Both the efficiency and the democracy of a community depend upon the extent and the kind of education it affords to its people. Autocratic Germany had a most thorough-going system of education, but a system that made autocracy possible. The common people were trained to be efficient workers, and thus to contribute to the national strength; but they were trained TO SUBMIT to authority, and not to exercise control over it. The kind of education that develops leaders was given only to the few. The leaders of the German people were imposed upon them from above; in the United States we are supposed to CHOOSE our leaders. In a nation whose aim is to afford to every citizen an equal opportunity to make the most of himself and whose people are self-governing, education must be widespread, it must develop the power of self-direction, it must train leaders, and it must enable the people to choose their leaders intelligently. When Governor Berkeley of Virginia reported to the king of England in 1671, "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing; and I hope we shall not have these hundred years," he spoke for the autocratic form of government which a hundred years later led the colonies to revolt, and which in 1917 forced the United Stares into a world war.
In a democracy government must be carried on largely BY MEANS OF education. There must be trained leadership. And since the aim of democratic government is to secure team work in public affairs, the people must have the tools of team work, such as a common language and other knowledge that makes living and working together possible; they must have training that will enable them to contribute effectively to the community's work, and an intelligent understanding of the community's aims and ideals. And since government is controlled largely by public opinion, the people must have an intelligent understanding of the community's problems. We had abundant illustration during the recent war of the extent to which our government not only depended upon highly educated men and women for leadership, but also used educational methods to secure its ends.
These facts explain why public education is the largest single item of expense in our government (except in time of war). In 1914 nearly 600 million dollars were spent for public elementary and high schools. Some 200 million dollars more were spent for private elementary and high schools, and for universities, colleges, and normal schools, some of which are public and some private.
If democracy is to be safe and efficient, every member must have a reasonable education. Every state now has a compulsory education law, though these laws vary greatly. In some states every child must attend school for seven years (7 to 14, or 8 to 15), and in one state (Maryland) for eight years. In other states the period is less, sometimes as little as four years. In most of the states there is an additional period, usually of two years (14 to 16), during which children must remain in school unless they go to work. As a rule there are laws that forbid the employment of children in industry before the age of 14. In some states they may go to work as soon as they reach the age limit regardless of what their educational qualifications are; in others they must have completed the eight grades of the elementary school; in others
[Editor's Note: Missing text.]
laws are not well enforced in some states. The facing table shows the number of children of school age in and out of school in the several states in 1915-1916. For the country as a whole, 17.4 per cent of the children of school age were not in school.
"School terms are so short in many states and compulsory attendance is so badly enforced that THE SCHOOL LIFE OF THE AVERAGE PERSON GROWING UP IN RURAL SECTIONS IS ONLY 4.5 SCHOOL YEARS OF 140 DAYS EACH. In urban communities conditions are better, but far from satisfactory." [Footnote: Bulletin, 1919, No. 4, U. S. Bureau of Education, "A Manual of Educational Legislation," p. 6.]
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The facing table shows the number of days the public schools were open, the average number of days of attendance by each pupil enrolled, and the rank of the state in each case, for each state in the school year 1915-1916.
Why would it not be more democratic to permit children to attend school or not as they or their parents wish?
Discuss the statement that "education makes people free." Compare this statement with a somewhat similar statement made on page 136, Chapter XI.
What is the compulsory school age in your state?
Is wide variation in the compulsory school age among the different states a good thing? Why?
Is the compulsory school law rigidly enforced in your state? How is it enforced?
How much of each year must a child spend in school during the compulsory period in your state?
Investigate the reasons given by pupils in your community for leaving school before completing the course, and report.
What rank does your state hold with respect to length of term? to average daily attendance of pupils? (See table.)
What rank does your state hold with respect to number of children of school age in and out of school? (See table.)
What is the length of your own school year? Do you think it should be lengthened? Why?
Get from your teacher or principal the average daily attendance for each pupil enrolled in your school; in your county. Do you think this record could be improved?
Is there any good reason why the school year should be shorter in rural communities than in cities?
It is advocated by many that schools should be open the year round. What advantages can you see in the plan? Debate the question.
The pioneer family was dependent at first upon its own efforts for the education of its children. When other families came, a schoolhouse was built, a teacher employed and the work of teaching the elements of knowledge was handed over to the school. This was the origin of the "district school," which is characteristic of pioneer conditions. As the population grew and local government was organized, the unit of local government tended to become the unit for school administration. In New England this was the "town" or township; in the South it was the county; in the West it was sometimes the township and sometimes the county, or else a combination of the two. In a large number of the western states, however, and in a few of the eastern states, the district school persists in many rural communities, a relic of pioneer conditions. It is often felt that it is more democratic for each district to administer its own school, subject only to the laws of the state.
Under the district system there is an annual school meeting of the voters of the district, who vote the school taxes, determine the length of the school year, and elect a board of education or school trustees. The trustees look after the school property, choose the teacher and fix his salary, and in a general way manage the school business. Each school is independent of all other schools.
Under the township system all of the schools of the township are administered by a township board or committee (or by a single trustee in Indiana) elected by the people of the township. The chief advantages over the district system are that all the schools of the township are administered by a single plan, the taxes are apportioned to the schools according to needs, and pupils may be transferred from one school to another at convenience. In New England two or three townships are sometimes united into a "union district" supervised by a single superintendent.
Under the county system all the schools of the county are under the management of a county board and, usually, a county superintendent. In 29 of the 39 states that have county superintendents they are elected by the people, in 8 states they are appointed by the county board, in Delaware they are appointed by the governor, and in New Jersey by the state commissioner of education. Election of the county superintendent is losing favor on the ground that there is less assurance of securing a highly trained man. The chart on page 293 shows a plan of organization for county schools proposed to the legislature of South Dakota by the United States Bureau of Education.
Among the advantages of the county system are greater economy, more nearly equal educational opportunity for all children of the county, and better supervision because of the larger funds available for this purpose. It is under the county system of organization that the movement for SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION is progressing most rapidly. By this is meant the union of a number of small, poorly equipped schools into a larger, well-graded, and well equipped school. Its advantages may best be suggested by an example.
In Randolph County, Indiana, there were, in 1908, 128 one-room schools in the open country, with an attendance of from 12 to 60 pupils doing grade work only, 6 two-room schools in hamlets, with grade work only; 2 three room schools in villages, with grade work and two years of high school work with a six months' term; 3 four- room village schools, with grade work and three years of high school work with a six months' term; 1 six-room school in a town, with grade work and four years of high school work with an eight months' term.
By consolidation, 113 one-room schools and 4 two-room schools were supplanted by 20 consolidated schools with two grade teachers; 6 with four grade teachers, 6 with five grade teachers; 2 with six grade teachers; and 1 with eight grade teachers—a total of 86 grade teachers doing the work formerly done by 148 teachers, and doing it better. Fifteen of the schools have a four-year high school course with an eight months' term. For the five-year period preceding consolidation not more than half of the eighth-grade pupils attended high school; after consolidation, an average of 96 per cent of the eighth-grade pupils went to high school.
The pupils are transported to and from school in hacks or motor- busses heated in winter. The school buildings are equipped with running water, modern heating and sanitation, telephone, restrooms for pupils and teachers, gymnasiums and outdoor physical apparatus, physical training and athletic competition being carried on under supervision. The courses of study have been enriched, increased attention is given to vocational work, and music and art receive attention impossible in the district schools. Eleven of the schools have orchestras, and concerts are held which the community as well as the schools attend. There are auditoriums used for community lectures and concerts, Sunday- school conventions, community sings, parent-teachers' meetings, and exhibits of various kinds.
Report on the following:
School life in colonial New England; in colonial Virginia.
The first schools in your own community—length of school term, attendance, whether private or public, qualifications of teachers, methods of teaching.
What the family does for the education of the children that the school cannot do. What the school does that the family cannot do.
Organization of the schools in your district, township, county, or city.
Advantages of graded schools over ungraded schools.
Consolidation of schools in your county or state.
Debate the question: The district school is more democratic than the county organization.
Method of selection of the superintendent of your county and town.Length of term of office.
Organization, powers, mode of election, etc., of your local board of education.
Authority, or lack of authority, of your county superintendent over the schools of cities and large towns in the county.
Qualifications prescribed for teachers in your county or town. How selected.
How are school books selected? Are they free to pupils? Advantages and disadvantages of free textbooks.
Evidence that public education is or is not a matter of common interest to the people of your community.
Examples of team work, or lack of it, in your community in the interest of the schools.
Are the methods by which school authorities are chosen in your community calculated to secure the best leadership?
How the duties relating to the schools are divided between your school board and the superintendent. Does your board perform any duties that should be performed by the superintendent, or VICE VERSA? Explain.
Parent-teacher organizations in your community and their service.
Public education was long restricted to the elementary school. High schools were at first private academies designed to prepare for college the few who wished to continue their education. While they still continue to give preparation for college, their development in recent years has been largely for the benefit of the greater number of boys and girls who do not expect to go to college. The high school naturally made its first appearance in cities. It requires more elaborate equipment and more highly trained teachers, and its cost is at least twice that of elementary schools. These facts, together with the small and scattered population of rural communities, have been obstacles to the development of rural high schools. The consolidated school has in large measure removed these obstacles, and a high school education is rapidly becoming as available for rural boys and girls as for those who live in cities.
Report on:
The history of high school development in your community.
The percentage of pupils in your community who go to high school after completing the elementary school.
"What the high school does for my community."
"My reasons for going (or not going) to high school."
The cost per pupil in the high school in your community as compared with that in the elementary school.
Education must not only be within the reach of every citizen of a democracy, but it must be of a kind that will fit him to play well his part as a member of the community.
The public schools now give more attention than formerly to the physical education and welfare of the pupils (see Chapter XX, pp. 314, 315). The wide prevalence of physical defects disclosed in the effort to raise an army during the recent war will doubtless cause still greater emphasis to be placed on this aspect of education. Physical fitness is the foundation of good citizenship. Provision for physical education and welfare has found its way into rural schools more slowly than in city schools, as the following table shows. But our nation can be neither efficient nor fully democratic until the physical well-being of all its citizens is provided for, and the responsibility rests largely with the public school.
[Footnote: Adapted from Dr. Thomas D. Wood, in New York TIMESMagazine, April 2, 1916.]
It is a part of the business of education to fit every citizen to earn a living, for every efficient citizen must be self-supporting and able to contribute effectively to the productive work of the community. The interdependence of all occupations in modern industry and the necessity for every worker to be a specialist make training essential for every worker who is to attain success for himself and contribute his full share to the community's work. The war emphasized strongly the nation's dependence upon trained workers in every field of industry.
One of the direct results of war needs was the passage by Congress, in 1917, of the Smith-Hughes Act, providing for national aid for vocational instruction for persons over 14 years of age who have already entered upon, or are preparing to enter, some trade. The instruction given under the terms of this act must be of less than college grade. Every state in the Union has met the conditions imposed by this law.
The Smith-Hughes Act created a Federal Board for Vocational Education to consist of the Secretaries of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, the United States Commissioner of Education, and three citizens appointed by the President, one to represent labor interests, one commercial and manufacturing interests, and the third agricultural interests. The law appropriates national funds to be given to the state for the establishment of vocational schools and for the training of teachers for these schools; but each state must appropriate an amount equal to that received from the national government. Each state must also have a board for vocational education, through which the national board has its dealings with the state.
The duty of the regular elementary and high schools is not to cultivate special vocational skills; not to turn out trained farmers, or mechanics, and so on. But the work of these schools should be such that their graduates will be better farmers, or mechanics, or lawyers, or doctors, or engineers, or teachers, than they would be without it. First of all these schools should produce workers who are physically fit for the work they enter. They should educate the hand and the eye along with the brain. They should cultivate habits of working together, give instruction regarding the significance of all work in community and national life, and by every means possible prepare the pupil to make a wise choice of vocation. Moreover, the schools should provide a breadth of education that will "transmute days of dreary work into happier lives."
Mr. Herbert Quick in his story of "The Brown Mouse," which is a plea for better rural schools, says:
Let us cease thinking so much of agricultural education, and devote ourselves to educational agriculture. So will the nation be made strong.
The life we live, even on the farm, is full of science and history, civics and economics, arithmetic and geography, poetry and art. The modern school helps the pupil to find these things in his daily life and, having found them, to apply them to living for his profit and enjoyment. For this reason it works largely through the "home project," boys' and girls' clubs, gardening, and many other activities.
A recent writer has said,
What is the true end of American education? Is it life or a living? … Education finds itself face to face with a bigger thing than life or the getting of a living. It is face to face with a big enough thing to die for in France, a big enough thing to go to school for in America … Neither life nor the getting of a living, but LIVING TOGETHER, this must be the single PUBLIC end of a common public education hereafter. [Footnote: D. R. Sharp, "Patrons of Democracy," in ATLANTIC MONTHLY, November, 1919, p. 650.]
The more nearly the conditions of living in the school community correspond to the conditions of living in the community outside of school, the better the training afforded for living together. In many schools the spirit and methods of community life prevail, even to the extent of school government in which the pupils participate.
Of this community pupils and teachers are members with certain common interests. Cooperation is the keynote of the community life. The realization of this cooperation is seen in the classrooms, in study halls, in the assembly room, in the corridors, on the playground. It manifests itself in the method of preparing and conducting recitations; in the care of school property; in protecting the rights of younger children; in maintaining the sanitary conditions of the building and grounds; in the elimination of cases of "discipline" and of irregularity of attendance; in the preparation and conduct of opening exercises, school entertainments, and graduating exercises; in beautifying the school grounds; in the making of repairs and equipment for "our school"; in fact, in every aspect of the school life.
[Footnote: "Civic Education in Elementary Schools," p. 31, UnitedStates Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1915, No. 17.]
The schoolhouse is becoming more and more the center of community life. We have noticed how, in Randolph County, Indiana, the consolidated school building affords a meeting place for all sorts of community activities. The school law of California provides that:
There is hereby established a civic center at each and every public schoolhouse within the State of California, where the citizens of the respective public school districts … may engage in supervised recreational activities, and where they may meet and discuss … any and all subjects and questions which in their judgment may appertain to the educational, political, economic, artistic, and moral interests of the respective communities in which they may reside; Provided, that such use of said public schoolhouse and grounds for said meetings shall in no wise interfere with such use and occupancy of said public schoolhouse and grounds as is now, or hereafter may be, required for the purpose of said public schools of the State of California. Investigate and report on the following:
Provision in your school and in the schools of your state for health work suggested in the table on page 299.
Other provisions in your school for the physical well-being of pupils.
The work of your school that relates directly to preparation for earning a living.
The extent to which a high school can make a farmer.
The operation of the Smith-Hughes Act in your state and in your county or town.
The meaning of the quotation from "The Brown Mouse" on page 301.
The use of "home projects" by your school.
The meaning of the statement that the end of public education is "neither life nor the getting of a living, but living together."
Differences and similarities between the government of your school and that of the community in which you live. The wisdom of making them more alike.
Different plans of "pupil self-government." (See references.)
Uses to which the schoolhouses of your community are, or might be, put.
Hours per week and weeks per year during which your schoolhouse is used.
Economy (or lack of it) in allowing schoolhouses to stand idle most of the time.
The community center idea. (See references.)
Educational work for adults in your community.
Educational agencies in your community besides schools.
The schools of the local community are a part of the state school system. Education is considered a duty of the state, though it is performed largely by local agencies. The constitutions of all states make provision for it. State control and support of education are necessary if there is to be equality of educational opportunity for all children of the state. Every state has a department of education, and in most states each local community receives a portion of a general state tax for school purposes. The state departments of education differ widely from one another both in organization and in the effectiveness of their work. In most states there is a state board of education, composed sometimes of certain state officials, including the governor and the state superintendent of education, sometimes of citizens appointed for this purpose alone by the governor or (in four states) by the legislature. In only one state is it elected by popular vote. In all states there is also a chief educational officer, usually called state superintendent or commissioner of education or of public instruction. In several states women hold this position. The state superintendent is sometimes elected by popular vote, sometimes appointed by the state board of education or by the governor. Under the state superintendent there are deputy superintendents, heads of departments, and supervisors of the various branches of educational work. The diagram on page 293 shows a plan of organization proposed for one state by the United States Bureau of Education.
The extent of the supervision and control exercised by the state department of education over the schools of the state varies within wide limits. In some cases it is very little. In many states there are state courses of study that are followed more or less closely by local communities. In a number of states the textbooks used by all schools are selected either by the state board of education or by a special state textbook commission. In New York State the examination questions used in all schools are prepared by the state educational authorities. Some states furnish text books free, and in a very few the state even prints all textbooks. It has not been easy to work out a well-balanced plan of state administration of schools that would ensure a thoroughgoing education for the entire state, and that would at the same time leave sufficient freedom to local school authorities to adjust the work to local needs.
Many of the states support higher educational institutions, such as state universities and state agricultural colleges, at which attendance is free for citizens of the state. There are also special state schools for defectives, such as the blind and the deaf.
The national government gave its first support to public education by the Ordinance of 1787 under which the Northwest Territory was organized. It provided that "religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary government to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." As new states were organized, sections of the public lands were to be reserved for school purposes. Grants of public land were also made for the establishment of agricultural colleges and experiment stations.
We have also noted the national cooperation with the states for agricultural extension work and for vocational education. The United States Bureau of Education is under the direction of the United States Commissioner of Education. It has exerted its chief influence through its investigations of educational methods and its numerous reports and other publications. It serves as a sort of educational "clearing house" for local and state school authorities. One of its chief endeavors has been to increase the educational opportunities in rural communities.
Report on the following:
Provisions of your state constitution with regard to education.
Cost of public schools per year to your community; your county; your state.
How this cost is met in your town or county. Portion paid by the state.
Organization of your state department of education. Compare with the organization of state departments in neighboring states.
Arguments for and against the method of choosing your state board of education and your state superintendent.
Do the rural schools and city schools of your state operate under the same state supervision? Why?
Use of state course of study in your school and community.
Selection of textbooks for your school.
Advantages and disadvantages of uniform textbooks and course of study. Of uniform examinations throughout the state.
Management and support of your state university.
Qualifications for admission to the state university and state agricultural college.
Why you are (or not) going to college.
The value of the state university or agricultural college to your state.
State educational institutions for the blind, the deaf, etc.
Arguments for and against national control of education.
Chief provisions of any bill now before Congress for a nationalDepartment of Education.
In LESSONS IN COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE:
Series A: Lesson 11, Education as encouraged by industry.
Series C: Lesson 8, Preventing waste of human beings.
In Long's AMERICAN PATRIOTIC PROSE:
Educated men in politics (Grover Cleveland), pp. 255-257.
The educated man and democratic ideals (Charles E. Hughes), pp. 286-288.
In Foerster and Pierson's AMERICAN IDEALS:
The American scholar (R. W. Emerson), pp. 133-155.
Democracy in education (P. P. Claxton), pp. 156-157.
Reports of local and state departments of education.
Publications of the United States Bureau of Education.
Latest annual report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education. These annual reports contain excellent summaries of every phase of education in the United States and in many foreign countries.
Bulletins. Send to the Bureau for List of Available Publications. These bulletins relate to every important aspect of education, school organization and administration, etc. Many of them are of special application to rural education.
Teachers of civics will find the following helpful:
1915, No. 17, Civic education in elementary schools as illustrated in Indianapolis (Government Printing Office, 5 cents).
1915, No. 23, The teaching of community civics (Government Printing Office, 10 cents).
1916, No. 28, The social studies in secondary education (Government Printing Office, 10 cents).
1917, No. 46, The public school system of San Francisco, chapter on civic education.
1917, No. 51, Moral values in secondary education.
1918, No. 15, Educational survey of Elyria, Ohio, chapter on civic education (Government Printing Office, 30 cents).
1919, No. 50, Part 3, Civic education in the public school system of Memphis. Write to the U.S. Bureau of Education for list of references on pupil self-government. Also write to the School Citizens' Committee, 2 Wall St., New York City, for material on the same subject.
Earle, Alice Morse, CHILD LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS (Macmillan).
Dewey, John, THE SCHOOL AND SOCIETY and SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW.
Quick, Herbert, THE BROWN MOUSE (Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis).
Foght, H. W., THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK.
Jackson, Henry E., A COMMUNITY CENTER—WHAT IT IS AND HOW TOORGANIZE IT. Bulletin, 1918, No. 11, U. S. Bureau of Education.
There is nothing else that concerns the community or the nation so much as the health of its citizens. Of more than three million men between the ages of 21 and 31 examined for military service in 1918, only about 65 per cent were passed as physically fit to fight for their country. [Footnote: Public Health Reports, U. S. Public Health Service, vol. 34, No. 13, p. 633 (March 28, 1919).]
The remaining 35 per cent were either totally unfit for any kind of service, or were capable only of the less strenuous activities connected with warfare. Most of the defects found could have been remedied, or prevented altogether, if proper care had been taken in earlier years.
The nation loses by this physical unfitness in other ways than in fighting power. Investigations have shown that wage earners lose from their work an average of from six to nine days each year on account of sickness.
[Footnote 2: Public Health Reports, U. S. Public Health Service, vol. 34, No. 16, pp. 777-782 (April 18, 1919).]
The cost to the individual in loss of wages, doctors' bills, and otherwise, is a serious matter, to say nothing of the absolute want to which it reduces many families and the suffering entailed. In addition to this, the country loses the wage earner's production. Sometimes death brings to the family permanent loss of income, and to the nation complete loss of the product of the wage earner's work. The nation spends large sums of money every year in providing for dependent families and individuals.
If each of the 38 million wage earners in the United States in 1910 lost 6 days from work in a year, how many days' work would the nation lose? How many years of work would this amount to?
At $2.50 a day (is this a high wage?) how much would be lost in wages in a year?
Get information regarding the cost of a long case of sickness, such as typhoid fever, in some family of your acquaintance (perhaps your own), including doctor's bills, medicines, time lost from work, etc.
What would such expense mean to a family living on as low wages as those mentioned on page 167?
Moreover, the nation loses a great deal (how much cannot be calculated) from the physical unfitness of many who keep on working, but who are not fully efficient because of bodily defects or ailments. We see the results of this even in school. Pupils who lag behind their mates in their studies are often suffering from physical defects of which their teachers, and even they themselves, may be unaware. It may be that they are ill-nourished, or that they have defective vision, or hearing, or teeth, or that they sleep in poorly ventilated rooms. The community does not get its money's worth from its schools if its children are not in physical condition to profit by them. In a similar manner earning and productive power are reduced.
It has usually been assumed that the people in rural districts are more healthy than those who live in cities; but it has been found that there is as much physical unfitness there as elsewhere. It is true that the records of the war department seem to show fewer men rejected in rural districts as totally unfit for any kind of military service; but evidence of other kinds has been collected that indicates that some kinds of disease, at least, and many physical defects are more prevalent in the country than in the city. In THE LURE OF THE LAND, Dr. Harvey Wiley makes a comparison of the death rate from certain diseases in a few states where the figures are available for both city and country.
[Footnote: Dr. Harvey Wiley, THE LURE OF THE LAND, Chapter VIII,"Health on the Farm," pp. 53-60.]
Studies have been made of the comparative health of city and rural school children, which show results in favor of the former. Of 330,179 children examined in New York City 70 percent were found defective, while of 294,427 examined in 1831 rural districts of Pennsylvania 75 per cent were defective. The preceding chart shows the comparative prevalence of health defects among city and country children.
Investigate the following:
Meaning of "vital statistics." Importance of vital statistics to your community. Where recorded for your county or town. What the vital statistics of your community for the last year show.
Causes of deaths in your community for the last year. The percentage of these deaths that were "preventable." Increase or decrease of death rate in your community during recent years, in your state.
The nature of the prevailing sicknesses in your community during the last year. Per cent of these that were contagious. List of contagious diseases in the order of their prevalence.
Quarantine regulations in your community against contagious diseases. Extent to which they are observed. Who is responsible for their observance? For their enforcement?
Observe condition of sidewalks and other public places with respect to expectoration. Is there a law on the subject in your community'? Is it observed or enforced? Who is responsible? Dangers from expectoration.
Medical inspection in the schools of your county, town, and state. If any, its results. Kinds of defects most commonly found. How is it conducted? Who sends the inspectors? To what extent the homes of the community cooperate with the schools in getting results from medical inspection.
We may well ask why ill health and physical defects seem to be more prevalent in rural communities than in cities. The answer probably is, simply, that in cities they are PREVENTED more effectively. The chart on page 313 shows that while the death rate in New York City was 20.6 per thousand in 1900, it had declined to 14 per thousand in 1914; while that in the rural districts of New York State remained practically the same during these years (15.5 per thousand in 1900, 15.3 in 1914).
This indicates that health conditions in the city were originally much worse than in the country. They were rapidly improved by organization for health protection. There is not the occasion, in rural communities, for the elaborate health-protecting organization that is now found in all large cities, because the people in rural communities are not so completely dependent upon one another nor at the mercy of conditions over which, as individuals, they have no control. And yet even in rural communities physical well-being depends largely upon organized team work.
Cities have used their school organization to combat physical defects and weaknesses of pupils, and that is why they make a better showing than rural communities in such matters as those shown in the table on page 312. Removing such defects from young people means a stronger and more efficient adult population ten or twenty years from now; for these defects are often the causes of more serious illness in later years. The table on page 299, Chapter XIX, shows how much behind cities rural communities have been in the use of their school organization for this purpose. The encouraging thing is, however, that rural communities are beginning to find the means to use their schools in this way. The way has been opened by school consolidation (p. 295), by the grouping of all the small and isolated schools of a county under a central county administration (p. 294), by aid from the state, both in money and in supervision, and by cooperation from the national government.
Cities have extended their health-educational work to the adult population. This takes place in part through the schools also. Instruction given to children is of course taken home by them. Visiting nurses employed by the schools visit the homes. Classes for mothers are conducted at the school in the afternoon or evening. But more than this, city boards of health, often in cooperation with the school authorities, conduct educational campaigns by means of literature distributed to the homes through school children, by means of evening lectures and moving pictures, and through the newspapers.
Means are not wanting for similar work in rural communities. The homes may be reached by the right kind of instruction in the schools. The classes or clubs for women conducted by women county agents may be, and often are, used as means of health instruction. Public meetings at the "community center" at the schoolhouse may be devoted at times to public health problems, with lectures, moving pictures, and discussions. The local newspapers always afford a channel through which to get matters of this kind before the people. Local and state boards of health, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Public Health Service may and do use these and other agencies to reach the people.
No matter how much machinery for cooperation we may have in our community, like that described above, it cannot help much unless every family and every citizen cooperates intelligently.
In a large city, a small group of men, constituting the city council, may inaugurate measures which will accomplish sanitary improvements at thousands of homes; but for the accomplishment of sanitary improvements at 1000 farm homes at least 1000 persons … must be convinced that the sanitary measures are needed, become informed how to apply them, and be willing to put them into operation.
[Footnote: RURAL SANITATION, by L. L. Lumsden, Public HealthBulletin No. 94, United States Public Health Service, p. 10.]
Pure air is essential to good health. It is not always easy to get in the crowded living and working conditions of cities. There it is necessary to regulate these conditions by law, and factories and tenements are inspected to see that they are properly ventilated and not overcrowded. In rural communities there is less excuse for bad air, and the responsibility for it rests more directly upon the individual, as illustrated on page 112, Chapter X.
It might seem that it is nobody's business but our own how we live in our homes or at our work. But bad air lessens vitality and nurtures disease. This reduces productive power. Moreover, colds, influenza, and tuberculosis (of which more than a million people are constantly sick in the United States), all of which are nourished in bad air, may be spread by contact, or by food handled by those who are sick. People who live in bad air at home mingle with others at church, in moving picture theaters, at school, in the courtroom, and in other public meeting places, which are themselves often poorly ventilated. It is strange that court rooms, where justice is administered, schools where children are prepared for life, and churches where people worship, are so often badly ventilated.
Report on the following:
Is your schoolroom well ventilated? How do you know? What effect does poor ventilation have upon your feelings and your work?
If the law requires school attendance, why should it also require good ventilation of the school?
If the ventilation of your school is not good, what may you do about it? Who is responsible for it?
Observe and report upon the ventilation of the court rooms, moving picture theaters, churches, and other meeting places in your community.
Cities go to great expense to get an abundant pure-water supply. It is of the greatest importance in community sanitation Impure water is one of the chief sources of typhoid fever and other diseases of the intestines. About 400,000 persons have typhoid fever every year in the United States, and 30,000 are killed by it; and it is unnecessary. We have from three to five times as much typhoid as many European countries have, and for no other reason than that we are negligent.
Pure, clean, wholesome food is equally essential. We need not dwell upon the importance of the right kinds of food and well- cooked food. Much illness is caused by "spoiled" foods. Disease germs may be carried by food as well as by water. Tuberculosis may be carried by milk, either from diseased cattle, or from victims of the disease who handle the milk at some point in its progress from the dairy farm to the home. The death rate among babies is appalling, especially in cities, because of the use of milk containing germs of intestinal diseases. Typhoid fever may be contracted from milk, green vegetables, and oysters from beds contaminated with sewage.
The food supply of cities passes through many hands before it reaches the consumer. At almost every point it is protected by regulations and inspection. Most of it, however, comes originally from the farm which is beyond the control of the city authorities. The producers and handlers of food products in rural districts therefore owe it not only to themselves but also to their city neighbors to exercise every possible precaution against the spread of disease. Such precautions consist in cleanliness in handling and storing milk, butter, and meats; in the cleansing of milk receptacles with pure water; in the proper location and construction of wells; in protecting springs from surface drainage; in sanitary disposal of sewage and other wastes from the household; in protection of food against flies.
In cities a great deal of attention is given to sanitation. Sewage is carried off by public sewers. Householders are required to place garbage in sanitary cans, whence it is collected and disposed of in such a way as not to pollute the soil. Ashes and refuse are carried away from homes and shops, and the streets are cleaned daily. In rural communities such matters are left almost entirely to the householder.
Exposed garbage, improperly built outdoor toilets, and stable manure are breeding places of flies; and flies are notorious carriers of disease. Yet, out of more than 3000 homes in one county in Indiana only 31 made provision to prevent stable manure from breeding flies, and the same was true of only 1 out of more than 2000 homes in a county in North Carolina, and only 86 out of nearly 5000 homes in an Alabama county.
Malaria is widespread in the United States and imposes a heavy toll upon the nation's health. It is carried from one victim to another by a certain kind of mosquito, of which it is comparatively easy to get rid by proper drainage of breeding places, by treating the surface of pools with kerosene, by screening, and by seeing to it that rain barrels are covered and that tin cans and other receptacles of water are not left lying around. But flies and mosquitoes do not stop with fences, nor do they recognize city or county boundaries. Hence, individual effort without community cooperation is likely to be useless.
The terrible hookworm disease so prevalent in our southern states is caused by a minute worm that infests soil polluted with sewage. It penetrates the soles of the feet of those who go barefoot and the palms of the hands of those who work in the soils, finds its way through the blood to the intestines, and thence to the soil again. An investigation in 770 counties in 11 states where hookworm disease is prevalent showed that out of 287,606 farm homes only six tenths of one per cent disposed of their sewage in such a way as to prevent soil pollution.
Out of 305 homes in a little community in Mississippi, only 4 properly disposed of sewage. When the first investigations were made, there were 407 cases of hookworm disease out of 1002 residents. Besides, there had been recently 12 cases of tuberculosis, 47 of typhoid fever, 184 of malaria, and 384 of dysentery.
Safe methods of disposing of sewage were introduced, houses were screened, an artesian well was bored for a public water supply, and the community cleaned up generally. After these improvements the various diseases almost entirely disappeared. Similar results were obtained in 99 other communities in the southern states.
[Footnote: Report of the Rockefeller Foundation, 1917, pp. 136- 138.]
Topics for investigation:
The water supply of farms in your locality. Any recent improvements.
The public water supply (if any) of your community. Its sources. Method of purification. Quality of water. How the people know it is pure or impure. Public or private ownership of the supply. Cost to the householder.
Extent to which the families represented in your class depend upon private wells. How many have had their well water examined to test its purity. How to proceed to have water tested. Who tests it? Who pays for the test? (If possible, visit the laboratory where the tests are made.)
Number of cases of typhoid fever in your community, now or during last year. How the information can be obtained. Is the information likely to be accurate? Whose business is it to keep a record? Why should a record be kept? Why should it be made public?
Causes of typhoid in your community. Are they preventable? How?Observance of quarantine against typhoid.
How may wells become polluted? Give cases of which you may know.Study diagram on page 314.
Methods of sewage disposal in your community. Laws on the subject.Can you suggest improvements?
Regulation of milk production and handling in your community: on the farms where it is produced; in the hands of dealers and distributors; in the home. Who make these regulations?
Outline on a map the area from which your community is supplied with milk. Show on a map cities that are supplied by your county with dairy products, garden vegetables, meats, etc.
Clean-up campaigns in your community.
Progress and methods of fly and mosquito extermination in your community.
The work of the Rockefeller Foundation for the extermination of hookworm disease (see references).
Hospitals that serve your community. Where located. By whom supported (private, city or town, county, state).
Health protection, like education, has been considered primarily the duty of the state. But many conditions affecting health have arisen that the state cannot completely control. Chiefly under the power given to it by the Constitution to regulate foreign and interstate commerce (p. 451), Congress has passed many laws that protect health, placing their enforcement in the hands of the several departments of the national government.
The Department of Agriculture conducts much public health work, through its home demonstration agents, its Office of Rural Engineering, which deals with problems of farm water supply and rural sanitation, its Bureau of Entomology which wages war against flies and other disease-carrying insects, and its Bureau of Animal Industry which inspects cattle, meats, and dairy products. The Department of Agriculture also administers the Food and Drugs Act, the purpose of which is to secure purity of food products and to require that they and medicinal drugs shall be labeled in such a way as to show what they contain. Fraudulent and harmful "cures" and "patent medicines" may thus be exposed.
The United States Public Health Service investigates diseases and health conditions and the means of controlling them. It has given considerable attention to rural sanitation. It issues reports and other publications of great value to the citizen, some of them being listed at the end of this chapter. It has representatives in all important foreign ports, inspects all ships that enter American harbors, and holds them in quarantine until they and their passengers are given a clean bill of health. Cholera and other dangerous diseases have thus been prevented from gaining a foothold on American soil.
The War Department has also waged a relentless warfare against disease, not only in the army itself, but also in the Panama Canal Zone, Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines, and other regions occupied by the army. The Department of Labor seeks to improve the physical conditions of labor for both men and women, and its Children's Bureau is charged with a study of all matters pertaining to the welfare of children. In the Department of the Interior the Census Bureau collects national vital statistics; the Bureau of Mines has done valuable work for the prevention of accidents in mines and mining industries; and the Bureau of Education seeks to promote physical education, instruction in home economics, and education in the home relating to the care of children.
A very large part of the duty of health protection must, however, remain with the states. Every state has its department of health, headed by a state board of health, or a commissioner of health, or both. These departments differ greatly in their organization and in the extent and effectiveness of their work.
One of the best organized state departments of health is that of New York. Among its most important features are (1) a PUBLIC HEALTH COUNCIL which has power to establish a state-wide SANITARY CODE; (2) the concentration of all administrative power in the hands of a single state COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH, who has a staff of experts to direct special lines of health work; and (3) a well- organized scheme of cooperation between the state department and local health authorities.
The absence or weakness of local organization for health protection has been one of the obstacles to progress in physical well-being in the United States. Driven by an appalling death rate and frequent epidemics, our large cities have developed health departments which in many cases have proved very effective. But in smaller communities, while health departments or health officers usually exist, the organization has for the most part been very ineffective. The people themselves have not been sufficiently aroused to their needs and to methods of meeting them. New York and Massachusetts are among the most progressive states in this matter. Each local community in these states (town, village, or small city) has its board of health and health officer; but these communities are grouped into HEALTH DISTRICTS (8 in Massachusetts, 20 in New York), each district being in charge of a health officer appointed by the state commissioner or board of health. In New York the district health officer, who is there called the SANITARY SUPERVISOR, has the following duties:
To keep informed regarding the work of each local health officer within his sanitary district.
To aid the local health officers in making health surveys of the community under their control.
To aid each local health officer in the performance of his duties, particularly on the appearance of contagious diseases.
To hold conferences of local health officers.
To study the causes of excessive death rates.
To promote efficient registration of births and deaths.
To inspect all labor camps and to enforce in them all public health regulations.
To inspect Indian reservations and to enforce all provisions of the sanitary code in them.
To secure the cooperation of medical organizations for the improvement of the public health.
To promote the information of the public in matters pertaining to the public health.
Another type of local health organization and of cooperation between local and state authorities for health protection and promotion has been developed in North Carolina, where 85 per cent of the population is rural. Here the county has been taken as the unit of local organization. Health conditions had been very bad in this state, hookworm disease, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases being prevalent. The state board of health, assisted by the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission (see above, page 320, and references below), began an investigation and an educational campaign among the people, with the result that many of the counties of the state now have an organization for health cooperation unsurpassed, perhaps, in any other state. Each county has a health department, which is controlled jointly by the state board of health and a county board of health. The county board of health consists of the mayor of the county seat, the chairman of the board of county commissioners, the county superintendent of schools, and two physicians of the county elected by the other three members. The work of the health department is directed by a county health officer, who is appointed by the state board of health of which he is also a member. He has a staff of trained assistants.
In this plan note the cooperation between state and local communities, between town and county officials, and between the school authorities and the health organization. Note, also, the leadership of specialists in health matters.
Topics for investigation:
Organization of the department of health in your community (both county and town): the board of health; the executive health officer or officers; the kinds of work done.
Amount of money spent by your local health department for all purposes and for each purpose separately. Compare with the amounts spent for roads, for schools, and for other work of the local government.
The interest shown by the people in your community in public health matters.
Some of the more important health problems of your community.
The leadership in your community in health matters.
Cooperation between the state government and your local government in health matters.
The more important local and state laws relating to health in your community.
Organization of your state department of health.
Local health problems that need state control.
State health problems that need local cooperation.
The operation of the Food and Drugs Act in your community.
The work of the Public Health Service.
The extermination of yellow fever in the United States.
The fight against the bubonic plague in California.
The work of the War Department to maintain the health of the soldiers during the recent war. Volunteer agencies that cooperated in this work.
Work done in your community for the promotion of health by theDepartment of Agriculture and the United States Public HealthService.
The work of the Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor.
The inspection of immigrants.
Reports of local and state boards of health.
Publications of state agricultural college relating to public health.
Publications of the United States Public Health Service,Washington. The following are illustrative:
Federal Public Health Administration: Its Development and PresentStatus. Reprint No. 112, U. S. Pub. Health Reports, 1913.
Public Health Reports. Issued weekly.
Rural Sanitation, Pub. Health Bulletin No. 94, 1918.
Health Insurance, Pub. Health Reports, vol, 34, No. 16, 1919.
The Nation's Physical Fitness, Pub. Health Reports, vol. 34, No. 13, 1919.
Good Water for Farm Homes, Pub. Health Bulletin No. 70, 1915.
Typhoid Fever: Its Causation and Prevention, Pub. Health BulletinNo. 69, 1915.
Public Health Almanac (for current year).
What the Farmer Can Do to Prevent Malaria, Pub. Health Reports,No. 11, Supplement, 1914.
Fighting Trim: The Importance of Right Living. Supplement No. 5,Pub. Health Reports, 1913.
The Transmission of Disease by Flies, Supplement No. 29, Pub.Health Reports, 1916.
The Citizen and Public Health, Supplement No. 4, Pub. HealthReports, 1913.
The Department of Agriculture publications contain material relating to public health. For example:
Health Laws, Year Book, 1913, pp. 125-134.
Animal Disease and Our Food Supply, Year Book, 1915, pp. 159-172.
Public Abattoirs in New Zealand and Australia, Year Book, 1914, pp. 433-436.
Meat Inspection Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture,Year Book 1916, pp. 77-98.
Sewage Disposal on the Farm, Year Book, 1916, pp. 347-374.
Clean Water and How to Get It on the Farm, Year Book, 1914, pp. 139-156.
Dunn, THE COMMUNITY AND THE CITIZEN, Chapter IX.
Beard, C. A., AMERICAN CITY GOVERNMENT, pp. 261-282.
Among the Bulletins of the United States Bureau of Education treating of health matters are the following:
1910, No. 5, American schoolhouses.
1913. No. 44, Organized health work in schools. No. 48, School hygiene. No. 52, Sanitary schoolhouses.
1914, No. 10, Physical growth and school progress. No. 17, Sanitary survey of the schools of Orange County, Va. No. 20, The rural school and hookworm disease.
1915, No. 4, The health of school children. No. 21, Schoolhouse sanitation. No. 50, Health of school children.
1917, No. 50, Physical education in secondary schools.
1919, No. 2, Standardization of medical inspection facilities. No. 65, The eyesight of school children.
Publications of the Children's Bureau, Department of Labor.
See, for example, Rural Children in Selected Counties of North Carolina, Rural Child Welfare Series No. 2, and Baby-Saving Campaigns. A Preliminary Report on What American Cities are Doing to Prevent Infant Mortality, Bureau Publication No. 3. See list of publications issued by the Bureau.
In LESSONS IN COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE:
Series B: Lesson 14, The United States Public Health Service.
Series C: Lesson 19, How the city cares for health.
Reports of the Rockefeller Foundation, 61 Broadway, New York City.