News and Comment
In the issue of the City Record, the official journal of the city of New York, published Friday, February 21, 1908, is found the Report of the Department of Health for the quarter ending Sept. 30, 1907. On page 2150 is found the Report on Medical Inspection of school children for the quarter. The Report on physical defects found is as follows:
Medical Inspection of School Children, Non-Contagious Physical Defects Found.
New York Manhattan Brooklyn No. Per Cent. No. Per Cent. No. Per Cent. Adenoids 982 8.69 744 13.05 238 4.25 Defective vision 1,332 11.78 83 1.45 1,249 22.31 Defective hearing 94 .83 13 .22 81 1.44 Bad nutrition 364 3.22 145 2.54 219 3.91 Diseased glands 1,961 17.35 1,199 21.02 762 13.61 Chorea 47 .41 33 .57 14 .25 Heart disease 59 .52 30 .52 29 .52 Pulmonary disease 44 .38 31 .54 13 .25 Skin disease .67 43 .75 33 .59 Orthopaedic deformities …. 77 .68 42 .73 35 .62 Nasal breathing 836 7.39 578 10.13 258 4.61 Defective teeth 3,684 32.60 1,680 29.46 2,004 35.80 Defective palate 87 .76 58 1.01 29 .52 Hypertrophied tonsils 1,545 13.67 970 17.01 575 10.27 Defective mentality Ill -98 53 .92 58 1.03 11,299 100.00 5,702 100.00 5,597 100.00
The differences between Manhattan and Brooklyn in regard to physical defects of school children are surprising. There would seem to be no reason why adenoids should be three times as common in Manhattan as in Brooklyn, or why defective hearing should be six times as prevalent in Brooklyn as in Manhattan. The most inexplicable difference, however, is in the matter of vision. It seems difficult to imagine why defective vision should be fifteen times as prevalent in Brooklyn as it is in Manhattan. In this connection the following figures published on the same page of the same Report are interesting: Trachoma Other eye disease* Manhattan 8,672 3,250 Brooklyn 87G 1,748
The examinations were made and the above report was prepared by the physicians of the New York Board of Health in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
White Plains, New York, is making the interesting experiment of assisting backward pupils by means of special coaching. This work was begun on the initiative of Dr II. E. Schmid, formerly president of the Board of Education and now president of the Board of Health. Dr Schmid’s acquaintance with the special schools of Germany made him early appreciate the necessity of introducing such work into the school systems of this country. Dr Schmid’s idea was to form a class or classes of deficient and deformed children under the instruction of a special teacher and with suitable provision in the way of medical attendance, etc. Dr Schmid was able to obtain a first appropriation of $2000, but was not able to put his plan into execution, because he subsequently failed of election to the Board of Education. The Board did not deem it wise or possible to segregate the deformed and deficient children. Instead, it was thought best to apply the appropriation to pay for the services of a special teacher to give unassigned work in the nature of coaching to children who are normal, but for various reasons have fallen behind the work of the grade.
The first appropriation of $2000 was made by the Board of Education in 1906-07. In the following year $2500 was appropriated. The purpose for which this fund is appropriated is stated to be the employing of teachers to coach children who are backward in school work, to the extent of requiring them, (1) to repeat the work of a division of a grade, (2) to be promoted, conditioned in one or more subjects, or (3) foreigners unable to speak or use English. To each of the four Grammar Schools in which there were ten teachers, a special teacher was assigned to work in the first five grades of each school in the subjects of arithmetic, language, reading and geography. The grade teacher supplies the special teacher with a list of the pupils of the above division requiring special attention the following week, but the special teacher is free to work with any of the pupils included in the three groups mentioned above.
Through the efforts of Dr Schmid, the schools of White Plains are provided with a medical inspector appointed by the Board of Health, who entered upon the duties of his office in December last.
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