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SCHOOL HYGIENE
Question:—What practical steps would you advise could be taken to
improve school hygiene?
Answer:—Last year I answered the question as to what was meant by School
Hygiene, in which circumstance I do not intend to attempt again to define school
hygiene save only to say it is the study of the principles of promoting the health
of children whilst at school.
Most people who read my report last year will remember I pointed out that
the idea of putting school lavatories in some obscure corner of the playground is to
my mind quite out of date. Perhaps it is not practicable at this stage to deal with
this matter in our older schools but on the other hand perhaps it is, and, quite
frankly, I think the idea of children having to cross windswept playgrounds to
frozen lavatories is so out of date that something should be done, and that right early.
As a matter of fact I think that even where it is impracticable to alter the site
of the lavatories something should be done forthwith to bring them more into line
with modern practice.
No small part of children's school life is devoted to teaching them how to
live in their own homes. Lavatory accommodation, providing washbasins as well
as closets should be designed to this end.
Another practicable step I want taken is for the conditions under which school
meals are prepared and the way in which they are served to be improved. It
appears to me that in the most impressionable years of their lives children should not
have to see foodstuff's prepared or served except under conditions comparable
with those which obtain in a well-managed household.
NUTRITION
Question:—How does the general condition of children compare as
between schools in different parts of the Borough?
Answer:—This is a question which has been asked and although comparisons
are odious I will do what I can to answer it, but I must point out that the question
is not so simple as it appears to be. What I mean is this, that we have certain
selective schools in the town to which children are admitted after competitive
examination. Now on the whole we find it is the healthier children, the more
virile children, that do the best at these examinations, and there is therefore a
tendency at these selective schools to get selected groups of children, whose health
on the whole is better than at other schools. For the rest of the schools it is
surprising that the results of investigations are
remarkably consistent and the thing which
strikes me is that these results are remarkably
consistent even though we have had a wide
diversity of people undertaking the work. Some
of my older friends will remember during the
war I pointed out that this work was undertaken
by what would always be looked upon as the "league of nations."
From the little table which I have inset it will be seen that the number of
children said to be of poor general condition is only about forty per thousand, and
that this figure is so low is a remarkable achievement.
General Condition of
School Children
Good 38.90%
Fair 60.67%
Poor 0.43%
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