stebbins] CHILDREN AND HEALTH 273 



with the pessimist who believes the world is against him, who 

 poisons himself daily with bad air, who eats incorrectly and then 

 impotently scourges nature. 



Nature is just to us all. We desire to live happily with the 

 least amount of friction. If we do not reach these desires it is 

 usually our own fault. 



We may not live correctly (1) because we do not know how 

 (2) knowing how, we do not live up to that how. 



Out of 442,287 children examined for defective vision, 100,- 

 000 were defective. Out of 458,965 children examined 29,350 

 had defective hearing. 4,518 out of 26,534 had adenoids. De- 

 fective eyes, defective ears, adenoids and other defects, each has 

 a special effect and they all have a common effect on the develop- 

 ing child. Children are not getting a square deal. The child with 

 adenoids, with defective eyes, or defective ears is scolded, pun- 

 ished, and ridiculed as an ignoramus until a sweet disposition is 

 soured, the faith of the child-heart is blighted and another char- 

 acter is twisted. The school and in some cases the home, with 

 their steam-roller method, produce another candidate for the 

 juvenile court. The great majority of children who pass through 

 the juvenile court are physically defective. 



Health is the first essential for morality and good citizenship. 

 The home and the school should work hand in hand in this matter. 

 Just as the home in so many cases is failing to give the child its 

 health right, so is the school. However, we have much reason 

 to be optimistic for there is a tendency in the right direction for 

 better health conditions in the school. Medical supervisors are in 

 charge in many cities. However, the work of these men should 

 not be so much to tell the boy he has adenoids as to prevent him 

 from becoming thus defective. To work not so much with the 

 abnormal child as to prevent the abnormal child. In other words, 

 teach the home and children how to get fresh air, how to eat and 

 bathe correctly, how to prevent the hundred and one minor 

 ailments which twist the otherwise normal development. We 

 would not treat colts as we do children. We would not turn colts 

 into an alfalfa patch, yet we let children roam as they please 

 from cheap candy to coffee and hot cakes, from the community 

 drinking cup to public places laden with poisonous air. Habits 

 are thus formed which place a continuous strain upon the sys- 

 tem, paid for later in terms of dull eyes and white checks and 

 in low morals. 



In dealing with children one must (a) make them feel the 



