# The Theory and Practice of Handwriting/Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI
DESKS SLATES BOOKS PENS INK ETC.
What Desk do you use? How does it answer? Is it adjustable, rigid, durable, reliable, convenient, and efficient? Again and again are the changes rung on these questions yet how seldom are the answers satisfactory. The desk is the most essential, expensive, and important article of furniture connected with the art of writing. Upon the correct and hygienic construction of the desk depend almost vital issues, not solely with regard to the caligraphy, but more specifically to the health and well-being of the writers. Human skill and ingenuity have been lavished upon these articles to render them as perfect as the most stringent demands could require. On the continent, where the interest excited has been of the deepest character, Doctors of Philosophy and of Medicine have vied with each other in efforts to evolve the most perfect and effective desk possible for school use. The almost unanimous verdict is in favour of a low desk that shall permit the arms of the writer to rest naturally thereon, when he is sitting erect, without either raising or depressing the shoulders, and although this end is seldom actually and individually attained in large schools it can be approximated to very nearly. These low desks about which there has been, and still continues, such a fever of excitement have not had a sufficiently long test to prove them to be altogether advantageous and superior to those that are higher. It is still a moot question whether the support which the writer receives from the back rest is superior to the rest afforded by the arms when they are placed upon the desk to counterbalance the weight of the body as it is inclined forward in the act of writing. The great weight of evidence nevertheless is in ​favour of the Back rest and it is more than probable that tests and time will confirm the judgment, and that the low desks will entirely supersede those at present in use.
When we come to speak of the slope of the desk fewer difficulties meet us, and the case is capable of very easy settlement, although the best precise angle has not been definitely fixed.
Two or three degrees in either direction can hardly make much difference and as writers on the subject vary between 10° and 15° of slope, teachers cannot go far wrong within these extremes.
If the erect posture of the writer is to be maintained 12 or 13 degrees would seem to be the Hygienically superior slope to observe.
The 3 or 4 inches of flat surface beyond the slanting portion should be provided with a pen groove, and with holes at convenient distances for the inkwells, which should be protected from dust by sliding metal covers sunk flush with the desk. For junior pupils the desks should not be more than ten inches broad, for seniors they may be eleven or twelve independent of the flat ridge.
A narrow seat is an instrument of torture and should not be permitted, some we have seen being not more than six inches broad. The width should not be less than ten inches and may be increased to twelve with advantage and benefit. If the form be hollowed out along somewhat near the back it will tend to prevent slipping, and will yield a more comfortable seat. Care must be taken that the hollowing out is not made too deep, or the writer will be thrown backwards too far off the perpendicular. Of course the introduction of the low desks will render lockers and partitions for books running underneath a matter of impossibility. A ledge should therefore run under the seat, which, whilst not nearly so convenient, will still provide some accommodation for the pupils’ books.
Whether single, dual or longer desks are employed is matter for individual preference or financial consideration, but all desks should possess the following essential features:–a smooth and ​sufficiently broad writing surface, adjustable action (both simple safe and strong), a workable angle of slope, rigidity, foot rails, good broad seats hollowed out and furnished with back rests, an ample supply of inkwells–covered when not in use–and shelves for books.
With a desk and seat fulfilling all these requirements the writing of the children might reasonably be expected to answer and respond to the most rigid demands of the severest criticism or Inspectorial examination.
Slates! Shall slates be used at all in our Schools? Are they desirable aids to Education, are they helps, material helps in the formation of a good handwriting? Hygiene and Optics reply to the first query and say “Certainly not”! Slates are dirty and dangerous as well as injurious. Discipline chimes in and denounces them as noisy and troublesome. But, paper is expensive! Granted, it will cost a little more money than our old friends the slates: the gain however in Discipline or order Cleanliness, Health, Neatness, and Improvement in writing will prove to be more than a compensating benefit and blessing. The exclusive use of paper is strongly recommended, as being not only highly superior from an Educational Standpoint, but all things considered ultimately more economical. Where slates are used they should be of a good size, framed, strengthened at the corners, and ruled on one side. They must never be allowed to get dirty and greasy as the writing on them is then not only difficult but almost illegible, by reason of its faintness, and it may be predicated that much of the injury to sight is caused or intensified by slate writing.
Indeed with the best of slates the ratio of visibility as compared with ink writing or pencil writing on paper is as 3 to 4. How much less this will be with dirty and greasy slates can easily be imagined. White slates are much to be preferred to black ones. It is simply cruelty to insist upon children writing on these black and greasy slates in a room imperfectly lighted and (as in numerous instances) with the light at their backs. Then in how many cases are the pencils simply stumpy ends, hardly long enough to be held in the tiny fingers. This evil must be remedied and ​holders provided or new pencils supplied. Lastly, soft slate pencils are the best, if hard and gritty they scratch and destroy the surface of the slate, thus making an inherently bad article still worse.
When our Educational Authorities wake up to a sense of their responsibilities, all such important details of School Life and Experience, as these now under discussion, will be thoroughly investigated decided upon and Reformed.
Of course the objections to slates have not all been mentioned. The mode, the general if not virtually the universal mode of cleaning! the slates constitutes in our opinion a valid reason for their abandonment. Who that has witnessed the proceedings in an arithmetic class where slates are being used can entertain any doubts on the question? Get rid of slates and you get rid of the dirtiest and most demoralizing habits that are born and bred in the Schoolroom. It is not decent to retain them, it is not safe, it is not wise.
Let them go, few will be found to mourn their loss.
Books.–In the matter of Books their character as to Headlines has already been examined. There are other considerations to which attention may be directed. And first as to paper. It is a false economy to have inferior paper. Such a thing as Educating Downwards does unhappily exist and to true teachers this is a calamity, a deplorable calamity, ever to be shunned.
Competition fortunately cuts out from the market defective paper, and it is cause for congratulation that the School Boards generally set such a worthy example in the question by insisting on a certain (and certainly good) quality of paper in all contracts for Writing Copy Books. Poor thin paper is no longer a recognised entity, and as a rule Copy Books are now unexceptionable in this respect, those that are not will soon possess only a past history.
The Shape of the Copy Book is an interesting topic to examine. Shapes vary (Fig. 24), and so do sizes very considerably. The Sizes of Books differ so very much that we give the extreme dimensions between which there is every possible variety. One ​of the largest will measure 10 inches by 8 whilst the smallest is 7 by 4, or 80 square inches and 28 sq. in. Some are Square as No. 1, and some oblong, the latter having two kinds, those which are longer horizontally (as No 2), and those which are longer in the Vertical direction as No. 3.
Fig. 24.
In Germany and Austria, where these and similar points are professionally and exhaustively discussed, a very strong movement has set in opposing shapes Nos. 1 and 2 and approving of style 3. Many critical and clever essays have been written on the question and after careful study of the arguments it is almost impossible to resist the conclusion that the advocates of short lines or narrow Copy Books have the best of it. Correspondence forms one of the most common and largest classes of penmanship (Commercial and Professional). It is found that small, medium and large sized note papers are the most convenient and practically useful sizes and shapes for letter writing. On this ground it is surely expedient to assimilate as far as possible to common usage in our School practice. Indeed most office books such as Day Books, Journals, Ledgers, Cash Books, &c. take the same form and are narrow from left to right, and long from base to top. It is evident therefore that by using Copy Books of an entirely different shape with juveniles an unfair strain is put upon the pupils at a time when they are least able to bear it, and that we are exacting from them a task which is both unnecessary and inexpedient. But again, it is found by medical men, Oculists, that as the writing recedes to the right it becomes injurious to the eyes, and that the only remedy for this danger is to use narrow books, and preserve what will subsequently be described as the middle straight position.
It has been advanced as an argument for the Long-line Copy Books, that there is a not inconsiderable advantage in the ​superiority of the Headlines: greater facility being afforded for Educative copies than is possible with narrow books. But in reply can we not make the short copies quite as suggestive as the longer ones are explicit, so as to reduce the difference to an insignificant compass; and secondly, does not the disadvantage peculiar to the long copies of being detrimental to eyesight more than counterbalance any slight benefit such as the one just described?
It is strongly recommended that no Copy Book Headline exceed seven and a half inches in length, and that this size be used alternately with another, of say five or five and a half inches. Such a width would bring the work of the pupil well within the circle of vision that oculists inform us is a healthy limit, their decision of course, on matters pertaining purely to eyesight, being of the utmost value and authority. The narrow books (or short line books) are being rapidly adopted on the Continent, and it may be surmised that it is only a question of time and that not far distant when the very large books will have entirely disappeared. Whether our English Teachers will easily become converts to the New Shape remains to be seen. It is to be hoped that any real advance, however small it may be, will immediately be appropriated by the English profession, although we are proverbially slow to appreciate and still slower to adopt substantial reforms in whatever direction they may be made.
Ink.–Although usually regarded as a minor point of little or no importance the kind of ink that is used in School writing will be found to materially affect the welfare of the classes. Even when good desks and seats, good light, paper, and pens are all given to write with, a thin pale ink proves very distressing especially with young people. What it must be, how much more aggravating, where the desks are not commodious, the light is inferior, the paper thin, and the pens bad we cannot say and would rather not imagine. The consequences under such conditions must be serious. Who does not recall with feelings akin to disgust his futile struggles to produce decent specimens of caligraphy at school when using ink that was best described as sooty ​and greasy water? The ink used in schools should not be chemical, i. e. writing faint and turning dark afterwards, but it should be of an intense blackness, so that the writing is plainly visible, as it is being traced on the paper, without straining the sight. Excellent school inks at very moderate cost and to which no exception can be taken are now manufactured by many makers in all parts of the world.
Pens.–Only a word is necessary with reference to pens and penholders. The market is glutted with an abundance of nibs, many of them utterly unfit for use, being made of poor metal and furthermore badly finished. Good durable pens will always prove the cheapest and best; so-called cheap pens are invariably the dearest and most unsatisfactory, as the constant changing of nibs that is required creates much disorder and loses much valuable time. Nothing disheartens a child more than to write with a “scratchy” or “Bad Pen.” Let teachers see to it that no scholar has such an excuse for the “Bad Writing” that always follows in its train. Fancy and fanciful penholders are undesirable and useless. The plainer and simpler the holder is the better. We have yet to see steel-tipped holders, a contrivance which by preventing nibbling and gnawing of the tops so widely practised in our schools would be as beneficial to the pupils as economical for the management. As to length the penholders should not exceed six inches nor fall below five and a half and they should not be thinner than an ordinary lead pencil, the thickness varying with the size of the hand or writer. To employ a thin holder is considered a dangerous practice, as much writing therewith will induce spasmodic tightening of the grasp and thus favour the habitual contraction of the muscles which causes writer’s cramp.
Blotting Paper.–Blotting paper is essential to and a desideratum in every writing class. It is difficult to understand why many teachers forbid its use and discountenance its very presence. For cleanliness, utility, and saving of time, blotting paper is invaluable. When a page is finished much time will perforce be wasted if blotting paper is not forthcoming, and during the waiting (or wasting) time thus entailed temptation to talking and disorder is ​terribly strong. It is also equally imperative that the copy books be kept as clean as possible. How is this to be done if there is no blotting paper on the page for the hand to rest upon? Children do not enter their classes with clean hands as a rule (unfortunately the reverse is generally the case) and the unavoidable consequence is that the copy books bear very objectionable evidence of these dirty fingers from the first page to the very last. Besides this the surface of the paper is almost destroyed for writing purposes by the grease and heat from the hand if no blotting paper is allowed. Lastly on this point, in all good offices the usage is to have blotting paper under the hand (and at hand) in every kind of writing, and if it is thus found to be requisite for adults how much more necessary is it with juveniles.
A word as to the mode or modes generally adopted for cleaning the pens. In numerous schools the pens are never cleaned at all, in others they are cleaned by processed as manifold as they are objectionable, and in some few establishments penwipers are used and the pens are cleaned as they ought to be, daily and effectively.
Of course teachers should aim at inculcating habits of neatness and cleanliness, and in the Writing Class these habits may receive material strengthening and stimulating by the mode of pen-cleaning that shall prevail. It will not always be possible in elementary schools, but if penwipers could be introduced generally, much that is slovenly and dirty would disappear from our classes.