Community Civics and Rural Life Part 46

Typhoid Fever: Its Causation and Prevention, Pub. Health Bulletin No. 69, 1915.

Public Health Almanac (for current year).

What the Farmer Can Do to Prevent Malaria, Pub. Health Reports, No. 11, Supplement, 1914.

Fighting Trim: The Importance of Right Living. Supplement No. 5, Pub. Health Reports, 1913.

The Transmission of Disease by Flies, Supplement No. 29, Pub.

Health Reports, 1916.

The Citizen and Public Health, Supplement No. 4, Pub. Health Reports, 1913.

The Department of Agriculture publications contain material relating to public health. For example:

Health Laws, Year Book, 1913, pp. 125-134.

Animal Disease and Our Food Supply, Year Book, 1915, pp. 159-172.

Public Abattoirs in New Zealand and Australia, Year Book, 1914, pp. 433-436.

Meat Inspection Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Year Book 1916, pp. 77-98.

Sewage Disposal on the Farm, Year Book, 1916, pp. 347-374.

Clean Water and How to Get It on the Farm, Year Book, 1914, pp.

139-156.

Dunn, THE COMMUNITY AND THE CITIZEN, Chapter IX.

Beard, C. A., AMERICAN CITY GOVERNMENT, pp. 261-282.

Among the Bulletins of the United States Bureau of Education treating of health matters are the following:

1910, No. 5, American schoolhouses.

1913. No. 44, Organized health work in schools. No. 48, School hygiene. No. 52, Sanitary schoolhouses.

1914, No. 10, Physical growth and school progress. No. 17, Sanitary survey of the schools of Orange County, Va. No. 20, The rural school and hookworm disease.

1915, No. 4, The health of school children. No. 21, Schoolhouse sanitation. No. 50, Health of school children.

1917, No. 50, Physical education in secondary schools.

1919, No. 2, Standardization of medical inspection facilities. No.

65, The eyesight of school children.

Publications of the Children's Bureau, Department of Labor.

See, for example, Rural Children in Selected Counties of North Carolina, Rural Child Welfare Series No. 2, and Baby-Saving Campaigns. A Preliminary Report on What American Cities are Doing to Prevent Infant Mortality, Bureau Publication No. 3. See list of publications issued by the Bureau.

In LESSONS IN COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE:

Series B: Lesson 14, The United States Public Health Service.

Series C: Lesson 19, How the city cares for health.

Reports of the Rockefeller Foundation, 61 Broadway, New York City.

CHAPTER XXI

SOCIAL, AESTHETIC, AND SPIRITUAL WANTS

HAPPINESS THROUGH SERVICE

Several times in the preceding chapters reference has been made to our national purpose "to trans.m.u.te days of dreary work into happier lives." This does not mean to get rid of work; for happiness can be attained only IN work and THROUGH work. Happiness IN work depends largely upon our freedom and ability to choose the kind of service for which we are best fitted, and upon the extent to which we prepare ourselves for it. It also depends to a large extent upon good health (p. 309).

SATISFACTION OF HIGHER WANTS

But there never was a truer statement than that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." In return for his work every citizen is ent.i.tled to enough compensation to enable him to provide not only for the bare necessities of life, such as food and shelter, but also for the pleasure that he derives from the satisfaction of his higher wants, such as social life and recreation, an education that will give him a richer enjoyment of life, pleasant surroundings, religious advantages.

EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY TO ENJOY LIFE

All these things have much to do with our national well-being and our citizenship. Our nation is democratic only in proportion to the equality of opportunity enjoyed by all citizens to satisfy these wants. Moreover, the efficiency of each citizen in productive work and as a partic.i.p.ator in self-government depends more than we sometimes think upon his opportunity to "enjoy life"

in pleasant surroundings and in wholesome social relations. In the past the citizen has been left largely to his own resources and to purely voluntary cooperation to provide for these wants.

Government has not even adequately PROTECTED his rights of this kind, to say nothing of positively PROMOTING them. At present, however, community team work through government is being organized as never before both to promote and to protect the interests of all citizens in the fullest possible enjoyment of life.

RECREATION AND SOCIAL LIFE

THE VALUE OF PLAY

Children enjoy play because it satisfies physical, mental, and social wants. But it is also the princ.i.p.al means by which they prepare for the more serious duties of later life. It builds up health, trains the muscles and the senses, and sharpens the wits.

It gives practice in team work, develops leadership, and teaches the value of "rules of the game." Every child is ent.i.tled to an abundant opportunity to play, both because of the happiness it affords him and because by it he is trained for membership in the community. It is to the interest of the community to afford him the opportunity. It is largely for this reason that most of the states protect children by law from being put to work for a living at too early an age.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAY IN CITIES

In large cities thousands of children live in crowded districts where there is no place to play except in the public streets. So little appreciative have we been of the importance of play in the development of young citizens that great numbers of city schools have been built with no provision whatever for playgrounds. This mistake is slowly being corrected, often at great expense. No city school is now considered first-cla.s.s if it does not have an ample and well-equipped playground, with competent directors to teach children how to get the most out of their play. Most cities are also establishing public playgrounds apart from the schools, sometimes under the management of the school board, but often under that of a special playground or recreation commission.

PLAY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

Play for the children of rural communities is as important as for those of cities, but even less attention has been given to it.

Many a country school has no playground, and if it has one it is likely to be small and not equipped with play apparatus. Why should there be playgrounds when there is all outdoors in which to play? Why should there be expensive play apparatus and play directors when boys and girls can get all the "exercise" they need at home or on the farm? "Play" means more than mere physical exercise, and must be pleasurable if it is to have value.

Organized play is as truly a means of education as any school instruction, and must have competent leadership or direction. In rural districts, where the children live far apart, there is particular need for a common meeting place for organized group play, and the school is the most appropriate place for it.

ARGUMENT FOR SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION