Hygiene of the Kindergarten
WILLIAM H. BURNHAM, of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., addressing the Kindergarten Department of the National Educational Association on “The Hygiene of the Kindergarten Child,” said:— “The new science of school hygiene has a message of the utmost importance for the kindergarten. The aim of kindergarten hygiene is twofold: (1) To defend the child from its enemies; (2) to develop those habits which are the alphabet of health. “The young child is poorly protected from attack by disease-producing micro-organisms. The horny covering of the outer skin, which in case of the adult forms a fortification all around the body, is lacking; the tissues have less power of resistance in the young; the blood of the child is less alkaline than that of the adult; the leucocytes, which are supposed to have the power of destroying micro-organisms, are only half as numerous in the infant as in the adult, being represented by twenty-eight in one hundred at birth to seventy in one hundred in case of the adult. “Hence it comes to pass that the child is specially susceptible to contagious diseases, and from ninety to ninety-nine per cent of the mortality from the so-called children’s diseases—whooping-cough, measles, and the like—occurs before the tenth year. Measles, for example, is a serious disease before the age of five. Studies of this disease in Munich showed that about twenty-one per cent of the cases that occurred in the first year proved fatal, and about five per cent of those that occurred between the second and the fifth year; whereas only two-fifths per cent were fatal between the ages of six and ten. “If an epidemic of measles occurs in the kindergarten, four or five children in every one hundred are likely to die; if the epidemic can be postponed until the primary school age, the chances are that only four in one thousand will die. Hence the first general rule is that the kindergarten child should be protected from contagious diseases at all cost, and the greatest care should be taken for cleanliness and general sanitation. “Again: the child’s nervous system should be guarded against overstimulation and overstrain, and habits of healthful activity as regards eating, drinking, sleeping, and digestion should be developed. The sixth-year molars are appearing at the close of the kindergarten period, and they are very likely to decay in the seventh year. An operation for adenoid growths is best performed at this period. The eyes of the kindergarten child are likely to be hypermetropic, or undeveloped, and care should be taken to avoid overstimulation. The child’s voice has an available compass of only about five tones for chorus exercises, and should be guarded against overstrain. “The essential aim of the kindergarten, then, is healthful development. At this stage of development one can not sharply separate the duties of the family and those of the school. The aim in both should be primarily a hygienic one. Everything else except obedience, which may rightly be included among the habits of health, can wait. If a child does not gain instruction at this period, he may have another chance; but if the essentials of hygiene are neglected, the loss is often irreparable.”