At about the beginning of the sixth year, the formal education of the child begins. While in a sense, school life is artificial, there should be no mawkish sympathy for the child or feeling that health of body is necessarily sacrificed to growth of intellect. Intellectual exercise has a hygienic value very similar to that of physical exercise and the regular habits and occupation of time and awakening of interest, are beneficial. School houses, as now commonly built in progressive cities, and even in the country, correspond fairly well in hygienic and sanitary advantages, to the average home and are far superior to the homes of the proletariat or to the streets.

A child that cannot easily and without physical detriment, keep up with his classes, is defective. The defect may be due to imperfect vision or hearing, to sluggish respiratory changes due to adenoids etc., to imperfect nutrition at home, or to some other remediable condition that is more likely to be detected by regular school inspection than by the observation of ignorant and careless parents. Or it may be due to some irremediable physical defect or disease, rendering it useless to attempt to educate the child. Otherwise it is due to some mental or moral defect requiring special means of instruction.

During the school period, the child will usually take three meals a day, beside a light lunch in the middle of the morning.

Special vigilance should be used to avoid the effects of irregu lar eating and drinking of various articles not on the bill of fare; the influence of badly disciplined associates being an important item.

Parents should consider it their duty so to order the meals of the household and the life of the child outside of school hours, that he may eat regularly and leisurely, without fear of discipline on account of tardiness. It is advisable that the child should, if possible, attend a school near enough to allow a warm, hearty, mid-day meal.

Per contra, educators should see that the hygienic condition of the school is such as to favor the work of the child without undue fatigue, or other factors that take away appetite and interfere with nutrition. They should not require an amount of study that the average child can not perform, for the most part, in school hours; should not visit the sins of the parents upon the child; nor impose discipline that overtaxes the child and interferes with his meal hours.

During this period, the child should eat the ordinary adult foods, subject to exclusion of beverages like tea, coffee and beer and of various articles that adults usually eat with impunity but which overtax the digestive powers of children. The meals should be so planned that the child can have warm food at noon and, on the other hand, he should not eat a full dinner at night.