PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN,

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1918, Page 3

PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN,

DEFECTIVE EYESIGHT.

AUCKLAND February 13,

The question of the defective sight of children attending the primary schools was the subject of a report submitted to the Board of Education by Dr Elizabeth MacDonald.

Dr MacDonald said there appeared to be no doubt that defects in eyesight were increasing among children attending the primary schools, and it appeared from the somewhat scanty investigations already made by the Medical Inspectors in New Zealand, that these I defects increased as the children proceeded from Standard One upwards to Standard Six. It was therefore natural to conclude that the conditions under which' children used their eyes during these years had some direct bearing on the production of defects of eyesight. School conditions must hear n part of the blame. Increasing attendance a*, picture shows was probably another important factor, especially where children under ten years of age whose eyes were very immature, attended such shows frequently. Dr MacDonald expressed the opinion that working so much on glazed white paper was probably not a factor in the produce of defects unless the paper used was so liiglflv glazed to be dazzling in some degree. Many classrooms were wrongly and inefficiently lit, and this fact 5 in her opinion, was the greatest single factor in the product of sight defects Dr Macdonald recommended that children in Standard One should ho taught to write midway between heavy guiding i lines, thus making it a matter of mus- j than purely depending on the eyesight culnr and nervous co-ordination, rather for accuracy. The report also suggested that children in the lower standards might he profitably taught knitting and not sewing, as the latter trained the hands to fine movements without nyestraino