in the
chapter on Vital Statistics. As to school reports, little thought has
been given in the past to their educational possibilities. A book was
recently published--_School Reports and School Efficiency_--by the
Committee on the Physical Welfare of School Children, which tells the
origins of school reports; contains samples of reports from one hundred
cities; gives lists of questions frequently answered, occasionally
answered, and never answered; and shows how to study a particular
report so as to learn whether or not important questions are answered.
The United States commissioner of education has organized among state
and city superintendents special committees on uniform and adequate
reporting. His aggressive leadership is welcomed by school men
generally, and promises vast benefits.

Just because the physical welfare of the school child is an index to
health needs, the school report can put into one statement for a city
or a state the story told by the index. The accompanying card tells
facts that the individual teacher and individual parent want to know
about a child, what a superintendent wants to know about all children,
and what a community wants to know about all children. A modification
of this card will soon be adopted in New York City. It is both a card
index and a card biography of the individual boy or girl. It is
expected to follow the child from class to class, each teacher telling
the story of his physical welfare and his progress. When the boy goes
to a new school or new grade, his new teacher can see at a glance not
only what subjects have given him trouble, but what diseases or
physical defects have kept him out of school or otherwise retarded his
progress. With this card it is easy to take a hundred children of the
same age and the same grade, to put down in one column those who have
eye defects, and in another those who have no eye defects, for every
school, every district, and for the schools as a whole. Schools that
use these record cards are enabled, by thus classifying the total, to
learn where the defects of children are, how serious the problem is,
how many days children lose from school because of preventable defects,
and in what section of the city the defects are most prevalent.

The mere reporting of facts will stimulate teachers, principals, and
parents to give attention. For example, assume a table:

FIELD OF INSPECTION

Total number of public schools 7