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36
THE SANITARY AUTHORITY.
Shortly the Borough Council will become the Education Authority,
and responsible for the conditions under which many hundreds of
children spend a not inconsiderable portion of their time. An opportunity
has therefore been afforded to the sanitary authority, not only
of ensuring that the sanitary surroundings of the scholars are as good
as they can be made, but that the whole of school life should be passed
under the most hygienic surroundings. It is therefore to be hoped
that the schools themselves and the manner in which they are conducted
will be made to serve as object-lessons, to supplement and illustrate
the teaching of the elements of hygiene, which is, in my opinion, an
essential part of education.
There is scope for improvement in the direction of reducing so
far as possible the dangers attending the packing together of large
numbers of school children in one class room, and the arrangements
for sufficiently ventilating the class rooms are such as at present admit
of improvement. The school furniture should be far more generally
adapted to the children of various sizes, and not the children to the
furniture, The evil effect of bad posture upon scholars is universally
recognised; it is responsible for permanent body deformities, defective
physical development, and a large amount of visual defect. The
children should be taught some of the elementary laws of health,
and the female children should all be taught the more essential facts
with reference to domestic economy and infant rearing. Everyone
admits the advisability of giving this information to school children,
and yet year after year it has been excluded from the curriculum.
How to live healthy lives (and therefore happy and useful lives) is
one of the greatest matters which education has to teach, and any
system of education falls far short of the ideal if these subjects are
excluded from the curriculum. If these subjects are to be taught,
the teachers must be taught how to teach them, and there is certainly
a want in this country for the suitable preparation of teachers for this