Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-02-22
Childreu's Eyes.

"A child's ewes are far-sighted, and it
| is only for few moments that 1t should
look ut anything nearer than seventy-one
yards. And yet from the time it be-
gins to take notice we are forever try
ing to get it to see things close to it,
playthingS, our own foolish faces, and
don't know what not. The day after it
Is Weaned we start in to teach il to read
AS soon as ever we can, we pack it off
TO kindergarten, there TO be instructed
IN the heath-giying arts of braiding col
ored paper and working at such tasks
as would make Il 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. unsani-
tary holes. We put the child in the pub
nc school and tell it to sit right still with
It's nose IN book and be nice and not
make noise, when We know that its ma
ture clamors to run and play and Jump
ana halIoo so as to grow up to be made
OF meat and not of putty. In some pub
nc schools the great truth that play is n
wicked waste of time has been recog-
nlzed to the extent of abolishng even
the stingy fifteen minutes recess doled
out IN most instances. When there are
Fairgrounds they are neatly paved with
artlhclal stone, and almost big enough
TO SWING a cat in. Sometimes the play
room IS in nice, dark cellar, where the
toilet room is.
But the child may play after school
s sI Oh, nleSs your heart, we have
hXed that all right. Home work. We
give them home work to addle their
brains over by artificial light. And if
the enid 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 bet
than she Int ha4 -
We want to come as near as possible to
killing her without actually doing SO. No.
your hour isn't up yet, Dorothy. You
march right back and don't you come our
OF that parlor again till you have prac-
! ticed full hour. do you hear me? We
keep the poor little things up till all
hours, excite them with novels and the
alters, feed them on stimulating and rela-
lively innutritious foods. and encourage
them to poison themselves with candy
] crunched and gulped down before the
cane sugar has been digested in the
mouth. We give them coffee and tea
to set their nerves on 4 twitter. Good
Lord! What don't we do to kill them d?
We act like pack of fools, we parents.
and if any of our young ones live TO
be 20, are tolerably sound of mind. aren't
sick more than half the time and have
at least seven teeth that don't ache. it is
more by good luck than good Judgment
!
along with the rest Of the body?
But most of all it is the crazy notion
that the child's mind is developed by
reading that is to blame for what we
call the degeneracy of the eye. Ohscry-
ing and comparing are what develop tho
mind, but YOU can't beat that into A
teachers head. One of them told mo
the other day how much better the
schools were III Germany than in this
country. Little children there. She said!
do sums in long division much faster
than American children. ! wanted to
shake her. They keep the German chill
dren in school almost all the waking
day. and the barbarOus type they print
books il increases the short -sightednpss
from 20 per cent. in the lower grades to
60 and even 70 per cent. in the upper
grades No wonder Germans are so
prone to suicide. They had rather 20 to
the Bad Place forever than live n little
while in Germany. "-Harvey Sutherland
in Aiusee's Magazine.