The Dark Side of Legibility

Most teachers, at home or in the classroom, have a background in handwriting legibility. When learning they were presented with models to emulate. That has created a focus on product that is actually exploited by publishers.

A publisher uses a 'font" to create the models in the manuals and workbooks. Each tends to use a font that is slightly different from the others. Our "product focus" tends to cause worry about the various font differences. Teachers and parents are attracted to a "font" that seems familiar due to their exposure in grade school. And they worry, particularly when teaching primary children, that even slight variations will cause confusion for the child.

Comments like the following are common.

"The capital M in our reading program has slant strokes that are all the same height. This handwriting program teaches a capital M with short slants. It will be confusing for the children."

However, When Mary or John come to the teacher to report that difference, it is instantly clear that they recognize both variations as the same letter.

The fact is, all of the various fonts are far more similar than they are different. If that were not true, an "outsider font" would not be legible. It is also true that each fluent writer, will produce a distinctive variation of the letters that is recognizable as their handwriting by the teacher, family members and friends.

The dark side of legibility is it's tendency to cause laborious handwriting process that is not functional. It is rooted in a lack of understanding. In the beginning, it is far more important to teach the correct start point, sequence and smooth movement, than to fuss when a model is not replicated precisely. A large range of variations will still be recognizable as a version of the target. Practice will improve control and the outcome will be much improved. Fluency is all about learning how to use smooth, fluent movement. That objective is almost universally ignored.

Children cannot produce perfect copies of a model letter when they are learning to move smoothly and fluently. Too much attention to precise reproduction causes the child to turn away from using the kind of movement we want them to learn. It is important to keep working toward a model, but not at the expense of fluent movement.