Teachers don't know how to teach handwriting


Six of every 10 primary school teachers grade assignments for penmanship, even though many of them feel ill-equipped to teach the subject, according to a not-yet-released national survey by a Vanderbilt University professor.

Steve Graham, a professor of special education, found that 80% of the teachers surveyed did not feel prepared to teach handwriting and that the majority indicated they did not enjoy teaching the subject.


"Many teachers don't feel well-prepared to teach handwriting," Graham said. "It's not necessarily the best scenario."


He said it is recommended that teachers spend approximately 75 minutes per week on the subject and found that most do: Students in the first, second and third grades of teachers surveyed get 15 minutes a day of handwriting and penmanship lessons. In his survey, 60% of the teachers also said they grade for penmanship.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060220/NEWS04/602200348/1018/NEWS

I never did have my girls learn handwriting and I think it was a good decision. I taught them to print clearly and type and now they can type better and faster than I can. I understand think that if they need to write in a more artistic style they can learn caligraphy. Trying to teach 7 and 8 year old kids to write in handwritting when their printing isnt even legible is dumb.

I never did have my girls learn handwriting and I think it was a good decision. I taught them to print clearly and type and now they can type better and faster than I can. I understand think that if they need to write in a more artistic style they can learn caligraphy. Trying to teach 7 and 8 year old kids to write in handwritting when their printing isnt even legible is dumb.Hear! Hear! :cheers: Script handwriting was the only subject in grade school in which I did not receive an 'A.' To this day I print as fast as most people can write cursive. The only time I write cursive is to sign my name. Why was I tortured with having to learn this useless skill? :mad: A lot of people have illegible handwriting, thanks to the near-universal teaching of this arcane art.

You know I never really thought of it that way. But both of you make sense. They forced me to write all my lessons in cursive in the first grade before I learned to print. As a result I never really properly learned printing and cursive. I can type 95 WPM, but my handwriting is almost illegible.

They children that went to other schools where cursive wasn’t taught could print letter perfect, but couldn’t write cursive. Many who went to my school could do neither very well.

Why not teach children to write in the same type of letters they read in books?