Page:Theory and Practice of Handwriting.djvu/82

64 construction slope or quality, but a system of Penmanship that at least is consistent with itself throughout.

Thus the child leaving standard, class, or form one, finds nothing confusing in standard two, meets with everything agreeable and helpful in class three, and to the highest form or division in his school, is aided in his efforts to shine in caligraphy by a series of perfect and unvarying models, uniform in their excellence as they are scientific in their arrangement.

.–It will occur to the thoughtful reader that Blackboard models will as a rule exhibit a sad lack in gradation. Who is to see that the copies prescribed to the several writing classes in our large Schools are properly graded, and adapted to the powers and ability of the writers.? [sic] It may be safely presumed, that in an overwhelming proportion the copies will be unsuitable from defective progressive arrangement, and the advancement of the scholars will be retarded in a like ratio, as every teacher will recognise. All true gradation will of necessity be neglected, to the serious endamagement of the pupils, if that gradation be left to the hap-hazard writing of Teachers on the Blackboard.

Again the grading of copies as to size–text, round or small–and the judicious blending of these sizes (a matter of no small importance) can receive but scant recognition under the Blank Book regulations. The rulings in the books, and the sizes on the Blackboard will seldom harmonize; in short when it is remembered that size, character, words and sentences have all to be separately and independently graded in an appropriate and scientific order, it would be worse than foolish to suppose this could be achieved by indiscriminate and improvised copysetting on the Blackboard by teachers, who generally speaking, would not have devoted two minutes thought or preparation to their task. Efficient grading of writing models demands a concentration of attention, and an expenditure of time, that are simply beyond the resources of any teacher during the busy hours of a day's routine.

Moreover, what can be done with personal or individual grading in Blank book Classes? It is an unheard-of phenomenon