proper care of the boy. It was a revelation to the parents to really know that the school could call upon the judge and that he could even take their child away from them because they did not properly care for him. "Good Lord, Judge," said the woman, "you don't mean to say you can take my child away from me when I haint beat him? I didn't believe you could take a child away unless I beat him. My boy's sick, he aint able to go to school." The mother pleaded for the possession of her child and no one wished to take her child from her but to bring her and the boy's father to understand that they must care for the boy. The boy was not strong physically and needed better care than his people were giving him. The physician who had attended him a half-year before when he had had a serious surgical operation performed, was present in court to testify that the parents' neglect was the cause of his then delicate condition of health. He also stated that the home was not a fit place for the child, that he was not properly provided for; that the boy had a rupture and should wear a truss; that the truss would cost only one dollar and a half, yet, notwithstanding the father made good wages he and the mother preferred to spend it for liquor and let the boy suffer for want of a truss costing one dollar and a half. The judge made these people understand the school's power in the case and finally told them that at the request of the superintendent he would give them an opportunity to do better. The father said he would rather give up his drinking than to give up his boy. Then on condition that the parents at once secure a truss for the boy, and that they keep him properly clothed and in school every day, the judge permitted them to keep the boy; but he appointed the public-school probation officer with full control of the boy. The parents said they preferred the boy to re-enter the public school. They got the truss for the lad, put him in school, kept him well clothed and clean, and in school every day during the year.

A few weeks after the boy's case had been arranged, the superintendent met the boy's priest and the priest said he thought a mistake had been made, that the boy should have been taken from the parents and sent to some home; but the superintendent thought not. The latter part of the year the priest and the superintendent met again and talked of the boy. When the priest learned that the boy had not missed a day from school, was well clothed and clean, he said: "You have done the right thing, I'm sure you have." Not long ago the father met the superintendent on the street, tipped his hat and smiled. The superintendent smiled back and said, "You have done well by the boy." The father thanked him while his face beamed with a feeling of renewed self-respect.

The boy was their boy and they had a right to him; but the state thru its officers had a right to demand that the parents do their best by the boy, not that they do for him what would be the best for some other parents, but what would be their best. And the school was the only center in the community sufficiently interested in the boy to bring this about.

As the work is organized, it is very easy to call on the city physician or the

visiting nurse as may seem best. The principals can secure the assistance of either of these officers at any time by calling over the phone.

A family had lately moved from a neighboring city into one of the poorer wards. The two little girls had been in school a few weeks when they dropped out. The manner of the children was such that the teacher and principal thought there must be trouble in the home, or they would be in school, and as they lived only a few blocks from the school the principal visited the home in a friendly way instead of sending the attendance officer. She was kindly received and found both the girls and the mother with sore faces and as they said, sore heads, too. The home was a poor home and poorly kep. The mother did not know what was the matter with them and hoped the children would soon get well and be back to school. The principal won the mother's confidence and explained that she could send a woman who could tell them what to do to cure the sore faces and heads, a visiting nurse who often helped the school children in their homes when the mothers did not know what ought to be done. The mother was pleased to have her come to their home. The principal sent the visiting nurse to the home. She found the mother and the girls in bad condition, sore heads and sore faces. lice in the heads. She directed them how to remedies to them and followed up the work, until the heads were free from vermin, and heads and faces were healed, and the girls properly cleaned up, were returned to school. The nurse gave some very wholesome lessons to the mother and directed in cleaning not only their heads but the home. This mother was grateful to the school for the help of the

nurse.

All as the result of vermin clean up; took the proper

Some one will say, that this mother must have been a good-for-nothing kind of a woman, or she herself and her children would never have been in this condition. Granted that this is true, nevertheless she was a mother and her children were school children; and the home itself a delinquent home. The object of this paper is to show an attempt on the part of the school to touch the dependent and delinquent children in their home environment for the uplift of the children.

The visiting nurse has been very helpful indeed. She enters the home in a way that the city physician cannot and wins the confidence of the mother and helps her to better care for the little ones. But did not the school principals have the understood privilege of calling on her, many cases that need her assistance would never be known to her.

In some instances where there is every reason to believe that the child is being kept out of school and permitted to roam the streets, the parents claiming that the child is not in good health so cannot be sent to school, parents from whom it is not possible to secure a physician's certificate, without going into court, as they have no family physician, the simplest way out has been to ask the city physician to investigate and phone the attendance officer. This invariably brings the children into school to stay, as the parents know that

between the city physician and the attendance officer there is no longer a possibility of escape on the plea that the child is sick.

Now and then there are homes so immoral that the children of the schools need to be protected from the child from such a home and the state owes it to the child to protect it from the blighting effects of its own home. As an instance, and we have had a number of somewhat similar ones, we had a little girl just past her ninth birthday, a member of the first primary grade, her mother a fallen woman. During the summer following the child's ninth birthday, a young man twenty-five years of age had unpardonably sinned against this child again and again. The man was finally given a jail sentence and the little one left with her dissolute mother to roam the streets at night with no protection. When school opened in September the child entered one of the primary grades in the second half of the first-year work. Then came the question, Is it right for this child with all her knowledge of evil life to be placed with the little ones whose minds were free from the taint that comes from such a life as this child's had been? but if not, what should be done with the child for her good? The state owes this child protection just as much as it does other more favored children. The superintendent petitioned the court and had her placed in one of the state schools where for the first time in her life she would be free from the destroying environment of her own home. Cases of this type are rare, yet in even a small city they come again and again. Some one may ask if this does not tend to break up this home. I grant that it does, but plead that every child is born with certain rights vouchsafed it by the state, and that school influence, if no other, has a right to ask that the child be protected even from those who by nature should be its protectors.

It had snowed the night before to the depth of five or six inches. A gentleman, late in the afterneon, met the superintendent of schools and said to him that two little girls, one possibly seven, the other nine, had spent the forenoon at the county courthouse. He then called their names whereupon the superintendent said, "Yes, I know them and will send the truant officer to look them up in the morning."

The next morning the truant officer was informed of the case. Later in the afternoon the phone rang in the superintendent's office and as he listened an irate woman's voice came to his ear.

Say, that man was here today to see about my children and I want to tell you they was gittin' rubbers yisterday, that's what they was a doin.' You know they couldn't go to school without rubbers. That's jist what they was doin.' [Superintendent] Yes, but they should not take half a day to get overshoes, nor should they go to the courthouse to get them. They must be in school and it is your place to send them and it is your neglect of them that permits them to run about the city. The children must be in school. After some further conversation, the phone was silent. Two days later, the phone rang.

Mrs. -: Say, Mr. Superintendent, say, you know we had a racket the other evening. Superintendent: Oh, no, you had a racket, I didn't.

Mrs.

: Well, say I sent them children to school. I want them to go all the

time and behave themselves. But I want to tell you that I do my part for them. I've got a big family, nine children, and it's a lot of work to take care of them. Now, Mr. Superintendent, I want the teachers to do their part for I'm doin' mine. You know, the teachers sent them home once to clean up. I suppose they can't have dirty children in school. But now let me tell you, when that teacher come and told me to git that stuff to put on their heads to kill the lice, I done it. Yes, and when that wouldn't take the nits off, why say, I went to another doctor and paid seventy-five cents for another prescription to take the nits off and put it on. Now, don't you think I've done my part? Now, say, Mr. Superintendent, we've got a phone now and won't you call me if the children don't do their work? Now, say, I want them to learn spellin' and readin' and writin'; and say, I don't want them to learn no paintin' and weavin' and sewin.' They aint no good for my children. Now I told the teacher that time she come to see me about the lice that I couldn't see how they was lousy for I combed their heads every Sunday morning. Now, I want them teachers to make 'em learn.

The superintendent of schools must be the organizing head of all the available forces in the community for the uplift of the dependent and the delinquent children; and when there is this concerted effort results can be secured that would not be possible in any other way.

The work need not burden the superintendent, if properly organized, nor take an undue amount of his time in a city of thirty thousand.

OUTLINE OF PLAN FOR HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT INSPECTION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

GEORGE L. LESLIE, DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE DEPARTMENT, CITY SCHOOLS, LOS ANGELES, CALPHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS

A thoro physical examination of all candidates for teachers' positions and periodic examination of teachers in service.

Teachers to be told of their own physical needs and the relation of their vitality to the vitality of their pupils.

PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF PUPILS

A thoro physical examination of every pupil upon entering school and periodically during school life; these examinations to be made by principals, teachers, and school physicians working in co-operation.

Principals and teachers examinations.—Eyesight and hearing; visual and aural fractions; school indications of defective eyesight, hearing, or other sense development. Indications of adenoids; enlarged tonsils; condition of teeth; spinal curvature;

chest development.

Indications of defective brain development and mentality.

Reaction time and strength; imagery; memory.

The physiological machinery of the pupil and the way he does his work.

Signs of excellence, of degeneration.

After the principal and teachers have examined and reported as far as they are able the examiner will further examine each schoolroom and give whatever help may be necessary to the teacher and school. Special cases to be sent to anthropometric and child-study laboratory for special examinations.

MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF PUPILS

Anthropometric examination as outlined at present for the Los Angeles schools.— Development data and tests; nutrition; cervical glands; cardiac diseases; skin diseases; deformities of spine, chest, extremities; defective vision and hearing; defective nasal

breathing; defective teeth; defective palate; hypertrophied tonsils; posterior nasal growths; chorea; epileptic attacks; extreme nervous conditions; defective conditions sufficient to bar pupils from regular schoolwork; sex functions; contagious diseases (in connection with City Board of Health).

GENERAL DIRECTIONS

Teachers will classify their pupils as to health and development, exceptional pupils to be separated into special groups.

To aid in this work psycho-physical examinations of exceptional pupils to be carried on as far as the work will permit at the anthropometric laboratories.

Pupils too defective to be wisely retained in the public schools to be segregated and assigned to special schools for defectives.

Principals, teachers, and examiners to discuss subnormal and backward pupils, and otherwise exceptional pupils, in special meetings.

Help and information to the parent to be brought about thru the child-study circles and at special meetings.

Notices of all defective conditions of pupils requiring help to be sent to parents, together with such additional information as may be advisable in securing the co-operation of parents in these matters. Parents to be referred to their own physicians.

The establishment of a "follow-up" plan to insure proper care of these pupils where parents do not take action to correct physical defects and attend to physical needs.

Parents desiring special medical information or help, and pupils requiring skillful treatment who have not received such aid or wrong treatment to be referred by principals and teachers to the director of the department who shall act in co-operation with a special reference medical board to give the pupils proper care.

The establishment of a reference medical examination board to be selected from the best physicians of the city, to serve without pay.

To this board shall be referred all cases requiring special adjustment between school examiners and practicing physicians of the city. All cases requiring special care and help which have not received such help thru the aid of the physicians employed.

Further, this board may act as an advisory board to the board of education and school examiners in all matters pertaining to health and development of pupils, and in matters of public hygiene in which the schools may be concerned.

CONTAGIOUS DISEASES AND PUBLIC HEALTH

All matters pertaining to contagious diseases and to the public health to be in charge of physicians and nurses appointed by the board of health, with whom principals, teachers, and examiners will co-operate in all possible ways.

The above plans are being carried out, to a certain extent, in the Los Angeles city schools.