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179
Report of the County Medical Officer—Education
are one or two other signs which are useful guides to the amount of fatigue present. One of these is
the response to stimuli applied to the peripheral nerves. The average normal child responds readily
and instantly to such stimuli; the fatigued child responds slowly or not at all. In this degree of
readiness of response to slight stimuli is found a valuable guide to the amount of fatigue present.
At the preliminary examination several children were found to be tired, with feeble response
to stimuli, dilated pupils, and inability to concentrate their mind for any length of time—all signs
of mental fatigue, in most cases accompanied with bodily fatigue as well. The causes of this fatigue
in school children are want of sleep, malnutrition, overwork or class strain, and actual physical illness.
Of these the last was responsible for perhaps one case, that of a boy who was suffering from
dyspepsia, and who had had frequent "bilious attacks." Want of sleep accounted for five cases; in
one the child was at work early in the morning and went to bed late at night, obviously getting less
sleep than he needed ; in a second case out-of-school work was also responsible for the fatigue, while
in the remainder no sufficient reason could be assigned for the fact that the children went to bed later
than they ought to have done. In each of these five cases there was a certain amount of poverty of
nutrition, though in three only could the nutrition be put down as three, while in no case was it
poor enough to be put down as four. Overwork, in the majority of cases, is due to activity out of
school. In the case of boys, in which its effects are much more apparent than in girls, the prevailing
causes are choir practice and Scout drills; these keep the children often until a late hour so that they
get to bed after nine or even ten, thus much diminishing the hours of sleep. Class strain is of comparatively
rarer incidence ; it is found where the children have task work or home work, and is much
rarer, therefore, in the less hard worked elementary scholar than in the boy who attends a central or
secondary school. Among the children examined at the preliminary inspection there was no case in
which the fatigue could be directly ascribed to class strain.
Following up these notes particular attention was paid to the children at Shanklin, observing
more in detail those who at the preliminary inspection had been found to be fatigued. The mental and
physical work entailed by the excursion involved a certain amount of strain, and it was interesting to
note exactly in what way the children stood this strain. In the case of the five children specially
noted it was interesting to observe how rapidly they lost their original signs of mental fatigue, became
responsive to stimuli, alert and brighter, and, judging from the marks they obtained, they certainly
showed that they were not behind their fellows in attention or observation. In a few of the juniors
there were slight evidences of mental fatigue after an excursion which had not involved much mental
strain, but which had given them the opportunity of having unlimited play on the beach; in these
cases the mental fatigue was undoubtedly a concomitant of bodily weariness, and could not be ascribed
to the amount of mental work done during the day.
It is a frequent criticism that on an excursion of this kind the children are mentally overworked
"The mind should be given a complete rest; all holiday tasks should be avoided" is a recommendation
sometimes made. Apart altogether from the fact that an excursion wholly devoid of
educational interest cannot rightly be termed a school excursion in the generally accepted sense of the
words, and would therefore not be sanctioned as such by the Board of Education, a protest should
be made against the inference that the ideal holiday for school children consists in aimless wandering
or playing on the beach with intervals of rest devoted to the consumption of large quantities of good
food. Yet some such ideal is undoubtedly in the mind of those who advocate a school excursion
divorced of its instructional and educative aspects and devoted entirely to recreation. Such a holiday
comes rather in the scope of a holiday camp, and observation on three successive camps, recruited
from children of school going age, strongly impressed on Dr. Leipoldt the fact that a fortnight's
"dolceifar niente" existence is by no means successful in avoiding mental fatigue. The experience
of camp officers is very similar, and it is now generally understood that it is an eminently desirable
thing to give the children in such camps something to occupy themselves with to avoid the monotony
of aimless wandering about between what may be called organised recreations.
On this excursion the lectures were admirably given and the sections excellently handled. The
periods of rest were well arranged, and so much variety was introduced into the class work that all
strain was avoided. The children were placed in a position to learn a great deal without unnecessary
stress, and there can be little doubt that most of them considerably profited in consequence.
With regard to physical fatigue, observation led to the conclusion that few of the children felt
the strain of the walks to any great extent. This was largely due to the fact that the rate of
progression was always slow- -averaging perhaps two miles an hour—with frequent halts, and that
several of the walks were done under almost ideal conditions of climate. The sociable nature of the
excursions too had an important psychological value which no doubt contributed to this limitation of
fatigue. Yet another factor was the avoidance of any attempt to make the children walk in regular
order or to adopt a constrained attitude and carriage of body. It is well to lay stress on this last
point, for undoubtedly fatigue is engendered by adopting the attitude which is described in some
manuals as "the correct method of walking"; in this the body is carried erect, the shoulders are
thrown back, and the head is inclined backwards. As a matter of fact the correct attitude in
walking is with the body inclined slightly forwards; this attitude has recently been recommended
for adoption in the French army, and is the one assumed by Alpine guides and others accustomed to
prolonged walks. It is the attitude which is naturally assumed when walking over uneven ground,
and is the only one that essentially corrects the faulty position caused by sedentary occupation. In
girls especially this attitude should be insisted upon, care being taken that the carriage of the head is
correct and that the eyes are not habitually kept lowered. The inclined attitude relaxes the strain
on the sacro-lumbar articulations and gives free play to the leg muscles without straining those of the
abdomen as the vertical attitude does. It is the attitude which children naturally adopt when
walking and is the least fatiguing. Care must of course be taken that it does not degenerate into
a slouch which is an exaggeration of the normal forward inclination with, in addition, a forward stoop
of the shoulders and a downward craning of the head.
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