Doctor: Homework Is Making Kids Nearsighted

Here's an excuse that's sure to become popular in classrooms throughout the city: "I didn't do my homework because I don't want to go blind."

Pediatric ophthalmologist Mark Steele told the Post that elementary students at the city's most-esteemed private schools are at a greater risk of myopia than their public school peers. "There's a correlation between private schools and nearsightedness," said Dr. Steele. "The kids in private school do more reading, and that puts them at increased risk. Youngsters doing a lot of reading tend to become nearsighted. The bulk of students get it between the ages of nine and 14."

The difference in vision can be so pronounced that Dr. Steel said he often diagnoses students from first to sixth grades as "private school" or "selective magnet school." He added: "These schools screen for intelligent kids, who probably would have read more no matter what." While parents and tutors say that assigned reading and homework is excessive at some of the city's most competitive schools (allegedly up to four hours per night at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx), Victoria Goldman — author of "The Manhattan Guide to Private Schools" — says nearsightedness can be blamed on other after-school activities. "These kids have BlackBerries and [iPods] and computer games and video games," said Goldman. "The eye strain is from all of those things. It isn't just the homework."

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By Ben Muessig in News on December 13, 2009 11:35 AM

Comments [rss]

dd7

Most kids barely read these days, anyway. Now, reading is "dangerous"? Ridiculous.

Darrell

Sure if you attribute reading to books, but the fact is that kids more than likely read far more than you did when you were a child anyway, due to the internet, which everyone seems to ignore when they like to comment about just how shitty the youth of today are.

Snoopy

Playing video games and cruising my space is not the same as reading books.

And when they do send messages it is in a language that is cool, or is it spelled Kool? TRY going out there in the real world and get a job when your grammar and spelling totally suck. I hear they are hiring at the local McD's. Dude.

Snoopy

How many rappers and basketball players do you see wearing glasses? Not sunglasses, reading glasses.

thelexiphane

If you read too much and become nearsighted, you can go get glasses. Until I can walk into a store and buy a nice pair of 'knowledges' to fit onto my brain, I think I'll keep up the risky reading habit.

ninrvana

"There's a correlation between private schools and nearsightedness," said Dr. Steele.

Yes, a correlation, which is NOT the same thing as causation. Correlation means that when one variable increases or decreases the other variable also increases or decreases. Best example of a correlation not equaling causation, in the summertime there's a positive correlation between amount crime and ice cream sales. Neither causes the other, rather they are both being effected by a third variable, namely heat. The same can be said for this nonsense - there's probably a third unseen variable here that isn't being accounted for because it wouldn't make such a newsworthy story.

LinkMan

Exactly. My understanding is that there is a strong correlation between education and myopia in many countries (including China, for example). But it's not at all clear that the "strain" of reading somehow "causes" myopia (especially since myopia is usually caused by genetic factors like the physical depth of the eyeball, which obviously has nothing to do with how much you read).

The far more likely explanation in my mind is that genetic populations that are prone to myopia tended in the past (before corrective lenses and laser surgery) to gravitate away from jobs requiring good distance vision (like farming and soldiering), and private/magnet school kids today are more likely to come from families that have historically been scholars or clerks rather than farmers or warriors.

This is particularly pronounced in places like China, where the urban Han Chinese population (historically scholars, clerks, craftspeople, etc.) is hugely myopic whereas the rural ethnic minorities (historically farmers, hunters, etc.) have a very low incidence of myopia.

Guest

where was this doctor 20 years ago?

Snoopy

Has there been a study of how many of these kids are watching porno films on the internet?

Wza

hahaha!

HOTCUP

He added: "These schools screen for intelligent kids, who probably would have read more no matter what."

that's the problem with this country - we think that private institutions screen for intelligence, as opposed to money.

what a dumb article, anyway.