9 2 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Let me digress a little, to enter a protest against the use of 

 double-lined paper after the first year of a pupil's school life, and 

 to express my belief that it is altogether unnecessary in the pri- 

 mary school. A child does not need a walking machine after he 

 has learned to walk; neither does he need a guide-line in pen- 

 manship to dwarf his eye-training and judgment of distance after 

 he can distinguish the difference between a whole space and a 

 half space. In my opinion, any child of ordinary ability in the 

 primary school distinguishes half an apple from a whole one, or 

 half an inch from a whole inch not in name, to be sure, but in 

 reality long before he enters the school. It is an undisputed fact 

 that the longer a pupil uses the double-ruled paper, the more he 

 misses the guide-line when it is taken away. It has been proved 

 that first-year pupils can get along without the second line from 

 the very outset practically as well as with it, and they thereby 



Hygienic position. 



FRONT VIEW. 



Unhygienic position. 



avoid learning to write twice, as it really amounts to a second 

 beginning when the single-lined paper is taken up for the first 

 time at the fourth year. In some cities this is the period in the 

 child's school life when much more writing is required, necessi- 

 tating more rapid work on the part of the pupil. Hence, instead 

 of one difficulty at a time, a long-honored rule of pedagogics, the 

 child loses his guide-line when he has become most accustomed to 



