Penmanship

“ His own writing, small, upright, and characterful, was very pretty when he took time and pains; but the specimen which lies before me shows sad signs of the havoc wrought by incessant writing against time.
Grace and legibility are the two chief glories of penmanship, but other attributes are not without their effect. A dashing scrawl, if only it is easy to read, suggests a soaring superiority to conventional restraints, and rather bespeaks a hero. ”

“ Penmanship is entirely too isolated, and the value of cooperation and correlation are not sufficiently recognized. Young America demonstrated this perfectly when at the beginning of a written spelling test he asked if he should write it with muscular movement or with his “real writin’.” To him the drill that was supposed to make for the correct writing habit had not taken hold. He failed to associate the practice method with practical work. ”

“ Too often, little or no attention is given penmanship in the grades and consequently boys and girls go through life laboring under a serious handicap.
In the following pages an attempt is made to bring definitely and concisely before educators [8] the fundamental facts necessary to secure legibility and rapidity in penmanship, without causing strain of eye or cramp of hand. The treatment of the subject is simple and direct. The discussion of the problem of penmanship is followed by a consideration of the essentials necessary to the establishment of a habit that shall result in good penmanship. ”

“ After we read an interesting book we want to see the author's face and his autograph. But there is almost always a surprise or disappointment felt when for the first time we come upon the handwriting of persons of whom we have heard or read much. We often find that the bold, dashing nature sometimes wields a trembling pen, and that some man eminent for weakness has a defiant penmanship that looks as if he wrote with a splinter of thunderbolt. ”

“ To perfect penmanship as a tool for school work and to impress those who plan to enter upon business careers at the end of the ninth year with the fact that they should be especially serious in penmanship preparation. ”

“ A penmanship teacher must balance enthusiasm with tact, system, and resourcefulness, and be ever on the alert to discover the individual needs. Tact plays a very important part in penmanship instruction for by the exercise of it we are led to say and do the right thing at the right time. ”

“ The person who makes practical use of penmanship, the one who uses it to help him earn his daily bread, points the way. It matters not if he calls it muscular movement or if he ever saw a penmanship teacher. Watch such a person and observe his method. Observation will reveal that practically all use what we term a muscular movement slant method. It takes the practical person only a short time to discover the method that will best conserve energy, economize time, and, above all, lead to writing which will prove readable and attractive. ”

“ As these pupils pass through the junior high school, the senior high school, commercial colleges or universities and out into the actual business world, they will take on that individuality in penmanship which suits best. The appearance of their writing will be considerably modified owing to the different conditions under which each one performs his tasks. ”

“ Letter Writing.—Two subjects for letter writing are given, and the competitor may select either upon which to write a letter of not less than 125 words. The exercise in letter writing is designed chiefly to test the competitor’s skill in composition.
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Penmanship.—The rating on penmanship is determined by legibility, neatness, rapidity and general appearance, and by correctness and uniformity in the formation of words, letters and punctuation marks in the exercise in copying from plain copy. No particular style of penmanship is preferred. ”

“ Since penmanship is used largely as a vehicle for expression to convey the mental product to others, is it not reasonable that we employ the easiest and speediest method of transportation? It is convenient to be master of a method that can record thought as fast as the mind shapes it. The right method will aid thought, not impede it. ”

“ The writing, and not the writer, has always been the supreme consideration in the growth of the art of penmanship. A certain style of writing was deemed or decreed to be essential, the idea of protest was never entertained, and our ancestors had to bend cringe and twist under the system of bondage thus established. ”

“ We are living in a practical age. Every institution of worth points to the truth of this statement. Of every plan advanced the query comes, “Will it stand a practical test?” We are constantly experimenting with, and adopting, new methods, and those in force today may be displaced tomorrow as being behind the spirit of the time. It is only natural that the commercialization of penmanship should take place.
When a business man is asked what qualification counts most in employing clerks he is very apt to say, “Other things being equal, the good writer gets the place.” ”

“ And passing from the schoolroom where such an anomalous and chaotic state of things prevails into the world outside, this is exactly what meets us. We can only describe the penmanship of the present age as a dreary waste of slightly variegated illegibility relieved here and there at long intervals by welcome exceptions of readable writing. In view of what reaches one continually by the post we may denounce the writing that obtains now-a-days as miserably poor and painfully illegible. ”

“ But it is irritating, when some forward fellow, after evincing his marked contempt for the slow and cramped performances of his friends, jauntily takes up the pen and dashes off his signature at a tremendous rate and with the air of an exploit, evidently expecting the admiration of his rustic friends, and laying a foundation for remarking to them on his way home that the parson could not touch him at penmanship. ”

“ Surely all reasonable aids should be given pupils in their efforts to learn penmanship. A good text is as much needed in this as in any other subject. We should laugh at the idea of teaching arithmetic or English without the aid of the text; yet many good school people seem to think writing can be absorbed in some mysterious manner from more or less indefinite word pictures and a few blackboard copies done in a more or less skillful manner. ”

“ It now remains for the eighth grade teacher to receive the pupils who have been for the last seven years building among other useful habits the penmanship structure. The writing is perhaps one of the first subjects to be criticized or commented upon when the class is promoted. ”

“ By making a good, clear hand habitual to you, the caution given above, with regard to hurry, will be entirely useless, for you will find that even the most rapid penmanship will not interfere with the beauty of your hand-writing, and the most absorbing interest in the subject of your epistle can be indulged; whereas, if you write well only when you are giving your entire attention to guiding your pen, then, haste in writing or interest in your subject will spoil the beauty of your sheet. ”

“ Since penmanship is one of the manual arts it will [32] be executed definitely right or definitely wrong. Chamberlain on the value of manual training says: “The more accurate the work in hand, the less likely is doubt and uncertainty to play a part. In grammar and history a mistake upon the pupil’s part may easily pass unchallenged. The student glides over an error unconsciously or without intent; and even the teacher may not detect the fault. In a word both the teacher and pupil are likely to be deceived. ”

“ No small part of this entire problem, especially when applied to grade pupils, is the mechanical or penmanship side. Everywhere there is criticism, on the part of teachers and parents, of the quality of the pupils’ writing. In many instances the process is a slow and laborious one. The bodily positions assumed by pupils during the operation of writing are harmful. The effort frequently results in an illegible scrawl. ”

“ To a person who has the correct perspective on the penmanship habit the application of the hints enumerated will seem quite reasonable. To train in any line, one must practice. Repetition is necessary, and the time element essential, as it takes many efforts to accomplish the desired end, good penmanship. The muscles to be trained are large, and the conventional forms are small. ”

“ Good penmanship requires properly trained muscles. To a deficient analysis of the movements of the arm, hand, and fingers, on the part of teachers and pupils in penmanship, together with an improper position in sitting, is to be 104 ascribed the great want of success in acquiring this art. The pen should be held loosely, and when the proper position is attained, the scholar should make an effort to imitate some definite copy as nearly as possible. ”

“ The scribe can vary the forms which his pen produces, and the colours which he gives them, with a freedom that the set form and the method of using the binder’s tools do not allow. But the skilled penman will find that his pen (or, at any rate, his penmanship) largely determines the forms of his freest flourishes and strokes, and that the semi-formal nature of such ornament demands a certain simplicity and repetition of form and colour, which do not unduly tax his skill as a craftsman. ”

“ The forger enjoys not only the pleasure of obtaining money so easily, but the triumph of befooling sharp men of the world. Dexterous penmanship is a source of the same sort of pride as that which animates the skillful rifleman, the practiced duellist, or well-trained billiard-player. ”

“ Whereas the right way of setting to work is to make themselves first mistresses of the art of writing beautifully; and then to apply that art in its proper degrees of development to whatever they desire permanently to write. And it is indeed a much more truly religious duty for girls to acquire a habit of deliberate, legible, and lovely penmanship in their daily use of the pen, than to illuminate any quantity of texts. ”

“ Whereas the hand writing of words is often better than it needs to be for life's purposes, the writing of figures is usually much worse. The figures presented in books on penmanship are also commonly bad, showing neglect or misunderstanding of the matter on the part of leaders in penmanship. ”

“ Penmanship.—It is folly to suppose that the faculty for writing a good hand is confined to any particular persons. There is no one who can write at all, but what can write well, if only the necessary pains are practiced. ”

“ But it is never an easy task to decipher a woman’s meaning, particularly when not addicted to penmanship; and although my excellent wife had attended a penman’s instructions, and had acquired the reputation, in her native place, of being an accomplished clerk, still, since her marriage, she had applied her genius to the making of tarts and other confections, rather than to the parts of scholarship, and it was difficult for me to make out the significance of her epistle in its whole extent. ”

“ To any one who may have an artistic quality of mind, and delights in beautiful lines and harmonious curves, these pages of ornamental penmanship will serve as models for practice and imitation, and every attempt at such an exercise as the one on this, or the following pages, will give greater strength and freedom of movement, and better command of the pen, so that it will conduce to an easy, flowing and elegant style of plain business writing, while affording a most pleasant and profitable employment in the cultivation of the taste. ”

“ I never had an introduction in my life and have rarely74 been inside a newspaper office. My work was done from my own writing-table and entirely by correspondence; for, in my belief, if the material is worth taking it will find its own market, and no amount of pushing or introductions will be of the slightest avail.
Penmanship means hard brain-fagging work with little gain in proportion. A well-known writer once told me one of his big important books brought him exactly thirteen pounds. ”

“ Curls and loops are out of fashion nowadays, but any inclination to ornate penmanship is a sure indication of a leaning toward the romantic and sentimental, while the least desire to shade a letter shows imagination and a tendency to idealize common things. ”

“ The next article I'll call your attention to is a fine Eagle rubber-tipped pencil with the lead running all the way through it and half way back again, and a pencil you can't buy in the regular way for less than ten cents. Now, gentlemen, after sharpening this pencil to a fine point, I propose to give you a specimen of my penmanship. I presume I'm the finest penman who ever visited your city.
"And I will wager one hundred dollars to fifty that I can beat any man in your town writing two different and distinct hands." ”

“ PAPER
“A workman is known by his tools.” It is as essential that good material be supplied for the penmanship as that any other department be well supplied as regards quality and quantity. Not only should good paper, pencils, pens and ink be used during the formal lessons each day, but in every lesson wherein writing is used to carry on the other work. Permit no scribbling, utilize every line, keep paper in neat folders; thus economize in the right manner, and not by the purchase of poor equipment, which is an irritation to teacher and pupil alike. ”

“ Reviewing the respective points in our argument we have found it demonstrated that Upright Penmanship is far more easily Read, Taught, Acquired, and Written; that it can be rapidly traced; that it is far superior in all Hygienic principles ”