Leo Dobson

12/2/2015
1st period

The School Systems Blind Spot

School systems around the country are unaware of a growing problem.

This problem is largely unnoticeable unless one went looking for it. This
problem is an epidemic. It is affecting the learning of students from
kindergarten all the way up to the 12th grade. This epidemic has to do with a
students ocular acuity. There are many students going through the American
education system who cant see well or see at all and are not receiving the
visual aids that they need in order to be successful. This is an epidemic that
has gone largely unnoticed within school districts and is only recently
beginning to be addressed.
Lack of visual acuity and visual impairment are major issues facing
school systems around the country and even around the globe. Children from
kindergarten all the way to 12th grade are going through the education
system without full ocular prowess and are not receiving the glasses or other
visual aids they need in order to fully participate within the classroom. Many
of these students go undiagnosed for visual impairments because there is no
systematic approach to solving the issue. School systems lack of action has
had very negative effects on school children. In fact, 80% of all learning
during a childs first 12 years comes through vision (Clinical services). There
is a disconnect between parents and school districts. This disconnect exists
because of a lack of both knowledge and communication. The lack of
knowledge is concentrated on the parents side, while a lack of
communication exists between both the parents and the schools. These

types of situations often lead to the children not receiving the much needed
glasses.
Child vision problems are difficult to spot mainly because children
themselves dont think anything is wrong. Often times these children go
through schools believing everyone elses vision is just like their own. It also
doesnt help that most parents dont even know that there is a problem with
their childrens eyes in the first place. In many situations children dont tell
their parents about their eye sight and parents arent usually looking for
signs that say that there is something wrong with their childs eyesight.
These and many more are just a few reasons for why ocular problems are not
detected earlier.
Most vision problems can easily be corrected by the use of
eyeglasses (Mclnerney). Most people dont understand the difference
receiving glasses makes for these children. Children who receive glasses
perform significantly better than previous instances within and outside the
classroom. Glasses can and do make the difference between a child being
successful at school and being unsuccessful. In fact, Over half of students
identified as problem learners have undetected vision problems
(Association). These children are branded troubled even though their only
problem is not being able to see proficiently. It is incredibly unfair that
situations like these still persist in todays school classrooms. Many of these
children are just misunderstood and their potential is halted because of
ocular impediments. Teachers should proceed with caution before banding a

child a troublemaker without checking to see if they have some sort of

disadvantage.
Schools have incredible amounts of trouble solving this issue because
of multiple reasons. Often these schools already have enough on their
schedule that student eye health is a distant issue. Some schools Struggle to
even get so caught up dealing with major events and testing that the
primary education of the student gets lost in the confusion. Often students
with ocular impediments become ignored. Most school systems are ill
prepared to handle such large numbers of students with varying eye health
needs. Its understandable that schools already have a bunch on their plates,
but this issue needs their input if its going to be solved. School systems are
doing too little to aid parents and students through the process of achieving
glasses.
Parents arent too much better. Parents are the main providers for
children, especially when those children need health care. Working with
Eyecare for Kids, Leo has noticed that parents are often the reason children
dont use their vouchers to redeem for glasses. Eyecare for Kids supplies
families that live 150% below the poverty line with vouchers they can use to
redeem for free glasses for their school age children. These families are often
working poor, meaning they have to work usually two or more jobs just to
afford basic necessities. These families often deal with issues such as
extreme poverty, language barriers, and racism. But when given the
opportunity to go redeem glasses, many of them fall short. Why is this

happening? Ellen Efsic, who works for Eyecare for Kids had this to say, I
believe the biggest disconnect is on the parent side. Parents often lose or
misplace vouchers or forget to schedule a doctors visit. Also all the families
we work with are already disadvantaged. All of them are working poor
(people living 150% below the poverty line) and face many other issues
(Efsic). This issue with parents and schools being unable to tackle this issue
together is because of a mass of interconnected issues that ultimately lead
to a large minority of students going without the glasses many of them
desperately need.
Eyecare for kids is one of many non- profit organizations out there
nowadays working with and advocating for children living in poverty. Leo
interns at Eyecare for Kids and he enjoys the experiences very much. Being
able to aid an organization that helps children receive the glasses they need
is very rewarding. Leo does many jobs around the office, but the most
important job he completes there is follow-up calls. Follow-up calls are
important because it checks up on parents to see if they are holding up their
end of the bargain and redeeming the glasses. At first follow-up calls were
difficult for Leo, but he has gotten used to following the script and directing
clients to the right destinations. These follow-up calls are an important part
of the process of increasing the voucher usage, which will then increase
redemption of glasses.
This overall issue is a huge blind spot that continually goes ignored.
Most children have perfect or minute ocular impediment that doesnt need

correction and it can be frustrating for children who have moderate to severe
ocular impediment who do need those corrections to be ignored by the
system. Many of them are struggling through school, some of them end up
dropping out of high school because they were unable to perform to their
highest potential. All because of a minor setback. These children who tend to
already be at a disadvantage are thrown into a whole other arena of struggle
and the rest of us doing nothing is injustice.
The solution to this problem is not simple and isnt surefire either, but
it is the best that schools can muster. Widespread screening is definitely
needed, but also the installment of more school nurses would really help to
improve the battle against student impairments. Screenings are when you
cover one of your eyes and read off letters and/or numbers off a poster.
System wide screenings would be positive, but screenings can only detect so
much. Schools systems and parents need to stay in close communication and
coordinate with each other in order to tackle this issue effectively.
Leo Plans on holding a school wide screening at Houston Academy for
International Studies. He plans to hold this screening in order to catch any
students who have vision problems that may need glasses. This Screening
will be very effective for fighting against student ocular impairments in
schools.
Ocular Impairments in schools go unnoticed because of lack of
knowledge and communication. These impairments are often the causes of

children under performing and dropping out of high school. In order for this
epidemic to stop, widespread systematic changes need to be made. This
problem wont end until parents and school systems come together to
effectively tackle it.

Works Cited
Leick, Gwendolyn. "Introduction." The Babylonian World (2012): n. pag.
Houstonisd. 5 June 2014. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.
Clonlara Campus School. "Eye-tracking: The Often Missed Reading
Difficulty." Clonlara School. N.p., 07 Jan. 2013. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.
Anderson, Ric. "VISION PROBLEMS CAN GO UNNOTICED IN CHILDREN."
LJWorld.com. N.p., 24 Aug. 1992. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.
"Back to School & Your Child's Sight." Eye One. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Dec.
2015.

Mclnerney, Dennis M. "Educational Psychology: Constructing Learning."

Google Books. Pearson Higher Education AU, 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.
"Teacher's Guide to Vision and Learning." Vision Education, Teach
Vision, Vision Lessons for Teachers, Eye Lessons for Teachers. Wisconsin
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Clinical Services. "Vision in School Children." Noosa Optical. N.p., 31
Aug. 2015. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.
"School-Age Kids Need More Than Vision Screenings." School Vision
Screenings Are Not Enough. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.
Hart Research Associates, Peter D. "ERIC - The Silent Epidemic:
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