DEFECTIVE EYES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5491, 23 October 1929, Page 4

DEFECTIVE EYES.

TOO MANY GLASSES.

HOMEWORK BLAMED.

It does not require marked powers

of observation to note the fact that a

large proportion of the rising genera-

tion have defective eyesight, says the Wellington Post. Spectacles or glasses in one form or another seem to be the rule almost rather than the exception. Quite why this should be so is not

easy to explain. Some authorities say that it is the part, but only a small part, of the price which we are paying for the rapid strides in what we call civilisation, the artificial con ditions under which we live being the cause of weaker constitutions. Authoritative opinion can also be found oritative opinion can also be founu which says the present generation’s eyesight is no worse than that of the previous one, more spectacles being in evidence solely because more attention is paid to correcting defective eyesight than used to be the case. Spectacles for children, except in very pronounced cases of short-sightedness or of squint, were in the past practically unheard of, but in these days far more attention is paid to eyesight and faults are corrected earlier. Probably the truth lies somewhere between these two points of view. Amongst those who haye become perturbed at the incidence of defective eyesight is the Director of Education (Mr T. B. Strong). In applicants for appointment to the teaching profession he has noticed a too large protion of cases of defective eyesight. From his own investigations and from those made by his officers he has formed the conclusion that this failing can be attributed in some degree to the amount of homework given to students during the secondary school period. The director has accordingly circularised the principals of secondary schools, expressing the opinion that the secondary curriculum proved too great a tax upon pupils and too much time was given to homework.” Two hours of homework, it is suggested, should be the maximum required from secondary school pupils. Supervision Required at Home. Several secondary school teachers have expressed the opinion that the director may be quite right in his contention, but they maintain that in the question of homework and eyesight parents should be circularised too. “Too many children,” said one first-assistant, “are allowed to do their homework under no sort of supervision whatever. No attempt is made to give them proper or adequate light and no attention is paid to their working conditions. I admit that in some homes the problem is hard, but at the same time I think that parents might do more than they do.” Parents were also blamed by other teachers from suffering from the examination mania. • Their offsprings, regardless of their capabilities, are being sent to school with but one object in view, that being the passing of matriculation or other examinations. To achieve this everything else is sacrificed, even health and eyesight. Evil of “Cramming.” Practically all teachers arc in accord with the dictum that two hours’ homework after a day’s schooling is quite sufficient. But here the difficulty arises in the fact that what is two hours’ homework to one child may be four hours work to another. In the case of candidates for scholarships and special examinations there was much extra work to be done and a good proportion had to be done at home. “There is all the difference between teaching and cramming,” remarked one teacher. "As long as the examination system is the driving force, cramming will be given precedence to teaching.” “In theory,” said another teacher, “all school work should be done at school ; there should be no homework. Perhaps that will be incorporated in the Minister’s new educational policy. If it is, then perhaps spectacle makers will find themselves ranked amongst the unemployed. In complaining that excessive homework is ruining the nation’s eyesight, the Department is complaining at its own doings, for it, and no one else, is responsible for the syllabus which we have to work through in a given time.”

Opinion amongst teachers seems to be unanimous on two points, first that the question of homework is a perennial nuisance and one over which it is impossible,’ under the present conditions, to lay down any hard and fast rules, and secondly that there is an apparently increasing army of bespectacled children attending the schools. But whether there is any real connection between the two, or whether the causes of defective eyesight must be sought elsewhere, there is difference of opinion.