Report on the influence of school-books upon eyesight / British Association for the Advancement of Science.

  • British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report on the influence of school-books upon eyesight / British Association for the Advancement of Science. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    6/40 (page 4)
    compulsory subject for the Board of Education examination of training-college students. We learn that it is not customary for teachers to give the children special instruction concerning the care of their eyes. It is stated in several instances that teaching of this kind is given incidentally in the course of the lessons on hygiene which form part of the school curriculum; but nothing more is done, and what is done amounts to very little. Speaking generally, no definite principles or rules as to printing and other conditions of legibility have been adopted in the selection of school-books, atlases, diagrams, &c. Two or three Authorities, when drawing up their book-lists, have given considerable attention to their possible effects on eye-sight, but without formulating any definite rules. Several state that the Committee or officers responsible for the supervision of the book-supply pay attention to the type, paper, &c. ; several, on the other hand, inform us that the selection of books, &c., is left to the teachers. Summarising the evidence generally, it may be said that whilst effective arrangements for the detection of existing defects in the eyesight of elementary school children are general and arrangements for the supply of proper spectacles at cheap rates are not uncommon, practically no systematic attention is given to the influence of school-books upon eyesight. The replies lead us to believe that the report of the Committee will have attention from Local Education Authorities. Report of the Oculist Sub-Committee. The eye of the child is a growing eye. It is immature both in structure and in function. At