My wife had bad vision problems from her youth. When I met her, she had 20/1000 vision. At that time, contact lenses were very expensive, but we did agree to get her a set. Not only could she see better with them but it also seemed to stabilize her sight.

I will never regret paying for them. There are dozens of advantages to contacts beside appearance. I noticed one of the big ones is that she did not nearly spend as much time looking for the other glasses that she had a habit of misplacing. The fact was that without her glasses, she was legally blind. She had to bring things within 6 inches of her eyes to see it clearly.

Years later, I took her to have her eyes examined and while she was being examined, my younger son asked if he could have glasses. I started to say that he didn’t need glasses, but then paused. I, in essence, borrowed the eyechart. I had him stand at the line and had him read the letters on the chart. He had a hard time and got most of the letters wrong.

Wow. Did I ever get a lesson. I was under the assumption he could see fine. I mean he was in the second grade and was getting good grades. Could have knocked me over. It is only by chance I found out he was having big problems.

Tonight, I saw a story on the news about children entering school with eye problems, encouraging parents to have their sight checked. It is one of those times I really do suggest that the government get involved. By 4, certainly by 5, all children should have their eyes checked. It is for a variety of reasons, but certainly for reading. I would guess it helps in playing baseball too. I am sure it would have been much better if my son had glasses at least two years earlier.

Perhaps it could go further than that. Maybe pediatricians could perform a cursory check by age three. I know. They aren’t eye doctors. Still, how long does it take to check a three year old for basic vision. No since all the other kids get the head start in development.

Moreover, I have known children who were deaf or partially deaf and didn’t know it until second grade. They had learned to read lips on their own. Maybe one of the best things we can do for our youth is to check their eyes and ears before going to school. Considering we spend maybe ten thousand dollars a year educating them, surely we can spend 5 or 6 minutes on each to make sure they can see and hear.

At the very least, we can make sure all the stupid people like me can make sure to check our own kids. I mean, once my son could not read the eye chart, I knew he had problems. He saw an optometrist within minutes. A few days later, he had two pairs of glasses. He also had a repentant dad.