Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1902-03-07
How We Injure the Sight of Our Lit
tie Ones.

aOW we Anyure the sight OF our Liz
tie Ones.
"A child's eyes are farsighted and it
is only for few moments that il
should look at anything nearer than
seventy-one yards" says Harvey Suth-
erland in Ainslee's. "And yet from
the time it begins to take notice we
are forever trying to get it to see things
close to it, playthings, our own foolish
faces and l don't know what not. The
day after it is weaned we start in to
teach it to read. As soon as ever we
can we pack it off to kindergarten,
there to be instructed i'm the health Civ
ing arts of braiding colored paper and
working at such tasks as would make
a grown persons eyes ache. Then we
send it to public school.
have seen public school buildings in
New York city that the builder ought
to go to state prison for-dark, insan-
itary holes. We put the child in the
public school and tell it to sit right
still with its nose in a book and be nice
and not make a noise, when we know
that its nature clamOrs to run and play
and jump and halloo so as to grow up
to be made Of meat and not of putty.
In some public schools the great truth
that play is a wicked waste of time has
been recognized to the extent Of abol-
fishing even the stingy fifteen minutes
recess dOled out in most instances.
When there are Fairgrounds, they are
neatly paved with artificial stone and
almost big enough to swing a cat in.
Sometimes the playroOm is in a nice
dark cellar, where the toilet room is.
But the child may play after school
hours. Oh, bless your heart, we have
fixed that all right-h0me work. We
give them home work to addle their
brains over by artificial light. And if
the child is girl we plan how we can
make her suffer the most prolonged
agony possible in her adult life. We
choose the critical time and set her at
the piano. Paper can be cut to play
better than she ever will, but that isn't
it. We want to come as near as pos
sible to killing her without actually
doing so. No, your hour isn't up vet
Dorothy. You march right back and
don't you come out of that parlor
again till you have practiced a full
hour. Do you hear me?
1--WE keep the poor little things up
till all hours, excite them with novels
and theaters, feed them on stimulat
ing and relatively innutritious foods
and encourage them to poison them
selves with candy, crunched and gulp
ed down before the cane sugar has
been digested in the mouth. We give
them coffee and tea to set their nerves
on a twitter. Good Lord, what dom
we do to kill them? We act like 9
pack of fools, we parents. and if any
Of our young ones live to be twenty
are tolerably sound of mind, arenf
sick more than half the time and have
at least seven teeth that don't ache i
is more by good luck than good iudg
ment. Is it any wonder that the eve!
suffer along with the rest of the body
''But most of all it is the crazy no
ton that the child's mind is developed
by reading that is to blame for VIVA
we call the degeneracy of the eye
Observing and comparing are what de
velop the mind. but you can't beat tina
into a teachers head One Of then
told me the other day how much bet
ter the schools were in Germany thai
in this country. Little children there
she said, do sums in long division
much faster than American children
wanted to shake her. They keep tn
German children in school almost al
the waking day, and the barbarou
type they print books in increases tn
shOrtsightedness from 90 per cent il
the lower grades to 60 and even 20 pc
cent in the upper grades. No wonde
Germans are so prone to suicideg'