5 ms·
Case and point: I wear glasses. In fact, I'm almost blind without them: my effective vision ends at about 3 feet. Though I am able to perceive distinction betwe
by IntrepidWorm 5y ago
Case and point: I wear glasses. In fact, I'm almost blind without them: my effective vision ends at about 3 feet. Though I am able to perceive distinction between large objects and people, everything dissolves into a fuzzy mess. In American public schools (in the northeast US, at least) in the early 90s, schools would test student vision every year during elementary/primary school years. They would use the traditional eye test sheet, with strings of letters in smaller and smaller font vertically stacked, to be read at a distance.
It took them 5 years to figure out that I couldn''t see anything other than what was immediately in front of me. I was a smart kid, and never had problems in the classroom as I sat in the front row and listened very carefully to what was going in.
I would memorize the eye test sheet while standing in line at the nurses office, waiting to be tested. They never suspected anything was amiss, and routinely reported to my parents that I had perfect vision.
I was finally discovered when my father, trying to be clever while we were out shopping, asked me about an ice cream parlor in the distance. Despite the name of the shop being written clearly above the shopfront, I bombed the question and my father realized that I couldn''t see what he was talking about.
- inglor_cz 5y ago"I would memorize the eye test sheet" There were so many of us...
- Aerroon 5y agoI have poor vision as well. We didn't have eye sight tests. I couldn't see anything written on the blackboard for at least a few years. I realized I had poor vision and even timidly asked about it a few times. It went nowhere and just like any kid, I felt like it was my own personal moral failing that I couldn't see well enough. (Every failing as a kid feels like that.) The result was that I spent a few years not being able to see what was written on the blackboard. I had to mostly figure it out by myself. The worst were the tests that teachers only wrote on the blackboard. I'd inevitably have to quietly ask someone around me to tell me what the questions were. I don't think I failed a single test because of it even though talking was forbidden. The funny part was that when my parents eventually took me to an optometrist they tried to convince me that wearing glasses won't be that bad. I distinctly remember that situation because I kept thinking "I asked for them years ago!" Eventually my eyesight became bad enough again that the glasses I had didn't cut it anymore. I fell a little bit back into my old habits, but it wasn't as bad as before. Sitting closer and all of that helped immensely.
- arp242 5y agoWhy would you memorize the eye tests? You were afraid that your low vision was "discovered"? Wouldn't that be a good thing? I'm actually really confused by your story to be honest, I think there's some part that I'm missing somehow.
- ThePowerOfDirge 5y agoThese "anecdotes" make my blood boil.
- arp242 5y agoThat seems excessively strong. There's probably just an assumption about something somewhere I'm not getting because of different cultural context or the like.
- IntrepidWorm 5y agoYeah, couldnyou clarify? What about the anecdotes?
- IntrepidWorm 5y agoI was also 8 or 9 years old, and didn't really understand the big deal. On some level, I knew that my vision was different than other kids, but when it came time to test it, I also had a desire to "beat the test." If it seems childish, that's because it was. :)
- fastaguy88 5y agoI did very well in elementary school, though by 4th or 5th grade I often asked to be seated near the front because of the “glare” on the black board. I did not realize I could not see until a science class about clouds, and I could not tell that the sky was overcast, not blue. I was also surprised to see that street lights were points, not large haloes. I’ve heard many similar stories from nearsighted friends.