View report page

76
Decertification
of
physically
defective
children.

Absentees in
schools for
physically
defective
children.
Dr. G. Slot has inquired into the question of the absence of children from
schools for physically defective children, and his conclusions are summarised below.
The reasons given for absence in many instances are not peculiar to schools for
physically defective children, but are liable to be exaggerated in these cases.
Some parents are over anxious and keep their children away on the least provocation—
often unmindful of the fact that in school efficient medical attention is available through the
services of a school nurse who is in attendance at every school for physically defective children,
and that in many instances children are quieter and warmer in school than at home.
Some children are kept at home because they are useful in looking after other children if
the mother goes out to work, or so that in the event of the mother's illness they can be
employed on household duties. With a physically defective child, it is easier for an excuse to
be made on health grounds than with a healthy child.
Medical practitioners are to some extent responsible for absentees on medical certificates,
etc. (this includes both hospital and general practitioners). Many inquiries have convinced
me that, in London at any rate, the work and function of a school for physically defective
children are not fully realised by the medical profession. Certificates are granted to
exclude children for the very diseases that the schools exist to treat; it is not sufficiently
realised that there will be more rest and quiet at school than at home, and a certificate
of exclusion may mean nothing more than a licence to play in the streets. Junior house officers
at the big hospitals are constantly changing and, as in many cases it is they who are advising
the case, continuity of advice and treatment is not always attained. Moreover, these officers
do not know the purpose, or indeed in some instances are not aware of the very existence of a
school for physically defective children. It is not sufficiently realised that in the home conditions
which rule in many cases, rest and quiet are almost impossible. Some children are unconscious
or subconscious malingerers for a variety of reasons. They may not get on well with the other
children or be bad " mixers " ; they may be in a class where they do not like the teacher or they
may be backward ; an ache or pain backed by a vague hospital command " to rest " can easily
persuade the complacent parent of such a child, who is often spoiled, to keep him at home, and
it is not difficult to get a medical certificate to back the parent's opinion. Such certificates are
of course given in all good faith, but without any real knowledge of the comparative benefits
which are likely to accrue from staying at home or going to school. It is common for children
in schools for the physically defective to require days off for ill health, hospital or clinic attendance,
etc., so that possibly longer periods of time elapse without a certificate being required in these
cases than in the case of elementary school children. Holidays for hop-picking, etc., cause some
absences in these schools just as in ordinary elementary schools. Lastly, of course, there are
the cases of children in hospitals on convalescence or who are genuinely ill at home.