and
it is only question of very little
time when it will be required in Ken.
lucky, and the teacher who will make
J this change at the beginning of the
looming term, will stand out prom.
inently as one of the progressives oil
the county. The law does not compel
me to make this change, and if ]
should do it, it will be purely as a
matter of modern sanitation. When
visit your schools as 1 shall do be-
ginning early in July, 1 shall be
pleased to find that many of the teach
ers are in the front progressive rank.
And then in the house one of the first
things to be done is to look after the
ventilation Ventilation is just as
important, or more so in summer as il
is in winter. The new houses that
have lately been built, are nearly al
deficient in ventilation. The upper
sash in nearly all the new houses, and
in many of the old. cannot be lowered
at all. You must remedy this evil, il
lyol have to carry with you from home
chisel and mallet for this purpose
When come to see you I don't want
to find your house in this unsanitary
condition. 1 shall prepare myself
with these tools, and when 1 find thai
this has not been done, 1 shall will
your assistance do it myself, and then
1 will know that it has been done.
Then there is question of light
from the windows. Kentucky ha
never kept up with the general pro
: cession in the matter of school santa
ton. 1t is not best for the light tt
come from both sides Of the house, ant
yet all our houses are built that way
The light should be so arranged tina
it will strike the pupil over the lef
shoulder, but the teachers can over
} come this difficulty by shading will
some cheap material the windows OF
the right side. Then the teacher
) should always be watchful of thei
children's eyes. They should neve
permit them to hold their books to-
, inear their eyes. BY caralessness q