102 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 241 



Table 4. Children in Family Groups, by Year of Birth and Sex 



tendents took pains to notify all their teachers that the worker was coming 

 and that she was to be given all the assistance from the teacher which she 

 might wish, including plenty of opportunity to talk to the children and a 

 chance to have them fill out the school questionnaire during regular sessions. 

 Had it not been for this interest on the part of the superintendents of schools, 

 the field work would have been far more difficult than it proved to be. 



The first step in the field study was to visit every school room and talk 

 with the teachers about the object of the survey, in particular, explaining to 

 them tbp plans for the clinic sessions and the dental examinations. A short 

 talk was made to the children, and they were urged to be sure to tell their 

 parents that the worker would be at their homes to talk with the mothers. 

 Experience proved that this procedure was of great value, as it gave an ex- 

 cellent introduction to the homes. 



About a week sufficed to make all the pupils feel quite well acquainted with 

 tlie field worker. Then they began, as they walked along the roads to and 

 from school, to call out "Good morning" to her as she drove by — a sign that 

 it was time to begin the home visiting. Practically every parent met her at 

 the door with the words, "Oh, yes, you're the nurse my children said was com- 

 ing to talk to me about their health." 



The school blank was chiefly useful as a means of introducing the idea of 

 the survey to the homes through the children. Otherwise, except for the chil- 

 dren's reports on their noon meals, it is felt that the answers of the children 

 were neither adequate nor accurate; not because of unwillingness on the part 

 of the children, but on account of their inability to remember and their actual 

 lack of information. For example, it was only in the three upper grades that 

 the pupils felt any certainty about the distance from home to school, or about 

 the hours of going to bed and getting up. The reports on the noon meals are, 

 on the whole, very reliable; in most instances, if the child had brought his 

 lunch to school the teacher had him get the box and then and there write 

 down a list of its contents; at other times, the worker visited the school im- 

 mediately upon the opening of the afternoon session and the children reported 

 on the meal eaten within the past hour. The teachers, knowing in advance 

 that this would be done, watched carefully the lunches eaten at the building 

 and helped supply the information, especially about the meals of the younger 

 pupils. 



