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59
14. CO-OPERATION OF TEACHERS.
We are fortunate in East Ham in possessing a staff of
teachers nearly all of whom are alive to the advantage of and in
complete sympathy with the work of the School Medical Officer.
This attitude is at once gratifying to the doctor and beneficial to
the scholars. In all matters pertaining to school medical work
the teaching staff are ever ready to assist; they prepare the cards
complete with multiple details, arrange for parents to attend at
specified session, supply the best available accommodation for the
doctor, and give cheerful assistance in management of the children
—all factors which facilitate and expedite the Medical Officer's
work. Indeed, the assistance given by school teachers is never
adequately recognised, and I wish to express on behalf of myself
and my assistants our appreciation of all the work they do for
us so willingly. Without the co-operation and goodwill of the
teaching staff our work loses half its efficacy, and we are greatly
indebted to the teachers not only for their generous assistance,
but also for necessary information regarding children's past
health and for many practical suggestions in connection with
school medical work generally.
Following-up work is for the most part done by the school
nurses, but the teachers often have an opportunity of interviewing
parents and are ever ready to advocate the necessity of having
the doctor's recommendations carried out. In certain schools,
too, the teachers are able to obtain hospital letters, which they
distribute judiciously among the most deserving and needy
parents.
Every morning a certain number of children arrive at school
suffering from some illness or other, and it is here that the observation
powers of the school teacher are of such assistance in
keeping the schools free of epidemic disease and in having any
illness treated in its early stages. Most of the teachers have a
fair and many of them a comprehensive knowledge of the symptoms
of the commoner ailments, and should any child arrive at
school feeling or looking ill the teacher is quick to seek the advice
of the clinic or the private practitioner as he things best. It is,
however, in detecting incipient infectious and infective diseases
that the aid of the school teacher is most valuable, and here
naturally the individuality of any one teacher displays itself,