Coming full circle again, and not a moment too soon
At last, some schools have decided to do something about students' atrocious handwriting.
Apparently a program known as Handwriting Without Tears promises a new method to help students abandon the chicken-scratch once and for all.
'It's not just about penmanship,' Heinricher said. 'Legible writing is very essential. Ninety percent of job applications are handwritten; there is also a portion of the SATs that is required to be handwritten.'
In the 1970s, Jan Olsen, an occupational therapist, developed and founded Handwriting Without Tears after her first-grade son had problems with his handwriting. Some of the techniques Olsen developed included the use of basic slate boards, Play-Doh, stamp-and-see screens, music, and body awareness in order for children to learn pre-writing and beginning printing skills.
Its hands-on approach to teaching handwriting is what makes Handwriting Without Tears unique, Heinricher said, where most school curriculums provide students with workbooks and they are taught to form letters by tracing or copying them.
The lessons are also very kid-friendly and fun. 'We don't want handwriting to be monotonous and boring,' Heinricher said.
What? Zaner-Bloser is BORING????
Remember how I talked once about how there's all these trends in education?
posted by "Ms. Cornelius" @ 8:38 PM
3 Comments:
Does the handwriting method work on 45-year-olds?
My handwriting looks like a poorly-educated second grader's. I swear, if I could change one thing about myself, that would be it.
I don't know, but my handwriting has changed over the years, and I don't know why.
As a handwriting improvement specialist (working with adults, teens, and children), I haven't seen "Handwriting without Tears" working well with as many folks as the company would like you to believe.
For myself and for my students young and grown, "Handwriting without Tears" has not lived up to its name or its claims. (Quite a few of my clients come to me after non-progress and tears with "Handwriting without Tears.")
I have heard that others report good experiences with "HWTears" (as the web-site calls it: hwtears.com) — however, I have observed this: when people have trouble with "HWTears" and they (or their parents/teachers) call the company headquarters for advice, the "HWTears" staff members typically instruct the callers to "Please call back when you have success-stories instead. If the program isn't working, that's not our fault - it just means you need to buy even more of our materials exclusively" (or words to that effect). In one case (personally known to me), when a former "HWTears" user changed to another program and called the company to tell them why, the "HWTears" staff member replied: "If your students ever succeed with any other program, it will all be due to their previous training within Handwriting without Tears."
To me, such corporate attitudes suggest serious ethical concerns which must make one think twice about dealing with a firm that displays such behaviors.
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