Job Discussion Forums

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Which form of handwriting do you expect your students to read and to use ?

My personal preference is for a Modified Italic which my Art teacher introduced me to to 50 years ago.

I am surprised to see some teachers in the region still using the cursive that went out of fashion about the time Harold Mamillan was in Number 10.
It is also quite difficult to read !

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

My rule was... as long as it was legible. A large proportion of my students were only able to print. Since I taught mostly higher level writing courses, only the first draft had to be written by hand with further drafts on the computer.

VS

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

..........maybe handwriting is obsolete ?

johnslat · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:19 pm Post subject:

Dear scot47,

Maybe WE are. Shocked

Regards,
John

With Malice Toward None · Joined: 20 Oct 2009 Posts: 250

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

As long as it's neat and legible, I don't really have a preference. My own handwriting is a mixture of print and cursive, so I can't/don't really expect the students to favor one or the other.

d

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I still wonder about expecting students to read cursive. Is that reasonable ?

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Considering the low level of most of the students, probably not. It is hard enough for me to read the writing of many native speakers, so I can't imagine how mysterious bad handwriting must look to the students.

VS

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

I don't know where the original poster gets the idea that cursive is fifty years out of date. I taught handwriting to primary school students in the 90s and the American textbooks we used all taught cursive. We used to have to change the handwriting we used on the board half way through grade 3.

I haven't checked but most students I believe use print style, the same as I do on the board.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I follow the practices of the late TOM GOURDIE who was instrumental in introducing Italic Handwriting into Scottish schools in the 1950's and 1960's.

http://www.tomgourdiesgallery.co.uk/

I will leave Stephen Jones and others to follow the obscurantist ways of their American masters.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Not all of us share your artistic nature... Cool

VS

Neil McBeath · Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Posts: 277 Location: Saudi Arabia

I was at school in Aberdeen in Scotland in the 1950s.

I remember that we were not allowed, under any circumstances, to use biro pens because they would ruin our handwriting.

Neither were we allowed to use fountain pens (same reason).

We were forced to use steel nibbed dip pens and to carry our own individual bottles of Quink Blue-Black ink. The ensuing chaos in a class of 33 eight year olds can be left to the imagination.

Oddly enough, by the time we had moved on to Secondary School, such obscurantist rules had been thrown out.

With Malice Toward None · Joined: 20 Oct 2009 Posts: 250

Dear Neil,
I think you could have mentioned whether those obscurantist methods had some effect or none at all..
Regards.
WMTN.

jdl · Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 632 Location: cyberspace

Then there is the whole world of hand writing as religion........
http://www.lifepositive.com/mind/psychology/handwriting-analysis/handwriting.asp

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

While I could perhaps accept that handwriting reflects some aspects of our personality, the idea of changing your handwriting intentionally to affect your personality does seem a stretch to me... a HUGE stretch. Cool

That would seen to negate the need for psychologists and psychoanalysts... we could just teach people new handwriting... simple fix...

VS