The objection that the school has no right to permit or require
medical inspection of the children will not bear close scrutiny or
logical analysis. The authority which has the right to compel
attendance at school has the added duty of insisting that no harm
shall come to those who go there. The exercise of the power to enforce
school attendance is dangerous if it is not accompanied by an
appreciation of the duty of seeing to it that the assembling of pupils
brings to the individual no physical detriment.
[Illustration: Tony's tonsils need attention.]
Nor are the schools, in assuming the medical oversight of the pupils,
trespassing upon the domain of private rights and initiative. Under
medical inspection, what is done for the parent is to tell him of the
needs of his child, of which he might otherwise have been in
ignorance. It leaves to the parent the duty of meeting those needs. It
leaves him with a larger responsibility than before. It is difficult
to find a logical basis for the argument that the school has not the
right to inform the parents of defects present in the child, and to
advise as to remedial measures which should be taken to remove them.
The justification of the state in assuming the function of education
and in making that education compulsory is to insure its own
preservation and efficiency. Whether or not it is successful will
depend on the degree to which its individual members are spiritually
prepared for modern co-operation.
But the well-being of a state is as much dependent upon the strength,
health, and productive capacity of its members as it is upon their
knowledge and intelligence. In order that it may insure the efficiency
of its citizens, the state, through its compulsory education
enactments, requires its youth to pursue certain studies which
experience has proved necessary to secure that efficiency. Individual
efficiency, however, rests not alone on education or intelligence, but
is equally dependent on physical health and vigor. Hence, if the state
may make mandatory training in intelligence, it may also command
training to secure physical soundness and capacity. Health is the
foundation on which rests the happiness of a people and the power of a
nation.