A pioneer school located in Harrisburg, Banner County, Nebraska

Personal Hygiene

Lesson time:  10 minutes

OBJECTIVES:  Students will be instructed on the benefits of cleanliness and will wash at the basin.

 The students will discuss early health and hygiene practices such as bathing, washing hair and the use of the chamber pot and out house.  They will at a later time see early bathing facilities, i.e. the wash tub by the kitchen stove and  an early bath tub  as well as early medical equipment in the museum.  The students will discuss the lack of running water and the chore of carrying and heating water for bathing, thus the sharing of water by using bath and wash water for more than one person. 

The students will discuss the early area doctor, Dr. Georgia Arbuckle Fix.  They will need to understand the fact that one county doctor had to travel around to homes by horse and buggy to visit patients.  A discussion will take place of how people did not visit the doctor except for emergencies so many home remedies were used to treat various illnesses.  The students will realize that many of the health products that we take for granted to day did not exist in 1888. 

This discussion will continue while the students go in pairs to wash in the wash basin with water carried in a pail earlier from the “well” by two volunteer students.  The water is not heated and lye soap is used to wash their hands to prepare for lunch.  It is discussed that  Dr. Fix is recommending that students know that cleanliness is the best guard against disease.  

            Cleanliness is next to Godliness.