MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 



Teachers and parents are beginning to realize that the prob- 

 lem of the pupil with defective eyesight may be quite as important 

 to the community as that of the pupil who has some contagious 

 disease. A child who is unable to see distinctly is placed in a 

 school where physical defects are unrecognized and disregarded; 

 headaches, eyestrain, and failure follow all his efforts at study. 

 He cannot see the blackboards and charts; printed books are 

 indistinct or are seen only with much effort, everything is blurred. 

 Neither he nor his teacher knows what is the matter, but he soon 

 finds it impossible to keep pace with his companions, and, becom- 

 ing discouraged, he falls behind in the unequal race. 



In no better plight is the child suffering from enlarged 

 tonsils and adenoids, which prevent proper nasal breathing and 

 compel him to keep his mouth open in order to breathe. Perhaps 

 one of his troubles is deafness. He is soon considered stupid. 

 This impression is strengthened by his poor progress in school. 

 Through no fault of his own he is doomed to failure. He neglects 

 his studies, hates his school, leaves long before he has completed 

 the course, and is well started on the road to an inefficient and 

 despondent life. 



Public schools are a public trust. When the parent delivers 

 his child to their care he has a right to insist that the child under 

 the supervision of the school authorities shall be safe from harm 

 and shall be handed back to him in at least as good condition as 

 when it entered school. Even if the parent does not insist upon 

 it, the child himself has a right to claim protection. The child 

 has a claim upon the state and the state a claim upon the child 

 which demands recognition. Education without health is useless. 

 It would be better to sacrifice the education if, in order to attain 

 it, the child must lay down his good health as a price. Education 

 must comprehend the whole man and the whole man is built 

 fundamentally on what he is physically. 



The objection that the state has no right to permit or require 

 medical inspection of the children in the schools will not bear 

 close scrutiny or logical analysis. The authority which has the 

 right to compel attendance at school has the added duty of insist- 

 ing that no harm shall come to those who go there. The Mass- 

 achusetts law, with its mandatory "shall," is certainly preferable 



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