Handwriting Contest

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Jgrden

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I am concerned about the future of penmanship or penwomanship. Computers are taking the place of writing craftpersonship. It is becoming a lost art. Unless we want to become computer designers we need to kick the interest of writing in the butt.
I think the IAP should be regionalized, as it probably already is, with each region responsible for working with schools in promiting hand writing excellence. Any involvement a student has in a hand writing event (contest, precission, styles, methods, grip, movement) will stay with them for life expecially if rewarded in some fashion. Each region should sponsor an event and progress the winner to a national run off. The publicity should be like that given to the National Spelling Bee. Perhaps a vehicle into this excercise would be to work with Rotary, Kiwanis, Seroptimist, Chamber of Commerce's' and Lion's club.
 
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NewLondon88

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Some thoughts that come to mind..

Spelling is something you do well or you do not. It isn't likely that you spell well
one day and then forget how to spell the next day.
Penmanship is not like this, though. Such a contest would only show who CAN produce
the best handwriting in a contest situation. This has little or nothing to do with how
this person will write on a daily basis.

I also assume this will be geared toward younger writers? I don't remember any
penmanship lessons beyond 4th or 5th grade. I'm not sure what other school systems
were like, but 2 or three times a year the "Penmanship Lady" came into our classroom,
erased the numbers and letters she had put there months ago (GASP! Those letters
and numbers were NEVER TOUCHED! .. or looked at, I think..) and wrote the new
letters and numbers for the next few months. She even made straight lines with a
yardstick and NEVER MEASURED! She was there long enough to grade our penmanship
papers (that we never remembered we had written) and then moved onto the next
classroom.. and apparently, the next town after that.

This was about the only time we thought about penmanship unless we got a paper
returned as unreadable. I don't even think I realized what the word penmanship
meant till I was much older. We knew it meant good or bad handwriting, but I don't
think anyone broke the word down to explain it or why it was important.

I don't think that it is being stressed more then it was then.. I just don't know that
anyone would concern themselves with it. (the students, not the Rotarians) I've
been involved with many projects at the local level with Kiwanis, Rotary and Chamber
of Commerce and what I've found is that there is a lot more enthusiasm among the
committee people than the people that the project is about.. and a lack of
enthusiasm can sink a project like this.

Like you, I miss good penmanship.. especially my own. And I don't mean to sound
negative, but I don't see the current trends changing much, contests prizes or not..
and this is because the target audience of such a contest is full of people who
(for the most part) don't care, and don't understand why WE care.
 

Jgrden

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Good points. In my school system we studied the Peterson System. We practiced ovals and up&downs daily with those darned stick pens that would cut paper if you pushed too hard. At the end of the year, at the awards ceremony, you were awarded a certifidate.
If we can get the kids to write I think they will always remember how to write and that it is a personal way to communicate.
I think your last line "and don't understand why WE care." sums it up.
Why do we care?????
 

Wheaties

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Just a thought from a younger pentuner:

I just had a son, so I look at this in terms of him. To be completely honest, I could really care less if he learns cursive or any other fancy form of writing. If he knows how to spell and write to a legible point, what more do you need in life. The rest is just icing. Especially with technology, and I can only image where it will be in 10 years when he begins learning writing. I'm really more concerned how he puts his words together than how they look.

Hopefully this doesn't "kick me out of the club", but it's just my thoughts.
 

NewLondon88

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Hopefully this doesn't "kick me out of the club", but it's just my thoughts.

LOL .. yeah.. the Chicken Scratch Squad is on the way to your house :tongue:

So .. just so we're clear.. it's ok with you that he is able to articulate
his thought only so long as the power doesn't go out? I keep hearing how
penmanship doesn't matter because kids now type on a keyboard instead
of writing. I don't see it as being much different than the cashier at the
local supermarket not being able to count change because they learned
computer registers.. so they don't need to know. But there's no Plan B..
if the computer goes down, they're happy to take the rest of the day
off (with pay, of course)

I've made a $9.01 purchase, gave a $10 bill. I found a penny AFTER she
had punched in the $10.00 .. so I got back 99 cents .. and then another
penny. I just hung my head.

Not picking on you or even singling you out. Just watching something
fall apart and not feeling good about it.
 

OKLAHOMAN

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I've made a $9.01 purchase, gave a $10 bill. I found a penny AFTER she
had punched in the $10.00 .. so I got back 99 cents .. and then another
penny. I just hung my head.

Better yet, I will at times add a gas card to my purchase at Wal Mart and will always make the total an even # like $100 or $150.
If the sub total is 101.63 I will say give me a gas card for $48.37, they look at me like are you some sort of nut, ring it up see its $150.00 and then say how did you do that, I say" it's just simple math something they stopped teaching in school."
 

Wheaties

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Well math and neat penmanship are not in the same category in my mind. But I get where you are coming from. But I'm not saying "no plan B", just saying where the world is headed, like it or not, is away from "penmanship" and towards "just scribbling some words down to get the point across effectively because when it matters, I have technology". Maybe I'm off, but I just feel like I'm being a realist. And I like making and giving pens out as much as anybody, but it's not the main way of communication anymore.
 

Jgrden

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Zach: Your thoughts are what I wanted to hear. It is disappointing, however, to hear that people do not see the importance of writing. It does not need to be fancy script but good communication with the written word. People will always need to communicate, to develop and pass thoughts. Computers are only one way. There is: radio, tv, CD, tape, body language, telepathy, phone lines and wireless. I think it is reasonable to assume people will always need to know how to form a sentence. There is a third world out there that we need to communicate with, that don't have: computers, tapes, CDs and telepathy. This third world may become a critical factor in our lives. When the Spanish speaking population educate themselves to a point where they take over (own their farms, landscaping, janitorial) we are going to find it necessary to persuade a less electronically endowed population to do the job. It might well be the hand written method.
I question the success of any one who does not know how to form sentences, spell and write. Therefore I think we are less than responsible to society if we don't show concern and do something to point out the importance of good hand writing.
 
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jimofsanston

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I our local schools they have stopped using paper and gave all the kids computers. There is no more hand written papers or test everything is done on computers with word processing. Spelling is no longer taught pass the 4th or 5th grades. from 6 grade on they are issued computers no books to bring home. We try to teach our son to write everything down then type it in the computer.
 

Chasper

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As often as possible when high school age and younger kids come into my booth at shows I take the time to show them how to write with a fountain pen. I keep an Emporer inked up just so they can experience a really fine pen. I talk to them about the penmanship classes when I was in school, I try to give them some sense of the value of legible handwriting. They almost always respond. If they are really interested I show them the basics of calligraphy (during slow periods I practice my calligraphy in the booth). I write their name on 5 X 7 card stock in nice calligraphy for them to take along.

I do it because I believe good handwriting is a fundamental to civilized communications as good spelling and grammar. It also does a pretty good job selling pens, its amazing how many parents come back later to thank me and buy a nice pen, sometimes as a gift for the kid.
 
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After 40 years in my career, I'm afraid I've fallen into the category of the electronic aged... when I graduated from high school, I could add a column of numbers in seconds... today, I've used a calculator for so many years, I've totally lost the skill of adding a column of numbers. In retrospect, when I was load master on the cargo planes out of San Francisco, I could take a look at a pallet of cargo, estimate the weight to within about 95% and plan the load... I rarely had to move a pallet after I had the load plan in place because of weight.

My hand writing has never been particularly good, but if I slow down and make a serious effort, I can produce a relatively legible script. Most of the time now, anything I write down is usually for me, so it's more a scribble and on occasion after the ink has dried, even I have no idea what it says..:confused::confused:

I took to the keyboard relatively easy, although in my high school typing class my grade point average was about a "D"... my class was graded mostly on speed (training the girls to be secretaries) and we had girls that could do over 100 words per minute in a sustained 5 minute typing test.... my 45 wpm was kinda slow... more accurate than theirs, but still slow.
When I went into the navy as a radio operator, I often worked voice circuits on a typewriter and could take dictation directly to the typewriter. Before I left the navy, I could do close to 50 or 60 wpm on the old model 19's (old black spring loaded keys - world war II models)... the newer model 31's were much easier and I go to the point of doing over 65 wpm.... and now sometimes I get ahead of the computer keyboards.

I still think it sad that my hand writing has deteriorated to such a low level.

I do thank my high school for one thing though... when I reached my freshman year, I was so glad that the next year I wouldn't have to take spelling anymore.... when I was in HS the spelling classes usually stopped at the end of the freshman year.... but to my chagrin, the year I went into my sophomore year the state of Texas mandated that spelling would be taught through the senior year.... While I could likely never pass nor win a spelling bee that these 14 year old's are today, I know almost instinctively when I've misspelled a word.

Same with grammar... it really irks me that I hear politicians, officials of law enforcement and others that should know better, use incorrect grammar.
One of the worst offenders to me is the persons who use "myself" when the correct usage is "I".
And in an interview with the police chief or a high ranking police official at the Fort Hood shooting, speaking in reference to the lady officer that stopped the shooter, the chief in description of her actions, said something to the order of "her and her partner came upon the scene........"

Enough ranting... I agree with this thread... we need to turn off the computers and go back to some of the basic communications skills, both written and spoken.
 

Daniel

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I have to disagree that math and Penmanship are not the same thing. Although I will agree that the connection is not obvious. It has been shown that listening to Classical Music improves a students ability to understand math. Yeah sounds strange to me. But here is how it was explained to me. Classical music stimulates the same part of the brain that true understanding of math comes from. it is actually a creative part of our brain that does all that work. In alike manner Penmanship and the development of it stimulates parts of the brain, including Creative as well as coordination. i do not remember having a lot of "Penmanship" Lessons. But I did have a ton of Art lessons. A lot of it is Eye Hand coordination and what your brain learns translates to a lot of other skills. As I developed the ability to produce many types of lines. not only straight or curved but broad or thin, light or dark, sharp or faded. I realized that these abilities also served for cutting materials, painting, sculpting, and even shaping something on the lathe. My hand is able to follow my eye much better in just about anything. So In a way I suspect a child that is taught penmanship may just do better in math. Can't prove it though.
 

Jgrden

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From jdoug on Marketing and a subject about people's kids. I hope it is okay with jdoug to hijack this comment:

"Others are a joy. They are polite and curious. It is amazing to watch a truly nice child pick up a pen and test it and admire the colors. If there parents are with them, I tell them about the study done in Scotland regarding the improved penmanship of the children when using a fountain pen and the fact that they also tend to be better students, getting better grades. I keep a laminated copy of the story at my booth to hand to parents to read as I hand the child a lesser expensive fountain pen, (I have some $50 fountain pens just for them) and have them write with them. Their eyes tend to light up! I've made more fountain pen sales this way that I ever thought possible. Often times, not only do the parents buy a $50 pen for the child, but they also pick up one of the more expensive ones for themselves or as a gift for a older child that is possible graduating from college, etc."
 

Rfturner

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that is a great idea about showing that students get better grades by using fountian pens

The need for penmanship is evident here this was a letter that somehow got to my house by the way it was the wrong address it belonged to a person behind me and we could only tell because we often get thier mail and we recognised the name
 

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skiprat

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I think some are being a bit harsh on our younger generation.

While my handwriting 'may' be fractionally neater than my kid's, I find it absolutely impossible to do some of their homework for starters.

For our generation it was very important to be able to light a fire with flint or carve a wheel from rock ( you know what I mean:wink:) But that was about it. Have you seen the stuff these kids do now?

It is our generation that is flooding our kids with targets and goals.
The dum dum at the checkout existed in our youth too, he just didn't stand out so much because we weren't that far advanced from him.

If our education was so great, then why are several of the above posts absolutely riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes?. Are we saying that it's ok not to be educated as long as your writing is neat???:biggrin:
 

Lenny

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****(my comments have been hand written and will be sent out to each of you as soon as I locate 600 stamps)****
 

DCBluesman

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Ben Franklin probably had the same thoughts about Thomas Jefferson's handwriting.

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NewLondon88

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It is our generation that is flooding our kids with targets and goals.
The dum dum at the checkout existed in our youth too, he just didn't stand out so much because we weren't that far advanced from him.

I can't say that I totally agree. The "dum dum at the checkout" was the
exception then, now it seems to be the rule. And back then they rang each
purchase, whereas now they simply move it past a scanner. The most
challenging thing they need to do now is look up the number for veggies
that lose their sticker. Most don't know how to count the drawer and
to leave a bank, but that's ok. The management doesn't want them to
know too much anyway.

No doubt they are learning things we never needed to, but they're learning
it at the expense of necessary skills. I'm not necessarily blaming them
either. They don't choose the curriculum, and it would be hard to lay the
blame at the feet of a generation being taught that everything must be
fair, life owes you something and nobody ever loses.
 

DurocShark

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<snip> it would be hard to lay the
blame at the feet of a generation being taught that everything must be
fair, life owes you something and nobody ever loses.

This is the core of the problem, IMHO. Kids are being taught (and have been since the 80's or 90's) that bad stuff is someone else's fault, nobody is responsible for their own actions, and if your kid's baseball team is doing too well, then you need to swap players around to be more fair.

So why would we expect the system to teach kids that they must work at something? Something that one kid will be better at than others? That wouldn't be fair, would it?
 

ashaw

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Pen collectors of America has a program just as you are describing. They have a Pen for Kids program and and essay writing contest. Great group that is spreading the word (pen).
 

Grizz

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And here I have a fear of political correctness of gender going a muck!

Penmanship is proper for both genders.... err all genders.
 
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