Contributions of the White House Conferences on Children and Youth to School Health Education

Abstract

Of the major conferences held over the years that have contributed to the development of the school health program, the White House Conferences on Children and Youth rank high in significance. What originated in 1909 as an idea of a young lawyer, James E. West, raised in a Washington orphanage, has now become a prominent national feature of each new decade (9 and 6). From the first conference, conceived t o discuss the problems of dependent children, subsequent gatherings have broadened in scope to encompass the consideration of all factors impinging upon the health and development of children and youth.