home, what hope was there for the children? Without any kind of wash basin or tub in the room corner, supplied by water from a yard tap used by a legion of families, with no room, no privacy, and, above all, no desire or idea of the necessity for cleanliness on the part of the parent—what prospect was offered for the child? The law, of course, might intervene. There is even a Cleansing of Persons Act. What in so far as children are concerned is that Act worth? Supposing that they were seized and washed by law in a specially furnished kind of bath of correction, would such measures form the basis of new habits? It is, to say the least, very unlikely. As well hope that a child could learn to love books by being forced, at rare intervals, to have a spelling lesson in a police-cell!
Some English Education Authorities have taken another line. They did not begin by engaging nurses. They did not visit homes. There was ample opportunity to judge of the home from the open street door, and the appearance of the home-keepers in the street, as well as the state of the neglected child in school. They built baths, engaged a new order of teacher. They printed leaflets, too, setting forth the need for protecting the clean child, and for making school a desirable and safe place, as well as
