Classification in Writing.

the time elapsing between writing the first and last half of each page will be sufficient to afford a criterion of improvement.

IV. If possible, classify your Pupils in Writing, as well as in other Exercises.-The pupils in most schools may be arranged in from two to four classes in writing. This classification may be governed by qualification, as in other branches. One of the prominent advantages of such an arrangement will be the opportunity of giving instruction to a number, at the same time, on the same copy. For this purpose the blackboard may be used with excellent effect. We will suppose that your first class is just commencing the book, and that the first copy is to be written. Go to the blackboard and write the copy, and call their attention to the particulars to which they should give special effort, and point out some of the errors which pupils most frequently make. To a class of ten or twenty members, more or less, you can make a brief exercise of this kind very profitable. After listening to your instruction and hints, they will commence writing with some definite object in view. In a late report to the School Committee of Boston, Superintendent Philbrick thus testifies in favor of the use of the blackboard for illustration in this branch: "Where the best results were produced, the blackboard was in constant use, and a whole section of pupils wrote the same copy at the same time." Perhaps you will say that your pupils are so irregular in their attendance, that

Have all write the same Copy.

you cannot classify them in writing.

But you can just as well as in other branches. Every class suffers from the irregular attendance of members. Have the copies come in regular order, and if a pupil is absent when a particular page is written, either require him, on his return to school, to write the page after school, or leave it blank; and if at the end of the term there are several blank pages, just explain to the committee and parents the reason, and say to them that there are just as many blank pages in all other studies, only they are not so distinctly visible as in this particular. This may cause some to see the evils of irregular attendance in a new light.

It will frequently happen that a whole class will err in the same particular, or in making the same letter. When such is the case, go to the blackboard and imitate the wrong letter or letters, and show wherein the defect is. Then make a letter as nearly correct as possible, and require them to spend two or three minutes in forming the same letter on slips of paper.

The following sensible and judicious remarks and directions I take from the cover of one of the best systems of penmanship now before the public.* commend them as worthy of observance.

I

"From an experience of many years, we are satisfied that there is no short and easy method of ac

* Payson, Dunton, and Scribner's, published by Messrs. Crosby, Nichols, & Co., Boston.

Valuable Rules.

quiring a rapid and graceful style of penmanship; and that those who profess to teach the art of writing in twelve, twenty-four, or double that number of lessons, may be justly regarded as empirics.

"Learning to write well must always be a work of much time and effort, since it involves a careful training of the eye and hand, and a gradual development of the judgment and taste. Great natural obstacles are sometimes to be overcome; but by careful and well-directed efforts, with a good system, any one may learn to write well, and most persons may learn to write elegantly.

"Good writing is characterized by legibility, rapidity, and beauty. In order that these ends may be attained, the following rules must be carefully studied and implicitly observed, — all of which the authors submit to the careful attention of the public.

"1. OF POSITION.-Sit with either the right or left side turned a little towards the desk, in an easy, natural position, but do not lean against the desk.

"2. Hold the pen with a gentle pressure, between the thumb and the first and second fingers, keeping the muscles of the hand and arm so rclieved that the motions may be free and easy.

"3. OF POSITION OF HAND AND ARM. The hand and arm should rest very lightly upon the desk, in order to secure freedom of motion and rapidity of execution.

"4. REMARKS. Before commencing to write after a copy, the pupil should carefully notice the

Rules, continued.

form and proportion of each letter, and he should also examine each word as soon as it is written, to see wherein it differs from, or agrees with, the copy, and then try to improve it the next time. This course, diligently pursued, will certainly secure a good degree of improvement; while, by an opposite course, the time of the pupil and the labor of the teacher will be entirely wasted.

"5. OF ORDER AND NEATNESS.-Write nothing but the copy on the book, unless directed to do so by the teacher; but try to keep the book clean and free from blots, and never cut out a leaf. Keep the pen clean, and ink thin. A habit of neatness and order is of very great value to a book-keeper or business man.

"6. THE PEN.Never touch the point of the pen with the fingers, nor wipe it on the hair, but on a pen-wiper, made of some kind of cloth. It should be wiped often, and always when you lay it aside. Do not hold the pen between the teeth while turning the leaves, etc., but place it over the right ear, where it will be less liable to make blots than elsewhere.

"7. OF POSITION OF LEFT HAND. The left hand

may rest on the paper above the line on which you are writing, but never below it, as the oily matter of the perspiration, on the paper or the pen, will prevent the ink from flowing freely."

LETTER XIV.

GRAMMAR.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

MUCH time has been devoted, in most schools, to the subject of Grammar; yet the real attainments of pupils, for all practical purposes, have been very limited and unsatisfactory. In this branch, more than in any other, have pupils been allowed to repeat words, definitions, and rules, which were to them but empty sounds, meaningless expressions. In many cases, scholars have committed to memory the entire contents of a text-book, without gaining any true knowledge of language or grammatical science. What I have said of geography is quite as true of grammar, that words are too often learned and repeated on the recitation-seat, without imparting any definite ideas. "What is a vowel?" asked a teacher of a girl. "A vowel is an articulate sound," was the ready answer, in the language of the book. "And what is an articulate sound?" "A melodeon," answered the girl. To her mind, a vowel was but another name for a musical instrument, or melodeon.