EDUCATIONAL VALUE
Perhaps the most widely recognized educational value of good penmanship would come under the head of utility. Pleasing angles, graceful curves, uniformity, and clear strong lines appeal alike to all. From the attitude taken by many educational folk, relegating this subject in the curriculum to the background, we might think that they prefer illegible writing. Yet frequently these are the very persons who are heard to complain the loudest and longest over poorly written test papers and unreadable letters from friends.
Muscular movement penmanship may be utilized to advantage in school and out. In the first place it saves the pupils’ time and physical energy in execution and the teachers’ time and energy in interpreting. In the second place it is most emphatically demanded by the world that many of these pupils will enter upon leaving school. Parents draw their conclusions, many times, regarding the quality of work in the school largely from the appearance of written work.
Pupils who have persistently followed the drill until it has influenced their actual writing will soon realize their power: here is the evidence on paper, the measure of the effort put forth. They have conquered both mentally and physically. Will not the confidence established in their own ability be of value to them in mastering other subjects? What gives more pleasure, self-respect and encouragement to persevere than the conscious knowledge of skill? This consciousness of power and skill is a tremendous educational force and one that should receive constant recognition with reference to penmanship.
Many are the pupils who have great difficulty in gaining book lore, but who find the manual arts attractive. To such the consciousness that they can do even one thing well is a powerful inducement toward the mastery of something less attractive.
Pupils learn before they finish the elementary school that proper conventions must be observed in order to preserve social order and relations. When these conventions are overlooked to a great extent in writing, pupils are not gaining the most that the subject has to teach them. When irregularities become noticeable a check should be placed; otherwise the habit will become strong enough to be of great hindrance in later life. In no subject can a tendency to tear down conventions be discovered more easily than in penmanship and nowhere can we better impress upon pupils the desirability of obeying, to a reasonable degree, the conventional lines which all social beings are bound to recognize.
Who cannot recall at least one “bad boy” who has been completely reformed by some one of the manual arts? Muscular movement penmanship has many such to its credit. Teachers and supervisors are called upon quite as much to reform as to form and inform.
Chapter Two
FUNDAMENTALS CONCERNED IN THE PROBLEM
THE PHYSICAL TRAINING PHASE
Pupils who are apt at athletics will easily recognize the purpose of muscular movement penmanship. They will draw upon former experiences in the field or gymnasium and compare the value of relaxation, good posture, rhythm, and continuity of movement. They will recognize that the same laws of control govern Indian club swinging, field sports, and penmanship. They will appreciate the fact that to obtain good results with the pen they must follow with military precision the directions of the leader. Interest will be doubled when pupils really find themselves. Many pupils obey the laws of correlation naturally, and through their athletics they gain control of the muscular adjustment that operates in the process of writing.