Lessons in practical hygiene for use in schools / by Alice Ravenhill ; with preface by Professor M.E. Sadler.

  • Ravenhill, Alice.
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lessons in practical hygiene for use in schools / by Alice Ravenhill ; with preface by Professor M.E. Sadler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    common custom to refer to the tenets of hygiene as binding upon the poorer section only of the community, in which almost every difficulty of practice is enhanced by ignorance and environment; but what responsibility and power for good rest with land- owners and large employers of labour ; what opportunities for effecting desirable improvements in the management of children and of homes present themselves to women of means and leisure! Experience, unfortunately, compels the confession that many parents ignore, or neglect, their obligations ; so that the duty perforce devolves, for the present generation at least, upon the teaching profession. If one object of our educational system be the preparation of children for the wise conduct of their lives, it behoves the great army of teachers to drill their millions of recruits into obedience to the primary laws of practical hygiene, until a diminished rate of mortality, brighter skies, cleaner cities, purer water-supplies, healthier homes, and better proportioned figures and happier faces replace the gloom, dirt, dilapidations, deformities, and largely preventible sicknesses which now so injuriously affect life in town and country. Teachers should, therefore, aim not only at surrounding children with improved conditions, but also at making use of the child’s earliest instincts to touch, taste, and handle the things about him, and thus to interest him in sound reasons for the right use and care of the safeguards to health which are now found in almost every house (though not always intelligently used). Habits formed thus early cling through life, and influ- ence every subsequent thought and action. The subject, however, must be treated practically; illus- trations must be drawn from, and applications made to, the children’s own experience and immediate surroundings; for which purpose the school, its system of ventilation, its water- supply and fittings, etc., have been officially and wisely objects upon which to demonstrate theories other- wise difficult for young minds to materialize. Suggentions for the Consideration of Teaehers,” pp. 86 to 91, and Appendix II. {Wyman db Sons, London, I'JOS, Price 8d.