USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of Plymouth, MA 1914 > Part 13
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In some classes designs have been made, applying the use of object drawing, color, printing, (as title page, contents, and heads of chapters), making up of a book, sewing over tapes, putting together into covers and decorating.
A few pamphlets and paper covered books were bound in another seventh and eighth grade. These were stripped, mended, resewed over sunken cords on a sewing frame, rounded and backed and put into covers, more as the better commercial work is done.
The ultimate aim of the course is to develop in the pupil the power to do individual work, and to develop an appreciation of form, color, and decoration. It also aims in its development to have the articles used in the commercial world serve as prac- tical illustrations for the forms made in the class.
Freehand working drawings are made by the boys of the seventh, eighth and ninth grades, to show the construction of the objects made in the woodworking. They are then made to a scale to measurements.
The boys are then taught the use of tools by making simple objects. The work is individual, and after a certain amount of skill is acquired, he chooses to make some object in which he is most interested, as a desk, book-case, table, stool, etc., accord- ing to his ability. If each boy chooses what he wishes to make, he is more interested to make it sound in construction, and more beautiful in design.
He first makes his freehand working drawing, estimates the size and proportions. He then makes his finished drawing to measurements, and works from it through the whole process of construction. He selects and shapes his material, studying the best methods of construction. A practice joint is made before attempting the joint on the problem. When the wood has been trued, shaped, and the joints made, it is assembled and glued,
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then cleaned and finished. The boys are then asked to find the cost of the materials used. The boy thus develops ability to estimate, select and shape material.
The aim is not to make mechanics of the boys, but to develop- one of the most important lessons in life,-to think for himself, to plan and work with materials independently, to appreciate, to buy, and to use economically. It is a mental, manual and social benefit.
Manual Training develops an appreciation of beauty. and ex- cellence in construction, pride in honest doing, and respect for skilled workmen.
Respectfully submitted, JENNIE F. STRATTON.
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REPORT OF ATTENDANCE OFFICER
To Mr. Charles A. Harris, Supt. of Schools :-
I respectfully submit the following report from Jan. 1, 1914, to Jan. 1, 1915.
Cases of Truancy
Cases of Other Cases of Absence Sickness Investigated
Alden Street School,
0
1
4
Allerton Street School,
0
2
1
Burton School,
6
8
9
Cedarville School,
0
0
4
Cold Spring School,
2
6
10
Cliff Street School,
0
1
5
Cornish School,
11
36
Hedge School,
8
16
56
Knapp School,
4
6
36
Lincoln Street School,
1
0
0
Mt. Pleasant School,
7
ยท
23
29
Manomet Primary School,
0
2
0
Nat. Morton School,
4
9
49
Oak Street School,
2
0
1
Spooner Street School,
0
0
3
Cornish Evening School,
0
1
0
Totals,
45
82
243
Number of homes visited,
470
Number of employment certificates investigated,
10
Total number of investigations,
480
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Other work of the attendance officer has been as follows :-
Found on street and taken to school,
2
Number of visits to schools, 19
Number of truancy cases brought to court, 3
Number of absentee cases brought to court, 3
Number of habitual school offenders brought to court, 1
Owing to the recent labor law which came into effect Sept. 1, 1913, there were over one hundred cases of boys and girls over fourteen years of age, many of whom were employed in the different factories, but were discharged owing to the new law, others had reached the age of fourteen and were taken out of school by their parents. A number of them had to go back to a special school, (provided for by Mr. Charles A. Harris, Supt. of Schools), others found employment suited to the hours of labor as passed by law, all of these cases had to be investigated sep- arately which entailed considerable extra work this year which would not have been otherwise.
I wish to thank the Superintendent and teachers for the kind assistance which they have given me during the past year.
Respectfully submitted,
JOHN ARMSTRONG, Attendance Officer.
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REPORT OF SCHOOL PHYSICIAN
FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1914.
SCHOOL NURSE.
Medical inspection in our public schools has taken a long step ahead as a helpful institution during the past year, as it has had the advantages of a school nurse who has devoted her whole time to the work. Miss Susie Macdonald began her duties with the year 1914, her salary being paid by the mutual agreement of the Plymouth Woman's Club and the Plymouth Cordage Company. The money appropriated by the Woman's Club for the purpose having been exhausted several weeks before. the close of the summer term, the Cordage Company generously continued their proportion of the salary to the end of the term, and the School Committee made up the amount so that there was no break in her services. At a meeting held April 7, 1914, the committee having become satisfied that the value of a school nurse to the school department had been sufficiently proved, voted to retain Miss Macdonald for one year.
A written report is made to the school physician at the end of each week showing the work done by the nurse during the week. These reports are made out on blank forms and give: the number and names of the schools visited; the number of pupils inspected at each school; the number of treatments given in each school; the number of inspections for pediculi and un- cleanliness in each school; the number of pupils taken to phy- sicians, specialists, or dentists ; whether any operations for ton- sils or adenoids have been done; the number of cases of con- tagious disease found in each school; the number found in
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homes ; the number of homes visited and the number revisited; and the number of hygiene talks given at each school and in homes. It is not an easy matter to collect the data and make out these reports weekly, but it keeps the school physician very accurately informed about the work.
Of all the evils incident to school life, pediculi are the most troublesome and persistent. Therefore the comparative fre- quency of this condition among the pupils should be taken as some sort of measure of the efficiency of the nurse. Looking over the reports made by the school physician to the Committee, I find that for January, 1914, 59 cases of pediculosis were re- ported. Since the opening of school last September there is but one month that shows over 9 cases. To any one who under- stands the difficulties to be encountered in trying to eradicate this pest, the above showing is very creditable.
The school nurse has done much to convince doubting parents that the medical inspection of school children is intended to help them, not to place new burdens upon them. When chil- dren are found suffering with disease or defects, she goes into the home, explains the nature of the trouble to the mother, and assists in every possible way toward having it removed. Some- times she is able to give such treatment as is necessary herself, and she may also give the mother valuable suggestions for the proper care of the child. Often she takes a child to a physician or dentist if the mother can not go. Her visits to the home often reveal conditions which explain the ill health and absence of her charges, and it is a part of her daily work to encourage im- provement in these unsanitary and unhygienic conditions by kindly, tactful advice and suggestions. Sometimes her visits are most opportune, as for instance, when a child was found suffering with a neglected mastoid abscess and a physician called at once, fortunately in time. So she goes about minister- ing to the needy and gaining their confidence and cooperation.
When it becomes necessary to exclude a child from school on account of various contagious skin diseases, she goes into the
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home and applies the remedy herself, or sees that it is done. As about 160 pupils have to be excluded during the school year, this "follow up" system must help the attendance very materially. Moreover many children are allowed to remain in school under treatment by the nurse, who would otherwise be excluded.
It has been very difficult to make any satisfactory arrange- ment whereby children whose parents are unable to pay, might have adenoids and tonsils removed, but by long and persistent effort, Miss Macdonald, as her report will show, has succeeded in having a number of children operated on who were seriously handicapped in this way. It is to be hoped that the difficulties having been at last successfully overcome, the way may be eas- ier for others in the future.
There is an urgent need for some sort of dispensary, pre- ferably an out-patient department to the Jordan Hospital, to which the school nurse might take children who are suffering for the want of medical or surgical treatment. At present she is unable to secure such treatment for them except through private charity. That she has succeeded in helping so large a number with entire absence of any institution of the sort in town, with the exception of the Dental Clinic operated by the School Department, is very creditable to her. The school phy- sician has tried to help the situation somewhat by opening his office on Saturday mornings for the treatment of children with eye and ear troubles, who are brought to him by the school nurse, and many have been cared for in this way during the year.
Miss Macdonald has worked faithfully and efficiently for the welfare of the school children for the past year. Her report gives the figures, but it is entirely inadequate to give any idea of the detail of her work. She is a busy woman, assisting the school physician at his visits to the schools, going about in the schools herself, finding the sick and ailing; going into homes and car- ing for those who need her services, and giving good advice about healthful living; taking suffering children to physicians, surgeons, dentists, and specialists sometimes when it is neces-
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sary, accompanying them to Boston, or putting them on the train to be met there by a nurse from some hospital. The school nurse has little leisure, for she not only does all that is required of her and more, but finds times to distribute clothing to the poor, whose distress is ever before her. At all times there are scores of more or less ailing children handicapped in various ways, over whose frail destinies she is watching with jealous care, that she may help them in every possible way to perfect health.
The following report is submitted by Miss Macdonald :-
The report of the school nurse for the year 1914 is as follows :- Number of visits to homes 694
Number of visits to schools 530
Contagious diseases found in homes 59
Contagious diseases found in schools 43 Cases treated in schools 349
Cases operated for adenoids and tonsils 10
2000 children have been seen individually, and talks, given to many of these, as well as to the parents in the home, on hygiene, the care of sores, cuts, etc., have shown good results.
About twenty of the many children suffering from defective vision have been supplied with glasses at small, and in some- needy cases, at no expense to the patient, the Fragment Society having given money for this purpose, and Dr. Shaw having kindly given his services both for this and the treatment of ear troubles. Other physicians have also been very kind in treat- ing needy cases which are sometimes found in the school and home, and in operating on cases of enlarged tonsils and ade- noids.
The gift from members of the Woman's Club and others, of clothing and money, is a very great help both in keeping the children in school, and in the prevention of illness through insufficient clothing.
(Signed) SUSIE MACDONALD, R. N.
DENTAL CLINIC OF THE SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
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DENTAL CLINIC.
The work of the Dental Clinic opened in the fall of 1913, has been continued throughout the past year, we believe with excellent results, when we remember that it is in operation but two hours a week.
From January to June, 1914, work was continued in the Cor- nish district and examination of the data on file gives the fol- lowing figures :---
Number of examinations 71
Number found to have perfect teeth 20
Number of treatments given 78
Number whose teeth were cleaned 31
Number receiving treatment 56
From September, 1914, to January, 1915, work was carried on with pupils from the Knapp School as follows :-
Number of examinations 339
Number found to have perfect teeth 26
Number of treatments given 35
Number receiving treatment 24
There are many more examinations recorded from the Knapp than from the Cornish because with the beginning of the period covered by the figures, most of the pupils at the Cornish School had been examined. The examination of pupils from the Knapp School was completed some time ago, and the next five months of 1915, will be devoted to the treatment of the defects found.
The totals for the year 1914 show that 410 pupils have had their teeth examined by a competent dentist. The number of decayed teeth in each instance has been clearly indicated on a diagram which has been sent to the parents. Of the 410 pupils examined, but 46 or 11.22 per cent. were found to have perfect teeth. The pupils of the Cornish School however are much bet- ter off than those in the Knapp School in this respect, as out of the 71 examined, 20 or 28.17 per cent. had sound teeth.
The total number of treatments given was 113, which is 54 more than last year.
Plymouth Nineteen
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These figures, while they show in a way what has been done at the Clinic during the year, are unsatisfactory, for they show nothing of the results of the work after the pupil left the Clinic. It occurred to the school physician that it would be interesting and instructive to hear from the children directly, and accord- ingly those who visited the Clinic from the Cornish district were asked to write a short paper on "How the Dental Clinic Helped Me". The following suggestions have been gleaned from the 125 papers written in response to the request.
(a). A very large number of parents have had their chil- dren's teeth cared for as a direct result of the report sent them from the Dental Clinic.
(b). The Clinic has been of distinct educational value, call- ing the attention of parents and children to the importance of caring for the teeth. Many children are keeping their teeth clean as a result of their visit to the Dental Clinic.
(c). Many children have been relieved of the pain and dis- comfort of aching teeth with the attendant interference with school work.
(d). Some children report improved general health since having the teeth cared for.
(e). Many should have received treatment whom it was im- possible to serve on account of limited facilities.
Not until the Clinic can secure the services of a dentist to devote at least several mornings a week to work, will it be able to handle the work for which it was inaugurated. As far as it goes, the work is excellent. Those who benefit by it are fortu- nate, but many more who are equally deserving and equally en- titled to the advantages must at present be deprived of them simply because we cannot care for more.
That the need is urgent, any of the examining dentists can tell you, only 11 per cent. of those examined having sound teeth, and scores with mouths filled with filthy, decaying teeth, which poisons their food and the very air they breathe.
Some 400 tooth brushes and boxes of powder have been dis-
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tributed among the children with instructions for their use. A box of tooth powder, the composition of which is known, and a good tooth brush is given to any child for ten cents. The school nurse has done excellent work in interesting the children in the care of their teeth, and distributing the brushes and powder. The money paid for these is used to purchase more, so the good work goes on endlessly.
SCHOOL FURNITURE.
The problem of proper school furniture perfectly adjusted to the needs of pupils of all ages and every sort of physical peculiarity is one that may well give the stoutest hearted school physician pause. The manufacturers offer seats and desks made in special sizes for pupils between certain specified ages. How the manufacturer learned just how to build his furniture to best fulfill its mission is a matter of conjecture, but whatever it is, we must select from his stock as our fancy or purse dictates. Having purchased the furniture, the manufacturer installs it as he or his men see fit.
Now the relation of the chair and the desk is a very import- ant matter but as to just what that relation should be, author- ities differ, although they are for the most part agreed that it is desirable to have the top edge of the desk which is nearest the pupil, project over the front edge of the chair seat more or less, the so-called minus distance.
In the rooms which I have examined there seems to be little 'uniformity in this respect, there being a wide range of vari- ation from -2 or 3 inches in some cases to +3 or more, a plus distance meaning that there is a positive space horizontally be- tween the edge of the desk and the chair of one or more inches as the case may be.
The majority of our furniture is of the so-called Chandler type. We have some of the Heywood furniture which is very
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similar to the Chandler, and in the Hedge School a chair de- vised by Dr. Frederick J. Cotton for the Boston School House Commission. All these are adjustable.
I am indebted to Mr. Harris, the superintendent of schools, for data which show that in 45 rooms, which are fairly repre- sentative of the whole number, there are 1801 sittings of which 1554 are adjustable and 247 or 13.71 per cent. non-adjustable.
I am not of those who believe that the difficulties attending the proper adjustment of school furniture under ordinary circumstances offset all its advantages, but I do believe that we face a very difficult problem here, and one which involves the expenditure of much attention, time, and money if satisfactory results are to be obtained.
Heretofore the adjustment has been left to the teachers with such assistance from the janitors as they may be able to secure. Such adjustments must necessarily be inadequate, as ideas of what might constitute comfort vary with the judgment and ex- perience of the teacher, and comfort is very often secondary to the demands of school work. It is a too common practice to. force a child nine or ten years old to sit in furniture intended for one several years younger, in order that convenience may be served in class work.
One of the most important aims of adjustment is to make it. easy for the pupil to sit with the eyes at a comfortable distance from the work. Stooping over the desk with the eyes only a few inches from the work is obviously unnatural and harmful. Such a position tends to produce permanent postural curvature of the spine, prevents full normal expansion of the lungs in breathing and causes insufficient aeration of the blood, so essen- tial to mental processes, cramps the stomach, induces congestion of the eyeball, puts undue pressure upon its delicate structures- and encourages the development of myopia.
What then is the proper working distance, and are the chil- dren in the public schools working at this distance ?
As to what constitutes a natural proper working distance, we
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cannot do better than accept the statement of Dr. Edward R. Shaw. In his authoritative work on "School Hygiene" he says "Oculists agree in demanding that the book or writing-paper should be distant from the eye at least 12 inches and they hold that when the book or paper comes nearer to the eye than this, myopia is favored."
In order to determine at what distance the children in our schools are working, an actual test of over four hundred pupils was made with the following result :-
TEST BY ROOMS OF THE DISTANCE OF THE EYES
OF PUPILS FROM THEIR WORK.
School
Grade
Number of pupils
Type of Furniture
Min. Dis.
Max. Dis. Average
A
1
23
Non-adj. desk and chair unit,
41/2
121/4
7.94
B
1
20
Chair unit, few adj.,
61/4
11
8.53
C
1, 2
30
Adj., two sizes,
3
91/2
6.25
D
2
15
Adj., two sizes,
6
121/2
8.43
E
3
45
Adj., two sizes,
5
153/4
10.46
F
3
35
Adj., two sizes,
51/4
16
9.92
G
3
29
Adj., one size,
43/4
141/2
10.48
H
4
42
Adj., one size,
61/2
141/4
8.96
I
5
38
Adj., two sizes,
81/4
153/4
9.36
J
5
38
Adj., two sizes,
6
17
11.34
K
5
43
Adj., two sizes,
71/2
141/4
11.63
L
6
34
Adj., two sizes,
71/2
15
11.86
M
7
32
Adj., one size,
6
131/4
10.09
N
Ungraded
21
Adjustable,
51/4
14
9.71
The measurements were taken under as nearly normal condi- tions as possible but in the higher grades especially, it was im- possible to prevent some of the pupils taking an abnormally upright position, as they at once understood what was being done. Before the measurements were taken the teacher was asked to set the pupils at some task such as writing an original story, and cautioned if necessary not to make any suggestions
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about position. The pupils were instructed to continue at their work, paying no attention to the person passing about among them making the measurements. If an individual seemed too curious he was passed by and taken later, unexpectedly if pos- sible. In all but one instance the measurements were read aloud to the teacher who recorded them. In the case of school M, the investigator recorded the readings of the rule himself, the school showing a lower average than the sixth grade school, although the conditions in school M, such as light, discipline, etc., are equal to any in our system. Undoubtedly had the readings all been recorded silently the general average would have been still lower as the patent fact that measurements of the distance of the eye from the work were being taken suggested, as has already been said, a correct position.
The general average distance of the eyes from the work in all the rooms, was found to be 9.46 inches, the shortest distance being three inches and the greatest 17 inches. A natural in- crease will be noted in the average distance from the lowest grade up, due to anatomical reasons. One would naturally not expect a child six years old to hold the book or paper at the same distance from the eye as a full grown adult.
Something must be wrong in our schools if these 400 or more pupils may be taken as a fair example. That it is not entirely a matter of adjustment of furniture goes without saying, for it will be noted that some schools make a better showing than others under less advantageous conditions, but the fact that our school children are found by test to be working at an average distance of hardly nine and one-half inches, and under ordin- ary conditions probably less, when oculists are agreed that the least distance at which they should work is twelve inches should make us alive to every possible means of increasing the distance.
That the careful adjustment of furniture helps the working distance hardly needs demonstration, but the improvement which took place in this respect in one instance after adjust- ment, is interesting. Too much can not be argued from a
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single instance and there were qualifying conditions which make the indications less positive, but the facts are given for what they are worth. After the measurements had been taken in school D, the seating was entirely changed at the suggestion of Mr. Harris. When the furniture was replaced, it was done under careful supervision, the chairs being secured to the floor with the proper relation to the desk, and both desks and chairs accurately adjusted to the individual requirements of each pu- pil. Another test was then made under the new conditions, the lighting being better and eleven more pupils being seated. The minimum was found to be 71/4 inches, the maximum 161/2 inches and the average 11.37 inches, nearly 3 inches better than at the first test, and a much higher average than attained by any other school tested until we come to school K. Even in this in- stance we have not reached our goal of twelve inches, but we have approached it.
An ingenious measuring gauge has been devised by the man- ufacturers of school furniture which, when the height of the seat has been secured, by measuring the height of the leg to the knee, enables one to determine the height of the desk at once. This gives as satisfactory results as any measurement by rule can, but cannot be depended upon without expert super- vision for two reasons: first, because even with the help of this simple apparatus it has been demonstrated that uniformly accurate adjustments are not to be expected and secondly, be- cause should the adjustments be accurate there are in every room a number of pupils of unusual proportions who will need special adjustments. The ideal adjustments would require that the rear edge of the desk should lap over the seat a distance (minus) variously stated by authorities but certainly not less than four inches.
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