Read Pen World Magazine?

The August volume of Pen World, beautiful as always, offers two very interesting articles about handwriting. One addresses the importance of handwriting from the perspective of graphology. The second article, "Why Handwriting Still Matters" is the first in a series by Deborah Basel. It is powerful and will shed some light on a serious situation in our schools. I can't wait to read the next in the series and urge you to seek it out.

It is obvious that our schools have been steadily reducing priorty for teaching handwriting skills. The evidence is everywhere you see adults using handwriting. It is particularly true in the public schools. Far too many students in our classrooms struggle to put thoughts on paper, if they can at all. But, too many educators are willing to ignore the obvious connections to poor spelling and ineffective compositions.

Do your schools pay any attention to handwriting fluency? It takes only a minute to measure it, but it is rare to find a teacher who does, even occasionally.