PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE
Teaching in matters pertaining to health is given but a meagre amount
of time in the elementary schools. While the school program shows one
15-minute period each week in the first four grades, and one 30-minute
period each week in the four upper grades, it appears that in actual
practice the subject receives even less time than this. In the attempt
to observe the class work in physiology and hygiene, a member of the
Survey staff went on one day to four different classrooms at the hour
scheduled on the program. In two cases the time was given over to
grammar, in one to arithmetic, and in one to music. This represents
practice that is not unusual. The subject gets pushed off the program
by one of the so-called "essentials." It is difficult to see why
health-training is not an essential. In a letter to the School Board,
February 8, 1915, Superintendent Frederick wrote:
"The teaching of physiology and hygiene should become a matter
of serious moment in our course of study. At present it is not
systematically presented in the elementary schools: and in the high
schools it is an elective study only in the senior year. My judgment
is that it should become a definite part of the program, as a required
study in the seventh and eighth grades."
The small nominal amount of time as compared with the time usually
expended is partially shown in Table 12.
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