The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1920-10-21
Compulsory Physical Examination OF
School Children

The following address by DR.. Bad
ger of Winthrop, is submitted by a
local physician and published here
with because of the important infor-
nation it contains for the parents and
children of Somerset County:
Papers read by DR.. f. H. Badger of
Winthrop, Maine before the Somerset
County Merical Association at its
Annual Meeting held at Lakewood,
August 5, 1920
Compulsory educational laws the
gregarious instinct of children, the
ambition of parents, their self interest
and the activities of child labor com
mittees in looking after enforcement
of the child labor law combine to-
day to insure that one or more re-
representatives. of practically every fam
lily in the United States will be in
public, parochial or private schools
for some part of the year. The pur-
pose of having these children in school
is not only to give the children them
selves the education which is regard
ed as fundamental right of the Amer
lean child but to protect the COM
wunity against the social and indus
trial evils and the dangers that re
suit from ignorance.
Great sacrifices are made by state,
individual tax payers and individual
parent in order that children and state
may be benefited by education. Al
most no resistance is found to any de
mand made upon parent or tax pay
el if it can be shown that compliance
will remove Instructions to school
progress. 1t therefore by any chance
we can find ut school an index of
home conditions affecting both the
child's health and his progress at
school, it VIII be easy in the name
of the school to correct those con-
ditions. just as it will be easy to
read the index. once we have caused
it to be made; because the child is
under state control for six hours a
day for the greater part Of the year
from six to fourteen.
What. then, is this index of home
conditions preiudicial to health that
will register the fact as the thermo-
meter tells the temperature or bar
ometer shows air pressure. The house
address alone is not enough, scholar
ship will not help and manners may
be mislead, while nat onalty is an in
deX to nothing significant in America.
Where all race and national differ
ences melt into AmeriCansm.
No. our test must be something
that cannot be put on or off, cannot be
left at home. cannot be pretended,
someth ng inseparable from the child
and wholly beyond his control. This
Test it has been conclusively proven
in many large cities Of our country
as we'll as few country towns even
in our own state is the physical con-
dtion OF the school child
TO learn tn s condition the child
must be examined and re-eXamined
during his school life In order To
safeguard the health of children, med
zeal inspection has been introduced
into the public schools with excellent
results, but in order to adjust educa-
ton to the individual and insure the
ability to do school work without in
Jury to health and consequent inn
pairment of the future commonwealth,
there should be besides the ordinary
med cal inspection at least three
thorogoing physical examinations. One
II the entrance Of school life, one at
the entrance to high school and one
upon entering college.
After birth the next great epoch in
ohilds career is his entrance upon
school life This offers the greatest
opportunity for hygienic Improvement
that ever occurs. for here all the
children are collected together and
here is all the machinery already in
eXistance. not only for modifying
children but for organizing the CON
ditions of their lie and the forms of
their activity in the interest of health
for the individual and for society.
This entrance examination should be
thorough and made to include not on
~ tests of physiological age. height,
eyesight and vital index such as nu-
triton, enlarged glands, disease of
nervous system. heart, lungs, tOnsils,
skin spine, chest, eXtrem.ties, defects
of vision hearing, teeth nasal breath
ing, deformed pallet and mentality,
but the mordidity history also. The
school physician, the school nurse, the
teacher and the expert psychologist
when such an official is available
SuOulu tame puIb III tiiiS SAili'iiiA'ioi'
At least one of the parents should be
present too for a part of this examina-
ton. Thus it would be in the nature
Of a council of experts.
The advantage of such health eX-
animation can hardly be oyer-estimat-
ed 1t would save the expense of a
large number of reporters. 1t would
tighten the burden of the teachers
who are often handicapped by one or
two hopeless cases, and in many cases
ii would save parents the anguish of
finding ont later that their children
were feebe-minded or otherwise de-
fectiVe.
Disease centers outside of school
buildings quickly register themselves
in the schoolrooms and in the person
of the child paying the penalty for
living i'm contact with a disease cen
ter So too, appreciation of health
as we'll as neglect is indeXed by the
physical condition of the school chill
deem Physical examination will dis
cover what parents are trying to do
as we'll as what they fail to do be
cause Of their ignorance. Indifference
or poverty. Insofar as parents are
alive to the importance OF health the
school examination furnishes the oc-
casion Of enlisting them in crusades
to protect the public health and 10
enforce health rights. The advant-
age of starting this health crusade