A Note from a Fifth Grader
Dear Mrs. Barchowsky,
My name is Atula, and I am thrilled to send you an e-mail. I love your writing method and it is helping me a lot in school. I am in 5th grade. I go to [school name deleted for the student’s protection]. I had a couple of questions about your handwriting manual, and I hope you can answer them. I am confused on how to connect the letter x to any other letter. The letter itself is shown very clearly in the manual, but there are no word examples and whenever I join x, it interrupts my fluency and I have to slow down. In conventional cursive, the x is very curvy, so it is easy to write quickly, but it is rather hard to read in my opinion. I know x is one of those tricky letters out there, like k. Speaking of k, whenever I am in a hurry and I write a BFH k, it looks almost like a too-long capital R. Could you help me with these problems, please? Thank you!
Of course I responded!
Cursive!
This article in the New Yorker makes a lot more sense than all the cries about the demise of conventional cursive: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/08/when-cursive-cried-wolf-1.html
A Beautiful Feather in My Cap
I’m a 21 year old college student, and I just stumbled upon some videos of your work at www.monkeysee.com. I cannot express how utterly excited I am. Most of my friends think it silly that I practice my handwriting (rather obsessively, I must admit). I’m already falling in love with Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting; it reinforces so much of what I’ve noticed about handwriting, myself. I can finally prove that I’m not crazy and direct them to your website to help them out too!
Thank you for your years of experience and instruction. You’re truly and inspiration!
from Andrew Hopkins
For Older Students
This comes from Steve Graham, a respected professor at Vanderbilt University. He is frequently quoted in the media.
When an average paper written by a school-aged child is written less legibly (hard to read, but readable) versus more legibly, the score for the quality of the content of the paper (not handwriting but ideas) can change the paper from being at the 50th percentile (right in the middle of say 100 papers) to the 16th percentile (for the less legible paper) to the 84th percentile (for the more legible paper). The only difference between the two versions of the paper is handwriting legibility, but teachers scoring the paper for quality of ideas are influenced greatly by its legibility.
More Curious Cursive
There is so much misunderstanding about “cursive” writing that I am going to risk redundancy..
The original meaning of the word is flowing as a river flows, the course of the river, flowing freely. Before books were printed, they were handwritten in the formal hand of the day. Letters were carefully and precisely formed. But then those who were literate speeded up that writing and it became cursive. Lots of different cursives!
Now most think of cursive as something with letters that are designed to join up every letter in a word. The method originates with copperplate writing, and was simplified by Palmer and Zaner-Bloser in the late 19th century. Some call it conventional cursive.
Italic cursive is the method I advocate, and is the base for Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting. It developed in the Renaissance, then declined in use. However, It seems to have survived among Spaniards, because it travelled to the New World. It was also popular with Queen Elizabeth I of England and other royals. In the late 19th century Edward Johnston revived interest in handwriting in England. Then Alfred Fairbank took up the cause with italic, and it spread to the northwest United States.
Although ancient in origin, italic seems to be the most practical and efficient way to achieve legible handwriting at maximum speed in today’s world.
A Heartwarming Message
“Dear Mrs Barchosky, I wish to thank you very much for your online materials. I am 43 this year, and have been embarrassed by my handwriting since young. I tried many methods to no avail. Now thanks to your videos on Monkeysee and various web site you have created, I see hope.”
This message came to start my morning off in a very happy way. How beautiful to learn that you have helped another individual!
The Birthday Gifts
Mom: Happy Ninth Birthday, Alex!
Alex: Thanks Mom! (Opens a small present.) Um…like, what am I supposed to do with this?
Mom: It’s a pen. You write with it. It may help you to write in a more grown-up way.
Alex: But…I asked for a soccer ball, or that new computer game, and, like, I can write with a keyboard.
Mom: You write lot of your lessons with a pencil. The pencil is not the problem. I have a really hard time reading and grading your papers. That last math problem was just that, a problem! I thought the new pen might inspire you to clean up your handwriting.
Alex: Aw, Mom!
Mom: I even bought a great, new handwriting program to help.
Alex: Well, I’ll try.
Mom: Promise?
Alex: Yeah.
Mom: You know, there’s a reward. Maybe not a computer game, but your grades will go way up.
Alex: Yeah, how?
Mom: If I can read all the letters and numbers you write, then you will get the good grades intelligent, creative Alex deserves. Let’s get started. Oh Alex! The best part is that with this program you practice just ten minutes a day. You can toss those old workbooks that you said are so boring. Instead, some of your practice could be writing about soccer.
Alex: OK! I have an idea. My friend Zach keeps a journal. I’ll do that too, and draw one of my pictures on the cover. Then I’ll have a birthday present for him: from A to Z!
Mom: Oh, that would be cool; it’s a great idea.
Alex: Mom, improving my handwriting may not be such a bad deal. You did say just ten minutes a day? Can I have weekends off?
Mom: Sure thing! (Maybe if he does this journal, something that is his own idea, he will get extra, productive practice anyway.)
Alex: Y’know, like, I like to draw. Do you think I could make like cartoons? Y’know, there are like balloons with like messages in them. Could that like, be part of my practice?
Mom: Fabulous idea! Did you know, lots of famous cartoonists use pen and ink only? (I’ll forgive him this once for “like” and “y’know.”)
Reaching out to a child of this age can be tough, especially when a keyboard is available. Keyboard skills are important. Handwriting skills are perhaps even more important. Recent research proves that the brain’s wiring is different for the two actions. Learning the formation of letters and numerals demands more than recognizing keys. Both skills should develop to become automatic.
The short and sweet conversation between Mom and Alex may not go quite so smoothly for you and your child or student, but it’s well worth a try! He or she may see no reason for handwriting improve, even when it’s illegible to that child’s own eyes! Yet, a customized approach goes a long way toward remediation. It can make a task fun.
News from Iceland
Too many years ago Gunnlaugar S E Briem encouraged the Iceland schools to adopt his italic handwriting program. Fast forward to now. The Ministry of Education in Iceland has formally adopted this fine program.
Beautiful Handwriting?
Beautiful handwriting? Beauty in anything is all in the judgment of individual eyes. However, legible handwriting that looks like the writer’s pen flowed freely usually will have my vote for good looks.
The right look is achieved when the pen moves freely and automatically across a page. The result must be legible of course, and that depends on consistent letter forms, sizes and slant. That does not mean that all letters will look like the model in a copy book. Automaticity will always have the individual writer’s variance. Slant should be moderate, just enough to let the hand move easily. If the slant is too great, the counter spaces are compressed. Counters must be open. They are the areas that writing lines define, and we actually read counters more than lines.
For consistency all letters should have the same body height (the area between the baseline and midline) and width. Exceptions are i, j, l, m and w. A few common stumbling blocks occur with the shapes and counters of both e and o, letters we use so often. The counter of a one-stroke e will often close up, but some italic writers use two strokes and then writing lines often miss each other. See below. The letter o will often close up too much. I see so many o’s written wrong way around, or up from the baseline. They don’t fit well with their neighboring letters.
Cursiveness indicates joins and some letter combinations flow together for almost every writer. Other ligatures depend on how an individual hand naturally moves. Exceptions rule! Usually a join from the baseline to an ascender, or from a descender to a following letter does not work well, but with a light touch the writer might leave a faint trace of a join. Spacing is critical to joining. I have seen some fine examples where the spacing was too tight for a truly free movement; it is deemed cursive, but the writer probably worried about aesthetics. Letters must be spaced so that joins move easily; for example, the exit stroke at the end of a letter can flow up diagonally to a following letter.
Beauty may rest with the beholder, but all of us delight in a handwritten note or letter, especially if clear and graceful.
