The Health of the Schoolchild: A History of the School Medical Service in England and Wales

Bernard Harris Open University Press, pounds sterling16.99, pp 260 ISBN 0 335 09994 7

The Health of the Schoolchild provides a detailed history of the school medical services. It also provokes a very strong feeling of deja vu because it shows how current arguments about the value of selective or universal medical examinations, or the accuracy of collected statistics, have been rehearsed many times before. It also gives a powerful description of the “mission” of the service, and the sometimes competing views of politicians, educationists, and health professionals, especially where …