THE MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2784, 24 July 1907, Page 13

THE MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.

We are slowly, but surely, acquiring eaner ideas on education.. We are now, by means of gardening, woodwork, modelling, brushwork, and so on cultivating sides of child nature ' hitherto neglected. Then, too, -we are devoting more time to building up a strong physique; and it is in pursuance of this object that medical inspection of school children is being pressed upon the community; I» a.*' recent article 'in a Commonwealth paper (he writer says that medical inspection of schools will soon have to be taken up' by ;the Health and the Education Departments for T«ry shame. CompukorT inspection obtains ia Austria., Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, France,' Roumania, JaP*?. and the* Argentine, so this article says. We know, too, that m Germany* the United Kingdom, and the United States the movement is being warmly taken up. And it w bound to spread as soon as it is sufficiently recognised that medical science aims rather at preventing than curing, and that from a purely commercial point of view—to twee a low standard— the State must do what it can to train m> a healthy amjnal. »o clearly 'is this being recognised that m Austria, the United States, and elsewhere special . medical rooms are being built in connection with any new large schoolsThe following extract from the article will tell better than I can why medical inspection is necessary: — " There, are three weighty reasons to account for the way in which the medical inspection of schools is being taken up. First there is the reason of public convenience. The children being mustered for education offer ideal facilities for medical inspection in the interests of general health. In the second place, it is only fair, when education is made, compulsory, that some sort of expert umpire should be appointed to decide bow much education shall be obligatory for those children whose health is below the average. In the third place, it ought to be recognised that the most important point in practical education is that of getting the child into the intelligent practice of healthy habits. There is also a fourth reason of considerable force. The school curriculum is supposed to provide for the mentel fitnees and health of the child, but by its very conditions it menaces the physical health. For example, it is a severe tax on the vitality of any child to require it to breathe vitiated air for five or six hours a. day. It is most desirable, therefore, that an expert watch should be kept upon all the hygienic conditions of the school in order that the mental equipment of the child may be provided with the least possible amount of detriment to its physique. The world is far beyond the stage at which the health of the school is supposed to have been sufficiently attended to when a smelling drain is dusted with chloride of 'lime once a week. It is certain" that the school conditions aggravate certain defects out of which children, would grow under ideally healthy conditions. At one medical inspection of the schools of Edinburgh 18 per cent, of the children were found to be affected with swollen . glands. Most physicians would seek to combat this unhealthy state by prescribing plenty of exercise in the fresh air. Thje sedentary tasks of the schoolroom, in which the air is so often allowed to become . positively v fetid, tend to fix and aggravate the diseased condition. A large amount of cruelty, too, is practised towards children who suffer from post-nasal growths, but not badly enough to bring them into the care of a physician. They are unhappy j and party stupefied by their trouble, coming in for scoldings and punishments which J only make matters worse. The object of medical inspection in all such cases is to secure that we shall not make the hideous mistake. of obtaining a little education at the cost of a lifelong impairment of health. . i

"It must be remembered that there is the pressure of departmental and public opinion updn the_ teacher, requiring him to get the best educational results out of his class as a whole. The teacher has not the time to pause and think out what is best for each individual child. We need the expert medical man to take- upon himself this responsibility of deciding what relaxation of school routine must be granted to each individual whese health is below the normal. At present a large waste goes on in the giving of unproductive instruction. The radical mistake' of our" procedure in Victoria is that of assuming that education is a matter of the mind alone. We ignore the basic fact that mind is the outcome of bodily condition."