Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-02-14
THE NEW PENMANSHIP.
Once Popular Vertical Writing Has
Been Abandoned.

/
failed to notice change of some sor
| in the writing Of children who attend
the schools. This change ranges from
a total destruction Of legibility to the
ACQUISITION of a beautiful, fluent style
of writing. What has happened tc
bring about this revolution?
Some eight or ten years ago." says
a New York teacher in Teacher and
Home, Young Lockinvar came out OF
the west in the person of A. N. Palmer
an expert writing master with meth
cd and a mission. The method was, In
word, the idea of training the teach
er to do first what he requires his pupil
to do afterward.
THE mission was to convince school
authorities that their writing was q
failure and to induce them to adopt a
more excellent way. Today the writ
ing crusade Is nationwide affair. Ev-
cry school in Greater New York is a
veritable writing fest.
'In every one Of the sixteen grades
the children are obliged to practise the
arm movement writing. Tons Of paper
are consumed daily in the process by
nearly 100000 children. Instead of la
boriously initiating set copy by slow
finger movement, the pupil trains his
muscles to perform certain swings
glides and strokes automatically, and
much of the practice of actual writing
consists in copying or taking from die.
tation entire pages Of literary matter
Vertical writing, once almost uni
versal, has completely disappeared. 1t
result of a learned commission which
| investigated the cause Of curvature OF
the spine among school children. Not
only this deformity but defective WIS.,
ion as we'll were traced to malposition
| in writing.
1T was ascertained by the commits
sion that 20 per cent Of boys and 40
per cent of girls have one shoulder
higher than the other; while 80 per
cent of spinal curvature was found to
be developed during school life. Simi-
lar facts were discovered concerning
myopia. Special defects were traced to
the collapsed position in writing, which
in addition to these injuries, inflicts
others that affect the general health by
retarding circulation and improperly
| filling the lungs with air.
There are four possible positions
for the paper in writing, which may be
designated as the right square, the
right oblique the front oblique and the
front square, All authorities on school
hygiene have been agreed for thirty
years that the first two positions are
bad both for the eyes and for the
spine A slight observation will con-
vince any one that in either case one
eye is nearer the paper than the other
In the effort at accommodation both
eyes are liable to be injured.
I'm one investigation, one of 21,94s
persons examined, 5,295, or "a per cent
were more myopic in the right eye than
the left. Out Of 3.263 cases examined
by Schubert. 2,032, or 81 per cent, were
more myopic in the left eye than In
] the right. Myopia itself Is a disease
induced by civilization, and is unknown
among savages. That the schools are
responsible for very much Of 1t is
shown by the fact that 1t increases
steadily among children as they ad-
vance from grade to grade.
"The excess of myopia in the left
eye over that Of the right is attributed
by Schubert to writing. When it is
| remembered that from 5000 to 5000
hours of a child's school life are spent
in writing and that this occurs during
the period of growth and development
when organs are plastic, one can read
| lily believe that so long period OF
| work requiring a nearer adjustment In
the left eye than in the right Is likely
to produce a permanent difference In
the structure of the two eyes.
"As a result of these famous investi-
cations vertical writing swept over
Europe and America. The slogan
| was: The body straight! the paper
straight the writing straight! 1t was
purely hygienic reform. No more
than seven years ago the writer deliv-
cred a lecture in which he proved con-
clusively Ito his own satisfaction tina,
vertical writing is an essential If the
human race is to endure!
But gradually one difficulty after
another became apparent. The writ
ing was so straight that it leaned
backward. A very large percentage ol
vertical writer's are backhanders. II
there Is anything more hideous and IL
legible than a backhanded scrawl
know not where to find it. In spite OF
various speed tests, which seemed tt
prove that vertical writing Is faster
| than slant, it remained a fact that ver-
tical writer's as rule were very slow
There arose, therefore, a new
style of writing known as the hall
slant. 1t was also a finger movement
| but was a compromise between the
| Utility -tlSll uC5lcc Sldlll vi iiS NpSf
| cerian system and the vertical. Al
one time this was the panacea for all
writing ills! The New York board OF
superintendents advised all principles
to adopt 1t.
Most of the schools, however, con-
tinued the vertical system, as was
shown by the fact that in the work Sc
lected by this same board of superin-
tendents for exhibition at the Paris
exposition twenty three out of twenty
eight schools chosen were represented
by vertical writing.
THE result was a medley of styles
that continued down to within about a
year ago, when the present board of
superintendents issued an order for
bidding the use of copy books and de-
manding arm movement writing in all
schools. The effect of permitting va
rious styles had been most unfortu-
nate. A child during a single term
might be transferred to three differ
ent schools each using a different sys-
TOW, Of mamma =, The nnhiic inSt1y