TABLE 13.-Minimum school term-Minimum education necessary to exempt from compulsory attendance

Illiteracy. The evils of illiteracy are so great and so expensive that nearly all States not now having such legislation are considering enactments that will enable them to carry on systematic plans for the elimination of illiteracy and near illiteracy.

Experience has shown that two things aid in the promotion of such a program: (1) There should be an officer in the State department of education whose business it is to organize the educational forces so that proper instruction in elementary subjects may be given to adults as well as to employed young people who need it. (2) State aid should be available to local districts so that they may provide evening schools. State aid for this purpose is just as important as it is for the regular day schools.

Illiteracy is not a matter that can be cured by a few lessons. In most cases the illiterate person needs regular class work for a number of years in order to acquire sufficient ability to read with pleasure and profit.

A number of States now have effective laws that foster evening schools, and illiteracy in these States is being abolished. The State of Pennsylvania has a recent and very excellent law for such schools.

Children in isolated homes.-In most States of the Union there are children who live outside of the 21/2-mile limit required by the school attendance laws. There are many children who grow up without school advantages. Some States are attempting to solve this problem by providing transportation for such pupils. Even

this plan fails to reach some children. Experience has shown that if a child is not sent to school before he or she is 10 years of age, the child will not want to go after that time on account of pride.

In some States where families are widely scattered an itinerant teacher may be employed, either by State, county, or district, to go from home to home and teach the children who can not be reached in any other way. This plan has been found to be successful in Australia.

TABLE 14.-Distribution of pupils, enrolled in school in 25 States, according to the length of the school term, 1923-24

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION 1

The impetus given by the war to health work in schools has lost little of its force, and health is not only talked of as a fundamental objective in education but practical measures for attaining it are in course of rapid development. Not only does the school look upon

1 See U. S. Bu, of Educ. bulletins on school hygiene and physical education,

the health of the child as worthy of effort on its own account but as a condition of his best mental progress. School health work becomes therefore a measure of school economy, and when wisely conducted more than pays its way from a purely monetary point of view.

Thirty-three States have passed laws on the subject and some statutes have recently been revised. In the framing of these laws the term "physical education" has been used to designate the field to be covered, with the exception of that of Utah, in which the words "health education" were chosen. Owing to the fact that, in recent years, "physical education" has been narrowed by many of its exponents to the activities of the gymnasium and playground, there has arisen considerable confusion as to its meaning. In most laws, however, specific mention is made of health teaching and school sanitation, as well as of physical training. Considering the recent origin of this legislation, comprehensive programs embracing health examination, habit formation, school lunches, hygiene, sanitation, and physical training are being introduced into the curriculum, especially in those sections where adequate State stimulation and supervision are supplied.

Most State laws on this subject make some provision for teacher training for this field of work. All school health work centers in the regular teacher, and it is only with the development of adequate courses in teacher-training institutions that we can hope for best results in this work. If health and physical training are fundamental to all education, the teacher must be made fully conscious of this fact both in her theoretical and practical preparation. She must be prepared to know her pupils as a musician knows his instruments and be able not only to appreciate when they are defective and out of tune but she must endeavor to have them put into condition for producing the best work which their hereditary endowment will permit. Such improvement results in least effort for the teacher, least outlay for schools, and most income in educational results.

OBJECT AND SCOPE

The object of a State law for hygiene and physical education should be to surround the child in the school with such sanitary conditions as will be for his welfare, to arrange the material and method of the general curriculum to this end, and to introduce into the educational program such positive work for the health and physical unfolding of the child as is consistent with the limitations of school activity. It is evident that conditions in the home life of the

child can not be directly modified, though indirectly the work of the school may influence those conditions to a considerable degree. The school can never do its best for the child if it conducts its affairs as though isolated from the home. and this is particularly true in its efforts for physical education.

Scope.-(1) The school plant should be built and managed so that the school environment shall not be detrimental to the physical welfare of the child. This should include the provision of adequate playground space.

(2) The school program should be arranged so that in content and presentation it shall be healthful, and the health of the teacher should receive the attention it deserves.

(3) The examination of the preschool child: Though the child is not a subject for physical education in the school until he has reached the age for entrance, the school should be interested in his physical well-being before this time, and it has become the policy of some schools to make a physical examination of children before entrance and to suggest such treatment of local defects or of general health as will place the child in better condition for school work at the time of his entrance.

(4) Physical examination of school children: The examination of the school child on entrance and periodically thereafter to discover and secure the removal of his physical defects is fundamental to the work of physical education and also for school economy. Adequate means and methods of securing the best results from such examination should be arranged.

(5) The prevention of communicable diseases by the daily inspection of children should be provided.

(6) Health education should be carried out in a practical way by the insistence, first, on cleanliness of person, and following this by interesting the child in the formation of the few other habits which are essential for health.

In the higher grades this work should be continued by practical teaching in physiology and the principles of personal and home hygiene and by developing an appreciation of work for public health.

(7) Physical training for all pupils should be arranged for. Not only should there be ample recess periods, but additional time should be appropriated during the school period or after school hours for supervised exercise of such a nature as is best fitted to the physical capacities of the children at different ages. Adequate supervision of such activities is needed, and teacher training for such work should be provided.

LEGISLATIVE PROVISIONS

Legislative provisions on this subject should include the following points:

(1) A clear and comprehensive statement of the purpose of the law and the object of health and physical education.

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(2) Mandatory provision for all of the items mentioned under scope "save where (as for medical inspection) this subject may have been covered in previous legislation.

(3) Minimum time requirement to be devoted to physical education.

(4) Provision of administrative machinery in the State department of education sufficient for the effective administration of the law. This provision should be broad and flexible. Two things are essential:

(a) State direction and supervision. A good plan is to have a State director of physical education, with the rank of deputy or assistant State superintendent or health supervisor. His powers and duties should not be narrowly defined.

(b) Sufficient financial resources to insure the effective administration of this office, either by specific appropriation or by authorizing the State department to make adequate provision for this purpose out of general school funds.

(5) There should be a carefully drawn provision authorizing and requiring the employment of supervisors and special teachers under specified conditions and in harmony with the administrative organization of the State.

(6) Provision requiring the State department of education to fix qualifications of supervisors and special teachers and to issue special licenses for the same.

(7) Provision for adequate training in school health work of all teachers, both for the secondary and the elementary school. The essential requirements of this part of the teacher's education should be prescribed by the State authorities.

(8) Provision requiring that pupils be graded in these, as in other school subjects and exercises, and that satisfactory progress be a condition to promotion and graduation.

(9) Coordination of work included in the scope of physical education as here defined, which may have already been provided for by previous legislation, such as military drill or medical inspection, and amendment of such legislation as seems desirable for such coordination.