Miss Cornelius received some light on the subject a few days later which
caused her to open her eyes widely.
[Sidenote: The “Trouble Department”]
“Oh, yes,” she said to the visiting nurse when she appeared at the
schoolroom door with a request that she might test the vision and
hearing of the children in that room; “test any of the children that you
want to. That row over there is my ‘Trouble Department,’” she added
jokingly. “Suppose you begin there. That will give me a chance to
conduct this geography lesson in peace.”
The nurse smiled and began calling one after another of the children to
the examiner’s office, where she tested each of the children for
adenoids, weak lungs, defective vision and hearing, etc. At the recess
period she came to Miss Cornelius with the query,
“Why did you tell me that this row of children was your ‘Trouble
Department’?” Miss Cornelius laughed a little.
“Because they make me so much trouble by just fidgeting and wriggling
about, and by having such poor lessons. They are always inventing some
excuse or other for not doing their work.”
“Why do you think they ‘invent’ their excuses?” asked the nurse, rather
gravely.
“Oh, because they are all right in the morning, and many times when I
stay here after school, for one reason or another, I see the very same
children going past with other boys or playing as I pass them on my way
home. They can’t be very ill if they recover so quickly.”
“At what time in the day do the children begin to be troublesome? You
say they are all right when they come to school in the morning.”
“About half past ten or eleven o’clock, I should think. I never noticed
particularly.”
“About what time does the sun begin to shine in at that row of windows?”
Miss Cornelius looked surprised, but answered, “About ten o’clock.”
“Are the text-books that the children are using printed on dull or
glazed paper?” pursued the nurse.
“Most of them are printed on glazed paper. We get the most attractive
books for the children that we can find,” answered Miss Cornelius
proudly.
“I see,” said the visiting nurse. “May I tell you what I have found in
this examination? Six of the children who sit in that row have defective
vision in the left eye, that is, in the eye next to that row of
windows.” It was Miss Cornelius’ turn to look grave.
“The glaring sunlight which streams in through those windows after ten
o’clock, shining on the glazed pages of those text-books, is ruining the
eyesight of your pupils. It is eyestrain that makes them so nervous and
fidgety. I shall immediately ask the board to change the lighting of the
room, and I advise you, when ordering more text-books, to see that you
get those which are printed on unglazed paper.”