State

Desks of special construction are used by the pupils and everything possible is done to save eye strain from any possible source. They See Mow! No longer do these pupils grope about in semi-darkness: they are now able to do their sehool work in eonipetition with other boys and girls of normal vision. - By - MRS. JOSEPHINE C. SISK ТИК freckle-faced youngster with the heavily leased glasses grinned and cried, “О, 1 see now!" And twenty other boys and girls have also expressed their thank¬ fulness for a chance to learn and to find friendliness in a world where once they had groped in dismal semi- darkness. How did it happen ? An immeas¬ urable amount of service has been rendered to children of poor vision through the only sight-saving class in North Carolina, located in the Central School on Spring Street. Greensboro. For the fourth year it i- giving help to children with poor eyesight throughout the city. It was George II. Ben net te of Greensboro who first suggested the idea. He had been interested in the accomplishments of -ight-s a v i n g 10 classes in other states, and he realized that, although the state makes pro¬ vision for those who are totally blind, no agency in North Carolina was undertaking in systematic fashion to prevent blindness and to help those with partial vision. The Greensboro Kiwanis Club readily sponsored the class that Mr. Bennette proposed, and they have contributed liberally toward the special equipment that was required. The city schools as¬ sumed the responsibility of supply¬ ing a teacher and a classroom. Miss Lulu Gilbert, then a teacher of third-grade work, was selected to teach the class. She took training in sight-saving work at Columbia T'ni- versity. and she opened her class for partiallv seeing children in Septem¬ ber 1037. A visit to the sight-saving class¬ room is a revelation in the contri¬ butions of science toward the help of the ntllietcd. Here is a cheerful room, bathed in non-glaring light — n min¬ imum of 30 foot candles in compar¬ ison with about fen in the ordinary classroom. Numerous windows and powerful indirect electric lights in¬ sure a maximum of projier lighting. The desks are designed to correct poor posture and can lie moved near the blackboard, where the writing is done with wide, soft yellow chalk. The books are printed in very large type on nnglnzcd paper, and the pupils write with broad, soft pencils on wide¬ ly spaced, unglazed paper. Every pupil in the class learns the touch system of typing and prepares his written work on one of the three typewriters in the classroom, which have very large type. Even the globes and maps are of special construction, eliminating fine details and showing clearly only the particular features with which the immediate geography lesson is concerned. Miss Gilbert says that her pupils are just like other girls and boys, ex¬ cept that they Cannot see so well. Thev are a group of children who. because of eye difficulties, cannot carry on advantageously their work in the reg¬ ular school room, pupils with pro¬ gressive (but not contagious) eye diseases, and others who are recom¬ mended to the class by optonmlogists. There they find help to overcome their handicap, so that they can learn and live like other children, and they are taught to conserve their eyes so that their vision will not grow worse but may even improve. These pupils do exactly the same school work as those in the regular classes, except when that work places a strain upon their eves. They are not segregated hut are enrolled in regular classes and receive instruc¬ tion from the same teachers thnt the other pupils have. When writing or rending is required, however, each sight-saving pupil goes to Miss Gil¬ bert’s classroom, where she reads aloud the long selections or furnishes him with a copy printed in large type. His test questions, which are the same as those of the pupils of normal vision, are copied for him in large type, and he writes the answers on the typewriter. With this help the sight-saving pupils are able to com¬ pete on я fair basis with other pupils. According to standard teste, they make more than average progress in school work. The greatest task of the sight-sav¬ ing class is the successful social ad- ( Continued on page eighteen )