conserve this very important
organ; for we should use the eyes upon objects at a greater distance
thus preventing unnecessary strain, and allow other organs of sense to
share with the eye in the work of gathering information and of
appropriating mental nourishment.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not underestimating the place and
value of books, nor decrying their use. They are the storehouse of
knowledge and the source of inspiration, but not for children. Our young
children in school and out of school read too much--are too much tied to
the book. Thru this prolonged and close use of the eye upon small and
nearby objects for which, in its undeveloped condition, it is not
fitted, the organ is permanently weakened and rendered incapable of its
legitimate use later in life when the book is a necessity. And again,
this excessive use of the eye causes an atrophy of the other organs that
is really serious.

Nor is this all. The Optician and the Oculist have studied the matter so
carefully and know the eye so thoroly in its various stages of
development that they know exactly the size of type that children of
various ages should use. And they know, too, the kind of paper that
should be used in books for children. And they have told us all about
it. But we systematically disregard all this information gained with
such painstaking care, and instead of using the large clear type and the
unglazed, soft tinted paper recommended, we persist in tolerating the
unsatisfactory merely because it is a little cheaper. Penny wise and
pound foolish we surely are. What we save now we shall have to pay later
on with compound interest besides compelling our children to undergo
physical pain and mental handicap.

And yet again. We are told by our scientific friends the relative
amounts of window and floor space that the schoolroom should have in
order to be adequately lighted! Not one in ten has as much window space
as it should have, and a good portion of what has been provided is
frequently covered up by shades thru the teacher's perverted notion of
relative values--seeming to have greater appreciation for certain
so-called artistic effects than for eye comfort and safety in work. And
then again, these scientific friends of ours have told us that there
should be in the schoolroom no cross lights; that the light should not
shine upon the blackboards nor into the faces of the children, but that
it should come only from the rear and th