Topic: Thought this was worth a mention?

[tim]

Comment today about the computer being the end of Diaries & Letters.

What about handwriting? One of our American (you noticed?) cousins - near 80.....

[Emagggie]

And still a beautiful hand.Do schools still have handwriting on the curriculum I wonder?My handwriting is not very legible being a left hander in a hurry, no matter how hard I try! Long live the Parker. ;D

I'm intruiged by the piano player in a brothel, must have been a good book Tim ;D

[Marymary]

Our school certainly does teach handwriting Emaggie & lots of the little darlings write beautifully but some lefthanders do find it more difficult.

[Curryandchips]

I consider myself lucky, in that I learned to write neatly, despite being left handed. Never learned to play the piano in a brothel though  :D

Interesting point about writing ... my eldest son always had problems at school, his spelling was chaotic, but he was diagnosed as NOT dyslexic, so was not given any support. His GCSE performance suffered accordingly. For his 16th birthday we bought a computer, and his keyboard skills developed at a phenomenal pace. His GCSE scores picked up during his last few months, and now he is completing his final year of a computer networking degree ...

His handwriting and written spelling are still awful ...

[redimp]

And still a beautiful hand.Do schools still have handwriting on the curriculum I wonder?My handwriting is not very legible being a left hander in a hurry, no matter how hard I try! Long live the Parker. ;D

I'm intruiged by the piano player in a brothel, must have been a good book Tim ;D

Yes but it does not attract the biggest proportion of marks at SATs and there is such a massive amount to teach children nowadays, it does sometimes get neglected - note for those that feel standards have fallen.  The mount that has to be taught in Lit and Num nowadays is huge - not all of it can be fitted in nevermind covered adequately but OFSTED's obsession is with coverage and the dreaded slippage (non coverage).  There is a lot of debate about different schemes too - should we have break letters at b,g,j,p,y which do not naturally join or should artificial loops be added as in the above example.  This also effects how f is joined - the former results in an ugly horizontal join from the cross rather than the traditional loop although I prefer the former for everything except the f.  Kids can also be hampered by teachers who were not taught when handwriting was important (me) or who have dyspraxia (me) and consequently find handwriting difficult themselves.  Left handedness, dyspraxia, ADHD etc can also effect how good a child is at handwriting.

[MrsKP]

I'm left handed and my handwriting is one of the best in my department's (I think anyway, although it can get a bit ragged when I'm in a hurry).  :P

I don't remember how I was taught, but I don't do the usual "claw round over the top" but write from underneath the line and still manage to go from left to right without smudging all the letters.

At work we spend millions on "developing" staff, sending them on this course and that, but illegible handwriting seems to be perfectly acceptable.  I'm work in an industry where completing forms by hand is a necessity and it really pees me off that there is no emphasis placed on how legible the final product is/isn't and nothing is being done to tackle the problem.

 >:(

[tim]

Maggie - you asked for a plug!!

B-in-L's None the Wiser.  A humorous story of - mainly - an airman's life in the Far East.

This is the drawing referred to:

[Robert_Brenchley]

I never learnt to write legibly at all. I'm left-handed and coudn't use the ink pens they insisted on without smudging all over the place. In the end I gave up and just used a biro, and nobody said a word. People still can't read what I write.

[busy_lizzie]

I can identify with you Robert.  I am left handed and when I was a child I found it very difficult to fit into a right handed world.  My handwriting wasn't very good either.  I was always told I had to slope my letters to the right which was difficult as it seemed naturual for me to slope mine to the left, and at the time we had to write with a pen and ink too. I was always unfairly being told off because all my exercise books were always covered in huge ink blotches.  As a left hander when I wrote I scraped the pen back over the words I had just written making a terrible mess. I was always very good at English but that was one of the things that always spoilt my good marks.

Trying to knit and do needlework was also a nightmare - everyone was always taught the right handed way and I had to fit in doing it that way too, when it was my inclination to do it in reverse.  I always wanted to use my knife and fork in reverse too and even today find it difficult to cut up things with my right hand. I very rarely write today and I am so glad I can just type things on the computer, makes it a lot easier.  :-[ busy_lizzie

[Mrs Ava]

When I want, I have lovely handwriting and have always been very proud of it and love to use a good fountain pen when writing to my grandad.

Our two loves are taught handwriting skills, however, with daughter number one, she spent so long trying to get her handwriting neat and the spelling and grammar correct that she started to write less and less, so then she was told not to worry about the neatness - quantity, not quality.  Now she is in year 3 and they are back to quality, and I have to say, this teacher must be very inspiring for her as her writing has improved and there is quantity and quality.  Such a proud mum.

Great drawing Tim!

[tim]

Aren't fountain pens great?

I'm sure that there are many who would not know what they were for!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Flicking ink across the classroom, of course!

[Emagggie]

That is a great drawing Tim.I would love it on a wall in my house.!!
Any chance of a name drop of B in L ? Sounds a very entertaining book.

On lefthandedness,my Ma was made to write with her right hand, receiving 'the strap' for using her left. I can do most things with either hand but not cutting hair.I was taught by a right hander and cannot do it with my left!
Do you have a beautiful hand Tim?

Memories, Robert  ;D ;D

[tim]

1. I'll PM it.

2. No!! It used to be passable, & I loved lettering & drawing, but age has taken its toll!!

[Hyacinth]

"No patience with left-handed whingers and no excuses accepted for less-than-perfect work"......and here I'm paraphrasing the general ethos of my school and the comments of the teacher.

We were taught handwriting, starting at 11-12 and for the first year we had to use pencil, after first ruling the paper - can't remember the regulation width between lines. All that we learnt in the lesson obviously then had to be used in the proscribed manner in our classwork and homework. In the second year we graduated to pen and ink and expected to write in straight lines.  Oh, and it was italic script we were taught. Ever seen a left-handed italic nib? Thing of tortuous beauty, it is. All inkwells were on the right of the desk. Weren't allowed to use fountain pens 'til the Lower 6th, so 14-15? And never, ever a biro. Still feel guilty when I use one. Classwork was judged by legibility as much as by content - in fact, if the work was smudged or blotched the content didn't matter - the mark was an automatic 'E'.

So....yes, it not only is it  possible to write well and be left-handed - it's gotta be possible. I do it  ::)

Love my pen, but the nibs are a b. to source these days.

[MrsKP]

it's gotta be possible. I do it  ::)

me too !   ;D

[Emagggie]

The other thing I've just remembered is going into a haberdashers in Chatham many years ago to see a very elderly man crocheting the most beautiful, delicate christening shawl I have ever seen. Apparently he only made them for favoured customers.

[tim]

If it comes to that, I knitted our 2 first borns' vests - in uniform - on the train returning fron work. And later, with a Passap machine, their roll neck cardigans. Having translated the instructions from the French!!

Good Airforce training??

[Mrs Ava]

Ah, Grandad can upholster beautifully, but his handwriting is appauling.  I blame the airforce for both of those!

[froglets]

I went to a right handed school - "The diel sits oan your left shoolder" and spent the first two years cack handed and dropping things until I got the hang of which hand to use.  As you may have guessed, it was a very traditional school, but I learned proper handwriting, and arithmetic, and grammer - all of which seem to be lots arts.

As an adult, I'm not ambidextrous, but still confused about left and right, although it can come in handy when I damage fingers on my right hand - just use the left for a while.

My dad was "caurrie jookit" and I could forge his signature easily if I used my left hand.  I love it when I have a blast of good handwriting ( rarer these days) I feel very proud of my style.  I feel inspired to write to an old friend today & dust off those fountain pens.