[Report 1923] / School Medical Officer of Health, Radcliffe.

  • Radcliffe (England). Council.
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1923] / School Medical Officer of Health, Radcliffe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    All that is desired in the school is that standard of cleanliness which exists in most houses to-day and which as Medical Officer of Health I would like to see in every home in the district. I urge cleanliness in the school chiefly with a view to raising eventually the standard of cleanliness in the home. If a child is brought up in a dirty overcrowded house and attends a school where no one seems to care if the floor and windows are dirty and dust is seldom disturbed, then that child will in later life be quite content with a very low standard of cleanliness. We can do little to improve the home life of such a child—even the provision of a new house will not obliterate dirty habits,—but we can and should teach cleanliness in the school. In this connection, I suggest that children might be taught to assist in the cleansing of their class rooms. I am aware that some teachers are strongly opposed to this, but I offer it as a suggestion, for I know schools where it is done with marked success. Children are shown how to keep their schools clean, they are taught the necessity for doing so, and then they experience the sense of comfort to be derived from perfectly clean surroundings. By working on these lines we may hope to improve the condition of their present homes, and it may be, obtain perfection in their future homes. (5) Arrangements and Methods Adopted for the Medical Inspection of School Work. (a) Age groups of the children inspected. The groups of children examined at the routine inspections were :— (1) Entrants, age 6, or under if they had not previously been examined as entrants. (2) Intermediate, age 8. (3) Leavers, age 12, or over, if they had not previously been examined as leavers. The numbers inspected under the above groups, the number of specials examined at the schools, or at the Clinic, and the numbers re-examined, are shown in Table I. of the Tables at the end of the Report.
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