[senco-forum] Handwriting

Dear All

But for some (many?), creativity does not come through the hands as it
does for you (and as it once did for me), because the mechanics of
HAND-writing is beyond them.  It's a biological impasse.  It's not a
'try harder' or 'keep practising' kind of thing.

If teachers were trained like occupational therapists to spot how
children were getting the mechanics wrong and had the time to undo
what they had learnt and then start all over again learning the skill
properly, or (like the real specialists in the field) teaching them
how to create a written style which fits the way their brain is
(unusually) geared, then perhaps the argument would stand.

Keyboarding skills allows many children to express themselves
creatively whereas handwriting prevents them from expressing any level
of intelligence at all. And, for some reason, (in my experience) some
teachers stubbornly refuse to acknowledge this!

We think handwriting is the norm - but only because that's what
schools choose to teach first.  Perhaps it's time to think outside the
box.  Why don't schools teach keyboarding skills first, then allow
handwriting to evolve as children's brains and physical dexterity
develop?  I believe the research is there to suggest we teach
handwriting too early for their physical development.

Incapacitated children and adults would love to be able to write
clearly.  They feel 'less than' because they can't. And so we harm
their self-esteem further by pushing for handwriting, demanding
neatness at that.  And force them to practice incorrect mechanics
because we don't have the training and skills of an occupational
therapist.

I no longer need pen and paper for creative writing.  My creativity
expresses itself much faster, keeps up with my fast thinking, on a
keyboard now.  And I can spend more time searching for my true
meaning, correcting as I go.  I trained as a solicitor - rather like a
GP, it ruins your handwriting and nobody can read mine any more yet
I'm proud to say I once won a national prize for handwriting whilst at
school.  But what was the point, ultimately, other than to please
teachers, if nobody can read it now? (As a parent with a child in
school, I always typed my letters to teachers because I owned the
technology and had the skills so it was easy to do; most people stick
to a pen because they haven't got to grips with the technology not
because they are able to be more creative.)

My son went to a school where everything relating to the use of word
processing was a problem, just as you describe.  We went to talk to a
SENCO in another school who set out  exactly how she had solved all
these problems (before we even mentioned them) to enable her kids to
word process in class.  She wanted to actively create solutions rather
than get stuck behind an impasse.  I have no idea what the fundamental
differences were between the two schools which made that possible.

We are all different and I wish that we could respect the difference
that children try to show us.  For some reason we find it difficult to
believe that they aren't in some way trying to pull the wool over our
eyes rather than struggling to understand their own difference with us
as their 'midwives'.
A

On 23/07/07, Amanda <amandavh at btinternet.com> wrote:
> Dear All
>   I do agree that we should allow pupils to wordprocess their work if they want to - but there are difficulties in school about this.
>   Example:
>   I have two pupils in my Year 7 class who word process everything.  If they write in class, I have real difficulty in getting a printout which is then stuck in their book ready for me to take away at the end of the lesson to mark.  I know it shouldn't be an issue but it is because I don't have a printer in the classroom, their laptops don't connect to the school system  and I have to send them off elsewhere to print.  Why do I want their work stuck in books?  Because I will lose an individual piece of paper  but not a pile of books.
>   Exams
>   I do the access arrangements work so I know that I have to apply for permissiion for wordprocessing.  Essentially, I have  to prove that they can wordprocess more effectively than they can write.  Many of 'my' pupils prefer to dictate (which is another argument altogether).  If all the pupils in my school wanted to wordprocess their exams, we could not accommodate this.
>
>   And I don't agree that most people don't write by hand.  Most people I see writing write short things but ones which need to be read easily - orders for food in the restautant, shopping lists, letters to their kids' teachers and so on.  You might as well say that people don't need to be able to read because there are computers who can read for you.  I think that writing by hand is a very different skill to using a computer.  I do all my creative story telling and poetry writing by hand for example.
>   Amanda
>   Secondary SENCO
>   Cornwall
>   Just one half day to go!
>
>
>
> Amanda
> Secondary SENCO
> Cornwall
>