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89
fitness as is enjoyed by a great proportion of the child
population. In Bromley there are many excellent private
schools and boarding schools where it is usual to have a
medical officer on the staff, but in many of the small
private dwelling-house schools medical supervision of the
scholars is not carried out. Little fault can be found with
the good type of establishment which is suitably planned,
admirably situated, and finely equipped for educational
purposes, but up and down the country totally inadequate
small private dwelling-houses are functioning as schools.
The small dwelling-house school with one or two rooms
devoted to the education of a few children cannot be
regarded as a suitably planned building possessing
sufficient surrounding air space and playground space to
meet modern educational essentials. Some parents are
apathetic as to their responsibility in the correct selection
of schools for their children, and in many cases the choice
is made on purely sentimental grounds, and the small
private dwelling-house school is selected for the delicate
child. Such a child at once finds itself in a school
environment unsatisfactory for its physical condition;
restricted space, faulty lighting and ventilation, all go to
militate against an already impaired physical condition.
It is an interesting commentary on this subject to
recall the striking statistical facts disclosed after the first
dental inspection was held at the Plaistow Lane R.C. School
in 1933, after the school ceased to be a private one and
came under the purview of the Local Education Authority.
No less than 85 per cent. of the children were found by
the School Dental Surgeon to require treatment, not
merely for minor defective conditions, but for severe
dental defects, whereas in the elementary schools under
the Local Authority where dental examination and treatment
had functioned for many years, the dental inspection
showed only 54 per cent. of children requiring treatment
for dental defects.
There appears to be a field for action against conditions
under which certain types of scholastic institutions
function, and particularly must we focus our attention on
the anomaly that one section of the school population
entirely escapes something which is established as of vital
necessity for the other.