The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-09-26
SCHOOL CHILDREN'S
DEFECTIVE VISION
National Organization Formed to Gree
ate Greater Appreciation of Inn
por.ance of Eye Care.


Or. Thomas d. Wood Of Columbia
University, prominent in educational
circles and chairman Of the Joint Com
mittee on Health Problems in Educa-
tional Association and the A. NJ. A..
gave some very illuminating facts
concerning the great need for the care
OF the eye sight OF school children.
1T seems to me-" said DR.. Wood,
that our humanistic problems today
present themselves in increasing num-
bers in our complex civilization, as
problems requiring solution in the
field OF what we are to do for efflci
ency, for success, II we test these
different programs by the criteria of
good business.
The eyes are the windows of the
brain, and tlls eyes make up the
most important channel through which
the human brain and the mind get
It's material for fabrication. While
we know from the examples of Laura
Bridgeman and Helen Keller, what
marvellous development may occur
through the motor sense or senses,
when vision and hearing are absent,
we still appreciate the importance of
the eyes.
The consideration or the eyes In
wolves not only the question OF the
quantitatdve capacity Of the human
eye for receiving impressions. but 1t
involves the vital problem of how ac-
curate the information is which the
mind, the brain, receives through the
eye. Inaccurate information IS more
serious than decreasing quantity.
Education involves in general way,
first the abundance of instruction,
that the information which comes to
the chud's mind shall be stimulating,
interesting and adjusted appropriately
for that child. In the second place,
the eye must have not only an abund-
ance of things to see, but the eye
must see them accurately. Accuracy
of vision has vital relationship to
integrity or obliquity not only in the
field of vision but in the moral field.
This problem OF the conservation of
vision involves three aspects: first the
eyes of the children; second, the char
acter of the materials which they see
with their eyes; and third. the condi-
tions of light illumination under which
they use their eyes.
We need to awaken the people, in a
democracy like ours, to an apprecia-
tion of the value and the Importance
OF the eyes of their children, because
the mass of the parents of this land
have little appreciation of the facts.
We need, in the first place. to have
all the teachers of the land trained
TO make their simple tests. to make
their simple observations regarding
the way in which their pupils are
using their eyes. We are never go
ing to solve this problem until we all
recognize our own distinctive fields
and are willing to enthusiastically and
unselfishily cooperate.
We must have hospitals, nurseries
and dispensaries to do their full share
with reference to the care of the
children's eyes, and we may be heart
ened by the fact that the defects Of
human vision In these children repre-
sent one of the most hopeful divisions
of the health and defects which the
children present to us. A large per-
centage of the defects Of vision can
be. relatively, effectively corrected
with less expense ana less difficulty
than perhaps is true Of any other
defect.