The Lost Art of Penmanship?

Another reader and new friend, emailed me and in passing mentioned something about her son's handwriting. First off, I have to say, my handwriting is UGLY. But then again, we were not really trained in penmanship when we were in school. (Blame, blame blame. ;OP)

On the other hand, I believe the American curricular really do pay more attention to penmanship than ours does, correct me if I'm wrong. From Kindie to the early grades, they have helping lines and lots and lots of writing practice to ensure that the child forms his letters nicely. And then there's a very systematic introduction of cursive writing.

I have a story from Susan at Heritage Learning Centre that one her students who had gone from HLC to primary one in the public school. She lamented that this child had such beautiful handwriting when she was trained under the ACE curriculum but when she went to pri 1, the teacher at school made them copy lots of answers from the transparency and do it fast.. till the child's handwriting deteriorated. :o(

The first picture is my dear niece's most current handwriting. (Click on the pic for larger view.) She is almost 10 years old and homeschooled by my sis. Unbelievable, right? (Her brothers who are reading this will say, not fair lor. Ours also very nice what, why never take picture? Yes, dear boys, your handwriting is also very nice. I just happened to pick up your sister's book that day.... :O)  ) 

Here are pictures from her Bible verses note books over the years, their daily discipline to copy verses out of the Blessed Book, the King James Bible. It serves as a record of the progress of her handwriting through the years too!

This one was when she was about 5 years, printing individual letters with guiding lines.

This one was from April, 2004 when she was 6 years old. She had started on cursive writing here and still writes with the help of guiding lines.

This one is from dec 2005, she's almost 8 years old. Writing cursive without the guiding lines.

And again, the very first picture is her current handwriting. My sis says it goes through changes (perhaps by the child's fancy?) Currently, it's gone smaller and it floats between the lines.

In this age of computers and keyboards, why do we bother ourselves with good penmanship?

Really, good penmanship is a discipline and it takes practice to master before it becomes a habit.

For my children, I need to reinforce the habit everyday! As a rule, I do not correct their answers that are written out of the line. They have to erase it and re-write. Still, it is constant reminding at this stage to write neatly.

And when it comes to handwriting for a young child, it can really show whether or not the child will make the effort to be neat, be patient to be neat, and present their work properly. As the bible says, Proverbs 20:11  Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.

Comments

[germ]

Oh boy! What an interesting post! My handwriting was nice and neat when I was in Primary school. But once I got to Secondary 4 O-Levels, there was no time to write neatly. In fact, scribbling was an art. We wrote over the lines, with barely comprehensible scribbles. So sad right?

[Suwei]

So I guess, Germ, the title of my next post oughta be "The New Art of Scribbling"? :O) See, not only doctor's handwriting is illegible. heheh...