SAVING THE CHILDREN.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 872, 25 November 1916, Page 8

SAVING THE CHILDREN.

POSITION IN ENGLAND. "THINGS THAT ARE MOST WRONG." SOME IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS. "II is now widely recognised," Sir | George Newman, Chief Medical | Officer of the Board of Education | (London) stated in his report, "that j there is no ultimate need of the I State greater, more imperative or i more urffent than that of securing | the health and physical efficiency of j the coming generation with a view' to its all-round practical education.": We hegin with the knowledge that ei.?ht Years' work of the School j Medical Service has brousht to light j "a Huge mass of phvsical defect and i disease, varied in character and j -<. idesorcad. most of it preventable." ; There arc at least a million children j lin some way defective. What is to ' be done to prevent this "Ian?" mass! of phvsical defect and disease" 0 I A hk'h authority who discussed I the problem with a representative of j a loading-English journal, said:— I "The way out is indicate;! by Sir | George Newman in the course of his j report. There are four principal j means, he points out. hv which, in j 'ho first place, phvsical educa'ie.-i can he obtained: firstly, by teaching i bygime and clea"liness; '"f>'i |! !v, hv feeding the children: thirdly, hv i i systematic phvsical training; and fourthly, bv open-air education. ' "You must also deal with the | young child before school age, again j on the hues indicated in the renort, by setting up schools for mothers, dav nurseries or creches for I' - ain-i \rtg the mothe"s in infant welfare | and the ca'-e of the child, nnrserv schools, and hv the nrooer a"d ad"- j rmptc t •'diiing in infant wed fa re of j elder n J -Is in the elementary and | secondary schools. 1 "To these five ways in winch the •child can he looked after, f would add a sixth, also mentioned in the report—namely, that of fitting it for employment and seeing that everv child normally liable to attend school who is emnloved i™ the oresent i- r-hvsicallv (it :>•■<•) heaUhv, and that it has no defect, •naladv or nnt~eated. and that il is not allowed to do work beyord its physical powers. "'the machinery for teaching hyeiene already exists. arrangements being in force in all the training colleges. What is needed, as Sir Georffo states, is continued vigilance and application to maintain a high and practical standard. "Teach Hygiene by Practice." "A child cannot, however, be taught hygiene and a healthy way of living hv merely lecturing to it or giving it lessons. Von must teach it by making it acquire by practice certain hygienic habits. Take, for example, cleanliness. It is very much better than merely lecturing to a child to insist that it shall come to school clean, and, when it does not come clean, to get it cleaned. Day by dav petting to he clean makes a child learn a great lesson of hvgiene. "Take, again, open air. If you teach a child in the open air il finds closed wdndows and ill-ventilated rooms stuffy. Suppose, on the other hand, a child always sees the windows of its schoolroom closed, it is going to have but one effect, whereas if it sees them always open it is rfoing to learn the value of ventilation in a simple way. "Ten per cent, of children suffer from malnutrition, not because thev are not fed, but because they do not get the right kind of food at the right times. To correct this defect, therefore, it is not only a question of put--1 ting so much food into a child's body, • but of teaching it the value of food, ' j the proper sort of food, and the right ' j times of taking it. In short, hygiene should be taught by practice. "On this question of feeding the children, let me quote Sir George ; Newman's words:—

From whatever point of view we consider it one broad fact always emerges. If the child is to grow and become strong it must be fed, and the criterion of its need to be fed is its own physical condition and not the social position or poverty of its parents. It is important that the parents should be responsible, but it is more important that the child itself should be fed. It is not a sound or wise policy for an authority to spend months or years debating the subject, and meanwhile postpone arrangements for getting the child fed, with the inevitable result that malnutrition and its results remain. The work of feeding the children should be closely co-ordinated with that of the School Medical Service. Three Things Wrong. "On the whole, the things that are most wrong with children are what I should call the gross and obvious things; first, uncleanliness; second, malnutrition; and third, defective eyesight. These three things are very much more important to the national welfare than the question here and there of a child suffering from some rare malady. Fifteen per cent. of the children suffer from uncleanliness. 10 per cent, from malnutrition, and 15 per cent., from severely defective eyesight. Take these three defects in 0,500,000 children, and see what you get. "I notice that someone has criticised Sir George Newman's figures, saying that he has over-estimated the number of children who are seriously defective, because he said that not less than a million are so physijcally or mentally diseased as to be j unable to derive reasonable benefit [from the education which the Slate provides. But what is 15 per cent, on six and a half million? It is pretty nearly a million on these points alone. The State and the Parent. "To turn to the remedy again, the Stale is already doing a very great deal. There are to-day 150 school clinics, where only a few years ago i there were not more than half a i dozen. Local education authorities [are required by law to inspect. The ■duty of treatment, however, is not 'obligatory. It should be. But let

me make lluit point perfectly clear. The State ought not to say to the local authority, 'You must treat this defective child,* but 'You must see that this defective child is treated'— treated perhaps by the authority, perhaps by the parents, or perhaps by some voluntary society. "The point is that the child must be put rigid. Ways and means are a different thing. They depend upon the case. If you do everything for the parents you will get nothing. The work of (he School Medical Service has stimulated the parents. Their sense of responsibility has increased. The work ought so to be organised as further to increase, and not to decrease, parental responsibility."