Page:Theory and Practice of Handwriting.djvu/89

Rh asked what about the pages and lessons he has missed? Is it not obvious that this Blank Book victim is quite, that he will perforce have to work at the same copy as the rest of the class when he is admittedly unfit for and unable to do it? What about the individual attention rendered necessary if this returned absentee is to get any justice at all in his writing class?

His schoolfellow B, on the other hand enters the "Headline" class at the same time and under the same conditions. But what a contrast! Here also the pupils have written the same number of copies and received the same number of lessons, but that does not affect our friend. His book is opened and. Every individual member of his class is an independent member, each pupil working at that exact stage most and best adapted to his personal ability, and therefore he resumes his labours under the very minimum of disadvantage, conscious that he can proceed with his copy as satisfactorily as before his absence, and with no despondent reference to his class-mates. He feels he is out of the running, and the teacher knows it, for there are no lapsed copies and lessons which he can never overtake.

Blank books are certainly inferior to Headline Copy Books in this comparison.

Lastly as to No. 4 it is somewhat difficult to understand its drift. Of course they do, but are we to understand by implication that Headline Books do not allow of Class Teaching? It has been shown that they not only permit, but that they require and demand it equally with Blank or any other kind of Writing Copy Books. If the objector does not see "how the Black Board can be used" with advantage to illustrate and demonstrate principles to writers in Headline Copy Books just as well as to writers in Blank Books–or for the matter of that to writers on slates also–anything that has been said or could be said in that direction would be powerless to convince him.

It is a palpable delusion to imagine that Black Board demonstration is only useful when every member of the class is engaged