Comparison through Exact Measurement
Third, standards measured and expressed in definite terms can be compared and can be made the basis of studies which are quite impossible so long as standards are not expressed in common terms. For example, when the speed of handwriting in a certain school is deliberately changed, what is the effect produced on quality? Heretofore it has been almost impossible to answer such a question. Every school reform has been enthusiastically hailed by its friends as accomplishing much. In the second generation most of these reforms are checked, if not actually dropped, because it is found that the good accomplished in one line is entirely lost in some other. To-day reforms are in a position to measure their effects in all directions. A change in the speed of handwriting may or may not be advantageous; it is the duty of measurement to so state results that some light will be thrown on this matter.
A concrete example will serve to show how studies of this kind may be carried out. Fig. 15 shows the relative speeds and qualities of handwriting found in various grades in a miscellaneous group of cities and the corresponding facts for St. Louis and Grand Rapids. It is seen that both of these school systems are ahead at all points in speed and behind at first in quality. Both cities have made a conscious effort to get away from the slow drawing of letters in the lower grades. In doing this quality has been sacrificed. It is not the purpose of this discussion to decide what methods of teaching handwriting are best; the value of this example is that it shows quality and speed reduced to terms where the two can be studied together and with a high degree of exactness.