The Educator (Volume 45) - IAMPETH

1. Do you have a philosophy of
education and do you practice
what you preach ? Someone
has said that the school is
simply your philosophy trans-
2.
3.
lated into visible form.
Did you know that research says
that usually left-handed pupils
should be taught to write with
the right hand?
Do you believe that the quality
and style of writing which pupils
4.
see on the blackboards affect
their own writing? What does
your school do about it? What
should we do?
Do you teach exclusive arm
movement, combined movement,
or allow the pupil to do as he
pleases. Which movement is accepted
as satisfactory or uni-
5.
versal ?
How much time is
a pupil to master
required by
pen-and-ink
6.
writing of a quality sufficient to
meet life needs ?
Should we give fountain pens to
pupils of third and fourth
grades? Are pencils unsatisfactory
?
7. Sheuld we change the spacing
of lines on primary paper so
that the writing not only is
smaller, but also so that the
8.
9.
10.
b
f
11.
proportion of loop letters to
small letters remains the same
throughout all grades?
Are quality and speed related?
If so, how ?
Should legibility be our sole
criterior of a pupil's work?
Should all penmanship practice
be diagnostic in nature only?
Or should there be a balance of
positive, constructive, directional
drill?
How much manuscript writing
should be used? Where should
the transition to cursive writing
be made? Will manuscript be
permanently retained as a system?
Can it be mastered as
easily as cursive ?
12. Should there
for writing?
be a daily period
In what grades?
The answers to these and other
questions cannot be found at a single
sitting. There must be much reading,
much study and research, much discussion,
practice, and experimentation.
Read as Much as You Can
Last month at one of the national
conventions, a famous educator contended
that teachers as a group read
less than members of any other profession.
Is this true of penmanship
teachers ? Lack of time is the most
common excuse for not reading more
than we do, professionally. Could it
be a lack of interest?
May I refer you to a few of my
favorites, whether you read them or
not?
I
1. What Does Research Say? Bulletin
No. 308, published by Eugene
B. Elliott, Supt. of Public
Instruction, Lansing, Mich.,
1937.
2. The Implications of Research for
the Classroom Teacher. N.E.A.,
1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W.,
Washington, D. C, $1.00.
3. A Manual for Left Handed Writing.
Published by Dr. Warren
H. Gardner, Iowa City, Iowa,
1936. (Prepared for psych, and
speech clinics and for penmanship
teachers.)
4. Learning the Three R's by Gertrude
Hildreth, Educational Publishers,
Inc., 1936.
5. Public Secondary School by
Espy, Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1939.
Strengthen thy stakes. Drive them
deeper into the rich, mellow soil of
accumulated experience. Double the
stakes whenever you feel yourself
weakening, or you see a stonn of
doubts arising. Dr. Freeman says,
"The absolute importance of handwriting
is as great as it ever was,
and a widespread belief that handwriting
has greatly decreased in importance
is one of the most serious
obstacles to effective teaching."
THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE
is the most important sci-
entific instrument at your
disposal. Learn to speak
and write it with precision.
C. W. FOULK,
Ohio State University.
Cursive writing is still the prevailing
style taught throughout America,
although more than 20 ^'c of large
cities teach manuscript in the first
two grades.
Ever Changing Program
It is interesting to study the
changes in the elementary school program
during the past two hundi-ed
years. For instance in 1700 one finds
that reading, writing and religion
were the only subjects; in 1750, spelling
and arithmetic had been added;
by 1900, the number of subjects had
grown to fifteen; while in 1931, in
most systems, there were twenty or
more subjects in the elementary
school.
Recently I had the pleasure of reading
two old courses of study. One
had been in use in Honesdale, Pa. in
1873-4. Penmanhip began in the 3rd
grade and continued through the seventh.
The Academic Department included
the 8-9-10 grades. The following
note is quoted: "Elocution, Penmanship,
and Drawing receive due
attention during the course; and special
classes in studies mentioned
15
above are formed whenever occasion
demands."
The textbook adopted for penmanship
was written by Potter and Hammond.
The other course of study had
been used in our city in 1879. For
first and second grade penmanship
the course read: "On slates and blackboard.
Make the copy always a sentence.
Avoid printing. Long pencils
should be used and care exercised
that they be properly held." Ink was
introduced in the 3rd grade. Much
tracing was done in copybooks.
Important Means of Expression
Many wonder why we do all this
talking about penmanship. In answering
that question, may I say
that it seems to me that writing is
just as important a means of expression
as talking, and we need much
more training in both of them than
we have had to enable us to do them
easily, gracefully, and pleasurably to
the performer, the listener, or the
reader. The three R's have been with
us many years and there's no doubt
about their need in years to come.
Cooperative Attitude
Influences in the schools and outside
the school affect the quality of
handwriting in any school system". To
strengthen the stakes in the school,
we must begin with the attitude of
all teachers of all subjects toward
handwriting. Standards of attainment,
the objectives, the demands
must be consistent on the part of all
teachers. Integration, correlation,
fusion of efforts may be the solution.
Every teacher should be a teacher of
writing and spelling.
From the Known to the Unknown
Fundamentally, the approach to all
subjects is the same. There should
be a two-way reach—backward to
what we are sure of and forward to
the unknown. This means of course
that the teacher is an artist not an
artisan; a creative teacher — not a
subject minded dictator of the classroom.
The creative teacher goes no
faster than she can take her pupils
with her. She cannot reach all pupils
alike. She does not force. Results
may be delayed, but never denied
when the creative teacher is the guide.
It is not the equipment nor the materials
that helps a pupil to do. Mastery
of skills is not enough. It's the
creative teacher who can put a song
in her pupil's heart, who can make
him want to do, who appreciates the
good she sees, who does not kill the
spirit in attempting to perfect form
and who throws out torches not fire
extinguishers. Do you want to be an
artist or an ai-tisan ?
Emerson says: "Be careful what
you want; you'll get it."
Respect and Confidence
True democracy in education demands
the mutual respect of teachers
and pupils. It is a person to person
relationship. A pupil and his teacher
must have confidence in each other
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