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113
(16) SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS OF
HIGHER EDUCATION.
The Barking Education Authority is not empowered to provide secondary
education for its scholars, but children for whom this type of education is demanded
do attend the Barking Abbey School, situated on the boundary of the Borough.
This school is under the Essex County Council, and medical inspection and treatment
of children attending it is in the hands of that Council.
The dental inspection and the treatment of the children at this school is about
to be undertaken by you and I do hope that the time is not far distant when all the
children who attend this school will have the advantages of all the multifarious
activities you carry on on behalf of the children in ordinary schools.
(17) PARENTS' PAYMENTS.
From time to time you have had under consideration an arrangement for the
recovery of cost of treatment from parents of children attending public elementary
schools. Certain alterations have been made during the year 1934.
(18) HEALTH EDUCATION.
In respect of what is commonly known as "Health Education," I confessed
last year that with the extensions that are going on as the result of the increase in
the population of Barking, it has been difficult enough to keep up with ordinary work,
but we hope that when conditions are more stable to undertake work in this
direction.
This does not imply that I believe in any set lessons but rather that the
children should be taught to realise that the things that they have been taught to
do are based on sound principles; thus it is teaching children how to do such things
which is the important thing. Children should be so taught to clean their teeth
that they feel uncomfortable if the teeth have not been brushed at least twice a day.
It is proper that the senior scholars should understand that they have been taught
to clean their teeth for some basic reasons but no knowledge of dental caries is so
likely to urge them to clean their teeth as the discomfort experienced by people who
do clean their teeth regularly, when for some reason or other they are precluded
from doing so.
In the same way, I hope the time will come when routine habits will be firmly
established amongst the school-children and the child who suffers from intestinal
stasis, a condition so prevalent today, will feel uncomfortable. Here again, amongst
the older children the basic principles might be taught of how important it is for them
to rely on proper diet and proper exercises rather than upon laxatives, which should
be looked upon as quite out of date.