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133
The chief thing to aim at in your schools is adequate ventilation,
and the school curriculum, at least during periods of epidemic
when any infectious diseases are likely to be prevalent, should be so
arranged that children are never in one classroom for more than
fifty minutes or so, and that for the remainder of the hour the classroom
is literally flushed with sufficient air and the windows
and doors opened to the maximum extent.
One very great difficulty in combating the incidence of
infectious disease is that the public do not know the normal appearance
of the various parts of the body that are likely to be affected.
I have had the temerity to suggest that the senior scholars
might with advantage learn to draw one another's throats and
other similar organs which are likely to be the seat of disease.
It is not suggested that they should learn the long, complicated
Latin names of all the various parts they would draw, nor that
they should in the least be told what these anatomical parts look
like when they are diseased, but that they should know what they
look like when they are healthy.
A good housewife when she rejects a potato because it is
diseased does not know the name and the nature of the particular
disease from which the potato is suffering. She knows it is a bad
potato, and in the same way children should be. taught the normal
healthy appearance of various parts of the body so that they may
know when there is any deviation from the normal.
Where the attendance of a school falls below 60 per cent. and in
the opinion of the Medical Officer this bad attendance is directly due to
the prevalence of infectious disease, the school sessions so affected are
not counted in estimating the average attendance for the purpose
of grant. During 1930 one certificate was granted for this purpose.