Eye Care Blog

The results of these preventive measures were disappointing. Some observers reported a slight decrease in the percentage of myopia in schools in which the prescribed reforms had been made, but on the whole the injurious effects of the educational process were not eliminated to any extent.

Further study of the subject has only added to its difficulty, while at the same time it has tended to relieve the schools of much of the responsibility ‘formerly attributed to them for the production of myopia. As the American Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology points out, “the theory that myopia is due to close work aggravated by town life and badly lighted rooms is gradually giving ground before statistics.” Read the rest of this entry »

At the request of the superintendent of schools in Grand Forks at that time, the system was introduced into all the schools of the city and was used continuously for eight years. During this time it reduced myopia among the children, which I found at first to be about six per cent, to less than one per cent.

A few years later the same system was introduced into some of the schools of New York City, with an attendance of about ten thousand children. Many of the teachers, however, neglected to use the cards, being unable to believe that such a simple method, and one so entirely at variance with previous teaching on the subject, could accomplish the desired results. Read the rest of this entry »