{"id":661,"date":"2015-08-03T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/wels-educator\/?p=661"},"modified":"2015-11-09T08:02:48","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T14:02:48","slug":"is-good-penmanship-important-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/wels-educator\/2015\/08\/03\/is-good-penmanship-important-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Good Penmanship Important Today?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Arvin Jantz<\/em><\/p>\n

The answer to the title question is a definite YES. It is as important today as it was in the day when our grandparents learned to write. It seems that good handwriting is a lost art today, but still everybody enjoys good handwriting. Good writing, not too long ago, was a necessary art. Business colleges required it. It has been said that you know a doctor by his writing. But who can read a doctor\u2019s prescriptions unless you are trained to read them? If that saying is true, possibly more should have been doctors instead of teachers. Just why must Johnny be taught to write well?<\/p>\n

When a child becomes a better penman, he may very likely become a better student. We hear so often that Johnny can\u2019t read. That\u2019s a real handicap to his progress in school. We also hear that Johnny can\u2019t write. That can become a real handicap also. One high school teacher informed us that he flunked most of his class of thirty in a \u201cwritten\u201d test. Why? First, they couldn\u2019t put into writing what they knew. Secondly, he could not read what they had written. Teachers with experience will agree that in general, the poor penmen are your poor spellers; that is, in written spelling; they are the ones with untidy papers; their paragraphs are usually very short without content. Why? Good writing, to such a pupil, is a very difficult and complex chore in itself. The physical chore, or rather the lack of ability to write well, can become a severe block to a child\u2019s learning just as well as some other physical or mental handicap. The physical chore of writing distracts the child\u2019s mind from the subject matter. It has been proven, again and again, that as a child\u2019s writing improved, his grades improved along with it. In a written examination, a student\u2019s writing deteriorated as he progressed, until towards the end it became a meaningless scrawl. He explained the reason for it. The student became so disgusted with the chore of writing that he didn’t care how or what he wrote. Had he been able to write well, the concentration would have been more on WHAT rather than on HOW he wrote. Later this student brought up his D\u2019s to C\u2019s and B\u2019s because, as he said , \u201cNow that I have improved my writing, I like to write, and I can spend more time on thinking what to write.\u201d The foregoing related experience brings us to a question.<\/p>\n

Where does the fault lie that Johnny can\u2019t write? It might be his own fault. More likely the fault lies somewhere else. The teacher in school is a constant example to the children. He can be a poor as well as a good example. If the teacher is untidy about his clothes or his person, will the children learn to be tidy? What impression is made on the pupils when the teacher is careless with his writing on the board or otherwise? What example does the teacher set if he is not consistent in letter form and in spacing? What will the children learn from a \u201clesson in penmanship\u201d a few minutes a week when a poor example is before them on the board at all times? If a teacher is a poor writer, how can he be enthusiastic about good writing, and how can he inspire the children to become writers? It seems that children in the lower grades often write as well or even better than seventh and eighth graders. Why? Possibly the teachers have allowed the older children to form sloven habits in writing, and once such habits have been formed, it seems almost impossible to unlearn them. What can be done?<\/p>\n

There are several things that teachers might do. Teachers can become better examples by being concerned about their writing and by practicing. Zaner Bloser has a course in in writing for teachers. This course is free if you use their books. It might be well to take an inventory of your own and your school\u2019s writing. It may seem rather late, but why not teach penmanship to our prospective teachers while they are still in high school and college?<\/p>\n

Whatever you do, DON\u2019T LET GOOD PENMANSHIP BECOME A LOST ART!<\/p>\n

This is an article originally published in the<\/em> Lutheran Educator May 1962, Volume II Number 4. The article\u2019s author, Arvin Jantz, was the teacher and principal at St. Matthew\u2019s in Benton Harbor, Michigan, at the time the article was published. We wanted to republish this article to demonstrate that some educational issues are timeless. <\/em><\/p>\n

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