Bring Back Handwriting: It’s Good for Your Brain (But Not Mine!)
When I was in the early grades in the Houston public schools, we learned penmanship. At the time, we dipped our quill pens into an inkwell. It was messy, at least for me. At some point we switched to pens that had ink reserves, and you filled them up and wrote with ink. That was better than dipping the quill.
Then a new writing technology came along, called the “ballpoint pen.” No messy inkwells or ink bottles. You just wrote until they were dry, and then you threw them out. The ballpoint pen was a nightmare for me because I am left-handed and all the desks in my classrooms were meant for people who wrote with the their right hand. That meant that as I wrote, I smudged my hand across what I had just written. Not only was the writing smudged, but my the fingers on my left hand were always ink-stained.
We were taught the Palmer Method of writing. We made big circles, again and again. We were supposed to make round, beautiful letters.
That never worked for me. My handwriting was atrocious. As I have gotten older, it has gotten worse.
Be all that as it may, it turns out that writing by hand is good for you!
It is supposedly good for your brain and your emotions.
I suppose that may be true for many people but not for CONTINUE READING: Bring Back Handwriting: It’s Good for Your Brain (But Not Mine!) | Diane Ravitch's blog
