HEALTH TALKS IN "SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 272, 16 August 1927, Page 3

HEALTH TALKS IN "SCHOOLS

(To the Editor.) Sir,—ln an editorial in The Dominion of August. 10, re the "Problem of Goitre'/’ you make the .statement that valuable support can be given by the teaching staffs of the schools, in cooperation with the school medical officers, in emphasising the importance of systematic treatment, and the danger of neglect. Now, there are many parents, like myself, who object to any propaganda, medical or otherwise, in our State schools, as being a perversion of the object for which they were established. The so-called “health talks” which are given by some of our teachers would be better designated as “disease talks,” and delivered by one who has anv niorbid tendendencics, Hie effect of such instruction on the immature minds of children must be to arouse fears, which will, tend to cause disease rather than lessen it. A concrete instance of the above came under the writer’s notice recently when a teacher, in dilating on germs to a class averaging in age from 9 to >2, spoke of the dangers of “unknown” germs getting into the system and causing consumption in later, life, etc. Alany eminent medical authorities have spoken of the disastrous results of fear, as the following statements prove Dr. Ramsay Hunt, of New York, speaking at the Afedical Convention in Washington last May, said that secret fears instilled in childhood were often responsible for poor health, and Dr. 11. G. Barbour, of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, stated that fear actually causes the blood to curdle, and is’ productive of harmful bodilv conditions. If. therefore, fear, which is purely mental, is capable of producing disease, and even curdling the blood, bow essential it is that the immature mind of. the child should not be inoculated with this dangerous agency. As one Californian AI.D. remarked: “Children are sent to school to. be ‘educated,’ not ‘medicated,’ and it is the school which is public, not the "hild.” It is not to be' doubted that your editorial was penned in all good faith, and’with the desire for the betterment of the health of the community. That this object cannot be attained through promiscuous talks to school children bv teachers and others is the conviction 'of many parents who have been consulted on this subject. The contemplation of disease in its invriad forms and manifestations is not a subject which the average parent expects to Cud in the school curriculum, and it is not proper that it should be there. Into wliat proper field of kriowlecicre Is a child Is thought to be led. if socalled lectures, medical examination, aud inoculation are to be part and parcel of his school career. Certainly not into a knowledge of health, but into a knowledge of sickness, of-fear.of disease, and of fear of being separated from the - care of tlie doctor. To the parent belongs the medical jurisdiction of the child, and in sending the child to school, the teacher is ' not-thereby-invested with authority to act in loco parentis. ■ Most’of the teachers known to tlm writer are ' in ”110-wise "desirous of ■usurping this position, and would much prefer to give, instruction in the ordinary school subjects, to the exclusion of “health talks.” I . PARENT. August 11.