Handwriting is important because research shows that when children are taught how to do it, they are also being taught how to learn and how to express themselves.
Hmmmph. My transition from printing to cursive was in 3rd grade too, and consisted of the teacher saying to me -- the only left-hander in the class -- "well, follow along as best you can," and moving on. I still resent it. Perhaps I learned something about "how to learn" from that, but it wasn't about handwriting, and if I learned to express myself it certainly wasn't through my penmanship. Nice penmanship was (and is) valued, and the memory that Mrs. White wasn't even willing to try to teach me is still a bitter one.
My penmanship was never more than passable. I was surprised when I took lessons in Urdu that my left-handedness didn't make things easier. Again it was a case of the teachers being used to working with right-handers, but at least they were willing to try.
What really improved my penmanship was learning lettering in drafting class my freshman year in college. What ruined it again was learning to become proficient in Graffiti on my Palm Pilot.
hmmm, could distract attention away from the main issue. Very Rovian of you Frank.
Our cats' behaviorist recommends distraction to defuse inter-feline tensions. Fortunately, Rigatoni is easily distracted. Actually, he probably has the feline equivalent of ADD. The cats feeling the tension the most, on the other hand....
In France, you are only taught cursive. And it is fairly common practice to handwrite job application letters (in fact, it is sometimes required and companies do handwriting analysis on it).
Man, that would suck. My handwriting (both print and cursive) is so atrocious that I would never ever get a job.
The analysis would come back "Severly impaired or possibly an unfrozen caveman. Do not hire."
Yeah, my handwriting was once compared to that of a three year old with broken fingers.
It's... not good. Though having such terrible writing is a bit like writing in code, in that no one else can ever read what you've written.
I was at my mother's this Sunday, and she pulled out a bunch of frosting recipes on 3 x 5 cards, and immediately said, "Well, you wrote this one." And it was true, that was definitely my handwriting -- as it had been in college or shortly thereafter. But I look at my notes now, and that's not how I write any more.
Granted, when I write these days it's usually in an on-the-fly situation, on a train or scribbling while on the phone, but -- I can still do my old college handwriting if I work at it (which is a little stylized, and meant to be pretty) but generally don't bother.
Which, actually, I would say is true of a lot of things from college.
I was doing fine, and laid down for a little bit of a nap, and then I remembered that tomorrow would be the fourth anniversary of the day my friend Katherine shot herself. At least I didn't miss it entirely. :-(
Though having such terrible writing is a bit like writing in code, in that no one else can ever read what you've written.
Often I can't read what I've written.
Last year, when I was taking the bus to work a lot, I actually wrote the first chapter and a half of my book longhand while on the bus.
Transcription later was a hoot. "Did I mean to say 'muffin' or, possibly, 'Quetzalcoatl'? In context, they both kind of make sense..."
