When my children were first in elementary school, they spent a lot of time learning “Penmanship”–I remember the pressure to make just the right size and shape of letters–first in printing and then in learning “cursive writing.” By the time they were in the fourth or fifth grade, they were also learning “keyboarding” (which, for us old-timers, is really typing.) Penmanship was a big deal and I remember lots of practice paper, stress and tears over getting things just right.
Of course, Penmanship isn’t anything new. We all had to spend a fair amount of time practicing our writing as kids. Then, why, oh, why, do so many adults have such terrible handwriting? Is it sheer rebellion? Just to prove that they can write however they want? Or, is it that people are going to have the handwriting they are going to have regardless of the practice papers, pressure and tears?
I don’t know the answer to the handwriting dilemma, but I do know that it only seems to be a really big deal for a few brief years of childhood. We don’t choose our partners or friends based on their handwriting, most employers don’t evaluate handwriting (although I do occasionally see “send handwritten cover letter” for secretarial and assistant-type clerical jobs). AND, handwriting obviously isn’t directly tied to how much money a person can make since it is a pretty well-known fact that doctors and physicians have the worst handwriting of any profession. I have pretty decent handwriting, and while it garners praise on holiday cards and handwritten notes, no one has ever offered me a job or marriage proposal based on the curves and loops of my letters (If my second-grade teacher, Mrs. Helms, were still with us, I would have to inform her that the afternoon spent in the corner practicing my ill-formed cursive “r’s” really didn’t improve my employability or general appreciation of writing or authority one little bit.)
So, how important is penmanship and handwriting? With computers, e-mail and text messaging is the handwritten communication becoming completely obsolete? How much time should our kids spend on practicing penmanship and handwriting during their elementary school years? Any thoughts?