Whatever happened to penmanship?
Gone are the days of children learning penmanship in the classroom. Gone are the days of writing pages upon pages from the class history book to (a) learn history, and (b) improve penmanship. Frankly, it just takes too much time away from test prep. As long as the teacher can make out what the child has written it is OK. But how will the teacher be able to read it if penmanship is not practiced?
With the dawn of computers in the classroom, and soon, one assigned to every student, the need for proper penmanship becomes less and less important. Besides, who puts pen to paper anymore anyway? Families’ text message each other. Friends post messages on online bulletin boards, and doctors use computers to write prescriptions. Is anything really lost here?
Uh… yeah!
Penmanship is an art. Art develops along with music and physical activity, art is one of the three critical activities that help the brain to develop.
Practicing penmanship holds a child to a certain standard. According to educationworld.com, there was a time when “Precision and mastery were expected (in penmanship) and attained by meeting a set standard.” That standard is now old. Once children are taught their letters, and what each letter looks like, they are generally allowed to adapt the standard to their own personal style. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with having a distinct handwriting style. It is just to say, that if a child develops a unique handwriting at too young an age, by the time they are an adult, their handwriting will be illegible.
Embarrassing errors: I recently read a blog where a young girl’s Christmas List included the “F” word. The child actually wanted the “Quick Flick House of Style”. (Take the second word, and replace the ‘li’ with a ‘u’. Yeah. “Santa” would be very disappointed.
My advice to homeschoolers (and even non-homeschoolers): Have your child practice penmanship often, at least until 4th grade. Read these tips for teaching penmanship.