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Show PHYSICAL DEFECTS AMONG CHILDREN Record of Students Attending the V. of 1 1. Shown Necessity for Examining Ex-amining School Children. Of the :ttl children attending the training school of the University of Utah, 10'J have bOSBJ found to be suffering from eye diseases and defects; de-fects; :t2 from ear trouble; 187 from diseased tonsils an.? adenoids; and 1!7 from defective teeth. This report re-port does not include the first and second se-cond grades. These are the findings of Dr. W. M. Stookey of the school of medicine who has just completed a survey covering cov-ering a period of three years. A special effort has been put forth to make the survey exhaustive and accurate ac-curate in order to demonstrate to all the school districts of the state the imperative need of medical examination examin-ation of every child that eaters the schools. In commenting on the importance and meaning of his investigation. Dr. Stookey says: "Kducation is the greatest enemy of crime and where education is not possible, crime is always sure to raise its head. The war cry against crime should be education, und where education is diflicult or impossible, owing to physical defects and diseases, diseas-es, immediate steps should be taken to relieve or remove such defects so that children may be able to receive and profit by school education. "Dr. Crendin has found in one school 160 defective backward children. Of these, oil!" had deseased tonsils and adenoids and thirteen hud defective eyes. These conditions were removed and almost all of the children became good and tractable pupil-.. This is a striking illustration of what may be done in other schools. "Thousands of children already owe their emancipation from diseases and defects to examinations made in the schools. One need not hesitate to say that every board of education in this country is committing a moral and social crime if they do not insist upon up-on at least an annual systematic examination ex-amination of school children's eyes, ears, noses and throats, and to use every reasonable means towards public pub-lic education along these lines. The physical condition of each school i hild should be known to both parent and teacher at the time he enters school. The parents should be assisted and encouraged to appreciate the necessity neces-sity of giving proper care to children whose physical and mental gruwtn is being seriously interfered with And since the State demunds the child's attendance at-tendance at school, the State should bear at least part of the: responsibility responsi-bility of seeing to it that the child is in the best condition possible to profit by school attendance. Alsi the training train-ing and education of- the teacher should be supplemented sufficiently by proper courses of instruction tc. enable her to properly u:i IsrStand the child i i i ' ' JI ojii i it i iwi i i i VII v ' 1 1 i . physically and physiologi- ally. With this additional preparation on the part of the teacher, .ine will be well uali-fied uali-fied to be the health Inspector of he.-own he.-own school, and will be doubly valuable valu-able both as a teacher and as a member mem-ber of soc'i ty." w u |