Page:Theory and Practice of Handwriting.djvu/99

Rh terribly strong. It is also equally imperative that the copy books be kept as clean as possible. How is this to be done if there is no blotting paper on the page for the hand to rest upon? Children do not enter their classes with clean hands as a rule (unfortunately the reverse is generally the case) and the unavoidable consequence is that the copy books bear very objectionable evidence of these dirty fingers from the first page to the very last. Besides this the surface of the paper is almost destroyed for writing purposes by the grease and heat from the hand if no blotting paper is allowed. Lastly on this point, in all good offices the usage is to have blotting paper under the hand (and at hand) in every kind of writing, and if it is thus found to be requisite for adults how much more necessary is it with juveniles.

A word as to the mode or modes generally adopted for cleaning the pens. In numerous schools the pens are never cleaned at all, in others they are cleaned by processed as manifold as they are objectionable, and in some few establishments penwipers are used and the pens are cleaned as they ought to be, daily and effectively.

Of course teachers should aim at inculcating habits of neatness and cleanliness, and in the Writing Class these habits may receive material strengthening and stimulating by the mode of pen-cleaning that shall prevail. It will not always be possible in elementary schools, but if penwipers could be introduced generally, much that is slovenly and dirty would disappear from our classes.