Evening star., 1896-09-18
Vertical Writing.

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
In The Stars report of recent school
board meetings 1t appeared that the board
had concluded to force the ludicrouS verti-
cal writing system upon the helpless school
children, but that much heat was devel-
oped because the committee on penman-
ship wanted to adopt the Merrill system
while the committee on text books wanted
to adopt the Burdette system, and insisted
that the other committee had no jurisdic-
ton. Now. ] have heard before of school
boards being afrayed into two factions one
favoring the adoption of one kind of text
books and the other the adoption of an
other kind.
Whenever such a condition occurs in the
school board of any city other than Wash
ington, evil-minded (?)- persons always sus-
pect that deal is at the bottom of IL
but the high character of the members OF
the board N this city precludes any such
thoughts, although where all the text books
that are being advocated are equally fool
ish. 1t is hard to see why the board should
quarrel over them.
What l wish to do, however is to criti-
else the system itself.
Last year my boys used to complain of
the fact that their teachers began urging
them to write vertically, and that they
found 1t difficult to do. The one in the
third grade had begun to make very finely
formed letters before he was forced to fol-
low the vertical method. Since then his
letters have been a coarse scrawl Of a
back hand nature. 1 locked on 1t as a
piece Of foolishness. / talked with all the
people of my acquaintance who had chill
dren in school, and found that they re-
garded 1T in the same light did.
l have yet to meet the first parent In ia
vor of it. l wondered Why II was being
foisted upon the helpless children and pa
tient parents of Washington. i continued
to wonder till bought a copy book enti-
tied ''JacksonIs New Style Vertical Writ
ing and 1 wondered no longer.
Jackson is an Englshman, and Washing
ton is near enough to the Atlantic coast to
be swayed by anything that is English
you knaw."
But. laying sarcasm aside. what is there
in this new English method Of forming let
ters that chouId induce any school board
to put IT in the place of our beautiful Amer
lean letters? 1t is said that the author OF
1t claims that 1t is an advantage in legibl-
ity. economy Of SPACE and speed and hy-
giene OF the four claims but one can be
substantiated, viz, economy of space There
is no doubt that the ordinary individual
would save at least two dollars in writing
paper and five dollars in postage during a
period of fifty years. In order to explode
the claim to superior legibility one has on
ly to compare the beautiful letters I'm a
Spencerian copy book with the awkward.
straightforward, angular. perpendicular let
ters in one Of the vertical writing copy
books
The claim of greater speed by means of
1 have seen person write sixty-five
small MS of the common kind in one min
ute. and every n was as perfect as if it had
been engraved
And that was not a particularly fast rec
ord. either. One claim remains to be dis
cussed. 1t is that of hygiene.
The directions in Jackson's book are that
1.-The writer should sit straight before the
desk with both arms placed thereon
suppose the claim is that the position re-
Quired will prevent curvature of the spine
permanent unnatural elevation of the right
shoulder end defective vision. My letter is
already long, and / shall not discuss this
| thing In that position which is favorable
| to health. 1t did not originate with the au-
| thor of vertical writing.
have before me a text book of spencer
| ian writing, published in 1882, which says
| that the pupil may take either the oblique
| or the front position.
] 1t elso says that If one wishes to change