Documents of the School Committee of the City of Boston (Volume 13) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1909. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... E. Children in III Health. Ill health is undoubtedly the chief cause of retardation. The amount of instruction that is wasted because it falls upon deaf ears or is spread before blind eyes, or is presented to children of impaired vitality, is too great to estimate. By far the larger share of those pupils found in the classes previously discussed are there primarily because of some impairment of health. The great task for the schools should be not to establish special classes for those physically defective, but rather to prevent and correct these physical defects and enable the children to remain in the regular grades. To this task Boston is giving a great deal of attention. Eighty school physicians, under the Board of Health, make daily investigations of all cases of contagious disease. Thirty-four school nurses are constantly employed in finding and correcting all forms of physical defects. The entire department of school hygiene is giving its attention to improving the health of the children. Every pupil is examined each year by the teachers for defects of eyesight and hearing. As a result of all these agencies, thousands of children who would otherwise have been unable to profit by the instruction offered have had defects interfering with their education corrected or removed, and are easily doing the regular required work of the schools. All of these efforts have increased the total cost of education, but to a far greater extent have they increased the total product of the schools. F. Outdoor Classes. A special problem directly connected with the general problem of the health of school children has been the outdoor class. In January, 1909, the Park Commission granted the School Committee the use of two rooms and the roof of the refectory building in Franklin ...