CHILDREN'S DEFECTIVE EYESIGHT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3336, 20 February 1918, Page 13

CHILDREN'S DEFECTIVE EYESIGHT.

SCHOOL LIGHTING CONDEMNED, AUCKLAND, February 13. ■ The matter of the defective' eyesight of children attending primary schools was tha subject of a report submitted to. the Board of Education by Dr Elizabeth Macdonald. ur Macdonald said that there appears to be no doubt that defects in eyesight tira increasing amongst children attending, primary schools, and it appears from tha somewhat scanty investigations already madt by medical inspectors in New Zealand that these defects inorease as the children proj ceed from Standard I upwards to Standard' VI.- It is, therefore, natural to conoluda that the conditions under which the children use their eyes during these years have soma direct bearing on the production of the, defects of eyesight,- School conditions must bear nart of tho blame. Increasing attendances at picture shows probably is another important factor, essentially where children, whose eyes arc very immature attond such shows frequently. Dr Macdonald expressed the opinion that working so much on glazed white paper is probably not a facto:! in the production of the defects unless the paper used is so highly glazed as to ba dazzling in some degree. Many class room* aro wrongly and inefficiently lighted, and this fact, in her opinion, was tho greatest single factor in tho product of sight defects Dr Macdonald recommended tnat children in Standard I be taught to writ* midway between heavy guiding lines, thul making it a matter of muscular and ner. vous co-ordination rather than purely depending on the eyesight for accuracy. report also suggests that children in lower standards might be profitably taught, knitting and not sowing, as the formed trained hands to fine movements without eye strain.