For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for June 07, 2019

I understand saying “stoopid” but she THINKS it too. So, yes, she has a problem.

what pain could one possibly get from visiting the eye doctor (aside from maybe dilating the pupils with a special liquid)?

Reading? In that last panel, it looks like she is eating the book.

You don’t know Elizabeth as well as you think Ellie.

I wouldn’t be too sure of that, Ellie.

I’m quite the old guy, and I still enjoy reading the Highlights when I visit the Doctor’s office – especially the Hidden Pictures.

Wait, why did she not ask Elizabeth directly? She is old enough to speak for herself!

When I was in first (or second?), grade we had a student teacher who gave us a worksheet. Part way through I realized that every student’s name was in that worksheet. I was really excited to look for mine. Finally there it was: “David can’t see the board.” I was devastated. Shortly after that I had to get glasses. Over 50 years later and I can still remember the embarrassment I felt. :(

Poor girl. “Even though I walk through the valley of the eye doctor, I shall fear no evil.”

I, for one, don’t get the “stoopid” when talking or thinking. Writing, yes, but aren’t “stoopid” and “stupid” pronounced the same? Is “stoopid” the Canadian spelling of “stupid”?

I still get anxious when I’m visiting a new physician for a new problem. It’s not only the kids who feel this way.

This just goes to show that people will argue about ANYTHING … just to argue.

Lynn’s Comments:

I think I’ve said before that the word “stoopid” ruffled a lot of readers’ feathers. Many times I had to explain that despite the spelling, this is the way some words sound. They were not appeased. Artistic license is not necessarily a license to misspell!

Source: fborfw.com/strip_fix

Back in the ‘olden days’ (when I was in grade school), it was not common to take kids to an eye exam. The common assumption was that people didn’t need glasses until they got older. I had no idea why I couldn’t understand what was on the distant chalk board, (since my last name started with a letter toward the end of the alphabet, I sat at the back of the class) until the day I walked to the board and saw words and math problems. These were the days before the common availability of polio vaccine (Salk actually got permission to test it through our schools in Pittsburgh), and parents were more terrified of the ‘summer disease’ of polio. Family doctors rarely asked if we had trouble seeing…

We do hearing and eye tests at public school here in NC three times. I think eyes are Kindergarten, first, and third. Hearing is maybe K, 2, and 4. That way, even kids whose parents don’t take them in get at least a basic check that they can see and hear reasonably. We don’t want this to happen.

My middle child is the only one who has gone to an eye doctor. She struggled with reading when the letters in books got smaller (far-sighted, though since corrected itself). The others ace the yearly eye exam at the regular doctor’s office and show no signs of struggling to see anything. We should take them, though. Our son is almost the age where eye strain did me in, and since he is reading on a computer or in a book almost as much as I did, he is at risk. I did bring all the kids to this daughter’s check-up (age 8). I had told them it was a longer version of the eye chart they had already done, so hopefully they weren’t too scared. After they saw what their sister did, they will never worry again, for sure.

No “Highlights” mags?