Page:The school law of Michigan.djvu/85

Rh Provided, That any district board may buy its books of local dealers if the same can be purchased and delivered to the director as cheaply as if bought of the party who makes the lowest bid to the district board, also that school districts in cities organized under special charters shall be exempt from the provisions of this act; but such districts may, when so authorized by a majority vote of their district boards, submit the question of free text books to the qualified voters of said districts. If a majority of the qualified electors vote in favor of furnishing free text books, such district boards shall have authority to proceed under the provisions of this act (Act 147, 1889).

In order that proper instruction be given in the effect on the human system of stimulants and narcotics, the legislature has enacted laws which make it the duty of school boards to select suitable text books in physiology and hygiene, and likewise the duty of teachers to give instruction in this branch to all the pupils of the school.

In addition to the branches in which instruction is now required to be given in the public schools, instruction shall be given in physiology and hygiene with a special reference to the nature of alcohol and narcotics and their effects upon the human system. Such instruction shall be given by the aid of text books in the case of pupils who are able to read, and as thoroughly as in other studies pursued in the same school. The text books to be used for such instruction shall give at least one-fourth of their space to the consideration of the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and narcotics, and the books used in the highest grade of graded schools shall contain at least twenty pages of matter relating to this subject. Text books used in giving the foregoing instruction shall first be approved by the state board of education.

The district board shall require each teacher in the public