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Supplement file to chapter on Public Schools
Public Schools SUPPLEMENT
07 18 The summer
term of our public schools will close next Friday, after which the teachers
will have a vacation of six or seven weeks at least, and the scholars a playing
spell of the same length of time. In
consequence of the forfeiture of school lands and the failure to pay interest,
the fund derived from the state has been greatly reduced. We learn that it is quite uncertain when the
schools will open again. It has been
usual to commence the fall term on the first Monday in September. WD
08 22 The fall term of the common schools of
this city will commence on the 16th of next September. From a notice in this paper, it will be seen
that the examination of teachers will commence on the 9th of the same month. There has been some fear that our public
schools might be suspended for want of means to continue them. We are glad they will go on as usual. The Board of Education will do all in their
power to make them efficient, useful, and in all respects what they should be. WD
1911
06 01 Trained Nurse for Schools / One
Will Be Furnished By Red Cross During Month of June.
As a
result of the sale of Red Cross seals last Christmas, Watertown draws a
prize. Miss Lydia Pease and Supt. W. P. Roseman, who conducted the campaign, announce that 25,725
seals were disposed of, and as a result the city is to have the services of a
trained nurse free of charge during the month of June.
Miss
Sarah West Ryder, employed by the State Anti-Tuberculosis Society, is in the
city today and is giving such assistance as the city authorities, charitable
societies and individuals direct. It is
her mission to visit the public schools and parochial schools and give counsel
in all cases directed by the authorities of those institutions. She will also visit the homes of parents
whose children are found to be suffering with diseases common to their age and
give such advise as the various cases demand.
In cases where children are suffering from tuberculosis, the parents
will be advised on points appertaining to the care and treatment of such children. Where medical treatment is deemed advisable,
the family physician will be consulted and in cases where parents feel unable
to call a physician, Miss Ryder hopes,
by cooperating with the local physicians, they will take care of such cases.
It is
estimated that there are from 20 to 30 cases of adenoids in the public schools
and, no doubt, there are fully as many in the parochial schools. This is a defect that can be easily remedied,
and the children removed from the embarassment of
being classed with the backward or dull pupils.
It has
been stated that there are several cases of tuberculosis in the incipient
stages in the schools which if attended to in time may be cured, and the spread
of the disease among other children in school checked. Miss Ryder's headquarters are in the lecture
room of the public library building and she asks the cooperation of all our
citizens. Further information may be had
from Miss Lydia Pease or Supt. W. P. Roseman. WD
08 26 Visiting
Nurse in Watertown
The
follow report was made by Sarah West Ryder, who visited the schools in
Watertown last June:
“The
month of June was spent in Watertown, where I gave almost the entire time to
medical inspection in the three grade schools, that being the work desired of
me by Mr. Roseman, superintendent of schools, who,
together with Miss Lydia Pease, was actively interested and instrumental in
making the record Christmas seal sale.
The method of work was similar to that done in Chippewa Falls and
consisted in studying the children while at their studies from that “point of
vantage,” the teacher’s desk.
It was
not difficult to pick out ailing children.
During the course of my investigation I learned that a number of
children had been out for illness – measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, etc. –
which accounted in part for their anemic appearance. There were children who are undoubtedly pre-tubercular,
if not already in the incipient stage.
According to the list, 326 children of an enrollment of 920 are either
physically defective or anemic. Of these
there are:
56
with probable defective sight;
3 with
defective hearing;
70 who
are good subjects for tuberculosis;
27 and
probably more who come from tubercular families;
5 who
are tubercular (and probably more);
2 who
have formed immoral habits (there are probably more);
30 who
need oversight of a truant officer (they would keep an officer busy
constantly);
139
mouth breathers;
27 who
are backward because of probable physical defects or because of rapid growth;
16 who
are plainly backward;
7
unmistakably feebleminded.
The
habit of coffee drinking and the keeping of late hours is common among the
children in all of the grades to an alarming extent. Sitting up late would not be so bad if
practiced in the open air, but too many of the children’s evening are spent in
poorly ventilated nickel theatres.
Thirty
children are reported as attending school irregularly without sufficient
reason. Many half days of each school
month are lost because of slight ailments, sore throat, etc. The chronically sore throats usually occur in
children who are suffering from enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Were a physician consulted he should soon
discover the source of the trouble.
Two
sisters lost, one 81 days, the other 57 1/2 days, out of the school year. Both are suffering from enlarged tonsils and
adenoids, two out of the many who are handicapped in the same way. Their brother, 15 years old, is in the fifth
grade. He is ambitious and has been
constantly humiliated by his inability to keep up with his class. He has been the despair of his teachers. He was operated upon and tonsils and adenoids
removed. The tonsils, according to the
doctors, were each as large as a small hen’s egg, while the adenoids
constituted a mass equal to both tonsils put together. There was very little space for the admission
of air, as the nasal cavity and throat were almost completely filled with these
morbid growths. Improvement after the
operation was almost immediate.
Three
girls in another family were taken to a physician, one had a goiter, all three
had defective eyesight. One of the three
was tuberculosis.
Three
children in another family, a boy and two girls, are sadly in need of
attention. The boy needs the attention
of a nerve specialist. Two have enlarged
tonsils and adenoids. Both will be
operated upon as soon as there is room at the hospital.
These
cases were taken at random and there are undoubtedly many more who would be
benefited in many ways by timely attention to such defects . . . “ WD
