Standards, Personal and Impersonal
First, it will be seen that measurements are here substituted for purely personal judgments. It was the universal practice before this movement began, and it is the common practice to-day, for a supervisor to go from school to school, passing on the excellence and speed of handwriting. The supervisor has arrived at a personal standard through his experience. He expects a certain result in the fifth grade. He has in his mind a more or less clearly defined requirement and regards it as his duty to impose this on pupils and teachers. In the same way the teacher has a personal standard which is imposed on the pupils. It would be a mistake to describe these personal standards as arbitrary or unintelligent. The experienced teacher is usually approximately right in his expectations, and the supervisor usually does a great deal to raise and unify the level of work with which he comes in contact. But it is not possible in a complex social situation to rely on personal standards. Personal life and professional activity are too transient. How many schools have changed standards, to the great disadvantage of the penmanship, with each change of supervisors? Furthermore, personal standards are vague when one tries to transmit them to others. This is a serious matter when it is remembered that a very large proportion of teachers in each school are changing each year. If a supervisor is to systematize the work of his schools, he must constantly be bringing into agreement with his standards the standards of a large number of new teachers. For the sake of coöperation it is advantageous to turn a personal standard into one which can be described and defined. Finally, a personal standard grows up out of all the accidents of a personal career. The person of narrow experience may not have incorporated into his standards valuable elements which he would have accepted had he come in contact with them. The person of strong personal likes and dislikes may often be prejudiced. The person of broad experience may be inexact when it comes to details. To demand of all who teach handwriting that they rise above purely personal standards is not unlike the demand that the central government rather than the states mint our coins.