Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Education and Mental Culture. Introd. by P. E. Lindström - 1. Elementary Education. By J. M. Ambrosius - Vacation Colonies. By F. von Schéele
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356
iv. education and mental culture.
erent places. They are provided for in the regulations of each school, which
must have Government sanction.
Children who have obtained permission to leave the elementary school after
taking only the lower standard, known as the "Minimum", (see above) may
complete their education in a special kind of school called ersättningsskola,
meaning "Compensation School", in which the subjects taught are Scripture, Swedish,
Arithmetic, and Singing.
Hygienic arrangements. In accordance with the present public elementary
education statute, special measures shall be taken in the event of an outbreak
of infectious disease, or if any of the school children has caught such a disease,
or if such a disease has broken out in the home of one of the school children.
With respect to these measures the School Board and the Communal Board
of Health act in concert. In several towns school doctors are attached to the
schools. They have instructions to examine into the state of the children’s
health, to prescribe treatment of the sick children, and to attend to the school
hygiene. In several towns provision is made for the care of the children’s
teeth, dentists being appointed expressly for this purpose.
Other arrangements made for promoting the physical development of the school
children are school baths, free meals for poor children (barnbespisning), and
vacation colonies or "holiday camps" (skollovskolonier).
In the larger towns it has long been the practice to arrange for baths and
swimming exercise for the elementary school children, girls as well as boys,
during the summer. In these towns and in some smaller ones school baths
(shower-baths and plunge-baths) are arranged for also in the winter. In many
school houses there are now regular bathrooms where the children can have a
hot bath once a fortnight, or at least once every three, or every four weeks.
These baths are voluntary, but participation is pretty general.
Free meals for poor and badly-nourished children are provided for in the
school houses, especially during the winter months, when many workmen are
out of work. The cost is borne partly by the parishes, partly by charitable
institutions and private persons. In the capital these free meals are connected
with the "school kitchens", the food cooked by the girls serving as dinner for
school children who cannot get a proper meal at home.
A somewhat more detailed account shall be given here of the vacation colonies
(skollovskoloni) touched upon in the foregoing section. From most of the towns
in Sweden poor and delicate children are sent out to vacation colonies in the
country during the summer holidays. This work is accomplished by private
societies. A vacation colony usually consists of some thirty children under the
superintendence of a teacher, male or female, and the necessary assistants. In
some cases the colonies have their own premises in the country; otherwise they
rent a farm-house or other building close to the water and the forest. The
children are given nourishing food, live as much as possible in the open air,
and indulge in sea-bathing. The pale, sickly children return from their sojourn
in the country with ruddy cheeks and strong bodies. Unfortunately the health
and strength they have gained often ebbs rapidly away, once they are back in
their poor homes and unsanitary surroundings. But certainly the bracing country
air gives them stamina to resist the evils of those surroundings. And
in-contestably the vacation colonies have most beneficial effects on the health of the
people, and a hardly less salutary influence on their morals; they train them to
regularity, orderliness, and cleanliness.
It was in 1884 that the first vacation colonies were sent out from Stockholm.
Since that time their numbers have increased year by year. In 1914 the capital
sent out 73 colonies with altogether 2439 children. The funds accrued from grants
made by the town councils and the parishes, from monies collected on "Bamens
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