British parents and teachers are unwittingly putting children's eyes at risk by not making them wear sunglasses and not having their sight tested during the critical first eight years.Says who?
Says the people who make a living out of eye tests, of course!
"There seems to be a wide lack of understanding about eye health," optometrist Karen Sparrow told the Observer. "I would urge parents to remember taking their children to see the optician is just as important as the trip to the dentist or having their feet measured."And BMWs don't buy themselves, she may have added...
I bet they love the D.I.Y. 'can you read the bottom line?' glasses they sell at ASDA.
ReplyDeleteA rare occasion on which I disagree with you - I know of several children with sight problems that were not picked up because their (affluent, middle-class) parents had never bothered to take them for an eye test.
ReplyDeleteIn each case, short-sightedness was spotted by the children's teachers and even then, the parents were unwilling to arrange tests. One girl's mother even refused outright - on the grounds that she didn't want to spoil her daughter's looks with glasses.
The same woman conscientiously took her daughter for regular dental checks and private orthodontic treatment to - anything that could plant in her tiny mind the idea that her child should also be able to read from the board in class is OK in my book.
Most BMW drivers can't see, anyway. Or, at least, they're extremely short sighted - why else would they always drive six feet from the car in front?
ReplyDeleteWell Macheath once you follow the 'I know of several' line you are launched on the mass testing of the young for every hobbyhorse ailment there is.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favourites in this line is an old ad which starts with the line 'I'm not a dentist' - coming from a guy mocked-out in a white coat in a dentist's surgery.
ReplyDeleteI suppose a lot of your blog is possible only because of the repeated deception of this kind. My obsession is trying to get to a point where the critical eye could move on to the positive. Amazing that we don't just have automatic tests on health these days and still live amongst such poor standards. The most vapid area I can think of is teenage pregnancy - perhaps this is down to 'short-sightedness' too!
"I bet they love the D.I.Y. 'can you read the bottom line?' glasses they sell at ASDA."
ReplyDeleteOh, indeed!
"In each case, short-sightedness was spotted by the children's teachers and even then, the parents were unwilling to arrange tests."
I've no doubt it would help a tiny percentage, but as anon points out, it would merely open the floodgates. I'm not sure anything would help to persuade the woman in your anecdote, if she comes from such an odd set of priorities.
"Amazing that we don't just have automatic tests on health these days and still live amongst such poor standards."
It's a freedom thing, though, isn't it? Arrange 'automatic health tests' and you are inculcating the idea that we 'belong' to the State.
That way leads...well, we all know.
"The most vapid area I can think of is teenage pregnancy - perhaps this is down to 'short-sightedness' too!"
It's certainly NOT down to lack of knowledge or unavailability of contraception.
Mind you, that Guardian photograph is the perfect metaphor for the 'citizen' under the Nanny State: contained, helpless, distressed for his own good...and about to have the painfully bright light of Reason shone in his eyes by Experts at public expense and the insistence of the powerful.
ReplyDeleteGiven the political class's concern with all our sex lives, one wonders what the lower half of him looks like...