Physical Welfare of School Children
- Author:
the New York Committee,
American {Statistical Association. June, 1907, pp. 276-309. This report is one of three studied by the N. Y. Committee on Physical Welfare of School Children at the close of their first year of service. This Committee was organized in May, 1906, by the N. Y. Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and was the logical result of the widespread discussion on the subject of the physical unfitness of large numbers of children to bear the strain of school life. Since 1904, when Supt. Maxwell at the St. Louis Exposition expressed the opinion that to insure a race physically able to receive our free education we must provide free meals at school, much has been written and many opinions expressed on the condition of the New York child, but no data to prove the extent or the cause of malnutrition among the school population had been collected prior to the formation of this Committee. The Committee undertook to collect such data and to use them for the betterment of home and school conditions.
After some preliminary study of home conditions during the summer of 1906, the systematic visitation by physicians of 1400 children was begun. These children had all been reported by the Board of Health Inspector as needing medical, dental or ocular care, or better nourishment. They were selected from pupils of the kindergarten and two lower primary grades of 85 schools representing widely different districts of Manhattan. They were also chosen with reference to race, five groups being formed, American, Italian, Jewish and Russian (300 each) and German (200).
When material relief was deemed necessary, the family was referred to a charitable organization within 24 hours and prompt relief secured; where dispensary treatment was needed, a special visitor was detailed to secure it.
The futility of a physical examination without further action to insure medical treatment or hygienic conditions was clearly demonstrated by a re-examination in the spring of 990 of the children? almost to a child their condition was worse than in the fall. Postal card notices stating the necessity for treatment sent to the home were found useless until a return card to be signed by the physician was attached. These brought much better results and a signed notice sent by the school principal brought replies when the return card failed. When all notices failed, a personal visit often accomplished the desired results.
Of 631 children needing attention in one district, 103 received treatment after the first notice, 165 after the first visit of the Committee, 106 after the second visit, and 46 after the third visit, while 52 parents positively refused to allow their children to be treated. The Board of Health co-operated with the Committee, and not having funds enough to examine all pupils, acted on their suggestion 26 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. in examining all first year pupils rather than pupils selected at random from various grades and schools, as had been done in previous years. On the completion of this task, again at the suggestion of the Committee, the examination of the over-age child was begun. The results for one district are quite conclusive, 84 per cent of 169 over-age children being found to need treatment. Of these 53 per cent had bad teeth, 39 per cent defective vision, 36 per cent hypertrophied tonsils, 14 per cent post-nasal growth, 33 per cent enlarged glands, 22 per cent defective breathing, and 7 per cent suffered from malnutrition. It is to be hoped that the examination of the over-age group will be extended to the other districts of Manhattan. Such a body of statistics would be invaluable in the study of retardation.
Among the 1400 children, 3093 physical defects were discovered; 74 per cent of the children had defective teeth, 30 per cent had throat trouble, 28 per cent nasal trouble, 14 per cent eye defects, while 10.4 per cent suffered from malnutrition. The home conditions were truly appalling, families were crowded into two or three rooms, more than half of which were dark rooms, and between 80 and 90 per cent of the families were without baths, in spite of the fact that half the families whose income was $19 or less per week paid out over one-fourth of it for rent.
The small number of children suffering from malnutrition led the Committee to conclude that free meals woxild be a very inadequate means of meeting the situation. The serious physical defects which it calculates must exist in 12,000,000 children of the country, were not such as could be improved by proper feeding alone. Of the 145 children suffering from malnutrition only 20 come from the very poorest strata, 44 belonging to families having an income exceeding $20 per week. The physical defects are not restricted to the families of the poor, though they are found among them in greater proportion, but exist wherever there is bad ventilation, insufficient out-door exercise, improper light, improper or insufficient food, and lack of medical, dental and ocular care.
The overcrowded condition and poor ventilation of the homes must be corrected, and proper medical and especially dental care be provided if any improvement would be wrought in the condition of the children. Plenty of nourishing food without improved living conditions would, the Committee believes, be of little benefit.
It recommends as a plan for removing defects, the physical examination of every child in the United States, followed by proper treatment, compulsory if necessary, the enforcement of health and tenement laws, the restriction of hours of labor, the control of dangerous trades, the prevention of the exploitation of women and children, and the establishment of hygienic conditions in the schools. The Committee states that two lines of action are open to the public,?one the education of the parents to correct home conditions and the securing of governmental aid in establishing hygienic ones, the other the provision of free medical and dental treatment and free nourishment. The first plan it thinks the cheaper and more effective, the second entirely inadequate. If the first is not attempted, however, the second inevitably will be, as the people are now in possession of the facts and will not allow such widespread neglect of children to continue.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.