Should Penmanship Return to School?

[MYU]

Of course they do still teach writing, but apparently cursive script is out. I think penmanship is a low budget kind of activity--not much required to do it. Devoting a little time to be sure it gets in should not be a problem. I don't think it's vital--troubled schools have far more serious things to worry about--but any school in relatively healthy financial shape should make time for penmanship.

[Stani]

Make those kids learn how to write well. It would be a good thing to preserve a skill that can bring so much pleasure.

 

 

 

......................Stani

[njwbert]

I voted yes it is an important part of one's presentation. The examinations are still hand-written, and clarity of writing would give the marker an easier time. I lament the lack of penmanship classes every time I see my handwriting and when my professors remark on it. I am still working on making my cursive legible, but it is very counter-productive at the moment.

[tfwall]

Of course they do still teach writing, but apparently cursive script is out. I think penmanship is a low budget kind of activity--not much required to do it. Devoting a little time to be sure it gets in should not be a problem. I don't think it's vital--troubled schools have far more serious things to worry about--but any school in relatively healthy financial shape should make time for penmanship.

 

Not so much the cost in materials as the opportunity cost. Since education reform, and especially now with No Child Left Behind, every hour of the school year is already planned out. We can teach penmanship, but we need to either keep the kids longer or drop something else from the curriculum.

 

Keeping the kids longer butts up against financial issues as well as time constraints on other activities.

 

Dropping something isn't really an option with the currently mandated curriculum. So, we rank order the subjects and the mandatory ones win out and we cut the fluff like penmanship and music. The cut topics are "nice to haves" but not "must haves". If desired, you can pursue penmanship on your own with little investment. We just can't afford to waste classroom time teaching it after the basics in the first year of grammar school.

[zquilts]

I see the most atrocious, illegible "handwriting" coming across my desk at work - replete with exceptionally poor spelling and grammar.

 

I have to agree with David's comment however that "we should simply start teaching" .. that about says it all

Edited August 30, 2008 by zquilts

[offscott]

In My old school they taught handwriting, but that was in primary one, when I was in primary 7 we were taught tiny amounts of handwriting.

[Ozark]

I just read an article a day or two ago (Yahoo! News, I think) about a study involving children and writing. The study showed that children who learned to write better and faster (including cursive) performed better in school. They quoted something along the lines of if a student learns to write very well by the second grade, their essays are vastly improved in the sixth grade as compared to students who did not learn to write well by the second grade.

[Beechwood]

I would prefer to see it taught by parents, excellent handwriting practice sheets are availble to download from the Microsoft Templates web site

[tfwall]

I just read an article a day or two ago (Yahoo! News, I think) about a study involving children and writing. The study showed that children who learned to write better and faster (including cursive) performed better in school. They quoted something along the lines of if a student learns to write very well by the second grade, their essays are vastly improved in the sixth grade as compared to students who did not learn to write well by the second grade.

 

What was the proposed conclusion in the article?

 

That learning to handwrite makes you a better writer?

 

That children who are naturally better at written language excel at both penmanship and writing essays?

 

That the two are unrelated by any known connection but empirically it looks like penmanship can be used as a marker to predict future essay success?

 

Perhaps some other conclusion?

 

Do you have the link by chance?

[hellkitty]

I'm on the fence about this. I nigh flunked every penmanship level I had in school (it was mandatory in the Way Back times when I was young). I didn't care much as long as I could read it.

 

However, when I see what my students hand in, even *I* am horrified (and those who have seen my handwriting should be nigh dead with shock). It looks like their handwriting 'froze' at about third grade. Seriously--those of you with 7-8 year olds, take a look at the next drawing with caption your kid brings you--that's what I'm seeing coming across my desk *in college*! It does NOT give a good impression of the student--it looks sloppy as hell and borderline illiterate. It does not look 'professional' or 'articulate', two words that should matter very much when it comes to, say, being *hired*. Someone, somewhere, should step in and say, hey, kids, as a JOB SKILL you need to have attractive looking, readable penmanship. (Does that sound unfair? Well, employers also want you to have reasonable hygiene, and maybe, just maybe, a bit of manners. Same-same).

 

The problem is/was that trying to make everyone's handwriting look The Same (the hideous Palmer), was a failure. We were graded by how closely we could write like typewriters with a Palmer font. I think penmanship, if it's brought back, should be in high school, when the students have begun to individuate, when they realize that it's a powerful job tool. And above all, the instruction should focus on clarity (legibility) and a pleasing appearance, not merely a conformity to a standard alphabet.

 

HK, non qonformist

[Ozark]

I just read an article a day or two ago (Yahoo! News, I think) about a study involving children and writing. The study showed that children who learned to write better and faster (including cursive) performed better in school. They quoted something along the lines of if a student learns to write very well by the second grade, their essays are vastly improved in the sixth grade as compared to students who did not learn to write well by the second grade.

 

What was the proposed conclusion in the article?

 

That learning to handwrite makes you a better writer?

 

That children who are naturally better at written language excel at both penmanship and writing essays?

 

That the two are unrelated by any known connection but empirically it looks like penmanship can be used as a marker to predict future essay success?

 

Perhaps some other conclusion?

 

Do you have the link by chance?

 

Unfortunately, I do not have the link. I'm quite certain it was in Yahoo! News yesterday. Maybe a quick search will find it for you. Anyway, I'm not sure what the point or conclusion was. From what I gathered (possibly entirely in my own interpretation) the act of learning to write well (as in legibly and efficiently not quality of subject matter) at an early age resulted in better writing (as in quality of subject matter) at a later age. Seemed quite peculiar to me, but what do I know? Perhaps its related to the development of creativity. And perhaps, I misunderstood the entire article.

 

[tfwall]

Seriously--those of you with 7-8 year olds, take a look at the next drawing with caption your kid brings you--that's what I'm seeing coming across my desk *in college*! It does NOT give a good impression of the student--it looks sloppy as hell and borderline illiterate. It does not look 'professional' or 'articulate', two words that should matter very much when it comes to, say, being *hired*. Someone, somewhere, should step in and say, hey, kids, as a JOB SKILL you need to have attractive looking, readable penmanship.

 

You have college students who think it is acceptable to handwrite work? That in itself should tell you they aren't going for professional and articulate.

[chud]

You have college students who think it is acceptable to handwrite work? That in itself should tell you they aren't going for professional and articulate.

 

Some college classes still include in-class essay exams...

[tfwall]

You have college students who think it is acceptable to handwrite work? That in itself should tell you they aren't going for professional and articulate.

 

Some college classes still include in-class essay exams...

 

I don't think you can do much to make Blue Book exams look more professional. There is only so much that can be done there.

 

Now, if you are looking for professional work where they have time at home to bang out their thoughts, I'd certainly hope it comes back neatly typed in whatever format their field endorses.

[tfwall]

Someone, somewhere, should step in and say, hey, kids, as a JOB SKILL you need to have attractive looking, readable penmanship. (Does that sound unfair? Well, employers also want you to have reasonable hygiene, and maybe, just maybe, a bit of manners. Same-same).

 

Errr, what? Job skill? Where are these poor children being hired? A Dickensian clerking position perhaps at one of the coal magnates offices?

 

I can't think of anywhere that requires good handwriting, outside of niche positions like calligrapher and sign letterers. Hardly a job skill that the other 99.99% of the population needs to worry about.

 

-If your students are at the lower end of the economic and educational bracket, they are going to be punching keys on a register somewhere. The register will spit out a very nice receipt without regard to the operators ability to write.

 

-If your students are the Ivy League set, they are going be clerking or working in offices where their supervisors will demand reports typed in accordance with company standards.

 

-Even teachers, who may still have blackboards, need only have a passable block printing.

 

-Doctors handwriting is literally a joke in today's society. Though less of a problem now with electronic prescriptions.

[WillAdams]

Legible handwriting is a part of communication --- we're a long way from a paperless office and people _need_ to be able to write notes which others can read, including on things which won't fit into a computer printer (such as recently arrived boxes of supplies) and I don't see it as a good thing when a person stops what they're doing and:

 

- opens up their word processor w/ a new document

- types up a brief note

- clicks print

- walks to the printer to get a mostly empty sheet of paper

- walks back to where they started and only then provides the desired information

 

as opposed to:

 

- picks up a pen and a post-it note

- writes a brief note

- hands it to me

 

William

 

 

[tfwall]

- picks up a pen and a post-it note

- writes a brief note

- hands it to me

 

Easily done with some basic block printing. No need to waste your youth learning cursive or a Victorian shophand.

 

The time of people writing anything formally by hand is years in the past. High school students are not allowed to handwrite reports and essays and certainly business memos are never done out by longhand. Some basic block printing from your grammar school days is all that is required.

[Titivillus]

I found out the my daughter in 3rd grade is going to be starting penmanship classes. So it might be that in some areas it never left.

 

Kurt

[Possum Hill]

- picks up a pen and a post-it note

- writes a brief note

- hands it to me

 

Easily done with some basic block printing. No need to waste your youth learning cursive or a Victorian shophand.

 

The time of people writing anything formally by hand is years in the past. High school students are not allowed to handwrite reports and essays and certainly business memos are never done out by longhand. Some basic block printing from your grammar school days is all that is required.

I think most people find it fairly easy to avoid cursive writing, but I think it's still a useful, and perhaps even essential, skill for communication. There will be many people who don't learn, but people who can write clearly and quickly will have an advantage, as will people who can speak well compared to those who can't.

[thibaulthalpern]

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?

 

In the context of U.S. public schools, I would say no. Resources are scarce as it is and there are really more important things to spend the funding on such as writing. Teaching at the college level, I see college students with fundamental writing problems which should have been tackled in secondary school but is not due to the lack of funding. Penmanship could be introduced as an elective, but not as a mandatory class in this current social climate.