and me as someone whose hand cramps up after writing just one check...

[acroyear]

The Handwriting Is on the Wall - washingtonpost.com:

The computer keyboard helped kill shorthand, and now it's threatening to finish off longhand.

When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the class of 2006, just 15 percent of the almost 1.5 million students wrote their answers in cursive. The rest? They printed. Block letters.

And those college hopefuls are just the first edge of a wave of U.S. students who no longer get much handwriting instruction in the primary grades, frequently 10 minutes a day or less. As a result, more and more students struggle to read and write cursive.

Many educators shrug. Stacked up against teaching technology, foreign languages and the material on standardized tests, penmanship instruction seems a relic, teachers across the region say. But academics who specialize in writing acquisition argue that it's important cognitively, pointing to research that shows children without proficient handwriting skills produce simpler, shorter compositions, from the earliest grades.

Scholars who study original documents say the demise of handwriting will diminish the power and accuracy of future historical research.

Well, one problem I always had was the artificial criticism. My hands simply were NEVER EVER going to be under control for that sort of thing. Never.  I couldn't draw; I couldn't sketch; I couldn't write.  And I absolutely couldn't STAND being graded down simply because I was not going to and would never ever have any ability to do that kind of stuff with my hands.

If there's anything that made me hate school and the arbitraryness of grading, it was penmanship.

The second thing was going through 4 years of the same f'in' arithmetic lessons I got right the first time thank you.

At any rate, I'm kinda of mixed minds on this.  I do agree that we're throwing way too much variety at kids to "keep them interested" while still following No Child Gets Ahead standards planning, but at the same time, the fact that an otherwise A student gets Bs simply because they can't physically do something has always seemed harsh.

They complain about how they are "hurting morale and self-image" by punishments once used to maintain discipline, yet they kept on with hurting the self-image of students (like me) who actually were normal simply because they couldn't do one particular thing.  The Animal School indeed...

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm of a couple of different minds about the whole "death of longhand." Computer typing is frankly more useful in the great wide world, and block printing is more legible than most cursive. So I can't mourn it.

On the other hand, my job has always required a certain amount of longhand, and since I never was punished for penmanship, I keep thinking that maybe I need to take calligraphy courses or something to make mine more readable.

[i-kissandra.livejournal.com]

It's funny - I struggled with this for a long time as I watched my son's handwriting go from "pretty good for a beginner" to bad to worse. I finally realized that as long as I was able to read what he wrote, I didn't give a fig how he formed his letters. He prefers to print and he puts together his thoughts pretty well for a 16 year old. To me, that's what matters. (and actually, at least 'round here - they don't grade down for bad handwriting...unless it's simply illegible)

When I think about it, for some, cursive writing (aka script) isn't too far off from expecting someone to just pick up a paint brush and be able to produce the Last Supper. I'm just happy that my son likes to write. As far as I'm concerned, he may use whatever mode and media he wishes to do so.

[dawntreader]

i only think penmanship should be graded down if it isn't legible. otherwise, how can you vouch for content if you can't even tell for sure what numbers and letters have been written down?

even in the real world, if someone can't read what you've written, what use is it to write it at all?

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I can't even think of the last time I've used cursive for something other than a signature. Writing in print is bad enough for me -- my hands start to hurt far too quickly. That's one reason why I do a lot of electronic journaling instead.

I got Ds in handwriting in elementary school.

[kiltboy]

My handwritting was never what one would call "legible". Ever.

and after spending 15 years drafting, I can't even remember how to make the cursive counterparts to my current block letters. Maybe if pressed, but otherwise my brain just ain't in that train of thought anymore.

Maybe it might improve my handwritting. Something to consider, specially as I raise a Rennie, in a house of Old School Skillz like we have.

[shalandara.livejournal.com]

I never gave much thought to handwriting and school and children ..... until I had 2nd graders. Handwriting is actually an issue right now. One child was having problems with spelling. (OK, let's not go into the fact that I think it's dorky the way they have her doing spelling). But since she was never taught *how* to form the letters she has problems writing them. She can usually look at a word and tell me if it is spelled properly, if I have written or typed it. But since she has trouble forming her own letters she can't always tell if what she has written is correct or not. And then I realized that she and her sister were never taught by the schools to write, as in how to form letters. It was a "do whatever and make it look like that letter" kinda thing. I went and got workbooks for this, and their handwriting has improved noticibly in just one week. Now, she can concentrate on learning instead of having to constantly re-write her work.

I took the schools not teaching them how to write as another "let's not stifle the self-esteem of the child" thing, in addition to it being a "writing nice letters isn't measured on standardized tests so we won't spend time on it". And yet they get told to write neatly and legibly. Go figure. And next year they will be expected to learn cursive. No wonder kids have trouble, if they are expected to do another form of writing when the simple mechanics (i.e. the easiest way to make them look nice) of printing isn't told to them. Are they expected to figure it out on their own?

My handwriting is going downhill (but I think that is more a carpal tunnel thing) and Siegfried's is downright bad with printing (do not go into cursive). But I also do calligraphy, and there I do take the time to write nicely, but then again that is an artform basically.

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

I used to write cursive all the time, but my handwriting was never very legible, so I gave up eventually and printed everything. Even then, it isn't that pretty.

I also have some fine motor skill problems, which has always hurt when trying to take notes in class.

Oh sure, why not.

[bronxelf-ag001.livejournal.com]

You know what? I call bullshit.

Let me count the ways:

This article seems to make a subtle if not direct correlation between cursive and use of same, and success/intelligence.

Anyone tried to read their DOCTOR's handwriting lately?

Oh, I don't know... Anyone want to talk to anyone left-handed about this? Or have advances in penmanship managed to eliminate that little stumbling block? No? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

Then we can talk about how many professions *REQUIRE* the use of block print. Design, architecture, engineering. Cursive? No. There is no cursive. The article seems to be skewed towards the notion that cursive=a higher mind.


Finally, there's this correlation : simpler and shorter(compositions)=bad.

This is not necessarily true by any stretch of the imagination. Unless, of course, you're counting the ability to pad and bullshit as some kind of sign of higher intelligence. Which, I suppose in a world of schools turning out what they hope will be brave little toasters for America, might not be a bad thing to hope for on their part.

I use cursive all the time, and it's usually legible. But that doesn't mean that *not* using it makes you any less intelligent or capable of success.