“That’s a pretty broad statement, Strong,” objected Air. Clyde.
“Is it? Look at the evidence. North Germany is the place where Froebel first developed his system. Seventy-five per cent of the population are defective of vision. Even the American children of North German immigrants show a distinct excess of eye defects. You’ve seen the comic pictures representing Boston children as wearing huge goggles?”
“Are you making an argument out of a funny-paper joke?” queried Grandma Sharpless.
“Why not? It wouldn’t be a joke if it hadn’t some foundation in fact. The kindergarten system got its start in America in Boston. Boston has the worst eyesight of any American city; impaired vision has even become hereditary there. To return to Germany: if you want a shock, look up the records of suicides among school-children there.”
“But surely that has no connection with the eyes.”
“Surely it has,” controverted Dr. Strong. “The eye is the most nervous of all the organs; and nothing will break down the nervous system in general more swiftly and surely than eye-strain. Even in this country we are raising up a generation of neurasthenic youngsters, largely from neglect of their eyes.”
“Still, we’ve got to educate our children,” said Mr. Clyde.
“And we’ve got to take the utmost precautions lest the education cost more than it is worth, in acquired defects.”
“For my part,” announced Grandma Sharpless, “I believe in early schooling and in children learning to be useful. At the Sarsfield school there were little girls no older that Bettina, who were doing needlework beautifully; fine needlework at that.”
“Fine needlework!” exploded Dr. Strong in a tone which Grandma Sharpless afterwards described as “damnless swearing.”