Physiology & Hygiene

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In 1885, Massachusetts law made compulsory the teaching of these two subjects in all schools, including “special instruction as to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics on the human system”, this last stipulation promoted by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. All schools, including the Green, were subsequently supplied with “two books bearing the date 1885, one containing four hundred fifteen pages devoted to Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene, the other of one hundred fifty-seven pages of ‘Practical Work in the School Room,’ one quarter of which is devoted to Alcohol, Tobacco, Opium, and other narcotics.”

It appears that a curriculum, however, was not formalized in Middleborough until 1893 under the guidance of Superintendent Jacoby. Green School pupils were to use the Child’s Book of Health (grades 1-4), How to Keep Well (grades 5-6) and Our Bodies and How We Live (grades 7-9). The subject was to be studied during the fall term of the school year, with three required lessons of not less than 20 minutes (above the third grade) weekly. Like much else in the Middleborough schools, physiology and hygiene was taught with an emphasis upon its practical application.

Whatever is taught should be so taught that it will lead to further study and to the observance of hygienic laws in daily practice. The teacher who allows her pupils to sit in drafts, and to take all kinds of improper postures in sitting, standing, and walking, who neglects the ventilation of the room and the arrangement of light, and who is herself a living example of the consequences of an habitual disregard of hygienic laws, will teach physiology to little purpose.

In November, 1897, the physiology and hygiene curriculum was revised and formalized. Grades 1 and 2 focused upon the basics as outlined in the State Course of Study, while the remaining grades continued to utilize the texts prescribed four years earlier in 1893. Each grade was provided with a specific area of study, while all were taught the “effects of alcohol and tobacco”. This course of study remained the basis for health education at the Green School through 1941 when it closed.