The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-02-18
Light in the School Room.

ALTHOUGH the friends of public schools
and popular education may survey with
general satisfaction the hygicnic i'm
provement of the present day, there is,
at least, one painful exception to the
general progress, whose correction ne.
ccssitates the most careful attention and
indefatigable excrtion of teachers.
Young children devote much more time
to study in school and out than former.
ly. So eager is the desire for promotion
in our public schools, particularly of the
graded class, on the part of teachers and
pupils, that considerable portion of
each day and evening is spent, voluntari-
Igor compulsorily, in close application to
books and states. This intense applica-
ton, fostered by parents as we'll as teach
ers, results frequently in the exchange of
greater for lesser good. Could the eyes
of pupils who have spent a few years in
the public schools of any city be critical
ly examined, the startling fact would be
disclosed that large per cent. of the
whole are impaired in structure or func-
tion, in consequence of some form OF
abuse resulting from the pupils connec
tion with school. Such was the case in
the public schools of Prussia, and there
is no reason to doubt that similar evils
are as prevalent in our own country.
That the eyes of children may be used
without injury in study as far
as practicable, teachers should insist
on the observance of certain hygienic
principles. Light il essential to vision;
but if excessive or deficient in intensity,
or if it falls improperly on the page, the
use of the eyes in study may result in
injury, ,necessitating the severance of
the pupils connection with school, pro.
longed absence from study and loss of
time.
The desks of school-rooms should be
SO arranged that, for ordinary study, the
light which falls on the page should enter
behind the pupil, that direct rays may
be largely excluded The construction
of lamps for the purpose of study. or
other operations requiring close inspec-
ton, which permits only reflected light
to enter the eyes, seems to be general
confirmation of the truth of this state
mcnt. In cloudy days the light of the
schoOl-room may not be sufficiently in
tense for the healthful action of the eyes
in study. At such times study might be
suspended and oral instruction, reviews
or general exercises substituted for it.
Although the construction of school
houses is usually beyond the supervision
of those having charge of them, instances
have occurred in which the hygienic
knowledge of teachers has been of signal
service to school directors in determin-
ing the interior arrangements of school
buildings.
There is one defect of the eve result
ing largely from its improper use in the
sch0ol-room, which, unlike nervous
weakness, comes 90 insidiously upon II
as to be almost imperceptible until it has
passed beyond the possibility of cure.
Many children in the public schools are
constantly becoming near sighted
through the inexcussble negligence Of
teachers 70 insist upon the Observance Of
the proper distance Of the eye from the
page y writing, drawing, cipherine and
ordinary study = writing and drawing.
especially tn universal pesctics Of