The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1921-10-29

WAShlNGl ON, II. u, OCl. 90 n
good complexion powder is graham
flour.
when you're hungry between meals
eat glass of water.
Are you superstitious? A light
thrown over the left shoulder while
writing brings good luck
These humorous remarks were writ
ten for children, but there is some
thing in them for any one who will
read them carefully. They are a few
of the daily health notes on a new
calendar published by the Child Health
Organization.
! The Bureau of Education is trying
to interest every school in the country
| in health. Attempts to teach health
rules to adults, and to make them
health enthusiasts, have been practic-
! ally admitted failures.
Grown persons are set in their ways.
They will take some kind of exercise
if it happens to appeal to them, and
does not interfere with their accustom-
ed routine But tea, coffee, and late
hours become so much part OF the
life of the average adult that he rarely
has the will power to break away from
! them. So long as he can go" he re-
4 So the educators are turning to the
children, and new methods are being
adopted At one time school that
taught the number of bones in the body
and how the blood circulates thought
it was teaching the principles of
health. Now, the teacher is more apt
to run around the school yard with a
troop of children following her to
make the h1oOd circulate
The important fact that the Bureau
lof Education is striving to emphasize
: is that health habits are not instinc-
tive. No child instinctively goes to
bed at nine o'clock in order to get ten
| hours of sleep.
Nor is washing before meals in
: stinctive. The health calendars ad-
vice that the first course of every
meal should be served in a wash bowl
would not have been understood by
medieval folk who thought nothing of
! dirt and died like rats when disease
i germs spread. Instinct did not lead
them to keep themselves and their
houses, food, and water clean.
Today we know astounding facts
: about the power of germs and how to
keep WELL but there is nothing to show
that instinct has been urging every
r body to eat plenty of vitamines all
/ along.
III Keeping Well a Science.
5 Most of our health rules are based
: on facts that scientists and doctors
t have spent years in determining. In
: order to make these rules habits it is
!, necessary to make them popular.
In the schools, the spirit of competi
tion achieves what rule scould not
a The Bureau of Education has found
} that children become intensely inter
t ested in records for neatness, keeping
health rules, and bringing themselves
2 up to high standard of health. This
I is regarded as encouraging.
The difficulty is that not all the
! children are being reached. Even with
/ interest in health keener than it has
e even been. there are several rural dis
j tricts where the children do not have
e any physical training at all. And no
d all city schools are working to raise
the health standards of individual
Ipupils. There is no one to tell children
It that hey are underweight from eating
It too little fruit and milk. or that the!
s are slow in learning because they d.
It not get enough sleep.
|. Commissioner of Education Tiger
s belleVeS that all OF these schools ShOult
s be given time to health teaching
l. Something is wrong with a schoo
e system that turns out stoop-shouldereC
and underfed graduates.
4 1T is admitted by every one tha
s nothing in life is worth while withou
y health" says Mr.. Tigert.
J. 1--WE have long taught the theory o
health in the schools through course
n in physiology. We are combating dis
ir ease and defects through school doc
t. tors and school nurses. But we hav
t only lately come to see that it is TIL
n daily practice of health habits whic
is important and that it is the dut
of the public schools to give to ever
child this foundation for personal SUI
ii cess and value as a citizen.
is Our Low Standard of Health.
a. That the health standard of the NJ
t. ton does need raising, and must
Ig raised in some way was shown b
il. the often quoted draft figures; one ou
IS of four men unfit for service.
Id In the schools four out of five chi
e. dren need dental treatment. And Al
lcording to DIR. L. Emmett Holt, survey