After spending no small number of hours grading hand-written work the past few days, I have never been more convinced that handwriting is an essential part of one's education.
We're in a transitional period between the Palmer Method and the Qwerty Method of writing, at least in education, and it's tough on both teachers and students. Students struggle to write stuff down, edit their work, and the process of re-writing is tedious. Teachers have to check this work, and decoding handwriting adds time to grading marathons. Until students have access to netbooks, or the culture changes so that students can bring their own note-taking devices, we'll be stuck in this cycle of tedious writing, rewriting, and deciphering.
There are great ways to improve handwriting. I have enjoyed the book Write Now by Barbara Getty, an easy to follow method of learning cursive italic. Those who really want to spruce up their writing can check out the IAMPETH website. This is -really- cool. Beautiful script everywhere!
So, join me, Mr. Spencer, and tens of other stylophiles today as we celebrate National Handwriting Day!
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