Excerpt from Hawaii's Need of Medical Inspection of Schools

In a small minority of cases were such defects known to parents, teachers, or the children themselves. A local appli cation may not be out of place. Somewhat over a year ago word reached me that a child in one of our city schools had been severely whipped and I was asked to look into the case. The teacher admitted whipping the child for inattentiveness and failure to obey orders. A careful inquiry developed the fact that the child was almost totally deaf in the.right ear and that when spoken to from that side she either did not hear at all or so indistinctly as not to comprehend what was said. The condition was unknown to parent, teacher and child. Hawaii has over public school children. An examina tion here would doubtless produce startling results. For the year ending April 30, 1908, the government dispensary gave treatments for trachoma to children from only twelve of our public schools in this city. How many private treat ments were given, and how many in other places needed treat ment, I do not know.

Massachusetts has developed a system for testing sight and hearing, which may be applied by the teachers themselves, and the result of one year's work proved its value. Three hundred and forty - nine towns reported children exam ined, with or 22% defective in sight and or 6% defective in hearing. Physicians state that teachers properly instructed can discover from 75 to 85 per cent. Of cases need ing attention. The simplicity and effectiveness of the Massa chusetts system commend it for adoption here. Exhibit No. I shows this system in detail. The cuts of the boy on Card No. 2 are a fair sample of results which may be reasonably expected where treatment is given. The above tests are ones involving a minimum of time and expense with promise of an unlimited amount of resultant good. Such tests, with arrangements made for furnishing glasses or medical attention at moderate cost to those who could pay, and assistance to those who could not, would remove one great obstacle to the proper development of the child.

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