Page:Theory and Practice of Handwriting.djvu/95

Rh holders provided or new pencils supplied. Lastly, soft slate pencils are the best, if hard and gritty they scratch and destroy the surface of the slate, thus making an inherently bad article still worse.

When our Educational Authorities wake up to a sense of their responsibilities, all such important details of School Life and Experience, as these now under discussion, will be thoroughly investigated decided upon and Reformed.

Of course the objections to slates have not all been mentioned. The mode, the general if not virtually the universal mode of the slates constitutes in our opinion a valid reason for their abandonment. Who that has witnessed the proceedings in an arithmetic class where slates are being used can entertain any doubts on the question? Get rid of slates and you get rid of the dirtiest and most demoralizing habits that are born and bred in the Schoolroom. It is not decent to retain them, it is not safe, it is not wise.

Let them go, few will be found to mourn their loss.

.–In the matter of Books their character as to Headlines has already been examined. There are other considerations to which attention may be directed. And first as to paper. It is a false economy to have inferior paper. Such a thing as Educating Downwards does unhappily exist and to true teachers this is a calamity, a deplorable calamity, ever to be shunned.

Competition fortunately cuts out from the market defective paper, and it is cause for congratulation that the School Boards generally set such a worthy example in the question by insisting on a certain (and certainly good) quality of paper in all contracts for Writing Copy Books. Poor thin paper is no longer a recognised entity, and as a rule Copy Books are now unexceptionable in this respect, those that are not will soon possess only a past history.

The Shape of the Copy Book is an interesting topic to examine. Shapes vary (Fig. 24), and so do sizes very considerably. The Sizes of Books differ so very much that we give the extreme dimensions between which there is every possible variety. One