The survey I am doing
suggests that in addition to those taking examinations this year who have never been to an optician
there may be 50,000 ( yes 50,000!) who were wearing glasses in primary school
but stopped.
It is possible that many of those who stopped, found that
when they wore them, their teachers expected any reading difficulties they had
would be solved. If they were not solved, then the child would decide that the
glasses were not helping and stop wearing them. Parents in this situation would
find it hard to argue with the children and win.
I have been told that bullying does not appear to be an issue for the children wearing glasses, although it may have been an issue for those who stopped at secondary level. How do we find out?
Many university students, I have met, have told me that the
glasses they had actually seemed to make their eyes ache, or that they would
feel nauseous, as well as making little difference. These were clever successful
students who had struggled but succeeded at school. They were saying it as it
was. At Further education level, I tend to meet students with bigger reading
difficulties, bigger visual problems, which have never been resolved even
though they could be. It seems likely that millions of pounds are spent each
year trying support students when the fundamentals have been missed.
I remember in one FE college, a student who clearly needed
glasses, had never been to an optician, who could read if the font on a
computer screen was set at 27, and actually could read quite fluently; immediately after the teacher had been told of his difficulty, he was told to read out aloud from a Dickens novel to the class! The student tried but was laughed at and humiliated in front of
his peers. Unsurprisingly he got angry, upset and walked out. Another success story!!!!!
This guy had been in special needs since he was 11 years
old. This had been happening for years.
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