[senco-forum] Handwriting

It's interesting that a similar debate to this is
going on in FLTeach, an American online forum for
foreign language teachers. The opinions about the
importance of learning cursive script versus its
replaceability with keyboarded text very much reflect
what has been said so far on SENCo Forum.

One matter that interests me as a teacher-researcher
but has not yet been aired in this debate is the
ability to read handwritten text. In Germany, when
pre-war "Sütterlin" script gave way post-war to more
"modern" and internationally recognisable styles such
as "Lateinische Ausgangsschrift", the result was that
children grew up unable to read their grandparents'
correspondence. Judge for yourself at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCtterlin

One American professor of German found himself
besieged by many such learners who had found their
forebears' letters stored in the basement and had
tried, in vain, to read them. The professor's response
was to design a Sütterlin TrueType computer font so
that handwritten text could be reconstructed on the
computer then instantly changed to the infinitely more
readable Times New Roman.

The point I'm making is that we need to equip our
students to relate to their family past as well as
cope with the present and the future. Writing cursive
might be an obsolescent skill in the computer age, but
reading it continues to be a useful skill, which we
shouldn't assume comes automatically to all and
sundry. We only have to think about that perennial
complaint from some students that they can't read
teachers' handwriting on the board. We encourage our
subject colleagues to provide print-outs of essential
lesson text such as homework assignments, but the
practice isn't always followed.

David Wilson
Harton Technology College, South Shields
http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com