68 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 263 



It is evident from this study of what the children actually do carry to 

 school that it is very unusual to find anything hot included in the lunch. This 

 is one of the outstanding lacks of the box lunch, and constitutes a problem 

 which can be most successfully solved by a school food service. Moreover, 

 the co-operation needed to run the food service, particularly in the smaller 

 schools, is a step towards the educational goal of the supervised lunch hour. 



Education 



There are many factors which influence well-being and are involved in the 

 achievement of optimal health by any individual. Yet this does not lessen the 

 hnportance of any one; and sleep, rest, play, sunshine, fresh air, pure water, 

 as well as clean, suitable food are all essential to a child's present health and 

 future welfare. 



Play, sunshine, and fresh air are available to most, if not all of the pupils 

 of the elementary schools of rural Massachusetts, although the supply of 

 fresh air in the schoolrooms could frequently be increased with advantage. 

 In many schools a considerable amount of out-door playtime is given to the 

 children at the rather long morning and afternoon recess periods. At the 

 smaller buildings schedules are somewhat flexible, and lengthened periods on 

 pleasant days may alternate with briefer recesses when the weather is stormy 

 or very cold. Sleep and rest many of the children imdoubtedly do not have 

 in adequate amounts; and the purity of the water supply is sometimes open 

 to question. The individual teacher, however, is seldom in a position to alter 

 the situation regarding these. 



In almost every rural town in Massachusetts a teaclier is required to stay 

 at the school building during the entire noon hour, and whenever there are 

 pupils lunching at the schoolhouse she has an excellent opportunity for el- 

 ementary lessons in nutrition and the inculcation of those manners and 

 courtesies about eating which are of lasting help to every child. Wliether or 

 not sudi teaching ought to be done in the home rather than in the school 

 is not the question here; the fact remains that even the briefest survey of 

 the eating habits of the children gives conclusive evidence that many have 

 not acquired proper habits. Training in anything as essential as the estab- 

 lishment of a proper attitude towards food because of its important role in 

 securing health and happiness for the individual is certainly as legftimate a 

 part of the school's task as is education in the more traditional school sub- 

 jects. 



One of the first things that may he taught in a hmch period is cleanliness, 

 of food, utensils, and hands. Simple procedures, such as the use of pieces of 

 oil cloth or paper napkins, implant the idea that food is something to be kept 

 clean. If, incidentally, the desks are also kept clean, that is an added ad- 

 vantage. Clean hands should not be a problem in a building with running 

 water or even merely a pump. Ingenuity is required to achieve them if the 

 schoolhouse has no water supply other than that in a pail. Here paper towels 

 will be the remedy, for each child may be taught to dip a towel into the pail 

 and wet it sufficiently to make it an efiicient tool for cleaning his hands without 

 directly touching the water supply. In this way an entire class may have 

 reasonably clean hands for the lunch periods. Such procedures may seem too 

 obvious and elementary to need mention, but there are unfortunately more 

 schools where they are not practiced than where they are the custom. 



