The Educator (Volume 45) - IAMPETH

14
dows. Here again the teacher's sense
of tidiness may make it difficult for
her to enjoy having the desks run
almost diagonally across the room,
but there may be some other gain in
this arrangement of seats and desks
besides that of preventing eye strain.
In some of our training centers at
the State Teachers College at Towson,
where rooms have been crowded,
this arrangement for seating, the
teachers have told me, has given
them two large corners of the room
for various activities; whereas with
the desks perpendicular to the windows,
there were four corners which
were too small to be used.
Amount of Light Needed
To sum up these principles of good
lighting, every child in a room needs
not less than ten to fifteen foot candles
of light on his desk when reading,
wi-iting, or doing other close
work. Does it seem fair to measure
each child's work by the same standard
when some have worked under
poorer conditions of lighting than
others? Glare and poor diffusion of
light, spots of light and shade, prevent
securing a clear image and are
fatiguing.
Changes in the Eye
Great changes take place in the
eyes of infants and young children,
but the development and growth of
the eyes is not completed when children
enter elementary school. In
studies where children's eyes have
been tested, it has been found that
around three fourths of the children
who enter the first grade are farsighted.
This number tends to decrease,
and we find about 50