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Report of the County Medical Officer—Education. 143
geography, and a utilitarian side, as the elder children may be able to produce permanent models for the
use of the younger children, and for the blind schools. (D) Toy making includes all the carpentry these
children can undertake; many of them show considerable skill in the work. (E) Drawing and design
are developed in the bent iron work. It is proposed to attempt repousse work, and tinsmithing. All
these handicrafts for their fullest development will require special instructors and equipment. The
advanced bent iron work, and the repousse work have disadvantages in the noise involved in the work,
but this could be neglected if there were sufficient room for the separation of the children working at
these crafts. Repousse work as ordinarily done would not be permissible for the highly myopic, since
the flat bench and the continual stoop over the work would be injurious. It would however be quite
practicable for the work to be done on wallbenches sloped at the angle of 30 degrees from the perpendicular,
the benches would have a two or three inch ledge on which to support the work and tools, the
children would work standing before the wall benches, in very much the attitude of the sculptor. Tinsmith
work would provide an additional exercise for the cleverer boys, but, educationally, it is no more
than a development of the cardboard modelling. (F) Knitting is continued by the girls. Bag making
is stopped, but cane and basket work is continued. Raffia work is stopped since the full development
is prohibited for these children. Book binding is developed. The girls learn domestic work and simple
cookery.
One of the best of the handicrafts for these older children is the printing, to which attention
has been drawn. For value in the inculcation of thought, care, exactness, general neatness and cleanliness
of work, it is scarcely to be bettered. The materials employed are simple, and the work can be varied to
suit the ability of almost every grade of child. The only limitation is the one that confines the use of
sticky black pigments to those who can keep themselves clean.
In a former account of the myope classes some remark was made on the work of these children
after school years. The necessary inquiries made by teachers and care committee members as to suitable
occupations for leavers has resulted in the drawing up of lists of suitable occupations for boys and girls.
It must be understood that this list relates to London conditions only. Two grades of work are shown,
those most suitable and those of secondary suitability.
Boys.—First selection.—Nursery gardening. Poultry farming. Messengers. Hawkers and street
traders. Assurance agents. Travellers and canvassers. Rent collectors. Shopwork under good
conditions. Piano-tuning.
Second selection.—Stick and pipe mounting. Basket-making. Some branches of brush making,
Girls.—First selection.—Florists' work. Waitresses in tea shops. Dairy shops. Under nursemaids
(no sewing). Creche attendants. Helpers at mothers' schools. Helpers at special schools and
dining centres. Light warehouse work (packing).
Second selection.—Box making. Cork sorting. Envelope folding, cementing and black-bordering.
Show-card mounting. Some branches of brush making. Stockroom work.
The kinds of work placed in the first and most suitable selection are of the outdoor type, or those
that enable the worker to be out and about, standing and moving, and with a minimum of close eye
work. These kinds of work are doubly suitable, for the general health is likely to be the better for the
freedom of movement enjoyed, and with the improvement in the general health the state of the eyes is
likely to be benefitted. Next after these comes the second selection, all these are of light tasks, that
do not unduly involve the use of the eyes, but they necessitate sitting and stooping to some extent and
therefore are not so good for the body or the eyes. Looked at from the occupational point of view
it is evident that the teaching of handicraft in the myope classes is not a direct preparation for life work,
such as is understood for the handicrafts of a blind school, rather the work should be regarded as a
convenient peg on which to hang general instruction ; the work itself is of value as a training in method
and habits of precision,and as cultivating satisfactory habits in the use of the eyes. The work is of value
also in that it tends to engage the minds of the children with the possibility of creating things, of fostering
thought and observation, and to that extent withdrawing them from the fatal snare of living in a world
of reading and book-thinking. The manual work is both a discipline and a distraction.
Occupations
for myopes.
One concluding note should be made regarding the numbers that can be dealt with in these
classes. Two circumstances combine to make a strict limit to the numbers any one teacher can deal
with at one and the same time, viz.—(1) Only a certain number of these children can see the teacher's
blackboard simultaneously. (2) Individual attention is particularly necessary with these children, if only
to correct their ingrained habits of peering into their work. Numerous experiments show that twelve
is the optimum number, and at the maximum a class should not exceed twenty children.
Size of myope
classes.
The teeth of all children attending the Council's day schools for blind, myope, deaf and hard
of hearing children, are examined and attended to by a dentist specially engaged for the purpose by the
Council. The dentist visits each day school twice a year and the consent of the parents is obtained
in all cases before the children receive treatment. Where accommodation permits, facilities for toothbrush
drill are also provided. During the year the dentist made 1,980 examinations and treated 851
cases, but some of the children were treated more than once. Objections to inspection or treatment,
or both, were received in 181 cases. In addition to this work the elentist also made 132 examinations
in connection with children boarded out from industrial schools, and treated 62 cases.
School buildings.—All plans of new buildings or proposed alterations are submitted to the
school medical officer at an early stage. Reports are obtained from the assistant medical officers upon
existing school buildings scheduled for remodelling or alterations in the various districts. The
inspection consists in going over the school premises and inspecting the general arrangement (environment,
playground, etc.), general condition of school (window and artificial lighting, heating, ventilation,
sanitation, desks, seating, etc.), and any other matters coming under the medical officer's notice in so far
Dental
inspection
and treatment
of
children in
blind, myope
deaf and
hard of
hearing
classes.