Comments to the Chicago Woman's Club, October 7, 1908 (excerpt)

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Urges School Nurses.

At its meeting in the morning the educational department of the woman's club [endorsed] the plan strongly. In outlining the work of the club's much discussed "school investigation committee," Miss Addams said:

"The school doctor is not enough. This report on hungry children has brought out conditions which must be faced. It is the office of the board of health to preserve health, but not to cure the child that is ill. There should be, and there must be, a corps of school nurses to go not only into the schools but into the homes -- make two or three visits a day if necessary where there is illness -- and see that the sick child gets back to school as soon as possible and in a healthy condition.

"It seems absurd to have to argue this out before the board of health will act. We did have school nurses once for ten weeks. Then they were dropped. I hope this report will result in the plan going through."

Suggests New Census Plan.

Of her plan for school census clerks Miss Addams said:

"There should be a clerk in each school district, responsible for a record of all children of school age. Then at the end of each year we would have a school census. The census clerk would become an expert on his or her own district, and thus we would know exactly how to cope with such problems as this one of the hungry children. One school principal does this now, and the results are astonishing."

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