The Educator (Volume 45) - IAMPETH

12
"Handwriting--Its Relation to Physical
and Mental Health''
From the days of oui- early fathers
down to the present time education
has been acknowledged as necessary
for the preservation of our democracy.
The three R's—Reading, Writing
and Arithmetic — are the fundamentals
of education and without
these a child can make no progress
in school or in community life.
Professor Robert Woellner, head of
vocational guidance at Chicago University
says: "The primary purpose
of the schools still is and always
should remain to teach the three
R's. What is left over in funds and
energy may be used for character
building." We would add to this citizenship
and competence.
We've expanded the early three
R's and enlarged the activities to enrich
the child's opportunity.
Handwriting has a very important
relation to physical and mental
health.
Good physical health is of utmost
importance and we must make every
effort to keep it and protect it. School
superintendents and school boards
are building finer and better equipped
buildings as time moves on.
Heating, ventilating, and lighting are
of the best type. Even in the older
buildings new heating, ventilating
and lighting systems are installed.
The thermostats keep the room at
even temperafures. Ventilation of
school rooms is a problem. In our
new buildings we have air circulating
units installed and there is a constant
flow of fresh air. School
rooms are equipped with indirect
lighting- systems and we have no
shadows to guard against. We must
have good heating, ventilation, and
lighting to have a successful handwriting
lesson. Good light relieves
eyestrain; on dark days teachers
write larger on the board and often
use light yellow chalk which protects
the eyesight and lessens eye fatigue.
In a new school in Marion County,
Indiana, they have "white blackboards".
In place of the black slate
or black composition board there are
sections of plate glass ground to present
a proper surface. Writing is
best done with charcoal. When using
white chalk on blackboards there is
often a glare and blurring of material
placed upon the board. By
using the "white blackboards" perfect
visibility may be had from all
parts of the room. Colored crayon
may be used to good advantage, too.
IDA S. KOONS
Handwriting Supervisor, Fort Wayne, Indiana
The desks must be adjusted to fit
the child so that an easy healthful
position of the body may be had.
Good posture is necessary to good
health for it aids respiration, circulation,
digestion, and glands of internal
secretion. It also relieves
muscular and nervous strain. One of
the fundamental principles of handwriting
is good posture and good
position.
Good mental health may depend on
good physical health. Dr. Laurance
Shaffer of Carnegie Institute of
Technology in "The Psychology of
Adjustment" gives the following:
"The aims of education and mental
hygiene should be the same, namely
the development and training of the
individual for effective living in his
social environment. Popular opinion
and the judgments of educational
philosophers unite in recognizing that
the most important outcomes of education
are the general habits and attitudes
that make the individual better
able to attack his life problems
rather than the specific skills and bits
of information that he acquires."
Dr. Henry Link, internationally
known psychologist, in his book "The
Rediscovery of Man" demonstrates
that by right habits and attitudes
inspired by right standards and
training the individual will grow into
strength. He says "Personality is
the extent to which the individual
has learned to convert his energies
into habits or activities which successfully
influence other people." In
a recent address in our city he
pointed out the universal habits of
thinking which are recommended for
all children and which he called "sea
level habits" of thinking — reading,
writing, and arithmetic.
The purpose of handwriting is to
develop the skill of each child to such
an extent that it is a convenient tool
of expression for use in everyday
life. If writing is to be taught as a
usable tool the child must feel a real
Bv Parker Zaner Bloser
need for it and then must have sufficient
practice to gain satisfaction
from his effort. It is only by patient
and attentive repetition that correct
writing habits are established and
skill acquired. Professor William
James says that without the faculty
of forming habits we simply could
not live.
Most strong habits are acquired as
a result of strong motives, two of
which are the mastei-y motive and the
social approval motive. In the mastery
motive there is the urge to excel
and in the social approval motive
there is the urge to seek approval
of other people.
Handvirriting lends itself here for
it is a tool of expression. Repeated
failure in school subjects blocks or
thwarts the pupil's strong motives
for mastery and approval. Denied
satisfaction in achievement the pupil
may become a behavior problem.
The work of the teacher is to provide
opportunity for a suitable task
and the conditions which make success
for the individual possible.
Praise and encouragement should replace
destructive criticism and failure.
This creates a desire for the
pupil to do better work. In the event
the child has ability he will attempt
to live up to it. In handwi-iting a
child competes with his own past
record and strives to improve, therefoi'e
we feel in giving awards for
good work one does no mental harm
to any pupil in the class. If each
child can be made to feel some measure
of success he will have a better
attitude toward the subject and
school.
Just so was education formerly
considered— a pouring in process and
what was the result ?
May it not be better for us and the
children in working with the tools of
writing and the language arts that
we "study to show ourselves approved—workmen
that needeth not
to be ashamed."