The school is not the sole agency responsible for the health of the people. Health is determined by many factors, as heredity, home environment, nutrition, personal attitudes, intelligence, information, economic status, accidents, disease, and injury. A teacher cannot make headway against poor home conditions, and a conscientious mother will find difficulty in resisting undesirable community standards. Mrs. D. E. Rebok, office secretary for parent and home education, of the General Conference 'Department of Education, enumerates ways and means whereby school, home, and community must work together for effective progress.
The influences most directly affecting the child are the home, the school, the church, and the community. Of these, the first two have perhaps the greatest and most lasting influence, because more of the child's time is spent there. The need for close co-operation and collaboration between home and school is therefore apparent.
Looking at the health program as it affects the child, we can readily see that the parents in the home are the first to establish the child's health and personal habits. When his formal schooling begins, teachers are ready to organize and integrate with his further training the health work started in the home. Thus as parents and teachers together continue the child's training, the desired growth may be seen. This union of effort might be called the "Mutual Assistance Pact," but instead we know it as the Home and School Association.
It is a well-established fact that there is a definite relationship between health and scholarship. Some years ago a superintendent of schools in the South reported that ninety-five per cent of the backwardness present in his school children was due to defects that could be corrected with a little care. Then from a Midwestern city a school principal made this observation "Without exception the children who were the nearest normal physically were the best in their classes." This statement concerning the relation of scholarship and health is worthy of note:
"The place of diet and rest in helping the mental progress of growing children has therefore passed the experimental stage. It is a fact now well established that improper nourishment and fatigue retard the school child's mental progress. It is unfortunate that private schools have not realized this truth to the same degree as the public schools have done."—Watson and Foote, Safeguarding Children's Nerves, pp. 84, 85.
And again, "There is a high correlation between malnutrition and retardation in school. Improved nutrition brings greater mental alertness and renewed or developed interests."—Van De Ka, The Chikl at Home and School, p. 53.
Parents deal largely with those things which affect the health of the child, namely, food, rest, and general health habits. As they learn the effect of these things upon the child's actual scholarship—which largely concerns the teacher—parents will co-operate in their part of the training program.
Unfortunately, some look upon the Home and School Association as existing mainly for entertainment, or as a means of financing the school program; whereas the true objective of this organization is to promote a better understanding of the parents' and teachers' work as related to the success of the child. This is an opportunity for them to study the child together, and what is for his best good.
The parents' contribution to this program of education is co-operation in ( 1) providing proper food, at home and in the school lunch ; (2) ensuring sufficient rest ; (3) establishing good health habits ; and (4) correcting known physical defects or deficiencies. The teacher, also interested in the child, utilizes these benefits in his technical training. In addition, she co-operates in the regular physical checkup, encourages good habits, and fosters hobbies and school gardens.
Thus parents and teachers working together through the Home and School Association contribute to the child's physical and mental development.
Florence K. Rebok
