The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-14
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
TNFQRMATEON BUREAU
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, ID. c.
EDUCATION FOR WOUNDED
AMERICAN SOLDIERS.

EDUCATION FOX MOCNOED
AMERICAN SOLDIERS.
Not Merely Teaching the Manned to
Work, but Using the Time OF All
ConvaIescents for Practical Instruc-
ton.
a number of patients in certain
washington, Dec. 11.-Not long ago
Cincinnati hospital, who were under
gong long periods of convalescence'
asked the nurses and doctors 10 pro
vide them with books and teachers,
so that they might pass the time more
pleasantly and incidentally learn
something. The proposition was an I'M
usual one. but the persons in charge
of this hospital were not imperVious
to new ideas, so they got some teach-
ers from the public schools to give
part of their time to these men.
Most of the patients were workmen,
who had been working since chlId-
hood, and had never had much educa-
ton of any kind. They were given
only elementary reading.
writing and arithmetic for the most
part But they took hold of 1t with
vim And subsequently investigation
showed that most of those men, wheh
they left the hospital, got better JOBS
than they had had before. Some OF
them who had been only workmen
became foremen. Others were able to
pass civil service examinations
This incident Illustrates the princl-
pie upon which the government forces
engaged in the task will proceed in
.re-educating wounded soldiers. IT is
not merely matter of teaching a man
who has lost a hand how to use
hammer with the help of rubber
grip, or of teaching a blind man how
to make brooms. The blind and the
MANNED are only a minority of those
who come to the military hospitals
1t is matter of using the time Of the
man who is convalescent to give him
a better equipment of training and in
formation for the work he will do
when he gets well.
This, at least, is the view taken by
Miss Elizabeth G. Upham, who is at
tached to the federal board for voca-
tional education, with the impressive
title of specialist on vocational re
Mobilization of soldiers and sailors, and
occupational therapist. 1t is also the
view taken by the most advanced ex-
perts in the belligerent European
countries, everyone of which has had
to face this problem of educating the
wounded soldier.
While the vocational education
board is studying this problem, the
army medical corps is building up a
splendid machinery of hospitals and
curative workshops with which to
solve it. 50 far these two lines of
it is safe to say that they will be.
Our government, in approaching
this problem, has the benefit of the
experience of all the other belligerent
governments. 1t knows just what the
problem Is. 1t knows that out of
every thousand men who are wounded.
an average of 1877 will have to under
go some sort of an amputation. These
of course will have to learn to work
without the limb or part of a limb
which they have lost. 1t also knows
that six out-of every thousand will
be deaf in both ears, and about ten
out of every thousand blind in both
eyes. These two classes will require
yet other kinds of training to work
without the senses which they have
lost But more than eight men out
of every ten wounded are neither
MANNED, blind, nor deaf. Many, of
them are not wounded by shell or bull
let or Iayonet at all. In some of the
military hospitals, rheumatism, heart
trouble and tuberculosis outnumher
all other injuries, while nervous and
mental troubles are common.
Now the advanced vocational edu-
Gators and acknowledgements,
as they call themselves, take the view
that these ten men who are not
MANNED, deaf or blind, need and can
benefit by education just as much as
those more obviously untitled for their
see in the war an opportunity to give
to a large number of men the voca-
tional education which they should
have received when children, and
which the future generations of
American children surely will receive
Thus the education of wounded
men takes on variety of forms and
uses. The new science of occupation
therapy is only one part of it. 1t
is the science of healing by occupa-
ton, and it works upon both the
mind and the body of the patient. The
most obvious need for it may be IL
Illustrated by the cases of two men
in civil life who had their wrists
broken in cranking automobiles One
of them was a desk worker He
went to a physician, had his broken
wrist nicely set, and gave it a COM
plete rest for long time. When he
finally tried to use it, he couldn't; it
was stiff as board. He had to
have it rebroken, res t and put thru
! a system of. messages and exercises.
The other man who got his wrist
broken was a taxi driver Within
two weeks he was again cranking his
| jitney. He had to. And his wrist
healed without any stiffness. The oc-
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES would point the
! moral of this tale by saying that the
healing of bones and muscles is has
tened by functional adaptation. In
order to gain this advantage, the con-
valescent soldier will be given simple
things to do. These things will be
instructive as far as may be. And in
! addition to Fastening his GONZALES
| cence by functional adaptation, and
perhaps teaching him how to do
something useful, they will take his
mind off his troubles, and so hasten
his getting well in another way
This is the therapeutic use to
which education and occupation will
| be put in the military hospitals The
4 teaching of trades to MANNED, deaf or
blind men will naturally merge with
| 1t, and be an extension of it. But in
| addition, it is proposed to give vocaG
! tional education to men who have no
| physical injury calling for functional
/ adaptation, and are not MANNED so
| that they need be re-educated before
| they can earn a living. Thus a man
/ vvhnr iS laid I'm for Sfv !,