EFFECT OF INFLUENZA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 162, 3 April 1919, Page 5

EFFECT OF INFLUENZA

ON TEE SCHOOL CHILDREN.

The devious ways in which influenza has affected many adults who contracted the disease last year have- bsen too often tragically demonstrated to need elaborating upon. Every now and then the papers record accidents and fatalities, the basic cause: of which is attributed to the after-effect's of the epidemic of last November! Although children were not so generally affected in Wellington as adults, many thousands of them suffered from the disease, not always seriously, but the lighter attacks paved the way for such ailments as pleurisy,, congestion of tho lungs, throat troubles, and nervous affections. That th« influenza has left its mark upon the children observant teachers at some of the State schools have already noticed. One headmaster of a big city State school said that the signs were there, if they were not always quite apparent, and ho thought that teachera should be made awaro of it, and make allowances. One of tho commonest results of influenza on children is tho effect it has on their nervous systems, manifested chiefly in a proncness for tears. Children whom ho had never known to cry at school previously burst out most unexpectedly for little or no cause. He did not think it was an excess of sensitiveness, but simply a nervous weakness, which robbed them of complete control over themselves. Allowances should be made for such little shortcoming, indeed it was the teachers' duty to look for such weaknesses, mid do tbeir very best to encourage the children back to normality. They should remember, too, that the.children were away from school for over three igonths, owing to the epidemic, and a child could forget a great deal, in that time...