The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-13
WEIGHS ALL HER PUPILS;
FEEDS THOSE UNDERFED
Miss OBrien, Principal of School Sc, Finds Only 50 of
1880 Girls Without Defect and Only
418 Gaining Weight.

Miss Ellen T. O'Brlen principal OF
Public School SO. at 40 East Ninth
stree. which has 1850 pupils. all girls,
is beginning to get results in her EFFORT
to help those Of her school children VINO
10 not have enough to eat Miss
O'Hrien's work along this line began
last December when. with other prin-
cipals. she was asked TO estimate how
many OF her pupils we're underfed
Like the other heads Of schools she
had to make a hasty guess from what
she and her teachers knew OF the girls.
But unlike most OF the other principals
she did not stop with that. She sent 20
the citv's Bureau OF Weights and Meas
ures for an accurate get of scales and
weighed the whole school at short in
tervals to find out how many OF the
girls were gaining and how many losing
weight. promising that those who were
gaining weight certainly could not I've
underfod. OF the l.2S0 girls AS were
gaining. 721 neither gained nor lost and
lii showed loss OF weight.
The physical records OF the lIl losers
showed that III OF them had physical
defects. OF these 81 had poor teeth,
hy far the cOmmonest trouble Thirty
-four of those with poor teeth had some
thing else the matter with them too.
Miss O'Bricr remembered her eXpe-
rieuce OF last year, when she was able 70
have number OF pupils equipped with
proper eyeglasses. \ record kept az the
time showed that after defects OF sigh
had been remedied scholarship improved
surprisingly. So she decided to go
.. al, laaHa 1t 81 a,
weight losing girls.
Teeth Cause Most Trouble.
or the III who were somehow de.
fective q hal only one thing the mat
ter with them. The single defects Of
these % girls we're classified az follows:
Teeth. so; malnutrition. II; sight. :
tonsiis. = tubercular, /. Thirty had
two defects. as follows: Teeth and NAL
nutrition. 81 teeth and sight, I teeth
and breathing teither mouth breathers
or with nasal defects. . malnutritiOn
and sight, . malnutrition and heart
trouble. / tonsils and nasal breath
ing. !.
Five girls had three defects each and
three had four each. II IL "A striking
fact that Of the whole l,2SO girls in the
school only fifty-nine are without defect
OF course slight. Most of them are
cases OF bad teeth. II should be said
that the defects are only such as have
been noted by the Health Departments
physicians.
Looking over her analysis Miss
O'Brien found that forty-four OF the III
girls who had defects and were losing
weight were victims OF malnutriiion.
( Their parents had already been told
that. but evidently had not improved the
food provided.
II decided 10 feed them here at
school," the principal explained yester.
day. PLAINLY they needed something
more than they got at home SO had
them fed between 10 30 and IL o'clock
every morning. This simply supple
mented their breakfasts. lunches and
dinners at home. II had nothing 10 10
WITH tho nocn penny lunches that We
serve to some OF the children. Al the
same time | wrote 20 the paIents
Twcnty-hiVe show Gain.
For these midmornlNg meals I pro-
vided cocoa. hot rice. whole wheat bread.
chicken and other soups. stewed fruits
and a few simple. nourushiug dishcs OF
tina; sort At the end OF a week IN"