[senco-forum] Handwriting

When I was at school in the 50's -- we used to spend an hour lesson a day on handwriting practice. We all had to conform to a very ridgid set of rules. Our teachers were not gifted inspirers of wisdom and knowledge -- but they could all write on the blackboard in chalk with perfect model cursive script.

Older folk will remember the specially lined paper -- so that the height of the t's were below the height of the looped letters, and all high letters were of regular height. Also the up slope of the loop had to be a very precise straight-up angle and all loops perfectly executed and similarly formed -- and even the dot of the i had to be of precisely the same height as the t. The roundness of the a's and b's, etc., had to be perfectly regular -- everyone was supposed to produce perfectly cloned copper-plate script -- so that no one's writing was distinguishable from one another.

Problem was (despite the impossibility of this to many youngsters) we had very poor quality paper in our copybooks, and we wrote with school-made powdered watered-down ink, with pens who's nibs were ruined from being used as darts. So it was like writing on blotting paper with a couple of tightly crossed pieces of scratchy fine-wire. Ink-wells used to be plugged with blotting paper by wags, just to make the writing task a complete nightmare. The blotting paper transfered in little blobs onto the page smearing all attempts at writing into an illegible set of smears.

We were just getting around to buying our own biro's -- but these were banned as an abomination and a 'devils-tool' to encourage sloppy (though speedy and legible!) writing.

Some rich kids were allowed to use very expensive and prized gold tipped nibbed fountain pens, filled with parent supplied Watermans (or Stevens) fountain pen ink. So these half dozen produced the fine copper plate style of the teacher -- in parent supplied excercise books with quality writing paper, purchased from Smiths. 

It was their work that was pinned on the wall for the inspection of HMI, the visiting priest and the rich kids influential parents. Our efforts were usually in the bin (page roughly torn out) at the end of each lesson.

The teachers did encourage our best efforts -- but this was by hitting us sharply over the knuckles with a rule, as we struggled to write, if they considered we were not conforming with the blackboard copper-plate script we were copying out. This numbed our writing fingers and made any dexterity and nimbleness in respect of dexterous wrting impossible

A nightmare and a waste of time -- as we all developed our own styles in our private ball point writing to each other -- and as soon as we left school. We loved developing our own style of sloping tiny writing (frowned upon from up on high) and rebelling against the teacher tyranny just for the sake of rebelling.

Bring back the good old days (I say) of hours of handwriting practice, endless pages of timed dictation, spelling tests and the cane for any lack of ability to achieve the teachers impossibly set tasks.
Brendan King 

-----Original Message-----
From: SEN at tringham.net
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Sent: Tue, 6 Mar 2007 8.19AM
Subject: RE: [senco-forum] Handwriting

Handwriting is not really addressed by the NC other than to say that it
should be cursive by Year 4.

Teachers are now rated at NO. 1 for poor handwriting pushing doctors to the
NO 2 spot, and unlikely to be making handwriting a priority ( and where in
the timetable exactly(!)

It is not just legibility that is at issue but also speed.  Does child x
only produce 1/2 a page because he is a poor descriptive writer or because
he has poor procioceptor feedback, motor difficulties or dysgraphia?
Without testing writing speed for the whole class periodically how can you
know.

Recent Y4 whole class speed test found that many were writing in the bottom
20% speed wise and were not necessarily the children that might have been
expected to have 'problems'.  It is an area that has been overlooked for too
long.

The collection of primarily Primary writing speed tests that I have found
are still up for grabs.  Secondary speed test available online at PATOSS.

Sharon Tringham

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