Page:Labour and childhood.djvu/221

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THE SCHOOL DOCTOR AT HOME
195

The popular way of looking for the good school doctor is to offer him a large salary. And yet it does not work out very well. "If there is one thing I hate," said a certain medico the other day, "it is this school hygiene, and all this child-study that people are going in for now. It's all nonsense. All the same, it is a good opening. If they offer a decent salary, say £500 a year, I don't see why one shouldn't go in for it." And, indeed, there is no doubt that if a large number of very good salaries were offered tomorrow, a large number of fully qualified medical practitioners would apply; but it is not at all so certain that these, if engaged, would advance the cause of education. It is much more likely that they would, for some time to come, set it back—perhaps set it back indefinitely. Obviously, this is not the way to find the right men. Where are they? And is there a supply of living enthusiasts always on hand?

Strange to say, there is. And it is opportunity, not a bait, that is wanted to bring them into the field. Opportunity would be found for all, if, all over the land, education committees engaged medical men and women to take up it might be only a very small part of the whole duties of a school doctor. They might be engaged for example to visit a school twice or three times a year, and to report on the new scholars