The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1915-04-27
PHYSICAL DEFECTS
BRING FAILURES,
SAYSSCHOOL NURSE
Mrs. Elizabeth schrader in Talk BE-
fore Club Women Explains Value Of
Medical Inspection Among Pupils
STATES RIGHT IS DEFENDED
Object to Better Health Conditions
Among Students and to Safeguard
Them From Disease.

Mrs. Elizabeth schrader. the school
nurse who has spent the past two
weeks In the schools of Bemidji, In an
interesting talk before the Womanss
Study club yesterday afternoon out
lined the purpose Of her work and
told of the results which have been
accomplished In places where the
plan of physical examination. in the
public schools has been In force Mrs.
Schrader said in part: -.
''The idea of the school nurse OF.
iginated in England where the pro-
fession Of nursing itself originated tn
the work of Florence Nightingale,
where district nursing was first es-
tablished and whence has come the
inspiration of nearly every great de-
velopment or advance In nursing.
Better Health Conditions.
Medical inspection of schools was.
first provided for some eighty years
ago-forty years abroad, but it's;
only during the past quarter Of a cen
tury that it has assumed the proper
lions of worldwide movement.
Its object is to better health con-
ditions among school children, safe
guard them from disease and render
them healthier. happier and more
vigorous. 1t is. founded upon q re-
cognition of the intimate relation
ship between the physical and ment-
al conditions of the children. Thfs
sudden recognition of the imperative
necessity for safeguarding the phys
ical welfare Of school children grew
out Of the discovery that compulsory
education under modern city condi-
lions meant compulsory disease.
Requirements Advanced.
with the great changes which
have been coming over American lle,.
former conditions have diAappssl14N'
We have changed from IN asrieal-s
tural people to a race Of dwsllsts.lAs
towns and cities. A school year has
changed from three months Wi1t4s
term to one of Ave hours per day for
ten months during the year. Going
to school has become not only the
normal but required occupation OF
all children for a considerable num-
Der of years. 5.'> ~;
with the changes In length of
school terms and the increase in the
number of years of schooling demand
ed of the child has come a great ad-
vance in the standards of work re-
Quired. When the standards were
low, the work was not beyond the ca
pacity of even the weaker children:
but with close grading, fuller courses,
higher standards and constantly and
insistent demands for intellectual At :
Pupils have been unable to keep up
with their classes.
"The terms backward retarded
and exceptional have been applied.
School men discovered that the drag
net of compulsory education Wa
bringing into. school hundreds Of
children who were unable to keep
step with their companions and be-
cause this interfered with the ordi-
nary administration our school sys-
tenn they began to ask why the chill
dren were backward. The school in
spectors helped to find the answer
when they showed that hundreds of
these children were backward simply
because of REMOVABLE PHYSICAL
DEFECTS. And then came the next
great forward step, the realisation
that children are not 'dullards'
through the will of an inscrutable
Providence, but rather through the
law of CAUSE and EFFECT. I'll
'This led to an extension of the
scope of medical inspection to in
clude physical examination Of school
children with the aim Of discovering
whether or not they were suffering
from such defects as would handicap
progress and prevent them from re-
ceiving the full benefit of the free
education furnished by the state.
500 Cities in United States.
"This work was In It's infancy ton
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ITTcunr IN uIlDncD