UC-NRLF 
 

 
 No. 94 
 
 Health, Education, Recreation 
 
 MEASUREMENTS AS APPLIED 
 TO SCHOOL HYGIENE 
 
 BY 
 
 LUTHER H. GULICK, M.D. 
 
 DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 
 
 REPRINTED FROM 
 AMERICAN PHYSICAL EDUCATION REVIEW, APRIL, 1911 
 
 BY THE 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE OF THE 
 RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 
 
 400 METROPOLITAN TOWER, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 5-11-15 
 
X 
 
 <r~S 
 
 
 Some of the Pamphlets that can be Furnished 
 
 by the Department of Child Hygiene of 
 
 the Russell Sage Foundation 
 
 400 Metropolitan Tower, New York City 
 
 Medical Inspection 
 
 54. THE ARGUMENT FOR MEDICAL INSPECTION AND SOME SIGNIFICANT 
 
 FACTS. Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 
 61. RELATION OF PHYSICAL DEFECTS TO SCHOOL PROGRESS. Leonard P. 
 
 Ayres, Ph.D. 
 
 Retardation 
 
 77. WHY 250,000 CHILDREN QUIT SCHOOL. Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 
 
 Hygiene and Health 
 
 4. HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 
 29. THE PLAYGROUND AS A FACTOR IN SCHOOL HYGIENE. George E. 
 
 Johnson. 
 48. HEALTH, MORALITY AND THE PLAYGROUND. Elmer Ellsworth Brown. 
 
 59. STATISTICS ON HYGIENE INSTRUCTION. Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 
 71. OPEN AIR SCHOOLS. Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 
 
 Recreation 
 
 67. POPULAR RECREATION AND PUBLIC MORALITY. Luther H. Gulick, 
 
 M.D. 
 76. EXERCISE AND REST. Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 
 
 Festivals and Celebrations 
 
 53. MAY DAY tiki^RATidNS/ ;'Mss Elizabeth Burchenal. 
 
 60. A SANE ANP,PATRIOTIC FOURTH. ' 'Mrs. Isaac L. Rice. 
 
 68. CELEB^ATJNV?' I N|PEV'DPNCE'D.AY.*' 'August H. Brunner. 
 
 70. INDEPENDENCE 'DAY* CELEBRATiONe:' Gulick, Orr, Gardner and 
 Hanmer. 
 
 Use of School Buildings 
 
 56. VACATION SCHOOLS. Clarence A. Perry. 
 
 83. THE COMMUNITY USED SCHOOLHOUSE. Clarence A. Perry. 
 
 85. EVENING RECREATION CENTERS. Clarence A. Perry. 
 
Measurements as Applied to School Hygiene* 
 
 LUTHER H. GULICK, M.D. 
 
 In calling to order this Fifth Annual Congress of the American 
 School Hygiene Association, I wish to express to the New York 
 Academy of Medicine our appreciation of their courtesy in in- 
 viting us to meet, without expense, in this building, with its 
 splendid record of service to the cause of medicine and to human- 
 kind, and its long list of physicians who have been and are making 
 common cause with all those who aim not merely at the cure and 
 prevention of disease, but even more at the upbuilding of human 
 vitality. We are proud that one of our officers is also one of 
 theirs Dr. Abraham Jacobi. 
 
 I cannot let this occasion pass without drawing attention to 
 what I believe to be a fundamental need, not only in school hy- 
 giene but in all that proudly marches under the name of science. 
 I refer to the need for definite measurements of results already 
 obtained, measurements without which neither medicine nor 
 education can ever become scientific. I do not need to remind 
 you that it was through the use of measurements that alchemy 
 became chemistry, astrology became astronomy, physics grew 
 out of mystery. The great need of the school hygiene course 
 today, as well as the greatest need of education itself, is not au- 
 thority nor philosophy ; it is a need for definite methods of meas- 
 uring the effects of present systems and practices. 
 
 I am sure that the occasion has now so far gone by that I may 
 speak, without venturing beyond the limits of personal courtesy, 
 of a conversation which took place between Dr. William H. 
 Maxwell and myself at the time I became Director of Physical 
 Training in the New York Public Schools, a conversation which 
 he may have forgotten. I said: 
 
 "Dr. Maxwell, let us take all of the schools in several sections 
 of the city, enough different sections so that the test will be a 
 
 * Opening Address as President of the American School Hygiene Associa- 
 tion, at the Fifth Annual Congress, February 2-4, 1911. 
 
 3 
 
 376097 
 
fair one, and do away with physical training in half of these 
 schools, leaving it in operation in the other half; all other con- 
 ditions to be the same in both schools. Then we shall see what 
 physical training really accomplishes ; we shall know whether the 
 boys and girls in the schools having physical training become 
 taller and stronger than the boys and girls in the schools not 
 having physical training." Dr. Maxwell answered: 
 
 "The plan is impossible. People would protest that their 
 children were being experimented upon. The public demands 
 absolute knowledge on the part of the instructors ; experimenta- 
 tion would not be tolerated. You are employed to take charge 
 of the physical training because it is believed that you know your 
 business, that you have accurate information as to the effect of 
 the things you are undertaking to do." 
 
 "But," I said, "I do not know the actual results of such work 
 as this; nobody knows. I believe my methods are right, but I 
 want to find out definitely, by making comparative measure- 
 ments." 
 
 "No, it would never do," was Dr. Maxwell's reply. "Any 
 school administrator who worked on the basis you propose would 
 not only be attacked by public opinion, but would be put out of 
 any position of responsibility." 
 
 Dr. Maxwell was right. This is in general the attitude of the 
 public today; yet progress is not possible in school hygiene or in 
 any other educational work if it is demanded that school men 
 shall have the accurate knowledge which they have had no oppor- 
 tunity to secure. 
 
 In order to make satisfactory progress along the line of school 
 hygiene, there are many questions that need definitely to be 
 settled. Most of these questions are fundamental not only with 
 reference to school hygiene and education, but with reference to 
 human progress and intellectual activity. 
 
 For example, what is the best age for a child to enter school? 
 This is a question that could be definitely answered if we could 
 secure adequate data on the subject. Galton and Karl Pearson 
 have given us the tools, life itself gives us the material, for ob- 
 taining such data. We need only the opportunity. I venture 
 the assertion that almost every person in this room has convictions 
 upon the subject and yet that these convictions are based upon a 
 few personal experiences in each case. Physicians tend to put 
 the best age for entering school rather high ; school men tend to 
 
put it low. In my own case, as a father, I was influenced by my 
 study of medicine to believe that one of the perils of the age was 
 forcing children to go to school too early; that school routine at 
 six years of age was dangerous to a highly organized girl; and 
 that it was a biological crime to force such a child to sit still when 
 all her instincts commanded her to wriggle. Therefore my child 
 was in school very little until she was eight years old. Even at 
 that age she had already passed the best years for acquiring 
 languages, either by speaking or writing. She has been "over 
 age" all during her school life. I may have done her a great 
 wrong. 
 
 My point is this: that neither school men nor physicians nor 
 parents are competent of judging such questions as this ex cathe- 
 dra. Theories and convictions can never solve such problems; 
 their only solution lies in a searching analysis of existing condi- 
 tions, in measuring results in a sufficient number of cases to 
 arrive at definite conclusions. Such investigations should be 
 conducted in accordance with modern scientific methods. 
 
 It is concerning the most fundamental questions, moreover, 
 that we are still at sea. We do not know the number of hours a 
 child should study each day in order to make the most progress 
 at each age. There is no one trying to find out, so far as I know. 
 We do not know how many subjects a child can study to advan- 
 tage at each age. We do not even know the most effective 
 and economic size for a class at various ages. It might be, for 
 example, that in a class of 70 children each child would get so 
 little instruction that a number of them would be held back; 
 and this would cost the school system more than if there had 
 been only 50 in the class. We do not know the number of 
 months in the year that children should attend school ; yet we 
 compel all children to go to school upon the assumption that we 
 do know. 
 
 We do not know the proper length for each period of attention 
 in different subjects. That is, in arithmetic a child of ten years 
 might be able to give only ten minutes' consecutive attention 
 without fatigue ; whereas in history the same child might spend 
 an hour to advantage. We do not know how much moisture 
 there should be in the air of the schoolroom, nor the relation of 
 the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere to mental 
 fatigue and intellectual effort. We do not know fully the degree 
 to which it is worth while to study when we are fatigued. I do 
 
not mean that we cannot push ourselves beyond the point of 
 fatigue; but that, considering children and adults merely as 
 machines, there is a point beyond which it does not pay to push, 
 since we get only a diminishing return. 
 
 I might easily spend all the time available for these introduc- 
 tory remarks in enumerating the underlying problems connected 
 with the education and the health of children which are as yet 
 only matters of theory. We have thus far no units of measure- 
 ment by which we can tell whether or not we are making progress 
 in educational methods ; yet the education of our children is the 
 largest and in many respects the most important occupation in 
 which the civilized world is engaged. There is no more fertile 
 field in the whole world of scientific activity than the work of 
 bringing the young human being into satisfactory adjustment 
 with the life he is to lead. 
 
 In the United States alone, we are spending about five hundred 
 million dollars a year on public education ; this does not include 
 the vast sums spent by the great endowments, by privately es- 
 tablished institutions for higher learning, or by private schools. 
 Of nearly thirty-five millions of dollars spent for education in New 
 York City last year, hardly a dollar was expended for the purpose 
 of measuring the results we are getting. This was not because 
 our Superintendent of Schools did not see the need for such meas- 
 urements; he has seen the need, and has appealed without suc- 
 cess to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for funds which 
 would enable him to provide the necessary equipment for secur- 
 ing these data. We see the significance of examining our coal to 
 be sure that we are getting the best and the cheapest; we do not 
 see the significance of examining the output of our school system, 
 to be sure that we are getting the best results from our expen- 
 diture. 
 
 Can one of you here today name an educational endowment, 
 a school of pedagogy, or any other agency that is collecting and 
 making available the evidence on any one of these great ques- 
 tions? There are several great funds of ten, twenty-five, fifty 
 millions of dollars, available for research, for giving salaries to 
 retiring professors, for supporting education in the South, 
 admirable purposes, all of them, but does there exist a 
 single endowment of any amount whatever for the purpose of 
 ascertaining what has been accomplished with the hundreds of 
 millions already spent in education? An endowment similar to 
 
that of the General Education Board, which should devote its 
 income, not to the support of education, but to establishing modes 
 of measuring progress, and to the application of these measure- 
 ments in such a way as to render effective the great mass of 
 educational experience already in existence, would, it is safe to 
 say, revolutionize the status of education in a single generation 
 and establish it upon a scientific basis. 
 
 Am I overstepping the facts when I say that there is scarcely a 
 city in America that is satisfied with its public schools? Here 
 in New York City an investigation has been proposed ; and those 
 who follow educational matters know that in city after city severe 
 criticisms of the school systems are constantly coming up. Even 
 school men themselves disagree when they come together to dis- 
 cuss these questions; you cannot get a group of educational 
 people together without having a controversy upon some one of 
 these problems. In fact, as individuals we cannot settle these 
 matters to our own satisfaction. They can be settled only by 
 ascertaining results by measurements of what we are doing. 
 
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