Don’t forget to exercise your eyes.

So everyday at the beginning of my 2:10 class, students have to exercise their eyes. YouTube "Chinese Eye Exercises" for clarification. At the beginning of class, a loudspeaker comes on and the whole school closes their eyes and does a series of "exercises" to a child like voice and some peaceful elevator music. It really caught me off guard the first day… I was just about to introduce myself when the kids take off their glasses and start methodically rubbing their eyes. Hmmm… Now after a few days I just feel a bit awkward sitting there for 5 minutes watching it. There's always a class monitor who gets the enjoyment of walking around the classroom poking any students who aren't participating.

I finally gave in today and asked what they were doing. By massaging the acupuncture points around the eyes, the exercises are designed to increase circulation. Apparently they are said to reduce stress and strain on the eyes. A whopping 76% of elementary students in China are already nearsighted, so I guess this is a measure to try to counteract that… Interesting.