Penmanship: Teaching and Supervision

by Leta Severance Hiles

VISUALIZATION OF LETTER FORMS

It has been said, “The three arts of education are seeing, reading, thinking. The boy who learns to see is awakened; the boy who learns to read is enriched; the boy who learns to think is emancipated.” Why does not an artist always make a desirable and pleasing picture? Perhaps it is because he does not see the subject correctly or to advantage, or perhaps he has not mastered all the mechanical difficulties. It is for the teacher to decide whether all has been done that can be done to assist the pupils to see the model letter form correctly. Perhaps there exist mechanical difficulties in posture and movement that prevent a free execution of the letter form that may exist in the mind.

Pupils should understand that they are to educate the head and hand together. Concentration on correct forms goes hand in hand with practice. Some pupils have greater aptitude than others toward perception of form; it is certain that the hand will not learn to reproduce constantly a form that has not been fully and entirely idealized by the mind. It has been discovered that human beings vary greatly in the completeness, definiteness, and extent of their visual images. Pupils should be impressed through as many sense channels as possible. Some learn through explanations, others through demonstrations at the board, still others by working at the board themselves. Out of this variety of impressions each pupil will find the one that is most lasting for himself. Every penmanship teacher should recognize this principle of multiple impression.

Mental pictures are what we mean when we speak of “noticing” things. We think we are noticing all sorts of things during our waking hours; as a matter of fact, we recognize fewer things than we suppose. Ask a pupil to describe any familiar object and prove this statement. If you point out the various characteristics he will quickly see them, and will be likely in future trials to see them; but if left to himself he would need a great deal of time to become familiar with the main features. Frequent review of model letter forms is necessary, for it keeps our minds fresh and helps to reveal new and hitherto unthought-of aspects. Each view well considered, then put aside, freshens us for the next one. We are thus led to make trials and discover relations which otherwise would remain hidden. Many pupils, for the most part unsuccessful, never get so far as that. Many who fail believe that they have seen all there is to see, take up something else, or do nothing.

Pupils may be led to observe the forms of letters and their common characteristics through variations of common principles. To illustrate: many letters are modifications of the oval exercise, near or remote. In almost every writing system on the market we have four, the O, A, C, and E. Modifications of the straight stroke are more numerous still; then we have letters that show a combination and modification of the two exercises. Pupils should be able to see and describe just which stroke gives slant and character to the letter. There is a striking analogy in the beginning, ending, and width of many of our letters.

Very rarely is the image the exact reproduction of the percept; it differs in distinctness, outline, detail, and sometimes even in most important qualities. Look at the model letter, close the eyes, you will still see the form. Retentive and reproductive powers are at work, while the image is in process of formation. Form perception, and other mental pictures than what we are striving for, are present and act upon and modify present percepts.

Let the room be quiet, so quiet that there is nothing to distract. Require the pupils to lay their heads on the desks, shut their eyes, and rest, not for long, for fear of day dreams. Without allowing them to awake from their playsleep, picture in brief vivid statements, without repetition, or unnecessary detail, the parts of a letter. Raise the heads, open the eyes, take pens and ask pupils to reproduce a picture of the letter just described.

In effective visualization certain conditions must be fulfilled. In the first place the exposure must have lasted for a sufficient length of time, very much as is required in photography. We can gain no mental picture of things where the exposure is too brief.

A careful study of letter forms must engender the habit of observation and knowledge of the difference between accuracy and vagueness. Since penmanship is one of the manual arts it will 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. In the shop or in the cooking room it is quite different. Be the box too short, the metal too thick or too thin, the joint too loose, the basket askew, the stitches uneven, or the ingredients improper in proportion, little doubt need enter the pupil’s mind as to the rightness of his work.”