Health Work in Public Schools by Edmund C. Jaegar

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 18, 1910

Health Work in Public Schools

By Edmund C. Jaegar

The predominant note in social science is “preventive medicine.” The school men are coming to see that true education seeks prevention rather than correction. In regard to the youth, they agree with Judge Ben Lindsey that “the best time to handle a man is when he is a boy.” Nothing could be more favorable to the cause of hygiene and temperance than this realization; for the only way to make any telling effect on a generation is to begin with the instruction of its children. The alarming increase of the cigarette habit and the resulting lawlessness have no doubt had much to do in bringing this conviction about.

Believing that the time was ripe for immediate action in the dissemination of the principles of true hygiene, I began an educational temperance effort in the public schools of California, in September, 1909. Though working under the many difficulties which accompany pioneer work in any line, I found openings for over two hundred lectures before fifty thousand children, besides being able to interest many private individuals. In addition to the publication of Practical Hygiene, a small health publication for children, and the printing of seventy-seven thousand pages of tracts, I have had published over fifty-seven columns of matter in the daily newspapers. These articles have all been well received, and much more could have been done if necessary time could have been found.

Openings have now been secured for work in the Los Angeles schools as well as those in many smaller cities. Pasadena, Long Beach, San Bernardino, Pomona, and other places where the work has been done the past winter have asked that it be carried on another year.

I feel that the most satisfactory and permanent work was done in Riverside, where the lectures were given each month, and where much personal work with the boys in social purity lines was made possible through the co-operation of the Y. M. C. A. I am especially pleased with the interest shown by the teachers, and the interested co-operation of the parents, both fathers and mothers. “Perhaps,” says Eugene Foster, “our best stroke for the boy will be to win his home to our side of the effort for him. When the parents are consistent with our standards, we may then expect results.”

Not only was I able to speak before the schools on the subject of hygiene, but wide range was given me on ethical subjects. One interesting incident is that in connection with a lecture on proper reading. I had just passed the home of two children, when a friend of mine happened along to make a call upon their parents. She noticed that the porch floor was covered with comic sections of the Sunday newspapers. She made a remark about the papers, when one of the little girls said, “I tell you, we ‘ditched’ our papers when we saw Mr. Jaegar go by.” Evidently their consciences were tender.

Another happening was even more satisfactory. I had just completed a number of talks on headaches and headache-powders. James came home the next day with a bad headache, and his father tossed the little fellow a sample of headache-powder that had been thrown at the door a few minutes before. The boy read the formula, and threw the envelope in the corner. Being questioned, he said that “he couldn’t take that, because it contained acetanilid, and Mr. Jaegar said in school that it was bad.” These early impressions are the ones that last.

EDMUND C. JAEGAR.