Ban on Swapping of
Chewing Gum Is Urged

Dr. Keene Asks Teachers to Stop the Practice in Rural Schools. Open-Air Room With Cheese-Cloth Windows Declared a Success. Guard the rural school child from the swapping of germs through exchange of pencils and chewing gum, Dr. C.H. Keene advised members of the Hennepin County Teachers Association yesterday at the Court House. The open-window room, screened with cheese cloth, has proved a success in Minneapolis, said Dr. Keene, and the children not only do better work in school, but make a 25 percent better gain in weight. Dr. Keene urged rural teachers to study their pupils as they enter in the morning, noting indications of illness, and to send children home if they appeared ill, even though the trouble was only a cold. Rev. James E. Freeman, in a talk to the teachers, said the defect of the whole teaching office was the tendency to subordinate the man or woman to the machine or curriculum.

A photo from about 1918 -- note the Junior Red Cross poster on the wall -- shows students in a Minnesota classroom learning to wash their hands. (Image courtesy of Hennepin County Library's Minneapolis Collection)

A school in Chippewa County, Minn., in about 1915. (Image courtesy of mnhs.org)