THE TEACHING OF HANDWRITING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13855, 19 March 1907, Page 8

THE TEACHING OF HANDWRITING.

There lias beeii issued io the head teachers in London County Council schools, says The Tribune, a most interesting document on the teaching of handwriting. Business men regularly complain' that, boys engaged by tlicm cannot write legibly, and a sub-committee of the council have been considering the subject. They have sought the opinions of Dr Garnett, their educational advisor; Dr Kerr, the incdical officer to the Education. Committee; and Mr Edward Johnston, who is the instructor in writing and lettering at the London County Council Central School of.Arts and Crafts, and at the lioyal College of Art, South Kensington. The reports of these officials have now been issued to the teachers. Dr Harnett condemns copybooks which are divided into squares, and thinks it probable that; the wire-gauze effect of paper so ruled is very' trying to tho nerves and injurious to ''the eyesight. Ho points out that a checker-board divided 1 into squares, alternately: black and white, is very dazzling, and, that this method of subdividing a space is often used to increase the difficulty of training guns on a particular spot. He also instances tho irritating effect of a, half-tone block from a coarsely-ruled scrcen. Squared paper is similarly condemned by the medical officer. The pens and copybooks in general use were submitted to Mr Johnston for his opinion. Ho is " not able to approve" of any of them. His objections to the copybooks are Iliat the models arc not gcod, being wanting in legibility, beauty, and oharactcr, which qualitiesare always interdeAn ugly or charnclerlcss hand is. other things hcing equal, certain to be less legible. The first aim of a copybook should he to teach a child to write* well. Most of those now in use aim at fluency, and to this the form and character of tho writing is sacrificed. Models based on fluency have no lasting, controlling influence, and eventually the .writer's hand degenerates. A good model will always develop into a fluent hand without degenerating. Illegibility, continues Mr Johnston, is largely duo to lack of character and' to tho presence of weak, thin strokes. - The exaggerated spacing is also at fault, this having arisen through a mistaken supposition that spread-out letters make words more legible. In good writing the reverse is the case; ordinarily we read words each as a complex diagram (it is only illegible writing which gives us pause to spell), and io make the letters close together in each individual work is an actual help to reading. The best tool is a "square-nibbed" pen which will make definite thick and thin strokes and graduated curvcs according to tho direction in which it is moved. The best model is a "simple, round, upright, formal hand," which should ba gradually developed into an "oval, slanting, and less formal" style, jind later into ordinary running handwriting. Whilst it is convenient to regard legibility as of first importance, Mr Johnston thinks that in actual practice beauty and character are more sought after, and applicants' letters, which are generally readable enough, are rejected for lack of them. Beauty and character are found in all simple handwriting, hut not as they ought to be in modern copybooks.