Page:Theory and Practice of Handwriting.djvu/76

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MANUAL OF HANDWRITING

burdened with the extra duty of compiling, arranging, and setting the copies himself. Surely it is difficult to conceive how when a teacher through overwork is obliged to omit certain items, we are to secure the performance of those items by increasing his work and multiplying its details. Is it not reasonable to conclude that the assistant who was previously content to allow his pupils to imitate or parody the Copy Book headlines without note, comment or reference to the Blackboard, as an effective adjunct to his teaching, will be more than satisfied that his duty is performed to the full when he has hastily or otherwise traced on that Blackboard the writing copy for the day? Obviously there is not the smallest inducement nor guarantee in the projected innovation that any teacher will be one whit more conscientious or even punctilious in his Blackboard demonstration, but there evidently are for many reasons positive and stronger temptations than before to entirely disregard the responsibility.

But what of the benefit to the pupil in seeing the master (or mistress) write the Copy on the Blackboard? If there is any real advantage in such a sight it is just as available and profitable in conjunction with Headline Copy Books, and can therefore be employed equally in both kinds of writing books. It is not difficult to show however that the total absence of this exaggerated boon is hardly a material loss to the scholars. The argument on these lines may therefore be summarily dismissed as being worthless in advocating the claims of Blank Copying books.

If the new Candidate for public support be more particularly examined the investigator is surprised at the number of objections and defects which immediately start into view, any one of which in itself is or ought to be sufficient to determine the issue.

Imperfect Models or Copies

Of course, and evidently, the first and one of the gravest defects in Blank Copying Books is the absence of Perfect or Accurate Copies and the presence of nothing save Imperfect and Inaccurate Models. Pupils are to have plain-ruled books in