The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-09-05

send children INTO the world with han.
dicap that they did not have when they
entered school To do only that much
will require a revolution.
Il Some Evils and the Remedies.
| 1t would be possible to point out how
chtldren's eyesight is injured IN school
through squirting all day at trying
blackboards or because the windows are
not set above the level Of his head; how
backs are made crooked by the old
fashioned bench still in use in some Of
the country. schools or by the unscien-
tific desk in the city school and how I'M
healthy schoolrooms generally lessen the
vitality of children to withstand disease.
There are many remedies that can be
! suggested for these ills. such as expen-
sive air washing machinery, expensive
! heating apparatus. soft-colored screens
] to be pulled down over blackboards when
| they are-not in use and other paraphcr-
MALTA of like nature. But there Is .
| much simpler. more direct method.
1t is to build all open-air school rooms.
| These schoolrooms are now being adopt
ed generally for tubercular or anaemic
! children. There is no reason why they
cannot be adopted for normal children.
| The question of ventilation Is disposed of
at once. Likewise is the heating prob
ION because there is no heat. All chill
| dren are uniformly dressed to with
stand the cold There is no danger that
! Jane will be overheated because she has
too much clothing while Mary shivers
because she has not clothes enough. The
blackboard problem is solved by the use
/ of the portable blackboard. while soft
| colored shades settle the lighting cues
| ton.
England and France. and more recently
America, have begun to take stock Of
their human resources. France. after the
| Napoleonic war. discovered that there
| was a falling off in the stature of her
! men.
England started her campaign to build
| a stronger race Of men in the public
school. School feeding was no new thing
| in her schools then. Only in the United
States is 1t looked upon as an experiment.
For twenty years it has been tried out
in England in limited way. In the
schools of Manchester, one public spirit
ed citizen bore the expense of feeding
the children and managed SO well that "a
per cent of this cost went into the food
Then by a special act, Parliament re-
moved the burden from the shoulders CT
philanthropists and placed il upon the
communities.
Taught as Well ms Fedf
The fact that there were hungry chill
dren was considered reason enough for
feeding them. But some people contend
that feeding children has no educational
value and consequently Is not within the
province of the school. 4 teacher In
Maine country school started a lunch
counter: she acted as commissary and
the children cooked the food. Then one
day. she found that. quite unconscIously,
she had been teaching when she mag
ined she had only been filling empty
stomachs. The realization came when
she discovered that napkins and forks
were being used in homes that had never
known them before
In the Philippine Islands. the govern
ment applied this principle in another
direction. A plague of cholera broke out
among the natives. Instead of follow
ing custom by closing the schools, the
authorities opened them Each school
became a demonstrating station for
teaching little Filipinos how to take c. e
Of themselves and their parents. The
cholera was worsted.
Social and industrial diseases can be
treated in this way. Children can be
taught the danger of unguarded machine
cry. the hygiene of hours of labor and of
fresh air and light and the knowledge
will light the factory and ventilate the
tenement.
By controlling environment. the school
can overcome defects. which formerly
were ascribed to heredity. That is what
school men have only recently come to
realize.
New York's Opportunity.
In its new relation to the community.
then. the school cannot remain silent
much longer upon question WHICH vital
ly affects the future of the nation.
The city of New York must spend mill
lions of dollars to provide adequate
school facilities for all Of its children,
many of whom are now attending ses-
sions on tone-third or one-half time.
Here is New York's opportunity to biuld
up an institution which will be an in
spiration to the whole country.
Let her go out into the open country
and there build school on the scale of
Columbia University, capable of caring
for 10000 children.
Building on such a scale, the city can
provide gymnasia. Fairgrounds and
lunchrooms at minimum cost. 1t can
provide two or more classes for each
grade so that children may be graded
according to mental age. No child need
be back in all of his studies because he
Is backward in one. 1t can provide shops
so that boys grown tired Of ordinary rou-
tine. Will learn a trade in school and
will be more efficient in that trade when
the separation from the school finally
does occur. In this way. the falling OF
Of school attendance will decrease
The cost of transporting pupils from
their city homes to their country school
will be met by the city. 1t will be paid
out Of the money that the city will save
by buying land In the country instead Of
In Manhattan. But this cost will grow
less every year because the people will
follow the school from the tenement into
the life-giving freedom of the country. |
In bringing about this change. the school
will be living up to its new tradition and !
its new responsibility
There will be an efficient corps of doc |
tors, dentists, physical directors and last
but not least expert psychologists. They
Will perform The same service for this
human factory that the soDter does for !
the silk factory. picking the good from |
the bad and prescribing for each child
the particular kind of treatment he
should have before he is allowed to 20
out OF the factory. The doctor will pre-
scribe for the child medically and will
pass him to the physical director to de-
velop his body. The psychologist will
prescribe his educational medicine.
A Guaranty Card.
When the normal child has passed
through this hypothetical school. he will
be given a guaranty card that will he |
protection to himself and to his employ |
er. such card as the following:
William Smith, age 49,, has completed |
grades of school. He has the equip |
ment. mental and physical. for ..........