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Posts: 126
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September 2003
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Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Fri, 07 January 2005 07:12
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Some educators say that the computer keyboard has replaced the pen in today's classrooms and that today's students need keyboarding lessons, not handwriting practice. What do you think? Should handwriting be taught in today's classrooms? Do you teach it? Do you have a handwriting lesson or activity to share?
[Updated on: Fri, 07 January 2005 11:30]
Linda Starr
Curriculum and Technology Editor
Education World
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Posts: 9
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October 2004
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Posts: 4
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January 2005
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 Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Sat, 08 January 2005 17:37
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I agree that students need keyboarding skills and we should begin teaching them earlier. Students learn to use the computer early in elementary school so they need the keyboarding skills sooner than our generations did. My son could use the computer better than I could when he was only in 3rd grade.
I also agree that students need handwriting skills. Computers are not always available and there are times they will need to fill out or sign paperwork so that it can be read by others. My 7th grade students right now can't type or write so I wonder what they are learning these days in grade school. Does anyone know??
Terri
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Posts: 3
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January 2005
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Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Tue, 11 January 2005 15:03
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TxTerri
I agree that the outlook for good penmanship is not very bright, but maybe this is cause to start a campaign for resurrecting the "3 R's." What do you think?
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Posts: 4
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January 2005
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Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Tue, 11 January 2005 16:34
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Definatly time to revisit the 3R's. I've just started teaching my first unit and I've included a writing exercise in each week just so the kids can get the practice. The LA instructors love it they need all the help they can get. This week the kids are writing a paper on what impact bringing dinasaurs back would have on our environment. Should be interesting.
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Posts: 1
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January 2005
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 Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Tue, 25 January 2005 23:18
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Keyboarding is clearly a necessary and desirable skill, but I was recently rather horrified at an experienced teacher saying there wasn't much need for handwriting or script in this day and age.
I find it sad, especially with all the focus on keeping journals of all kinds.
Surely we can't expect our students to be sitting under a tree writing about their observations with a laptop in Elementary school (yet!)
Seriously, I think handwriting is a beautiful and useful tool for the ages, and we should not let it die. It already could use some CPR to get it back up and running.
I would have handwritten this but the computer wouldn't let me.
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January 2005
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February 2005
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February 2005
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Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Mon, 21 February 2005 23:57
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Yes, I also agree that Handwriting is going somewhat away. We still need it in our lessons. I incorporate it in my 5th grader by making him practice in a Handwriting workbook and by using a whiteboard to practice. He and my 10th grader are both required to use cursive in their journals. They don't like it but they have no choice. I feel that it is VERY important to be able to write something that someone else can read.
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February 2005
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February 2005
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January 2004
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February 2005
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Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Mon, 04 April 2005 13:27
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Hello I am currently a student at the University of Michigan Dearborn. I would like to say that while I do agree with the fact that there should be some sort of keyboarding lessons, I do not agree that handwriting should be completely wiped out. To me there should be an even balance of the two. Typing should be saved for the more formal assignments such as essays. Handwriting should be used for the everyday assignments such as textbook questions. Thank you.
Michelle Maddox
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January 2006
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Posts: 1
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February 2006
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 Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Wed, 01 March 2006 15:07
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This is a very fast changing world. With that in mind we have to keep our children up to date with our fast changing world, in order to prepare them for when they enter. Technology over the years has been becoming more and more a part of the classroom, as well as in the real world. Most jobs and high educations require certain technology requirements. So we as teachers have a new responsibility, to help prepare our students for this. I do not think that the keyboard will ever replace the pen in the classroom, it is more of a friendship that they have. Students need to master both skills to be able function in this world. So I feel that students need practice in both subjects almost equally. I feel in beginning grades such as K-2 the teachers focus should be hand-writing and then 3rd and on is when they should incorporate the keyboard and use of the computer. For activities to do with both I don’t have any in particular, but I know one thing…just MAKE THEM FUN!!!
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Posts: 4
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March 2006
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Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Thu, 23 March 2006 17:34
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Even though computers are the innovative way of communication, it is of high importance that handwriting be a focus of instriction in our classrooms. People are not always going to have access to a computer. Let's be realistics, in our classrooms, who has a computer for all of the students where you can say, "students, forget about good handwriting. Just use word processing."
On the other hand, teaching keyboarding is important, but I think a person will develop mastery through his/her years of practice. It should not replace handwriting istruction. What do you think?
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Posts: 45
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March 2006
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Posts: 1
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June 2007
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Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Thu, 28 June 2007 10:33
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Hi...I am new to the forum but am grateful for finding someone who thinks the way I do about Handwriting in School...or rather the lack thereof.
I have a fourth grader (just completed) who had NO handwriting classes whatsoever. Everything was done on a lap-top which is the current wave of the classrooms in our area. I have a second grader who had NO lessons in this venue either.
Because I am a home school educator for my grandchildren and have been for several years. I have consistantly given lessons in printing and in "cursive" because they do not have access to a lap-top in my home. I believe that because they no longer seem to consider it a necessity in the lower grades that by the time our children are in high-school they will not be able to communicate on paper. Having also just seen my other two boys go through intermediate and one just starting high school that the lack of education in writing skills has been to a detriment.
My soon to be fifth grader was home schooled in the second grade via the Alpha Omega program and she aced it. It consisted of one whole book of nothing but printing and handwriting and was a god sent, because she can now "write" her book reports at home.
Because of her home schooling she was able to skip the third grade and go directly to the fourth in which she only received 3 B's for the entire school year. All other grades were A's.
I am currently doing summer school for the soon to be third grader and my fifth grader and every day I give them lessons in handwriting. My only situation is that I do all the writing and then they have to copy mine. I keep as close to D'Nealian as I can and they are doing well.
Because I am a young 64yrs of age, but am disabled I have no way to get a good classroom style writing book. Does anyone out there have a good workbook they would like to give away?
Sorry to seem greedy but I do not have any way to get one.
Funds are limited and transportation is pretty well out of the question.
I would like to be involved, however, in bringing this lack of education to the schools attention. How can I help?
Jobbie....Fernley, Nevada
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Posts: 1
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November 2007
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Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Sat, 10 November 2007 18:37
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As a handwriting instruction/improvement/curriculum specialist, I think we need to attend to the research findings (JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, May/June 1998 issue) showing that the fastest and most legible handwriters DO NOT adhere to cursive. (Neither, as it happens, do they really print.) Highest-speed highest-legibility handwriters join some, not all, letters: making the easiest joins and skipping the rest. Also, highest-speed highest-legibility handwriters tend to use print-like shapes for letters that "disagree" between printing and cursive (even when the handwriter joins letters).
Regarding signatures: The legal sources (extensively researched by me and by my legal counsel) DO NOT justify the common assumption that signatures require cursive. The following material legally defining signatures and writing comes from definitions in BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY (eighth edition) and from definitions in the revised Uniform Commercial Code (law in all fifty USA states).
From the BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY [ ] entry for "Signature" -
"A signature may be written by hand, printed, stamped, typewritten, engraved, photographed, or cut from one instrument and attached to another, and a signature lithographed on an instrument by a party is sufficient for the purpose of signing it, it being immaterial with what kind of instrument a signature is made. ... whatever mark, symbol, or device one may choose to employ as a representative of himself is sufficient ... The name or mark of a person, written by that person at his or her direction. In commercial law, any name, word, or mark used with the intention to authenticate a writing constitutes a signature. UCC 1-201(39), 3-401(2). A signature is made by use of any name, including any trade or assumed name, upon an instrument, or by any word or mark used in lieu of a written signature."
From the BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY definition for "Writing" -
"The expression of ideas by letters visible to the eye."
Articles 1-201 (39) and 1-201 (46) of the revised Uniform Commercial Code :
(39) "Signed" includes any symbol executed or adopted by a party with present intention to authenticate a writing.
(46) "Written" or "Writing" includes printing, typewriting, or any other intentional reduction to tangible form.
Neither source mentions cursive as a requirement for signatures or for handwriting.
For more information/resources on the above issues (and on other handwriting instruction/performance issues), visit my web-site at http://www.learn.to/handwrite . You can also contact me via e-mail at handwritingrepair@gmail.com or via phone at 518/482-6763. By the way ... teaching kids to read cursive (whether or not they write it) takes an hour or less if done properly. I have taught five- and six-year-olds to read cursive, if they could read print.
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Posts: 2
Registered:
December 2007
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Re: Is Handwriting in Trouble?
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Tue, 04 December 2007 07:51
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Hello I am new to this board but I think that both should be taught in the class room because no matter what your are still going to need to know how to hand write something. But most school teachers do want a typed paper turned in though.
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