Handwriting
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I was surprised to discover that the National Curriculum requirements for handwriting have changed. By the end of Key Stage 2, when children leave Primary school at the age of 11, the guidance states that children should have ‘neat and legible’ handwriting. They are no longer expected to write using cursive handwriting.
Research shows that most secondary school students abandon cursive script in favour of print because they find it faster. Research also shows that writing a joined-up script helps the writer to remember notes better and it has been shown that primary age children benefit from writing in cursive when learning spellings.
Choose your research carefully!
My handwriting is execrable and I admire those who can produce a beautiful script apparently effortlessly.
The following are examples of handwriting in the last century.
All of these girls would have been taught handwriting between 1940 and 1950. There is such a disparity of styles, the most attractive and legible being 3 and 4.
In the next generation, the 1970s, some were taught italic writing, others the Nelson method. Each person adapts their handwriting.
In the early 2000s, some handwriting looked like this.
I didn't know they still taught handwriting in primary school. My grandchildren seem to prefer typing on their keyboards.
ReplyDeleteThere are occasions when one has to write by hand. It would be a shame if handwriting fell completely out of favour.
DeleteI don't like my own handwriting now, it's gotten so atrocious. If I take my time I can write well but usually it becomes a scrawl by the end of the page. My sister never learned cursive, all her writing is capitals and much is illegible as her hand tries to keep up with her thoughts. Mostly I manage to read her letters, but my brother can't decipher much of them. Sometime last year I wrote and asked her to please write a little slower and form the letters better so we can read them, so far there hasn't been a single reply.
ReplyDeleteI wish handwriting was still taught in schools, but there needs to be a national style, not something different according to which state or school you are learning in.
There is no one style here. In France, Germany and Italy the children are taught a single style and the writing is very distinctive.
DeleteAnother intriguing topic! I love the diversity of people's handwriting as long as it's fairly legible. Sometimes in my job I am not happy with the writing I must decipher - it's a little like solving an unsolvable mystery at times. My own handwriting varies by the day, rather schizophrenically, really :)
ReplyDeletePersonality always plays a part. I like seeing other people's handwriting.
DeleteInteresting - I didn't know the expectations had changed. I taught my year ones the common joins (ee, ea, ou, th, etc) as part of the daily phonics lesson and that carried on into Y 2 so that by the end of Y 2 they were expected to join up reasonably fluently. They didn't all, of course, but an awful lot did.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I am not in favour of a national style. There's too much 'do it exactly the same' in schools and takes no account of natural differences. Formation is more important than style - but perhaps that's just a school teacher's view. :-)
Writing by hand isn't as prevalent as it was anyway - I'm typing this, as did you.
xx
Even a national style will be adapted by personality.
DeleteI still write every day, using a fountain pen. It's one of life's little pleasures. x x x
My handwriting is 'LARGE' and when l say large...
ReplyDeleteIt's large...as large as the top handwriting on this
post...My signature...looks as though a spider has
fallen into an inkwell, crawled across the page and
died....! But! But! It goes with my personality...!
I've always been told l have Teutonic handwriting....
Strictly speaking, Germanic and Teutonic mean the
same thing...it's all a bit complicated really, so l won't
bore with it....!
And growing up, as l did, l was told l should become
a doctor...Why? Because no one could read my writing.
But! I'm a verbal person, l like to express myself verbally
rather than in writing...
"Friends, Romans, Countrymen...Lend me your........." HeHe! :).
✨💛✨💛✨💛✨💛✨💛✨✨💛✨💛✨💛✨💛
We can learn a lot about people from their handwriting!
DeleteCertainly can with me....
DeleteBad handwriting in some cases is a sign of
eccentricity too...
Bad and messy handwriting is a sign of
high-intelligence, meaning your pen cannot
keep up with your brain...
So, don't despair if you have an ugly handwriting...! :0).
If I have time, I love my handwriting, it's a mix-up of all styles, me rebelling in 70's at school, most of the time I rush and it's a scribble.
ReplyDeleteI cannot write slowly, so my handwriting is a mess :-)
DeleteI tend to print rather than join because it's neater. I love those early examples of handwriting, I'd like to be able to write like that.
ReplyDeleteMany people's is a mix of print and join. Some all print like you but at first glance it looks joined.
DeleteHi Janice - my handwriting is appalling - I tried to copy a friend's when I was about 13/14 and from then on - forget it ... I'm glad I can type - all my letters are sent that way - odd notes are handwritten - poorly! Great selection you've chosen - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteMy handwriting bears no relation to the style I was taught, but I've had to teach so many different styles that my own has disappeared!
DeleteBoth my mother and her mother received minimal education, yet they could write beautiful cursive script, with correct sentence construction, grammar and spelling. How has it all gone so wrong?
ReplyDeleteI was caught in between cursive writing and printing, and so my handwriting while readable, is so ugly. Now with my shaking hands, I can barely write. When I can, my partner does hand writing for me, thankfully no longer required for hotel check in.
Of your examples, I find the Wishing you all the very best Christmas and the seven year old writing the most readable.
Nearly everyone of your mother and grandmother's generations were taught when there was a great emphasis on the three Rs. They were the bread and butter of the morning's school work. The afternoons were for jam, which covered everything else.
DeleteFascinating topic and examples. I was taught Marion Richardson hand writing, which seemed like print, which we then joined up, similar to your last example. Dissatisfied with this style in my early teens I changed to a style similar to your 1920s example. I find I type most correspondence now as it’s quicker!
ReplyDeleteTyping is certainly quicker, and best for everyday correspondence, but receiving a handwritten note or card is so much more personal.
DeleteHaving been taught 'cursive' writing at school in early 1970's I was also 'schooled' by my grandfather in ensuring it was properly sloped, even, light on the upstroke and heavy on the down (although that is irrelevant if you write with a ballpoint pen - it is just a nibbed pen thing). Being right handed in a left handed family I was also very aware of how much harder it was for the lefties around me to write like that without dragging a hand through the ink. I have read somewhere that by the middle of this century cursive script will only be intelligible to people who study it (like reading mediaeval English) it will have so fallen out of use.
ReplyDeleteI could never master the light and heavy strokes but write with a fountain pen every day in my journal.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine a time when cursive script will be unintelligible, but I'm sure those who know better will be proved correct.
I was taught "proper" handwriting in the 1960s, using ruled notepaper and a fountain pen. These days my handwriting has deteriorated to a barely legible scrawl.
ReplyDeleteTime pressures cause us to speed up, to the detriment of our handwriting.
DeleteFascinating subject. I don't like my ordinary handwriting but if I make an effort it's passable for cards and labelling my homemade gifts.
ReplyDeleteMy mum, who died in her 90's, wrote in 'block' ( not joined up) and strangely so does my husband, who is in his sixties .
Alison in Wales x
That's unusual for your mother's generation, maybe not so much for your husband. x x x
DeleteMy handwriting always seems to be evolving. I might change the way I write an "r" or an "a" for example. Even my signature changes in small ways. Probably because, even at the age of 70, I'm still unsatisfied with my writing. I use cursive for note cards but print my journal entries.
ReplyDeleteHandwriting is bound to change, if only a little, as people grow older. It makes it more interesting, I think.
DeleteAt the top end of primary school, we were taught to write in the Italic style, with the correct fountain pen …and ink! There were no such things as biros at my school! I remember winning a prize for my handwriting, in a competition at the local library.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went off to train to be a teacher, we had to do calligraphy and we were told how important it was to write, properly, all of our signs for classroom displays. In all schools where I taught, we always did handwriting lessons and in one school where I taught, in Exeter, the headteacher was such a stickler for correct handwriting that she would inspect our lettering on our displays.
Biros were definitely frowned upon, yet we loved using them.
DeleteI have taught so many different styles of handwriting that my own is a mess, not aided by too much haste!
I'm not sure about the National Curriculum here in Belgium ... but what a shame that cursive writing is no longer encouraged. That said, I don't like my handwriting at all, and although I write using cursive handwriting as I was taught, I can't write very fast, and never could. If I need to write fast, it soon deteriorates into something quite illegible. It only dawned on me quite late that for some reason I wasn't holding my pen properly, which is now too late to unlearn. Strange th
ReplyDelete... continued ... Strange that none of my teachers in primary school ever noticed! xxx
ReplyDeleteI don't think much attention was paid to correct grip. I still see people with most awkward grips and wonder how on earth they can write - their arms and hands must ache so much. x x x
DeleteI feel sad about the disappearance of cursive. I have grandchildren who can't read a birthday card I send them with a handwritten note in cursive. I've always felt like it was faster than print for me.
ReplyDeleteThat is sad. I find cursive faster than print, too.
DeleteHandwriting seems to differ from one person to the next, as long as your writing is neat and legible does the style matter?
ReplyDeleteI do think that in these more 'modern times' handwriting/letter-writing will not be used as much. I enjoy both writing and receiving letters and have noticed more and more many friends and family now type them!
All the best Jan
Legibility is the most important factor. I hope handwriting doesn't disappear altogether, though I fear that is a faint hope.
DeleteHow interesting! I think I wrote this before but I remember having to learn to write in pencil and once you managed to grasp that you could go on to the fountain pen. I was one of the last to move to a pen. I like my handwriting now. I get lots of positive comments on it. I do write in cursive sometimes, but I usually do that when I'm being lazy and it doesn't look as good lol.
ReplyDeleteI had to learn to write in pencil first. Graduating to a pen was a significant moment. My seven-year-old grandson achieved his 'pen license' last year - he was very proud. I think I was eleven before I wrote in pen.
ReplyDeleteI have always found European handwriting much more beautiful than American handwriting. I am thinking of those from Scotland, England, France, Germany that I knew / know.I personally used to wite in cursive. But I don't like MY cursive. Now I use manuscript most of the time, except if I have to sign my name.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to change one's handwriting style. I'd love to have beautiful handwriting but it's never going to happen:-)
DeleteInteresting to see the varied styles of writing that have been taught over the years. I think that whatever the style you have adopted to write with is should be legible to self and others when required.
ReplyDelete