It's a mistake to think that the ability to write quickly and legibly is even close to being an outmoded skill -- life still presents us with numerous formal and informal situations when pen and paper are either the best tools or only practical tools for communication.
Fix It Write Nan Jay Barchowsky Pdf 12
In one of the studies, Vanderbilt University professor Steve Graham, who studies the acquisition of writing, experimented with a group of first-graders in Prince George's County who could write only 10 to 12 letters per minute. The kids were given 15 minutes of handwriting instruction three times a week. After nine weeks, they had doubled their writing speed and their expressed thoughts were more complex. He also found corresponding increases in their sentence construction skills.
"Handwriting is surviving in a computer age," said Kate Gladstone of Albany, N.Y., who describes herself as a handwriting repairwoman, teaching adults and students how to write more legibly and quickly. "All of us at times, and some of us all the time, find ourselves in a position where they have to write without an electric power supply."
Doctors are under increasing pressure to write legibly to avoid tragic mistakes at hospitals and pharmacies resulting from scrawled orders and prescriptions. And after decades of disregard, writing and penmanship are being emphasized once again at many schools across the country.
"I think the pendulum is starting to swing," said Jan Olsen, founder of Handwriting Without Tears, which sells handwriting workbooks and teaching manuals to schools, parents and students. "People are waking up to the fact that employers and schools want people who can write grammatically correct sentences and write with a legible hand."
"If you talk to some older people, they might write well, but they'll give horror stories about teachers with rulers and mindless copying," said Olsen, an occupational therapist who in the 1970s devised a simplified method of teaching handwriting to help her son.
In addition to her consulting work, Gladstone is one of the driving forces behind the World Handwriting Contest, which this year had 361 entries. In a sign that even a group that is regarded as harboring the least legible writers can produce a winner, this year's award for artistic writing went to a doctor.
One morning, many years ago (maybe a few too many!) my second-grade teacher announced that "today we would start learning to write instead of print." In other words, we were going to start on another step beyond childhood into "maturity." The collective mood of excitement and satisfaction that my class experienced as a result of this announcement, and the lessons that followed, was one of the great memories of my grammar-school years. Wow - we were really growing up!
I desperately wish I had good writing. There was a time in grade school when I got Es for handwriting (E for Excellent, that is). Then I just got lazy and printed. Now I'm embarassed when I have to write anything that someone else will see. Even though writing by hand seems to be going the way of the dodo, there are just enough situations in life (like wedding invitations/thank you notes) where having decent handwriting will come in handy.
Wow, Eric...when I'm writing something important, I ALWAYS do a handwritten version first. It helps me to think through things in a way that working at the keyboard can't. I also write 3 or 4 handwritten letters a month to friends and family - and I usually use a quill and an inkwell to do it. People cherish and save those letters. I do it partly because I like being a bit of an anachronism in my own time - and because my friends are invariably so delighted to get a handwritten letter. Try it - you'll be stunned at how happy it makes people.
Writing is not primarily an art form. It is a tool for communication. I do not see people arguing that cursive is faster, easier to write, easier to read, or otherwise superior for communication. I think the important point is that people be able to communicate well in writing. Being able to do it in cursive is like being able to do it in rhyme -- of little value in most situations, a nice plus in some, but hardly a skill we need to spend a lot of valuable school time teaching the entire population to do well.
Right on, Anna! Among other pluses, cursive is indeed easier than printing. And considering how we are always trying to find the easy way to do ANYTHING, it's odd that so many of us are revering to the HARD way to handwrite!
I am so sorry I missed this discussion earlier in the week. I didn't think cursive was important until my own kids (one now out of college, the other a college sophomore) were in school. From the first, they were not taught to hold their pencils "properly." Result: it hurt to write, and their hands became fatigued easily. They were taught cursive, but not drilled. Result: they couldn't write quickly, especially since their hands hurt. Both kids, particularly the older one, were creative, making up great stories -- but they didn't write them down. Their progress in writing literacy was stalled until they took "keyboarding." The older kid, who learned to type (my old fashioned term) at a younger age and had to demonstrate greater proficiency than the younger one -- is to this day a better writer.
1. I think people should be taught how to do block printing of the type that pleases postal workers who have to route mail. I've gotten many letters obviously spat out of a computer, sent in envelopes addressed with schoolkid cursive. Your modern printers and word-processing programs will address envelopes (except in the library), but not all offices use this capability.2. I'm not familiar with any of these, but it might be good if we were all taught some kind of shorthand or speedwriting, to make it more likely we'll be able to read our scribbling when we have to use handwriting.3. Someday I'll get a digital voice recorder for everyday availability, but I'd like to share the fact that contrary to a popular belief, it is possible to make legible handwriting without looking at it. Use big, simple block characters. Sometimes you're stuck having to do this: for example, you're driving in the boonies, and you see a small plane with an engine on fire. You can't tell a Cessna from a Piper, but you can read the N-number, and before calling 911, you want to write it down correctly. All you have is a pen and some old box from your fast-food meal. You write down that number without looking and call 911 ASAP. They can find out all the registration info for that plane. 2ff7e9595c
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