Why BFH?

One simple alphabet serves students from childhood into adulthood with legibility, speed and individuality.

BFH is a proven method. Adults who learned this method retain its principles in their own distinctive writing. The author has followed former students to learn of their satisfaction and pleasure in writing by hand.

BFH letters taught to beginners evolve seamlessly into joined-up (true cursive) writing. BFH never changes letter formation. Teaching time is saved!

Handwriting is a graphomotor skill. It involves memory of letter formations, spelling, grammar, context and more. All must travel from mind to paper. It is academically critical to develop efficient thought transmission with never a pause to recall the shape of a letter.

ALTERNATIVE HANDWRITING PROGRAMS

Many programs teach print-script (manuscript) first. Conventional cursive is taught in later grades. The sequence and direction of strokes that one learns first becomes habit, but habit must be undone and retrained for the different "cursive" forms. Frequently the change causes confusion, frustration and reluctance to write.

Instruction of only conventional cursive is a better course, but letter formations are more complex than the BFH alphabet. Conventional cursive demands no pen lifts within words, difficult unless one writes with whole arm movement; the ring and little fingers riding along the desk or paper. This posture was seldom enforced beyond the 19th century, nor is it now.

Rhythmic movement is lost as one tries to connect all letters with loops. Writing can become a matter of deliberate drawing, rather than free-flowing. Older persons often have good conventional cursive writing because significant time was devoted to penmanship practice.