Even in 1907, educators argued that the duties foisted upon them exceeded their reach or capacity. In his annual report of that year, Joseph Edgerly writes

 

“There is a tendency to require work of the schools that formerly was not regarded as within their province. The schools can do much, but it becomes a question of some doubt whether they can be expected to do all that is required of them.”

 

While he referred to several demands on public schools from building trade schools to providing moral education, a 1907 law mandating medical inspections in schools meant this demand had to be met.

 

Though many educators at the time knew students were not progressing in their studies often due to medical conditions, the public still saw the medical exams as schools encroaching on the duties of the parents. Neither the press nor social organizations took up the banner for school medical inspections and critics called it an imposition on already overburdened teachers.

 

In compliance with the law, the School Board hired two doctors for the Fitchburg district. Dr. Frederick Thompson conducted the medical inspection of students at the practice and observation schools as part of his portion of Fitchburg's schools and Dr. Raymond Jones examined the other half of the Fitchburg's schools. The doctors came to the schools to conduct the exams, often arriving in horse and carriage as they did for housecalls.

 

Of the 3,687 students examined that first academic year, 780 had vision issues and 294 had defective hearing. Surprisingly, many of the parents notified of their children’s medical problems were not aware of the issue.

 

However, some parents did take issue with their children’s medical reports. Children with communicable disease had to stay home and students with vision problems required their parents to furnish eyeglasses. Families would not return a child to school, sometimes out of neglect or due to their inability to pay for required medical services.

 

Edgerly saw this as an unforeseen problem and urged the Board of Education to ensure that pupils maintain access to schooling so that “whereby children may not, by reason of indifference or poverty of parents, be deprived of schooling, or compelled to labor under unfortunate conditions.”

 

On the other hand, Edgerly saw medical inspections as mechanisms to keep pupils in school. Students struggling academically were more apt to drop out of school. With a better understanding of the source of a pupil’s poor performance as perhaps medical, Edgerly expected that corporal punishment in the classroom would greatly diminish.

 

While medical examinations in school were dicey at the start, Fitchburg expanded their efforts to care for the whole student. By 1949 the city established a Child Guidance Clinic which included a psychiatrist, psychologist, and nurses trained in mental health. The Dillon School included a dental clinic. From teeth to toe, schools had their students’ back.