Posted in Issues and Encounters

It's made a bit of news recently, but for those who have not seen it, the following comments are based upon a recent article in the Washington Post titled, "The Handwriting Is On the Wall" from October 11, 2006.

 

The basis of the article is the demise of cursive writing. 

 

You remember cursive.  It was the first "sign of adulthood" that you could acquire, usually around second or third grade.  You were "on your way" when you could write and, maybe more importantly, read cursive. 

 

Those loops and swirls were neat and mysterious.  Difficult to decode.  Sometimes totally different from what was being taught in the classroom.

 

Ahhh, but there's the rub.  Apparently, with the need for higher standardized test scores, handwriting - and cursive in particular - is going the way of the fountain pen and shorthand.

 

Some blame keyboarding and instant messaging.  Students no longer see a need for handwriting when so much, including school papers, is typed on a computer.

 

The article makes two points, neither of which I find surprising. 

 

1. That handwriting, when displayed, is often used as an indicator of ability, intelligence, neatness, and quality content. 

 

The article states, "When adults are given the same composition written in good handwriting and poor handwriting, "they still give lower grades for ideation and quality of writing if the text is less legible," [said Steve Graham of Vanderbuilt University.]

 

For better or worse, I believe this to be true. 

 

On occasion, I teach a writing course for a local community college.  Every semester, my first "encounter" with a student is through a handwritten autobiographical essay created during the first night of class.  And, all too often, I've found that the quality of the handwriting is an indicator of the quality of the content or its organization. 

 

Some may cry, "Foul!" but first impressions are important and often the only lasting first impression one leaves is via one's handwriting.

 

2. There's an undetermined link between handwriting skills and cognitive development. 

 

While the article doesn't go into great detail on this subject, it stands to reason that the process of translating a thought into concrete words on paper through writing creates a physical manifestation of an idea.

 

To put it another way, you can't know what you are thinking until you've either written it down or spoken it aloud. 

 

Either way, you force your brain to take "ideas" - often vague things fraught with emotion or other clutter - and make them substantial through word choice, definition, and organization. 

 

Some people are writers.  Some folks talk to themselves.  But both are accomplishing a similar goal - communication of the interior to the physical world. 

 

Handwriting teaches us how to do this.  And, if the Washington Post article is correct, it teaches us how to make this transition to our "lifelong benefit."

 

But, how do we make these unsubstantiated assets to handwriting relevant to our students?  What can we use to encourage them to master handwriting in order to achieve these unmeasurable benefits? 

 

The answer must differ for each child, of course.  For my daughter, handwriting is beautiful and the artistry and individual nature of that appeals to her.  Putting her best "face" forward through her writing is a source of personal satisfaction - even on a math worksheet, where a particularly stylized six has been faithfully reproduced since it's accidental birth several days ago.

 

No doubt keyboarding/typing skills are the wave of the future.  No doubt they are necessary for our children to learn.

 

Thus, in essence, the argument for handwriting works counter to our general culture. 

 

Helping our children develop discipline, independent thinking, and their own abilities are some of the primary goals of most homeschooling (and non-homeschooling) parents.  This often means valuing things that seem to have been discarded by our society. 

 

Actually, it may summarize a large portion of the typical homeschool journey. 

 

I'm off to refill my fountain pen and resume our grammar studies...