Arizona Silver Belt

A Movement In Favor of Vertical Script Backed by the Highest Medical Authorities—Results of Extensive Experiments With School Children.

The method of writing taught in modern schools and practiced by 99 people out of every 100 has been declared dangerous and unhealthful by experts. By the time the next generation matures it will probably have been wiped out. The script then will be vertical instead of slanting, and writers will sit square and upright before their work instead of sideways and stooped, as at present.

The idea of this prospective reform originated in Germany and overspreads England while reaching this country. The following resolution was adopted not long ago by the international congress of school hygiene in London by a vote of 229 against 1:

Whereas, The hygienic advantages of vertical writing have been clearly shown and established both by medical investigation and practical experience, and

Whereas, Its introduction obviates those pernicious positions of the body which entail rachitic diseases and myopia,

Resolved, That we recommend the introduction of vertical writing in the schools of the people.

The effect of so serious an action in a country esteeming proper physical conditions as England esteems them is readily to be imagined.

The corresponding movement in the United States is led by Dr. Burnham of Clark university. His investigations have brought the conviction that the ordinary position in writing is among the foremost conditions of school life and methods of training which must be changed in the interest of health. The vertical script, therefore, is strongly recommended. From 50 to 90 per cent of lateral curvature of the spine is found to be caused in school life, the curvature in a large per cent of these cases being toward the right side, as a result of a defective position in writing, and the eyes at the same time are seriously injured by this slanted writing.

The practical advance of the newly approved system in this country is illustrated in the Worcester normal school and the Workingmen's school at Fifty-fourth street in this city, directed by Professor Adler, where the vertical writing is used in the lower grades and now carried on to the fourth and fifth grades.

The observations of foreign physicians showing that the prevalence of myopia and spinal curvature is regularly increased in the advance through the school grades are supplemented in this country by work on novel lines. An energetic course followed by Dr. Shaw of the University of the City of New York has given additional proof that the cause of the difficulty is to be attributed to the desks which are generally in use, and more especially to the bad position in writing, the opinion being held with apparent unanimity by investigators in this country as well as abroad that all but two positions to be taken in the school practice of writing are improper. One judged to be correct is the oblique central position and the other the straight central position, between which in reference to final choice the controversy in Germany is said to be fierce.

The advocates of reform observe that the child writes vertically when he first goes to school, and that the teacher has to work for the slant. The vertical writing and the central position at the desk are alike naturally indicated. At this stage the controversy has led to the conclusion that the height of the desk and that of the seat must be equally adapted to the growth of the pupil. In some of the progressive schools, as Felix Adler's and at South Orange, N. J., adjustable seats are being used.

The point in Dr. Shaw's recent experiments, made with the aid of several assistants on more than 1,500 pupils in the New York and suburban schools, has been to see whether, with the paper directly in front of the pupil and with the eyes closed, there could be any tendency toward vertical writing. The pupils were first requested to take the customary position in writing, and to write in the ordinary manner the sentence, "John is flying his paper kite." This form of exercise was selected on account of the number of long letters which it contains, and as being one also that is easy for the child to remember. After having thus written the sentence, the pupil was directed to take the straight central position, dip his pen in the ink and with his eyes closed to write the same again. The closing of the eyes was to eliminate from the child's mind the consciousness of the slant. The angle of slant in all the long letters in the test papers was carefully measured, the angle of slant in the usual writing in each case being also found with the same precision. The measurements and the calculations ran up to 3,600 items, and among other issues of the work was the invention by a lady of a machine for making the measurements.—New York Press.