Neatness Counts?
Recently I indirectly wrote a post about how horrible my handwriting is. Unfortunately, I don't have bad handwriting of doctoresque proportions and so that, my friends, is why I don't make the big bucks teaching.
This is also why I think it's laughable that now, after all these years, I am supposed to teach the children of our future how to write legibly. Not only am I expected to teach them how to write, but I'm also expected to expose them to the wonders of cursive writing. Like I didn't already feel like enough of a fraud trying to muck my way through the metric system and now this?
Just for fun, let's create an analogy. If my handwriting in print is like Paula Abdul's singing career, my handwriting in cursive is like Paula Abdul's career as a judge on American Idol. In short, they both are examples of vicious downward spirals.
Let me just say, for the record, that my handwriting is admittedly atrocious. I am one of those right handed writers who can start out really neat say every other day, but 20 minutes into writing my hand takes on a mind of it's own. There's also the bit about how I hold my pencil. In a nutshell, I hold it wrong. But when I hold it the "right" way, I write even worse. It's a no win situation really.
In my defense, I will say that my chalkboard handwriting has improved greatly over this past year. My letters are almost always the same size and they are no longer seeping into the chalkboard as they mysteriously so during the first few weeks of school. So there.
And kids, God bless 'em, praise their teachers whether they deserve it or not. So if I draw a picture, that any way you slice it, is simply super awful, or if I write particularly messy, they'll call me out on it, but they'll find a way to butter me up in the process.
In the meantime, I'm stuck with crappy handwriting and 17 children who are looking to me to show them the way. So I throw in a handwriting lesson here or there and hope the kids have the natural ability that I never did. Either that or that they will invest in some kick ass typing skills like I did as a teen.
Then my principal drops the bombshell that we should all be teaching handwriting at least once a week now that the big test is over and done with. Not only that, but that our kids should be writing their assignments in cursive and we should be writing in cursive right along with them. She acknowledges that the teaching of handwriting could very well become obselete in the next few years, but until then, D'Nealian the hell out of them.
So the sham that I am, scribbles on student's papers "Redo! I can't read this!" all the while knowing they quite possibly read my writing. However, this is not for lack of trying. But unlike playing the keyboard or riding a bike, I don't think handwriting is something you can sincerely improve upon as an adult. Unless of course you have amnesia and have to relearn everything as if it were new again. Sure that would suck, but I might get great penmanship out of the deal. Whatever. It's a sacrifice.
This is also why I think it's laughable that now, after all these years, I am supposed to teach the children of our future how to write legibly. Not only am I expected to teach them how to write, but I'm also expected to expose them to the wonders of cursive writing. Like I didn't already feel like enough of a fraud trying to muck my way through the metric system and now this?
Just for fun, let's create an analogy. If my handwriting in print is like Paula Abdul's singing career, my handwriting in cursive is like Paula Abdul's career as a judge on American Idol. In short, they both are examples of vicious downward spirals.
Let me just say, for the record, that my handwriting is admittedly atrocious. I am one of those right handed writers who can start out really neat say every other day, but 20 minutes into writing my hand takes on a mind of it's own. There's also the bit about how I hold my pencil. In a nutshell, I hold it wrong. But when I hold it the "right" way, I write even worse. It's a no win situation really.
In my defense, I will say that my chalkboard handwriting has improved greatly over this past year. My letters are almost always the same size and they are no longer seeping into the chalkboard as they mysteriously so during the first few weeks of school. So there.
And kids, God bless 'em, praise their teachers whether they deserve it or not. So if I draw a picture, that any way you slice it, is simply super awful, or if I write particularly messy, they'll call me out on it, but they'll find a way to butter me up in the process.
In the meantime, I'm stuck with crappy handwriting and 17 children who are looking to me to show them the way. So I throw in a handwriting lesson here or there and hope the kids have the natural ability that I never did. Either that or that they will invest in some kick ass typing skills like I did as a teen.
Then my principal drops the bombshell that we should all be teaching handwriting at least once a week now that the big test is over and done with. Not only that, but that our kids should be writing their assignments in cursive and we should be writing in cursive right along with them. She acknowledges that the teaching of handwriting could very well become obselete in the next few years, but until then, D'Nealian the hell out of them.
So the sham that I am, scribbles on student's papers "Redo! I can't read this!" all the while knowing they quite possibly read my writing. However, this is not for lack of trying. But unlike playing the keyboard or riding a bike, I don't think handwriting is something you can sincerely improve upon as an adult. Unless of course you have amnesia and have to relearn everything as if it were new again. Sure that would suck, but I might get great penmanship out of the deal. Whatever. It's a sacrifice.
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