Evening star., 1936-09-24
Handwriting
Is Personal
Expression
Impress Importance
of Good Penman-
ship Upon Young.
BY ANGELO PATRI.


WHEN children begin to read the
" pictures and words about them
they begin to write. The long pencil
marks they make on the walls, the
queer figures they scrawl, are their
first attempts at writing. They ought
to be given the piece Of blackboard
cloth and the bit Of soft crayon they
need and encouraged TO do their writ
ing where it cannot harm anything
or displease anybody. They need to
begin to write. s
When they get to scheof they have
to learn penmanship. That Is nee
essary, too. The trouble lies In the
way many Of them are taught to do
this penmanxhip. The muscular move
ment methods that insist upon certain
skilled adjustments Of nerves and
muscles beyond the power Of begin
ners make life miserable for little
children. Not until the child's hands
and forearm are well developed and
r. ordinated can he speed his PEN
M. nship and use his muscular move
ment accurately.
Because beginners had % much
trouble with this muscular movement
scheme, some schools took to manu-
script writing, that Is, printing in
stead Of writing. This allowed the
children to draw their letters pains-
takingly, getting the correct forms.
making legible work instead Of trying
to make the movements they could
not make accurately and getting an
inaccurate result.
But alas! The manuscript writing
that SEQ Is almost as illegible as the
script I used TO see. The chief de-
STABILITY in all handwriting is It's
legibility. Writing Is to be read, and
the clearer 1t Is the more easily it Is
read, the closer it comes to fulfilling
its purpose. Now when q child prints
words he must observe their forms,
and each letter must be made accord
ing to its form. A row Of letters that
ignore the pattern are not beautiful
and certainly not legible. Manuscript
writing fails If it Is not legible and
beautiful.
First, in all writing, it is necessary
to establish the slant. Show the chill
dren the up-and-down lines in the
letters, the important structural lines.
Let them make the lines and establish
their own slant. Each child will vary
that line according to his vision, his
feeling control Writing Is . personal
expression and cannot be otherwise.
After establishing the slant, show
that space Is important and establish
the spacing between the lines, letters
and words. Again this spacing will
be characteristic Of the child, but
that Is as 1t is. Now set the pattern
Of the type to be used and stick to
1t. Each letter must be made to this
pattern. The child's touch will indi-
vidualize the pattern, but the type
will stand.
Give the children time to do this
work carefully and painstakingly and
maintain the standard Of legibility
and beauty. Otherwise, they are just
as well OF struggling with the
muscular movement. They will have
the same result messy scrawl.
Whether that scrawl is printed or
written viii not matter. It Is . bad
business.
As the children advance in the
grades they can be taught any sys-
TEN Of penmanship desirable. Legibil-
ity Is the heart Of the matter, not
speed. Typewriters are for speed.
Handwriting IS for clarity, beauty and
characteristic exnresGion nf the nefGon
using the pen.