Making useful men and women of our children : investigating the medical inspection of schools in the Cape Province, 1918-1938.
| dc.contributor.advisor | Fourie, Johan, 1982- | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Sapire, Hilary | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.author | Lemon, Kelsey | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.other | Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History. | en_ZA |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-09-20T08:46:27Z | en_ZA |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-02-16T10:57:15Z | en_ZA |
| dc.date.available | 2023-09-20T08:46:27Z | en_ZA |
| dc.date.available | 2023-02-16T10:57:15Z | en_ZA |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-03 | en_ZA |
| dc.description | Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2023. | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The history of school medical services is an underrepresented area in the South African historiography, either of education, childhood, or medicine. Little is known about the ideological or legislative origins of inspections, nor how these programmes operated, and what effect they had on social meanings of childhood and the state of child health. The thesis addresses this gap by examining the pioneering years of the Cape school medical service, (1918-1938). The Cape Province in the interwar, segregation era offers a unique case given its size and history of liberalism. In the twentieth century, the state claimed greater responsibility for the welfare of some of its citizens; ameliorating white poverty while entrenching systems to segregate those who were black, coloured, or Indian. Beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing through the twentieth, childhood was progressively regulated through state intervention, compulsory education, and child welfare work. Nevertheless, one’s class, gender, and especially race mediated the extent to which this idealised (western, middle-class) vision of childhood was a possibility for all children. The thesis applies traditional qualitative techniques and quantitative analysis to a range of sources, chief among them being the annual reports of the school medical inspectors. It is found that those promoting school medical inspections touted the service as a best means for alleviating white poverty and securing a healthy, productive white population. The thesis thus uncovers the political origins of school medical inspections and contributes to understanding how child health was leveraged in discussions of the “poor white problem”. When inspections began in 1918, inspectors were restricted to visiting school board schools which were predominantly (but not exclusively) white. In examining the operation of school medical inspections, it is found that, while the service’s value was widely perceived, financial insufficiency limited what the inspectors were ultimately able to achieve. A failure to provide medical treatment for indigent children also restricted the service’s impact. The thesis argues that demands for state involvement in the provision of free treatment offer a window on this early period in South Africa’s social welfare history and societal notions about the state's responsibility to its youngest citizens. By applying a mixed-methods approach to the annual school medical inspection reports, the thesis explores the impact of the Cape school medical service. To do this, the statistical returns of the inspection reports were transcribed which (recognising bias and subjectivity inherent in the data) constitutes a new dataset for examining historical child health outcomes in the Cape. The thesis finds, through their annual reports, the inspectors constructed an image of child health. This image comprised subjective meanings of healthiness and the contemporaneous state of child health. By measuring public and parental compliance with inspections, the thesis finds that school medical inspections contributed to the medicalisation of childhood, education, and parenting. Through their everyday interaction with children, lectures to teachers, meetings with parents and publication of official reports, the Cape school medical service altered societal perceptions of the ideal childhood. | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ons kennis van mediese dienste in skole is gebrekkig, hetsy oor hierdie dienste se bydrae tot die onderwys, kinderjare, of geneeskunde. Min is bekend oor die ideologiese of wetgewende oorsprong van inspeksies, of oor hoe hierdie programme bedryf is, en watter invloed hulle op die sosiale betekenisse van die kinderjare en die stand van kindergesondheid gehad het. Die tesis vul hierdie gaping deur die baanbrekersjare van die Kaapse mediese skoolinspeksies (1918-1938) te ondersoek. Gegewe sy grootte en geskiedenis van liberalisme, bied die Kaapprovinsie in die tussenoorlogse segregasie-era ʼn unieke geval. In die twintigste eeu het die staat groter verantwoordelikheid vir die welsyn van sommige van sy wit burgers opgeëis terwyl dit stelsels vir die segregasie van diegene wat swart, bruin of Indiër was, verskans het. Met ingang van die negentiende eeu en regdeur die twintigste, is die kinderjare toenemend deur staatsingryping, verpligte onderwys en kinderwelsynswerk gereguleer. Nogtans het iemand se klas, gender en veral ras die mate bepaal waartoe hierdie geïdealiseerde (westerse, middelklas) siening van die kinderjare vir alle kinders ʼn moontlikheid was. Die tesis pas tradisionele kwalitatiewe tegnieke en kwantitatiewe ontleding op ʼn verskeidenheid bronne toe, maar hoofsaaklik op die jaarverslae van die mediese skoolinspekteurs. Daar is bevind dat diegene wat inspeksies aangemoedig het, die diens aangeprys het as die beste manier om wit armoede te verlig en ʼn gesonde, produktiewe wit bevolking te verseker. Die tesis onthul dus die politieke oorsprong van hierdie inspeksies en dra by tot die begrip van hoe kindergesondheid in besprekings van die ‘armblankeprobleem’ gebruik is. Toe inspeksies in 1918 begin het, was inspekteurs beperk tot besoeke aan skoolraad-skole wat oorwegend (maar nie uitsluitlik nie) wit was. In die ondersoek na die werking van hierdie mediese inspeksies, is bevind dat, hoewel die waarde van die diens wyd erken is, finansiële ontoereikendheid beperk het wat die inspekteurs uiteindelik kon bereik. Hul onvermoë om mediese behandeling vir armlastige kinders te verskaf, het ook die diens se impak beperk. Die tesis voer aan dat eise vir staatsbetrokkenheid by die verskaffing van gratis behandeling ʼn blik bied op hierdie vroeë tydperk in die geskiedenis van Suid-Afrikaanse maatskaplike welsyn en die samelewing se opvattings oor die staat se verantwoordelikheid teenoor sy jongste burgers. Die tesis verken die impak van die Kaapse mediese skoolinspeksies deur die toepassing van ʼn gemengde-metodes-benadering tot die jaarlikse skool- mediese-inspeksieverslae. Om dit te vermag, is die statistiese opbrengs uit die inspeksieverslae getranskribeer tot ʼn nuwe datastel vir die ondersoek van historiese kindergesondheidsuitkomste in die Kaap (met erkenning van die vooroordeel en subjektiwiteit inherent in die data). Die tesis bevind dat die inspekteurs, deur hulle jaarverslae, ʼn beeld van kindergesondheid opgebou het. Hierdie beeld omvat subjektiewe betekenisse van gesond wees en die stand van kindergesondheid uit dieselfde tyd. Deur die openbare en ouerlike onderwerping aan inspeksies te meet, bevind die tesis dat inspeksies bygedra het tot die medikalisasie van die kinderjare, onderwys en ouerskap. Deur hulle alledaagse interaksie met kinders, lesings aan onderwysers, vergaderings met ouers en die publikasie van amptelike verslae, het die Kaapse mediese skoolinspeksies die samelewing se siening van die ideale kinderjare gewysig. | af_ZA |
| dc.description.version | Masters | en_ZA |
| dc.format.extent | 138 pages : illustrations | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/128561 | en_ZA |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | Stellenbosch University | en_ZA |
| dc.subject.lcsh | School children -- Health and hygiene -- Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) | en_ZA |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Children -- Medical examinations -- Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) | en_ZA |
| dc.subject.lcsh | School health services -- Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) | en_ZA |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Medical policy -- Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) | en_ZA |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Education -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- History | en_ZA |
| dc.subject.name | UCTD | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Making useful men and women of our children : investigating the medical inspection of schools in the Cape Province, 1918-1938. | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_ZA |