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151
The real trouble is that our educators are too efficient. Under
their skilful tuition a high grade mentally defective child can
go through the whole curriculum without being discovered.
(19) NURSERY SCHOOLS.
There are no nursery schools in the district.
As the Committee know, I am not so enthusiastic about
nursery schools as are, some people. "Nursery schools are required
for small children who cannot get personal attention where the
home is squalid, where food is bad ard insufficient, where the
only playroom is the gutter, and where ill health passes unnoticed
till chest trouble, rickets or other ailments have
developed "—Sir George Newman.
It is my earnest suggestion that the real solution of this
problem is to make the homes fit for these children to live in. A
comprehensive housing scheme on the one hand and the beneficial
results of modern education on the other should make nursery
schools as such unnecessary.
Nursery schools may be classed with the curative treatment
in medicine, whereas the whole idea of a public medical service
is prevention.
(20) SECONDARY SCHOOLS.
Once again I want to point out how invidious it is for children
leaving your ordinary elementary schools to proceed to a higher
education to be debarred from the very comprehensive medical
services you have set up.
It has so far proved itself impracticable for the County Council
to offer amenities similar to your own. The difficulties they would
find in setting up such services would be considerable, but there is
no doubt that there is a very real need for the children to be looked
after in the way in which you look after your own children, and I