The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-02-07
PTNMANSHTP.

ZEN M ANSHlE. tM
We remarked last week that few
teachers were teaching penmanship
with any degree of success. We now
say that writing as q regular exercise,
is a failure in half the schools of the
county. The cause or causes Of this
failure can be easily remedied. The
chief cause is a lack Of uniformity in
the books. Some pupils bring, the
Spencerian writing books; others the
Babittonian books; others the form of
writing book without any copies;
and lastly, some bring quire or two
OF foolscap paper, covered with sheet
Of brown paper, or an old newspaper.
1t is manifestly impossible for teach
er to classify school Of this kind, and
without classification it is impossible
to teach penmanship
The practice Of setting copies" for
pupils is bad. In the first place, teach
ers are not all good writer's; secondly,
the same teacher is not retained in a
school long enough to enable the pu-
pills TO form q correct copy Of The
"hand.' The next teacher may write
in an entirely different style; and thus
tho child, copying first from one and
then another, soon forms q hand Of
his own, which, as many Of us can tes-
tify from personal experience, is "pe-
culiar." BY adopting system of
books, this may be avoided. The Spen-
cerian is probably the best in use. At
least it is the one hitherto recommend
ed by the County Superintendent, and
the one from which examination cues
lions are taken. This being the fact,
the theory should be taught from this
work and il the books are used in
schools, the theory and practice go
together. Another cause Of the fail
ur6 is The want Of proper ink. Pupils
are allowed to bring fancy colored ink
to school, and as a consequence the
writing books present all the colors of
the rainbow. The first severe frost
that comes SpOils the ink, and that
ends the writing for that winter The
proper way to avoid this is for the
School Board to purchase a bottle of
good writing fluid and leave it in the
teachers care. One bottle will last
an ordinary school year, and is by
far the cheapest way Of furnishing ink.
Three years ago the writer used Thorn
as writing fluid in school where it
frozo almost every night for month,
and the ink kept it's color.
Now q word to teachers. Insist on
uniformity Of writing books. Insist
on having black ink; if the board will
not buy it, buy it yourself. Classify
your school. Make writing regular
exercise daily, even though you have
20 crowd something else out Oblige
pupils to copy faithfully. Punish for
carelessness, blots, &c. Insist on hay
ing all compositions and examination
papers written with as much care as
the copies are followed.
-
The evening writing schools at the
Brass Ball under the supervision of
Mr.. N. M. Burgess, are a pronounced
success. Mr.. Burgess is 9 fine pennan
and has q pleasant way Of managing a
school; the pupils are doing well.
Many teachers are careless in max
ing out their reports. They forget 10
gi0e their names. For instance: The
teacher in district No. -, Paris, in
answering the questions, sTeacher's
address ?" and Clerks address?"" gives
"Kenosha, Wis.," and fails to give the
name of either teacher OF clerk.
The young people Of Liberty have
organized Iyceum, with MI. Middle