Page:Theory and Practice of Handwriting.djvu/80

62 projected state of things with that which obtains under the Headline Copy Book System, where the highest possible standard of engraved Models is aimed at by Publishers and Teachers alike, and where a praiseworthy rivalry is perpetually evolving new sets and series of fresh beauty or increased excellence, and there can be but one opinion on the question. Quench this spirit of emulation, withdraw from circulation every Headline Copy Book, throw Teachers and scholars alike on the resources of Individual variation and Blackboard Standard, and the final decline of Penmanship, all true Handwriting, will have been inaugurated.

.–Again it is not only that these proposed Blackboard Copies are imperfect and defective, they are also. The perpetual changes that must occur in the style of the models set on the Blackboard–changes that in thousands of cases will not be yearly, or even monthly but weekly and almost daily–are objectionable and most mischievous in their tendency. As an illustration let us glance at the career of a Public School pupil under the regime of Blank Copy Books, and in the hands of Blank Book advocates. The lad enters Standard One, where he is taught the principles of formation, and where his practical education consists in tracing or imitating copies written on the Blackboard by his teacher. Certain elements of outline, slope, spacing, and junction are learned, but the lad never sees a perfect model of writing through the whole year, and the models that he does see of necessity vary repeatedly; sometimes carefully written, sometimes the contrary; sometimes one size, frequently a different size; occasionally one slope, generally some other slope; possibly–for accidents will happen in the best regulated institutions–on rare occasions no copy at all, and the class will be told to repeat the previous headline, which they do, and to improve upon it which they as surely do not. On entering Standard Two where the teacher affects a less sloping style of writing, the pupil is introduced into a new world–a world of round, steep characters which require fresh effort to appreciate and acquire; and an entirely different posture of body and arm in its production. Surmounting the obstacles