Chapter One
THE PENMANSHIP PROBLEM
THE COMMERCIAL FACTOR
We are living in a practical age. Every institution of worth points to the truth of this statement. Of every plan advanced the query comes, “Will it stand a practical test?” We are constantly experimenting with, and adopting, new methods, and those in force today may be displaced tomorrow as being behind the spirit of the time. It is only natural that the commercialization of penmanship should take place.
When a business man is asked what qualification counts most in employing clerks he is very apt to say, “Other things being equal, the good writer gets the place.” Henry Clews, the Wall Street banker, frankly states that the beginning of his successful career may be traced to good penmanship.
A letter of application for a position is not judged by school room standards, but by business standards. These two sets of standards should be in harmony. An educator of authority finds that “there is little contention as to the function the child is to serve when he becomes part of the world in which he shall eventually find himself. Our methods as practiced however, would hardly be recognized as having any foundation in the thought for future citizenship.” Think of the vast army of boys and girls who leave the elementary school at an early age to earn a livelihood. These should be given the best practical equipment.
To be sure, there are those who cite instances of great men whose handwriting is almost unreadable, and argue that point in favor of allowing all public school pupils to be poor writers. Common sense teaches us that it is unwise to burden ourselves with an unnecessary handicap.
Others will say that it is not worth while, as every one will use a typewriter upon entering the commercial world. Only a certain proportion will enter the world of commerce, and a majority of those who do enter tell us that they have as much work to do with pen or pencil as on the typewriter.
The initial drafts of the majority of all important documents are usually written with the pen. We have the word of many an author that an attempt to dictate the first draft results disastrously to the content of the manuscript. We therefore infer that in matters of importance the use of the mechanical device is not conducive to the best composition. The typewriter is of great convenience after the first draft has been revised.
THE EDUCATIONAL FACTOR
Again, would it not be vastly worth while, even for school purposes alone, to learn rapid, easy and legible hand-writing, since a majority of pupils spend nine years in the elementary and junior high schools? A good percentage finish high school and many pursue a college career for four years. What an asset good easy writing is in school and college! Every pupil owes it as a duty to himself and to his instructors to express himself legibly on paper.
Finally, while its worth cannot be fully estimated, good writing is eagerly sought and its possessor finds it ever a ready servant and valued friend. We should strive for usable knowledge. In McMurray’s How To Study we learn that “It is a part of one’s work as a student, therefore, to plan to turn one’s knowledge to some account; to plan not alone to sell it for money, but to use it in various ways in daily life.”
EDUCATIONAL VALUE
Perhaps the most widely recognized educational value of good penmanship would come under the head of utility. Pleasing angles, graceful curves, uniformity, and clear strong lines appeal alike to all. From the attitude taken by many educational folk, relegating this subject in the curriculum to the background, we might think that they prefer illegible writing. Yet frequently these are the very persons who are heard to complain the loudest and longest over poorly written test papers and unreadable letters from friends.
Muscular movement penmanship may be utilized to advantage in school and out. In the first place it saves the pupils’ time and physical energy in execution and the teachers’ time and energy in interpreting. In the second place it is most emphatically demanded by the world that many of these pupils will enter upon leaving school. Parents draw their conclusions, many times, regarding the quality of work in the school largely from the appearance of written work.
Pupils who have persistently followed the drill until it has influenced their actual writing will soon realize their power: here is the evidence on paper, the measure of the effort put forth. They have conquered both mentally and physically. Will not the confidence established in their own ability be of value to them in mastering other subjects? What gives more pleasure, self-respect and encouragement to persevere than the conscious knowledge of skill? This consciousness of power and skill is a tremendous educational force and one that should receive constant recognition with reference to penmanship.
Many are the pupils who have great difficulty in gaining book lore, but who find the manual arts attractive. To such the consciousness that they can do even one thing well is a powerful inducement toward the mastery of something less attractive.
Pupils learn before they finish the elementary school that proper conventions must be observed in order to preserve social order and relations. When these conventions are overlooked to a great extent in writing, pupils are not gaining the most that the subject has to teach them. When irregularities become noticeable a check should be placed; otherwise the habit will become strong enough to be of great hindrance in later life. In no subject can a tendency to tear down conventions be discovered more easily than in penmanship and nowhere can we better impress upon pupils the desirability of obeying, to a reasonable degree, the conventional lines which all social beings are bound to recognize.
Who cannot recall at least one “bad boy” who has been completely reformed by some one of the manual arts? Muscular movement penmanship has many such to its credit. Teachers and supervisors are called upon quite as much to reform as to form and inform.