Benefits of handwriting
Children learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand.
Handwriting is linked to better retention of information and creativity.
Printing, cursive and typing all produce specific brain patterns.
Studies have found more ideas are generated when composing by hand versus keyboarding.
--From What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades, by Maria Konnikova, New York times, June 2, 2014
Last Friday, Jan. 23, Hoisington Middle School students recognized National Handwriting Day by competing in a handwriting contest. Teachers Karisa Kaiser and Shari Blase collected samples from students, and also awarded a prize to the student that could guess the highest number of teacher handwriting samples.
The contest wasn’t easy. Khloe Schneweis won with five correct guesses out of 16. She did better than Mrs. Blase, the teacher winner, who only guessed four.
Heavin Hipp won the top prize for her handwriting sample, with Dawnstar Tesh winning runner-up. Other categories received consolation prizes too. Daphne Copp won best spaced; Emily Baze won best effort; and Alyx LaMatch won best unique font.
According to the website History.com , the day was established in 1977 by the Writing Instrument Manufacturer’s Association. It’s celebrated on Jan. 23, the birthday of John Hancock. The American founding father often remembered for his iconic signature on the Declaration of Independence would have turned 275 this year.
In the technology age, typewriters and word processors allowed people to produce written work faster and more uniformly, and as the availability filtered down from the business world to schools, keyboarding began to replace penmanship in importance. By the 1980s, little formal training past the early elementary grades was given most U.S. children.
Kaiser, an English Language teacher, makes sure students get practice in penmanship in her class. It is one of the standards she is responsible for making sure her students master, she said.
One Kansas woman, Patsy Terrell, of Hutchinson, created a website, wordsbyhand.com, to catalog handwriting samples from both the past and present.
“I’ve always loved the written word,” Terrell said. “I realized handwriting was disappearing from the modern world, and decided to capture little bits of it online for people to enjoy and appreciate.”
Handwriting samples are gathered from postcards, envelopes, autographs, museum exhibits and more. Anyone can participate by sending a sample to Terrell.
