l82 PRACTICE AND TEACHING OF HYGIENE IN SCHOOLS. 



I must not be misunderstood to infer that a very complete or 

 even systematic teaching or practice of School Hygiene in its 

 entirety has been carried out here at present ; on the contrary, it 

 has barely commenced, yet I believe we have got somewhat further 

 on the right road than some of our neighbours who have done 

 nothing or next door to nothing ; and yet we are only upon the 

 threshold, so to speak, of this matter. 



Briefly — in teaching future teachers who are attending their 

 preliminary training at the Normal Training College, they are 

 afforded a thoroughly sound, practical and theoretical instruction 

 in the principles of the laws of health as applied, not only to the 

 school period of life in particular, but also to the pre and post 

 scholastic periods as well. 



The Director of Education has always worked hand in hand 

 with the Public Health Department, co-operating in, and seeking 

 its advice from time to time in all matters affecting the health of 

 school children and the control of infectious disease amongst them ; 

 and with his peculiar perceptivity has grasped at once those in- 

 separable facts in the continuity of action with which rests the 

 success of combatting, limiting, and controlling those serious 

 hindrances to educational progress so frequently brought about 

 by the interruptions caused by diseases common to children, and 

 their consequent absence from school. 



Unfortunately the mischief to health does not cease with the 

 checking of the spread of infectious disease, and its serious inter- 

 ference with the progress of education in the schools, but often 

 continues with either total impairment or partial destruction of 

 one or other of the special senses of hearing and sight which are so 

 important as the means of imparting knowledge, apart from actual 

 injury to the general health of the sufferers. Most of the infectious 

 diseases are, owing to the nature of their origin, also preventable 

 diseases, and it is not, as is often believed, essential that every child 

 must suffer from them ; for the longer period of time which elapses 

 without the child becoming exposed to infection the less liable is 

 that child to contract such disease should it become exposed to the 

 infection at a subsequent period. The best mental reactions can 

 never be obtained from a child with imperfect special and general 

 sensibilities. 



It is obvious also that in so far as the teachers themselves are 

 concerned (and suitable teachers are difficult to obtain) the 

 association in the school of a number of individuals drawn as they 

 are from so large a number and variety of houses must increase 

 their risk of contracting communicable disease when focussed in 

 the school, and particularly when the harassing character of the 

 work involved in skilful and thorough teaching is taken into ac- 

 count. Thus the injurious effects of unhealthy school conditions 

 re-acts upon the teachers as well as the pupils, and is in itself a 

 very important consideration. 



Applied hygiene is not a question for State educational systems 

 alone, for its importance is necessarily as great in private as in public 

 schools, and its economic results are equally striking in both ; for 

 there is no fundamental phj'siological difference between the state 



