378 



jVA TURE 



[February i6, 1905 



the physical life its iiiaxiimim possibility of sound health, and 

 lo develop the mental life side by side with this. The need 

 (if bodily health as the foundation of sound mental work is 

 largely recognised at the present day, and we must not rest 

 content until in the homes as well as in the schools there is 

 sound knowledge of what may be done to give the proper 

 environment for healthy life and work. 



\l the conference considerable prominence was given to 

 the subject of the physical development and physical inspection 

 of the scholar. Fresh air, good light, wholesome food, and 

 abundant sleep are essentials of development. These should 

 form, as it were, the compulsory subjects in childhood. The 

 co-relation between the healthy mind and the healthy body 

 is disputed by no one, and yet it is necessary still to plead 

 against the unimportant position which is given to physical 

 education in the curriculum of a large majority of schools, 

 particularly "in those for girls. The responsibility of the 

 education authority may be said to be of a dual nature, viz. 

 the responsibility not to injure the child's health during 

 school life either by bad building or furniture, by the dis- 

 cipline or curriculum of the school, or by preventable risks 

 of infection, and the responsibility to take the consequence 

 of its own defective training of the future parent. The rela- 

 tive merits of systems and methods of physical training were 

 not discussed, but free play was held to be preferable to 

 gymnastics for physical training. The methods in the former 

 are more spontaneous and thorough, and the most enthu- 

 siastic disciple of gymnastics does not wish the gymnasium to 

 take the place of our great games. Discipline, prompt and 

 unquestioning obedience to command, is perhaps the greatest 

 gain derived from class drilling. But the lesson in physical 

 exercise is not the only opportunity for paying attention to the 

 needs of the growing child. If the best results are to be 

 produced, the necessary standing and sitting positions of the 

 pupils throughout the rest of the school routine must not be 

 treated with indifference. 



The early age at which children commence education and 

 the length of the school day were both objects of adverse 

 comment. It was pointed out that in primary schools 

 children at three years of age pass the same number of hours 

 in school as those of fourteen years of age : and in secondary 

 schools a child of fourteen has allotted to him the same 

 number of hours of work as the youth of nineteen. Longer 

 intervals of rest and recreation and the abolition of home- 

 work for young children were advocated, and it was pointed 

 out that, in the experience of many authorities, the beginning 

 of the day after a night's rest, the commencement of the 

 week after the Saturday and Sunday rest, and the beginning 

 of a term after the rest of the vacation, are the times when 

 the best work is accomplished. 



It is at present by no means unusual in many first-grade 

 girls' schools to make the first test which a pupil undergoes 

 a physical one based on a medical inspection. Before a 

 scholarship can be held, physical as well as mental fitness 

 should be required to be shown. It is a waste of public 

 money to allot scholarships to those who are physically unfit 

 to make use of them. But while we may discuss the physical 

 inspection of children as specially referable to the school 

 period of life at which, for convenience, it is conducted, we 

 should keep in mind the bearing of the facts thereby dis- 

 closed on the periods of life which precede and follow it. 

 Much educational energy is at present misspent in endeavour- 

 ing to educate children .who are physically unfit, as 

 evidenced in Glasgow by the small proportion of underfed 

 children who reach a reasonable standard of proficiency 

 according to the master's estimate. In this important work 

 of physical inspection the school teacher should be able to co- 

 operate intelligently with the medical man. 



Owing to various causes, artificial and economic, 

 thousands of children three years of age are found in English 

 elementary schools. It is a question whether taking the 

 child out of the mother's hands for the greater part of the 

 day, at so tender an age, may not have weakened the 

 maternal instinct. It is certain^ on the other hand, that, 

 owing to the high susceptibility to certain infectious diseases 

 amongst such young children, the practice is dangerous ; and 

 the conference passed a resolution lo the effect that no child 

 should be permitted to begin formal instruction in school 

 classes under the age of six. 



The subject of school buildings and equipment is one 



NO. 1842, VOL. 71] 



of great importance. The school premises often need to be 

 improved if they are to illustrate the sanitary precepts which 

 it is necessary to inculcate and if they are to enable the child 

 to pursue its education under the best hygienic environment. 

 The requirements of the Board of Education with reference 

 10 the floor space and air space given to each child were sub- 

 ject to some adverse criticism. Surely it may be claimed 

 that as 15 feet is generally recognised as the healthy 

 minimum floor space per child, lo feet should no longer be 

 officially recognised as sufficient. The school furniture, more- 

 over, generally leaves much to be desired. Observation has 

 shown that the difference in height of the children of the 

 same age may vary from 6 to ii inches, and this difference 

 in height and growth ought to be provided for in the 

 seats and desks of every class-room if physical deformities 

 are to be prevented. That is to say, the desks and seats 

 should be adjusted to the pupils' bodies, and not the bodies to 

 the desks and seats. Teachers, moreover, must be t;iught 

 to realise that, though their effective administration may 

 be aided by efficient inspectors, actual daily care in provid- 

 ing fresh air, including cleanliness and teaching the children 

 to use all sanitary appliances with cleanly decency, is a re- 

 sponsibility which cannot be shifted to other people's 

 shoulders. Unfortunately, however, the local authorities 

 themselves need stimulating and educating. Nor is this to 

 ; be wondered at when one recalls the fact that the English 

 Board of Education, though responsible for the compulsory 

 t attendance at school of some 6,000,000 children, is rbso- 

 j lutely without expert assistance where problems of health and 

 sanitation are concerned. 



The last day of the conference was devoted to discussions 

 upon the training of teachers and scholars in hygiene. Not 

 only must the teacher have a knowledge of hygiene, but he 

 must also be made responsible for the supervision of the 

 hygienic environment of the pupil while at school, and he 

 must ever bear in mind the circumstance that he will 

 probably do most to create a sanitary conscience among the 

 rising generation by example and personal influence. The 

 training in the observation of sanitary precepts is a form of 

 moral training, and if the home influences are antagonistic 

 to those of the school the home influences will often prevail. 

 The dirty and neglected child indicates the necessity of 

 attempting to do something to improve the parent. The 

 teaching of hygiene to the scholars must be suitably 

 graduated to the age and capacities of the scholars ; whereas 

 from the very commencement of school life the object lessons 

 of a sanitary environment should always be presented to the 

 child, it is not before he at least reaches the age of seven — 

 and several authorities prefer a later age — that he should 

 commence to receive definite instruction in domestic and per- 

 sonal hygiene. 



Subsequent to the age of ten or eleven, the scholar may be 

 taught some of the more elementary scientific principles in- 

 volved in hygiene precept and practice, but in the whole 

 ■scheme of teaching hygiene it is only from the broadest point 

 of view the simple and essential laws of health that require to 

 be taught. It is almost sufficient to give to the scholar rules 

 regarding health and reasons for them. If the teacher is to 

 have an intelligent appreciation of the significance of hygienic 

 principles, he must be taught the elements of physiology. 

 The two subjects naturally go hand-in-hand and must be 

 taught together. Their interests mutually reinforce. Physi- 

 ology gives the basis and hygiene the application. 



Reference was made at the conference to the circumstance 

 that it had been repeatedly urged that there is no room for 

 extra subjects such as '" hygiene " to be taught at our 

 schools ; but surely hygiene, if properly taught, need not con- 

 tribute to further over-pressure. 'The subject of hygiene has 

 a great educative value in itself, and there is no subject 

 which can be so easily co-related to many other branches of 

 knowledge. Hygiene could be introduced as the practical 

 outcome of the whole of the science teaching in the school, 

 and, if the subject is properly taught to the teachers, an enthu- 

 siastic and intelligent teacher could prepare his or her own 

 scheme of work and obtain the necessary results without the 

 displacement of a single subject at present being taught. 

 The great requirement for success in whatever may be 

 attempted is an enthusiasm which will stimulate both the 

 te.-ichcr and scholar to convert knowledge into conviction and 

 conviction into conduct. 



