3 ms·
Yes. It's teacher-by-teacher of course, not part of testing, and without defects being pointed out in later years. Instructional materials show examples but do
by tropo 10y ago
Yes.
It's teacher-by-teacher of course, not part of testing, and without defects being pointed out in later years. Instructional materials show examples but don't bother to explain which aspects of letter form actually matter.
For example, it is important to distinguish points, humps, and loops. This has to be reliable. Many other things are not so important, but you might not guess which ones just from looking at examples.
Also, a fine-point mechanical pencil is a must. Ball-point pens need too much pressure and normally the tip has a bit of wiggle to it. Other kinds of pens leave ink blobs when you stop. Old-style pencils get too wide as they wear down.
- abritinthebay 10y agoThis sounds... crazy. I learned cursive in the UK as a young child with a ball-point and it made very little difference to writing. Yeesh, no wonder the US has such a hate-on for it.
- tropo 10y agoYou probably used UK-style joined-up writing. Americans tend to use something like D'Nealian cursive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Nealian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Nealian It takes time to correct a student's mistakes. If this isn't done, poor legibility becomes a habit. Tracing oversized letters isn't going to lead to quality cursive. Yes, of course you can use a ball-point, but typical cheap American ones have a wobbly tip (flexible body, flexible ink tube, and a loose fit between them) and require lots of pressure. Maybe you have nice ones in the UK. Students here would normally learn with a traditional wooden pencil. This works well if you constantly sharpen it.
- abritinthebay 10y agoYeah, UK joined-up is basically a simplified classical English Round Hand: http://www.cursivewriting.org/images/JoinitC1alpha.jpg http://www.cursivewriting.org/images/JoinitC1alpha.jpg It's... not hard, easy to learn, and looks very nice. It also allows you to progress to the (imo) nicer roundhand style if you really want fancy calligraphy.