THE OUTLOOK OF PUBLIC HEALTH WORK 



dered what is intended in this discussion. What is intended 

 is the inculcation of a different way of looking at things, 

 less geocentric and less egocentric, which is the refined 

 product of scientific thinking, and is, after all, the recog- 

 nized true meaning of education. 



Among educational authorities there are many advanced 

 minds who realize the shortcomings of present methods. 

 They labor under great difficulties in trying to overcome 

 the prejudices of self-perpetuating pedagogy, and the 

 indifference of a body of school teachers of whom so large 

 a proportion regard their jobs as mere stop-gaps rather 

 than life professions. Under these circumstances it is not 

 strange that the product of the schools is not prepared in its 

 mental outlook to become interested in, or to have con- 

 victions concerning, a subject apparently so remote as 

 public health. 



Much could be accomplished if really adequate courses in 

 physical sciences and public and personal health topics 

 could be introduced into the normal schools. A teacher 

 convinced by personal demonstration in the laboratory 

 and on field excursions, would be a more inspiring in- 

 structor than one who mechanically follows a textbook 

 in which he or she has no real interest. 



Legislation is no function of health authorities per se, but 

 they have a duty in bringing to the attention of legislators 

 matters so important to the public welfare as those per- 

 taining to the public health, and furthermore in advising 

 wisely as to the ends to be striven for and the means of 

 accomplishing them. 



The Public Health Outlook. Students and practitioners 

 of public health have different outlooks, just as specialists 

 in any other line of human activity. It is too much to expect 

 that all of them would endorse what is said here; and in 

 attempting to present the subject to readers presumably 

 relatively unfamiliar with it, the best one can do is to give 



[267] 



