As my inbox and timeline fill up with Corona Virus updates and advisories this is little footnote to my post about the much fabled NYC Lincoln School (1917-1940) The School is Dead, Long Live the School.
Lincoln was dedicated to experimentation and research in the interests of uncovering the best ways to education children in a modern democratic society. They were committed to studying what worked and then sharing their knowledge as widely as possible.
A quick scan of the list (see below) and you can see that they were building the blueprint for American education for the C20th – everything from the graphic work in high school history and the uses of assemblies to making a merry-go-round and the schoolroom aquaria with libraries, science labs, spelling and field trips in between.
The research studies reached beyond the curriculum into all facets of school life.
Look at this one: Health and Regularity of School Attendance, Harold H. Mason 1923.
In a carefully controlled experiment Lincoln was able to reduce its absent rate from 14.9% in 1917-1918 to 9.3% in 1921-1922.
They did this by preventing the spread of infection of respiratory diseases by excluding children who had any cold symptoms.
They showed that coughs and sneezes spread diseases and led to absentees as per the UK WW2 poster.
The results were widely written up in variety of journals including Teachers College Record. I found the American Medicine version – April 1923 on line. (see sidebar left).
The court proceedings of 1948 that followed the closing of the Lincoln and its successor school Horace Mann-Lincoln seem to have been – along with all the rancor – an extensive airing of the school’s clean laundry. Distinguished witness after distinguished witness described the work of the school, its influence and success.
On the witness stand – and after a testy exchange with the lawyer – the former school director Otis Caldwell described this experiment – at right.
Stay Home, Get Well
Staying home until you get better is obviously wise when you get sick.
But staying home is something of a luxury for most Americans – the U.S. is the only wealthy nation that doesn’t guarantee all workers paid sick leave, paid family leave and health coverage.
This means many people go to work sick. And they send their kids to school because no-one is at home – or can afford to take time off – to take care of them. This does not bode well for containing the spread of a virus in a pandemic.
Of course – Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that. A plan that should be put in place right now.
But with an alleged 38% of Americans saying they would not buy Corona beer because of the virus, we seem to be too ignorant to do anything sensible when it comes to health care and politics. 
Thinking about all the schools and health care providers scrambling now to put plans in place. Thinking about how they will manage both the virus and the institutional anxiety. Changing habits is hard. Wishing them all the best in the work ahead.
A few posters from the past.
And because we will undoubtedly see plenty of frauds with scam cures and prevention measures – here is a 1864 Punch cartoon that puts one quack where he belongs
And for those who have not been distracted from the Lincoln School – here is that 1926 list of their publications.
I think we will do well by learning from the policies of the European countries, where employees are given sick leaves liberally to help them recover faster and prevent the disease from spreading through the work places.
Looks to be WWI ish. The military helmet leads me to say that. Spanish flu was during that time when the soldiers returned. Scary thing about that virus was it affected young people more. Seemingly healthy 18 year olds died, etc.