CHILDREN AND DEFECTIVE SIGHT

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 161, 1 April 1908, Page 3

CHILDREN AND DEFECTIVE SIGHT

SOME STARTLING FIGURES. At the College of Preceptors in England recently, Dr. .Biss, addressing an audienco of teachers on ."The Care of the Eye," said headache ill children was a great warning of eye mischief. The distance at .which children should have their work. should never bo. less than twelve inches, while the light in the schoolroom should come from the left, and there should be no top light. Windows should not be : more than four feet from the floor, so that the children should not be 111 a shadow. The window space should be oneSsixth, or, still better, one-fourth of the floor space, and the walls of the schoolroom should- be blank, or else papered or painted light—a dull light, however, not bright.' Of artificial 'forms of light, electric light was the best ; for/'the schoolroom. -Children s desks should'bo adjustable, and the . type in their books hot smaller than pica in the case of /upper standards, or either great primer or: double pica in '' the ' lower 'standards. Slates were an abomination from every point of view, and were very dirty things indeed. Lined paper was also bad,- especiallyl. in'-' squares, 1 which doubly strained the eyes. The younger the. child the less writing it should do. Defect in, the* eye was liable to, affect all instruction, which Went into the brain through the eye, and nervous* breakdown was- generally, due- /to straining of. the eyesight. Of 61;000 _ children attendirig*.L.C.C. schools in 1905, it was found that about 11,500; had fair eyesight, and about 5700 bad, the rest being- good. In 1907 the investigation of eyesight showed that 7.8 -per cent.' of all 'the children examined attending the L.C.C. elementary schools had bad eyes—really bad vision.