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34
48. In November I reported as follows on medals for school
attendance:—
"The recent outbreaks of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria have
emphasized the well-known connection between the
spread of infectious disease and the attendance of
children at school in an infectious condition. There is
no doubt that a very large proportion of the cases of
Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Measles, Whooping Cough,
and other infectious diseases, are due to school infection.
Although, unfortunately, children may sometimes be
carriers of infection without having any symptoms of
disease, it is probable that most often infectious disease
is spread by children who have slight but obvious
symptoms of the disease. Such children are usually not
seriously ill, though cases not unfrequently occur, in
which children, who are actually seriously ill, have been
found in school. There are two principal reasons why
children go to school when poorly and suffering from
infectious disease. These are, anxiety not to miss school
attendance, and neglect or inability to obtain medical
advice. The first is probably much the most important.
School medals are given to children if they attend
punctually and regularly throughout the school term,
and do not stay away for more than two days after due
notice is given. No allowance is made for accidents or
illness of the child or for infectious disease in the house.
The medals appear to be a very great attraction to the
children, but, if they are not of themselves sufficient
attraction, the school attendance officers apply compulsion
where attraction fails. The result is that children
commonly attend when their health requires that they
should be kept at home. They go to school with toothache,
ear-ache, bad colds, and often more serious diseases.
The educational authorities do not seem to have