Should Penmanship Return to School?

[KateGladstone]

Re:

 

"Next time your local elementary school has an open house go and look at the quality of the student's [sic] penmanship and you might be unpleasantly surprised at how hard it is to read. "

 

No great surprise, if you've seen the usual quality of the *teachers'* penmanship ...

 

[KateGladstone]

Silas, may I quote you on this?

 

  Silas said:

As an Advanced Placement English teacher and a READER of the AP Exams, which are HAND WRITTEN, I can tell you from 10 years experience that we who GRADE these essays are a bit upset at having to "fight" a piece of writing. I tell my students that when I see indeciperable handwriting, I will try to read it, but you can bet their scores won't improve.

 

That's why I give each student a fountain pen (about 15) and we write papers (essays) with them. In a couple of weeks I will tutor them in writing with a fountain pen.

 

On another note, I have ALWAYS written Recs with a fountain pen, and many of the colleges remark favorably that anyone who takes the time to WRITE a handwritten recommendation deserves extra consideration.

 

I want my students.....especially the AP Students, the leaders of the future, to be very, very special. I suggest they OWN at least ONE fountain pen. It will open doors for them.....it will speak volumes in their behalf.

 

The computer age may be here, but there is a lack of QUALITY in the "air message" and very few people value email.

 

Indeed, there is a "mediocrity creep" at work in present times.....I do not buy into it!

 

[KateGladstone]

Re:

 

  paircon01 said:

I voted yes...but with this proviso..

 

Kate Gladstone HAS GOT TO SET THE LESSON PLANS AND TEACH THE TEACHERS WHO TEACH THE SKILLS TO THE OTHER TEACHERS!!!!

 

Bill...who believes Kate is a godsend...

 

Thanks, Bill -- almost two years after you posted that thought, I must ask:

Then where do I apply for the position of "handwriting tsar"? (well, "tsarina" in my case).

Can the pen community make that happen -- wave a banner, at least?

[cheeto]

I think handwriting offers a couple of things, including some very fundamental skills that wouldn't develop as well if students only typed. The first would be the discipline and dexterity it takes to write for long periods, and the second would be an increased vocabulary and knowledge of the english language. When a computer program automatically fixes all grammatical and vocabulary mistakes, you're more inclined to simply hit correct than to learn from your mistakes and improve your knowledge of english.

 

For example, one of the best classes I took in elementary was one that made me write out 10 words I wanted to learn how to spell or understand once a week, and practice them in sentences. I learned their meaning, their spelling, and how to use them in everyday language. It was also a good tool for learning how to write properly.

[IAmTheMrGuy]

I personally found it very annoying to never have been taught handwriting at my school. It made my script terrible. I had to learn to right neatley on my own

[Armstrong1211]

i wish about 10 years back they did i never payed much attention to my penmanship and now it is horrible sometimes i cant stand looking at it when i compare it to my dads

[HDoug]

  Armstrong1211 said:

i wish about 10 years back they did i never payed much attention to my penmanship and now it is horrible sometimes i cant stand looking at it when i compare it to my dads

 

In 10 years you could be looking back and thinking how good it was that you decided to start working on your penmanship. You can't always finish what you start, but you certainly can't finish what you don't start.

 

And you're never too old to learn. At least I hope so, for my own sake!

 

Doug

[Crystal009]

  johnr55 said:

With apparently few schools in the US spending any significant amount of time on handwriting and penmanship, should we press for a return to the handwriting classes of the past?

 

I guess I'm apart of the last generation of students that learned cursive handwriting, we had a class I think about once a week devoted to it (that was grades 5/6). I'm 23 now, and back in junior high, teachers were starting to expect that we type out our finished assignments, so handwriting was still taught but most students would just print if anything. I was always artistic so naturally I liked developing my penmanship. But looking at my younger brother's writing, I'm afraid handwriting is just not necessary at school anymore. Teachers only require legibility...sad but true. And even if it were taught, there are fewer opportunities to handwrite things now. Actually that's why I have a diary now, haha.

Edited April 25, 2009 by Crystal009

[Philosopher]

This is a grand question! I started High School in 1964, by which time my fountain pen script was supposed to be crisp, readable, and at least semi-beautiful. Alas. But I knew that the newer ball point pens were rather pathetic, uniform, disposable. and sadly just right for a culture that is often suspicious of those manifestations of creativity that don't cash out in the short run. Ball points are, allegedly, faster than the thinner inked fountain pens. But the key difference is that a ball point requires no care, no attention to its quirks, its various ways of performing under different conditions, and no sense of one's pen as a life-long companion.

 

I support reintroduction of fountain pen and script training in the early grades for several reasons: 1) it instills discipline, 2) it instills patience, 3) it instills the idea that so-called inanimate objects can be part of our intimate relational field, and 4) that we must all learn to s-l-o-w down and let the world matter again--strange as this may sound, I think that slowly crafted penmanship can attune us to the deeper rhythms of the nature around and within us that is under such stress because of global warming (caused by busy ball poin users?).

[kvka]

Computers are too much in use nowadays, and even when people write things out by hand, they don't tend to take care in their writing. I find this sad and wish people were taught from a young age to handwrite well and often enough that this skill wouldn't be lost.

 

I remember learning to write cursive in 1st grade, and I'm exceptionally glad that I learnt it at all. I moved from the school where I was learning cursive to one where most students wrote in print when I was in the 3rd grade, where I started writing a mix of cursive and print, and my handwriting became quite bad. In fact, now that I'm in high school, I know even fewer people who have decent penmanship than I knew in elementary. Most of the time when I look at a person's handwriting, including my own sometimes, I feel as though it belongs to someone who is just learning the alphabet. I'm now trying to get back into the swing of cursive and slowly succeeding, but I wish that I never lost it. Print looks horribly unprofessional and half-cursive/half-print isn't much better. I feel that it is necessary that children be encouraged to write in cursive. Print is a nice short cut to take when you're younger, but in the end it is actually slower to use, and an utter mess.

 

The reinstitution of fountain pens as the primary writing instrument in schools would help this cause. Other instruments such as ballpoint pens write with an inherently scruffy line and call for more pressure. These give the writer an excuse to further neglect their work. This disregard for presentation can also show how little pride the writer takes in their work. Fountain pens, on the other hand, need more care when being used and the writer automatically begins to pay attention to what they're writing, enhancing their focus and their presentation.

 

Even if people weren't inclined towards cursive or improved writing tools, just writing work out by hand more often would have this effect, because people wouldn't rely on spelling and grammar checks and attractive fonts to do their work for them. People are much more careless when typing something out, and I'm even speaking from personal experience here. It's too easy to become lazy while working on a computer. Handwriting in any form would teach some level of consideration.

Edited April 30, 2009 by kvka

[Kabe]

I haven't read the whole thread, but I will post about my experiences here in Mexico.

 

First of all, I don't have beautiful penmanship. Unlike my fellows, I do write in a sort of modern cursive hybrid with some block wirting, but it's not gorgeous, although it is readable. I never had penmanship in school, but developed this system out of a need for speed writing.

 

My mom, on the other side, had the most beautiful, well balances penmanship I have seen. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to see her write with a FP. She obviously had penmanship classes.

 

However, the lack of penmanship is not the problem, per se: it is the lack of TRUE writing lessons. Over and over, I notice, alarmingly, that my nephew, and even old schoolmates, when writing, adopt a posture that I only adopt to draw. They grab the pen, ballpoint or pencil, in a weird way, and it's almost like they have to think about the letters, not the words, before putting them on paper. They are DRAWING the letters, and come up with horrid, but immediately identifiable symbols, that comply with the image requeriments of each letter, but that's all. For example, you get a's that consist of a circle like thing with a stick, and, yes, they are a's, and yes, my a's might sometimes kinda looks like o's or u's, but I prefer mine all the time.

It is the teacher's and the system's fault, expecially here, because, well, being a teacher in Mexico is nothing but 30 years waiting till retirement. Teaching is no longer a profession that requires a calling, but one for bureaucrats.

[Kabe]

Why does this thread keep reappering under "New Posts"?

[pickledgarlic]

I'll chime in here.

 

My handwriting is passable. Printing mostly (I've lost the ability to write cursive, but necessity indicates I need to be able to read it). However, surprisingly, it is needed for my job --something I never thought when I was growing up.

 

I am a geological engineer. I do a lot of writing in the field (away from a desk, computer, etc) sometimes in awful weather conditions (snow, rain, hands covered in dirt, fuel, etc.). It is important that my handwriting is legible. It is not good enough that I can read it. My field notes can be requested by the court in lawsuits. My field notes / data are sometimes entered into a computer by someone else or other people consult them. Errors in the digital data entered due to poor penmanship can happen and can be very bad if they are not caught.

 

I remember my field course in university graded outr field notebooks. They had to be neat or you were screwed. The explanation being they may show up in court and you don't want to be the guy that loses a court case because everyone else can't tell the difference between 1.17 and 1.17 (or whatever). This HAS happened in my industry.

 

Employers frown upon us for having poor penmanship due to the large amount of manual note taking my profession entails. It pays to be neat in my line of work.

 

Btw. Duksback paper is gold for writing in the snow/rain with a pencil. Just pray you never have to start a fire for warmth and it's all you have --it's plastic and melts rather than burns. That was one hell of a cold night.

 

Cheers,

 

-pg

Edited June 2, 2009 by pickledgarlic

[Philosopher]

  pickledgarlic said:

I'll chime in here.

 

My handwriting is passable. Printing mostly (I've lost the ability to write cursive, but necessity indicates I need to be able to read it). However, surprisingly, it is needed for my job --something I never thought when I was growing up.

 

I am a geological engineer. I do a lot of writing in the field (away from a desk, computer, etc) sometimes in awful weather conditions (snow, rain, hands covered in dirt, fuel, etc.). It is important that my handwriting is legible. It is not good enough that I can read it. My field notes can be requested by the court in lawsuits. My field notes / data are sometimes entered into a computer by someone else or other people consult them. Errors in the digital data entered due to poor penmanship can happen and can be very bad if they are not caught.

 

I remember my field course in university graded outr field notebooks. They had to be neat or you were screwed. The explanation being they may show up in court and you don't want to be the guy that loses a court case because everyone else can't tell the difference between 1.17 and 1.17 (or whatever). This HAS happened in my industry.

 

Employers frown upon us for having poor penmanship due to the large amount of manual note taking my profession entails. It pays to be neat in my line of work.

 

Btw. Duksback paper is gold for writing in the snow/rain with a pencil. Just pray you never have to start a fire for warmth and it's all you have --it's plastic and melts rather than burns. That was one hell of a cold night.

 

Cheers,

 

-pg

 

And your profession is not alone. I recently discovered that medical doctors are now typing their drug prescriptions into a kind of blackberry where the data goes directly to the pharmacy of your choice. Doctors, like field geologists, can produce bad consequences from sloppy hand writing. Sadly, our doctors now won't get a chance to work on their cursive but I suppose that it is not unimportant that more folks will live.

 

 

[Kabe]

'sides, anything that keeps a doctor from writing is good.