Ten Types of Health Work

As the work in Cleveland develops, it should aim to include all those types of activity which extended and varied experience has shown to better the health of school children, safeguard them from disease, and render them healthier, happier, and more vigorous. Among such activities the following are of special importance:

1. Medical inspection for preventing the spread of contagious disease and for the discovery and cure of remediable physical defects.

2. Dental inspection for the purpose of securing sound teeth among these school children.

3. The steady development of the work of the school nurses to the end that their co-operation with doctors, teachers, and parents may progressively contribute toward improving the health of the children.

4. Open-air schools for giving to the physically weak such advantages of pure air, good food, and warm sunshine as may enable them to pursue their studies while regaining their physical vigor.

5. Special classes and schools for the physically handicapped and mentally exceptional in which children may receive the care and instruction fitted to their needs.

6. School gardens, which serve as nature study laboratories, where education and recreation go hand in hand, and increased knowledge is accompanied by increased bodily efficiency.

7. School playgrounds, which afford space, facilities, opportunity, and incentive for the expression of play instincts and impulses.

8. Organized athletics, which aid in physical development, and afford training in alertness, intense application, vigorous exertion, loyalty, obedience to law and order, self-control, self-sacrifice, and respect for the rights of others.

9. Systematic instruction and practice in personal and community hygiene and sanitation.

10. The progressive improvement of all adjuncts of better sanitation in school houses, such as sanitary drinking cups and fountains, systems of vacuum cleaning, improved systems of lighting, heating, and ventilation.