Health Work in the Public Schools | Page 9

passed, one section of which reads: "No superintendent, principal, or teacher of any public, parochial, private school, or other institution, nor any parent, guardian, or other person, shall permit any child not having been successfully vaccinated, nor having had smallpox, to attend school." Although passed a year ago, that ordinance has not yet been enforced. Exact figures cannot be secured, but it is probable that there are in the Cleveland schools today more than 50,000 unvaccinated children. For each of these the superintendent, principal, teacher, and parent may be held liable to a $200 fine, 60 days imprisonment, or both.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Compared with other large cities, Cleveland has an unusually good system of medical inspection. Where other cities are still struggling with details of organization, record keeping, and the like, Cleveland is ready to lead the way into new and immensely important fields.
Medical inspection includes four fields of endeavor: prevention of epidemics, discovery and cure of physical defects, provision of healthful surroundings, and formation of correct habits of thought and action in regard to health. The first two are concerned with remedying present conditions, and here Cleveland is doing excellent work. The latter two provide health insurance for the future. In these, Cleveland has made a beginning but should carry her efforts far in advance of anything now attempted.
Thirteen years ago a crusade was started against the common drinking cup. Today there is not a school in the city which is not supplied with sanitary drinking fountains, and the common cup is a thing of the past. Nine years ago individual towels were supplied to children in certain schools. At the present time individual towels, soap, and hot water are available in every building. In 1906 the first shower bath was installed in an elementary school. Now there are 37 buildings so equipped. The windows in some of the classes for the blind are made of amber tinted glass. For years there has been agitation in favor of adjustable seats and desks, and although conditions in certain schools are still very bad, these are exceptions, and the general seating provision is in accordance with the laws of hygiene.
[Illustration: Shower baths installed in an old building in a crowded section.]
But the Division of Medical Inspection must go farther than this. The physician must join with the psychologist and the educator in scientific research to determine the conditions best suited to the education of the child. Shall blackboards be of slate, composition board, or glass? Shall they be colored black, green, or ivory white? Is light chalk on a dark ground better or worse than dark chalk on a light ground? Is prismatic window glass superior to plain? To what extent is glare from polished desks detrimental to eyesight? How large must be the type in textbooks in order that young children may easily read it? What variations from the present school program are necessary in order to make adequate provision for change in the use of different sets of muscles, and relief from nerve strain?
These questions and hundreds of others are facing educational authorities. The method of answering them affects not only the children of one city but the children of all cities throughout the country. Everywhere schoolmen are on the alert to gain information which will help in solving these problems.
In addition to regular work of inspection and examination, the doctors and nurses of Cleveland spend a great deal of time in conferences with parents, talks with teachers, lessons and talks to children, toothbrush drills, and the like. The importance of work of this kind can hardly be overestimated, but it must be far more than "talks at people." It should be the aim of the Department of Medical Inspection to establish right habits in regard to health. For this reason, although both methods are helpful, drill in the use of the toothbrush is more effective than lectures on the need of using it. As a result of the work of doctors and nurses, Cleveland's children,--and her teachers as well,--should not only believe in plenty of sleep, but should go to bed early; not only disapprove of too much tea and coffee, but have strength to refuse when it is offered. Through classes for the anemic and pre-tubercular, the public schools help each year between two and three hundred children. This is worth doing, but they will render a far greater service to Cleveland if, in addition, they succeed in giving to 80,000 children, so firmly that it will never be broken, the habit of sleeping winter and summer with wide open windows.
The dentist, the oculist, the physician, should come to be regarded, not as dispensers of cures nor sympathetic listeners to hypochondriacs, but as leaders to whom intelligent people go in order to forestall trouble,--specialists in health rather than disease.