Salt Lake Telegram | 1904-08-08 | Page 4 | Common Sense is Returning

. For a time the public schocfs of Chicago were . 6 cursed with ids. Everything as tarrglit except' N : wjiat the childivn ou?;ht to know. 'Music, dancing, i French, German, seven-up, slang and a-few doxen; other branches .vere" made a part , of the course,! ' while reading, writing and arithmetic w er ignored - or at best merely touched, upon. Kow, the manage ; ;'y raent of the schools is becomiig rational again, and . the fads are being eliminated. : , ; j One of the. worst, of .the fool notions, liat was ; , , ' adopted Fas the vertical writing fad. It lias lately v.tieen abolished by the Chicago Board of Education; ; but the effects of it will be felt by business men and, all who t have to employ the rising generation In clerical capacities. , . - v , . , , .; . Vertical writing is slow, cumbersome and unnat- j ') ura. It lessens the efficiency of the person using j it, and, wonlt of all,- it. destroys individuality. . In important matters where it is necessiiry to. identif 7-signatures 7-signatures or other writing the vertical system is a v positive detriment. , Children should be .taught-the general principles of easy, flowing penmanship and - - then allowed-to form their writing according to their characteristics. .. ' . In the main the 'educational system of Ahe United States is good, tut it is worse in the larger lties than In the smaller communities. The man ; with the fad can always get a chance to put It into . practice In, tljo metropolis, whereas he is laughed at . ' in the more modest city '. v : - Common, sense methods used :in teaching the common branches in the public" schools will do more to develop the people of the United States than any- thing else: ' ;-' ' ; - . .. .. I