School Vision Testing.

From time to time there is a need for papers to be heard on subjects closely allied with the practice of ophthalmology but which do not have any obvious dramatic appeal. Vision testing in the schools is one such topic. The school population represents a most challenging and fertile area for the practice of preventive medicine. The role attributed to defective vision as a cause of unsatisfactory school progress led to the early establishment of school vision testing programs. Although the belief in the importance of the visual sense in scholastic achievement has not diminished, there have occurred over the past 20 years certain modifications in the educational philosophy of learning, which have shifted the emphasis of vision from a predominantly functional role toward its rightful place as an integral part of the general health care of the child. 1 Ophthalmologists have been associated with the development of school vision