THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15716, 17 September 1914, Page 6

THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN.

The report of the Education Department carefully avoids ascribing the notoriously poor health of school children to its main cause— insanitary state of the average schoolroom and the uncivilised conditions under which school work is generally carried on. That the average New Zealand child is taller and heavier than the average English child of the same age is in no way consoling when we consider how greatly superior average colonial conditions are. Excessive manual labour outside of school hours, overcrowding in the homes, unsuitable I and badly-cooked food and late hours are all possible causes to which | lack of robustness is attributed. But what of the excessive nervous strain in school hours, the overcrowding in schools, the unsuitable equipment, .wretched lighting and inadequate ventilation of schoolrooms ? The average home, even of the poorer, is ideally hygienic compared to the average school, while there is proj bably not a house and certainly not '■ a factory in the Dominion as crowded as the ordinary and average schoolroom. The inspectors appear to realise the value of fresh air, for we are told that in many cases of the unhappily frequent "obstructed breathing'' correct breathing exercises and fresh air are the only remedies necessary; yet there is no imperative demand that there, shall be fresh air, good lighting and restful ,seats in the schools where these children are herded together. It is amazing that with the grievous results of our unscientific educational methods accumulating in most lamentable statistics, so little should be done by the Department to eradicate the main cause of an unmistakable physical degeneration. We venture to say that there is not an intelligent teacher in the Dominion who is not thoroughly well aware that the average public schoolroom is insanitary and that the last; thing thought of under the orthodox system is the health and virility of the children. At a time when so much depends upon the physical strength and steady nerves of the nation, the state should revise its educational methods and should take care that no child is physically injured and unnerved by going to school. As things are the wonder is not that so many children are found to be physically defective but that any of them pass through the schools without some permanent I physical deterioration.