Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Indoor class improved more in four of these measurements. Outdoor class gained more in six of these measurements. Classes gained the same in strength of back. Outdoor class gained more in height. weight, and girth of chest.

[blocks in formation]

Its gen

Elizabeth McCormick Memorial Fund, Chicago, Ill.—The Elizabeth McCormick Memorial Fund was established in 1908. eral object is " to improve the condition of child life in the United States." One of the chief special objects is: "To promote, in an experimental way, open-air schools by maintaining in Chicago schools like the Elizabeth McCormick open-air schools, and by standardizing the methods of such schools." The fund gathers information on open-air schools and other child welfare agencies, and disseminates it for the guidance of citizens and legislators. "Open-Air Crusaders “ is the title of an attractive report that sums up the open-air work. The exhibit at Buffalo consisted mainly of apparatus for open-air work: Cot, clothing, etc.

Cincinnati, Ohio.-A typical woodland school for pretuberculous and anemic children is maintained by the board of education for children of grades 1-5. The school was established in 1911 on the principle that "education without health is useless." The cost has been 19 cents per pupil per day. Children with tubercle bacilli in sputum are not admitted to this school.

In the regular open-air school the board of health furnishes a nurse and medical director and equipment for 25 pupils. The building cost $1,266 and the equipment $600. The average cost for maintenance was $2.35 per week per child. Temperature, pulse, and respiration are recorded daily at 8 a. m. and 3 p. m. Hæmoglobin tests are given upon admission and whenever indicated. The treatment includes a warm cleansing bath and cold showers daily (special cases excepted). It is significant that on Friday the pupils show a marked gain, and on Monday a slight loss. The children are fed inspected milk and crackers morning and afternoon. There is a dinner, with a

specified menu for each day, prepared by the domestic science department. The total expense per child for food is 17 cents.

From September 10 to June 6, 1913, the average gain per pupil in weight was 6.2 pounds. Every child gained in weight. Two girls gained 12 pounds 12 ounces, 1 girl 11 pounds 12 ounces, another 10 · pounds 12 ounces, and another 9 pounds 10 ounces. The average daily attendance in 1911-12 in the open-air school was 96.9 per cent, as compared with 95.4 per cent in a typical elementary school of the regular type.

Oakland, Cal.-The report of the commission declares: "In each new building there shall be at least one open-air schoolroom that can not be entirely closed. In all new buildings provision shall be made whereby every classroom may be easily transformed into an open-air room."

Chicago, Ill.-There are at present in the Chicago public school system four open-air and six open-window, or low-temperature schoolrooms. The open-air rooms are conducted upon roofs with little other than overhead protection, while the open-window rooms are in regular school buildings, with the rooms and conditions adapted to meet the needs of undernourished and tubercular children. In the summer term these children are taught out of doors, in tents erected in the school yard at the various schools.

Other cities. Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, Newark, N. J., Rochester, and Philadelphia are other cities which have made notable efforts to incorporate the open-air idea into their school system and exhibited some of the results of their experiments at the congress on school hygiene.

V. SCHOOL FEEDING.

History and present status.-The American Home Economics Association shows that the school feeding movement is by no means a new thing. School feeding began in Germany in 1790; France, 1849; Great Britain, 1866; and in the United States in 1895. Seventyseven cities in this country now maintain school lunches (1912). Lunches are also served regularly in special and open-air classes in a number of cities, among them being Philadelphia (special class); New York (undernourished children); Syracuse (open-air school); Newark (open-air school); Cleveland (fresh-air class); Buffalo, N. Y. (open-air school). The claim is made that 10 per cent of the children in our cities suffer from malnutrition.

In all the school feeding work emphasis is laid upon the increased food value resulting from school lunches supervised by a dietician. It has been estimated that children in the cities of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland, and

[ocr errors]

Pittsburgh spend a total of $1,554,000 for lunches every year. This amount will buy on the street the equivalent of 81,000,000 calories of food value; while at the school lunch it will purchase 178,000,000 calories. Typical school and street luncheons are compared as follows: School lunch, consisting of cocoa and whipped cream, 3 cents; egg sandwich, 4 cents; banana, 1 cent; four dates, 1 cent; three cookies, 1 cent; gives a total of 700 calories food value for 10 cents; while in the street three crullers and a cup of coffee, costing 10 cents, furnish a food value of only 250 calories.

High-school children in Philadelphia spend $92,000 for lunches; in St. Louis, $57,423; in Boston, $52,721; in Rochester, $18,760. The cost of kitchen administration for Boston, Mass., and Bradford, England, are contrasted as follows:

Cost of kitchen administration (per cent).

[blocks in formation]

Cincinnati, Ohio.-School lunches in Cincinnati are in charge of "The penny lunch association," whose members are made up from the Civic League, the Council of Jewish Women, and the civic department of the Woman's Club. Eleven penny lunchrooms are maintained in congested districts. The kitchen equipment and the pay of the cook are provided by the board of education. “Once started, the penny lunchroom is self-sustaining," according to the Cincinnati experience. A different menu is provided for each day of the week. The benefits as observed in Cincinnati are: The penny lunch improves general health and increases mental efficiency; the child learns to appreciate the value of good food and disseminates the knowledge of selection and preparation of wholesome food in the home. In the Pioneer Penny Lunchroom, established in 1908, 50 penny luncheons are served daily.

Chicago, Ill. Three penny-lunch centers have been in operation in Chicago since December, 1910. During the school year 1910-11 the entire expense of these luncheons was borne by the board of education, but in November, 1911, the permanent school extension committee of the Women's Clubs undertook their management. A suitable room, with janitor service, one paid attendant, and a complete equipment are provided by the board of education. The school extension committee provides a trained supervisor, who purchases the food, plans the meals, and sees that they are properly cooked and served. At each center volunteers from the various women's clubs assist in serving the luncheons. The following menus

have been served during the past year on successive days: Cocoa, bread, and sirup; vegetable soup, bread, and jam; meat, soup, bread, and sirup; split pea or bean soup, bread, and sirup. Due regard is paid to national tastes or religious requirements.

VI. SEX HYGIENE.

Chicago, Ill.-By resolution of the Chicago board of education: Specialists in sex hygiene who lecture in simple, yet scientifically correct, language are to be secured to give during the year 1913-14 a course of 3 lectures on sex hygiene in each of the 21 high schools, the pupils to be grouped in reasonable numbers, boys and girls separate; provided that all pupils who bring notes from their parents asking to have them excused shall be excused; that after December, 1913, the lectures be limited to first-year classes in hygiene or biology.

Part of the original resolution also provided for certain sex instruction to children in groups in the middle and upper grades of the elementary schools, but action on this has been deferred, to await the result of the experiment with high-school pupils. The Chicago board has also provided for appropriate sex instruction through paid lecturers to parents of school children.

Plan for sex education.-The Child-welfare Exhibition Committee, showing panels based on the recommendations of the American Federation for Sex Hygiene, outlines the following plan:

Answer honestly when the child of even 3 or 4 years asks, "Where did baby come from?" A true but simple statement about mother and baby if given at this time may keep the child from picking up, when older, false and unclean ideas from street companions.

From 6 to 12 years children can be interested by parent or teacher in nature study. Let children of this age observe the life and reproduction of plants and animals. Their questions are natural. Concealment breeds curiosity. Answer them frankly. Treat sex and reproduction as a natural and pure phase of life. You will receive frankness and confidence in return. Young children's thoughts of sex are pure until their minds have become contaminated. Sex knowledge from pure sources is the best protection against such contamination. At about the age of 12 the child's sex interest becomes more personal and needs not only pure and honest frankness, but also direction toward self-respect, honor, chivalry. The sex instinct thus directed becomes the ally of idealism, altruism, aspiration, religion. Religious and moral training are a profound influence at this age and must help direct the sex instinct. Physical exercise, intellectual interests, and wholesome amusements furnish occupations for mind and body and are at this age wholesome and necessary.1

1 For a detailed analysis of the plan of the American Federation of Sex Hygiene, see Bureau of Education bulletin, 1913, No. 18, pp. 35-38.

Venereal disease in Buffalo.—In order to show the need for instruction in sex hygiene, the Buffalo Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis has collected figures showing the extent of venereal disease in Buffalo: Reported by 123 physicians, 1,113 cases; estimated by 330 others, 2,983; treated by patients, 794; total for November, 4.800; total for year 1911 (estimated), 14,423 cases. There were also direct infections of children under 16 years as follows: Reported by 122 physicians, 85 cases; estimated by 330 others, 178 cases; total, 263.

VII. EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN.

Psychological clinics.-According to the National Child-welfare Committee, the following States have psychological clinics in connection with universities and normal schools: Washington, California (2), Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio (2), Pennsylvania (2), New York (2), Connecticut, Massachusetts (2).

Three States, Indiana, New York, and Massachusetts, have hospitals where psychological clinics are established. Illinois and Connecticut have such clinics in connection with juvenile courts. In one or more places in the following States the psychological clinics are in connection with the public schools: New York (2), Pennsylvania, Illinois.

Psychological clinics exist in connection with institutions in Minnesota, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. Ohio has a psychological clinic in connection with a vocational guidance bureau (Cincinnati).

The first psychological clinic was established at the laboratory of psychology, University of Pennsylvania, in 1896.

The resources of a psychological clinic are summed up as follows: Psychologists trained in clinical diagnosis; examining physicians familiar with developmental diagnosis; social-science department for follow-up work and for cooperation with individual homes, schools, hospital, child-welfare agencies and institutions; accurate and complete clinical records: summer classes for observation; hospital schools for cases needing extended observation and care.

The psychological clinic studies each child on the following plan: (1) History-birth, babyhood, childhood, school, disease, parents; (2) physical examination; (3) psychological examination; (4) visit to and report on home; (5) continuing observation, study, diagnosis, treatment as required and as long as required.

School of education, University of Pittsburgh.-The school of education, University of Pittsburgh, undertakes the following activities,

« AnteriorContinuar »