The Place of the Bible in Education

HEALTH OF THE PUPILS

“Next to this improvement in schoolhouses and schoolyards comes improvement in the sanitary control and management of schools. This control requires the services of skilful physicians; and such a physician should be officially connected with every large school. It should be his duty to watch for contagious diseases, to prevent the too early return to school of children who have suffered from such diseases, to take thought for the eyes of the children lest they be injured in reading or writing by bad postures or bad light, to advise concerning the rectification of remediable bodily defects in any of the children under his supervision, to give advice at homes about the diet and sleep of the children whose nutrition is visibly defective, and, in short, to be the protector, counselor, and friend of the children and their parents with regard to health, normal growth, and the preservation of all the senses in good condition. PBE 234.4

“Such medical supervision of school-children would be costly, but it would be the most rewarding school expenditure that a community could make, even from the industrial or commercial point of view, since nothing impairs the well-being and productiveness of a community so much as sickness and premature disability or death. As in an individual, so in a nation, health and strength are the foundations of productiveness and prosperity.” PBE 235.1