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73
I am given to understand that in almost every instance,
where notices have had to be served on account of uncleanliness,
their tenancy of a Council house was a comparatively recent one.
We may infer that in time all the tenants of the Council houses will
conform to a higher standard of cleanliness, but the risk involved
should not be run. Before any mischief is done, these few defaulting
tenants should be given to understand that their former standards
will not be tolerated.
I understand that the Housing Committee has decided to
notify these tenants that continuance of these conditions may result
in the loss of the house to the tenant.
It is only by such means that we can hope for a further improvement
in the standard of cleanliness, and like all educative
measures it will be a slow affair. It is not sufficient to clean the
heads and bodies of the children, but the work must also be done
in the homes.
In the case of Council houses, the work is comparatively easy,
as we can count upon the assistance of the Housing Committee.
But we cannot expect the same alacrity to assist on the part of
private landlords. We have to rely on the statutory obligations
of both landlords and tenants. I know that these measures are
somewhat punitive in their character, and are not consistent with
modern educative ideas, but they are efficacious. We had some
striking instances of success when teachers applied what turned out
to be punitive methods, although the object was very far from being
punitive.
In one of the schools one of the mistresses takes a deep interest
in the cleanliness of the girls in her class. She was generally
present when the Nurse made the head inspection. If there were
in the class any girls whose heads contained nits, she kept them
apart. Her primary object, of course, was to protect the girls who
were clean. She rightly looked upon herself as the guardian of
these girls whilst under her care, and wished to protect them from
any injurious influences, and especially from head infestation.
This separation had another effect. In time the infested
girls felt that there was a certain stigma attached to the separation,
and soon effected a change themselves. In almost every instance,
the girls in this class are all clean in a few days after each head
inspection. Not only was there a marked improvement after inspection,
but the condition at each inspection had markedly improved.
The girls evidently were determined that they would not
risk separation on account of infested heads.
In passing, it may be mentioned that this class was by no
means an easy one to deal with. Some of the girls had been affected