Page:Theory and Practice of Handwriting.djvu/123

Rh intelligent in its general construction and presentation to the juvenile mind. Many objections have been taken however to the scheme by teachers, some of which are more fanciful than real and others more prejudiced than pertinent. There are certainly however (apart from the vital objection of slope) some few drawbacks, but these do not militate sufficiently to destroy its value as a feasible and workable method on which to teach writing, if teachers will only modify it as the requirements of their classes demand. It will be noticed that the classification given in these pages (p. 96) resembles that of Mulhauser from which it varies only in a slight degree warranted we think by the incongruity of presenting–as Mulhauser does–the very difficult long letters and  before such easy letters as, , , and elsewhere similarly.

Many of Locke’s ideas are forceful, but some are certainly peculiar. He insists that children shall be taught, and perfectly taught, how to hold the pen before they are allowed to make a stroke. He also maintains that large hand shall be taught before small hand, and that writing shall for a considerable length of time consist of tracing over faint red-ink outlines printed in the Copy books. His method may therefore be briefly summarized as follows: There is an unquestioned advantage, which none can fail to recognise, in teaching a child how to hold the pen at the very beginning of his caligraphic course, but whether it is better to do this before a stroke is made or whilst the strokes are being made is a question for discussion. So long as the right way of holding the pen is secured (and it may certainly be secured by both methods) it will matter very little as to the exact and relative