Do we need joined handwriting? David Didau blog

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debbie
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Do we need joined handwriting? David Didau blog

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David Didau on his excellent blog 'The Learning Spy' raises the question of the need for joined handwriting:


http://www.learningspy.co.uk/literacy-2 ... mment-6352
The curse of cursive: Are we fetishising joined up writing?

May 29, 2014 Literacy 13 Comments

Back in 2008 I had for a Head of English position. At one point during the morning, candidates were asked what aspect of English education was most important to them. I honestly have no memory of what I came up with, but I do remember another candidate saying that for him it was handwriting. He failed to make the cut.

Handwriting really doesn’t matter that much in most secondary schools. As long as pupils’ writing isn’t an illegible scrawl, teachers tend not to care too much about what it looks like. But this isn’t the case in primary schools. My daughters both have beautiful handwriting, and take real pride in making sure what they write looks good. And I’m impressed with this even though my own handwriting leaves something to be desired. I mean, it’s not like I don’t care, and it’s not as if looks like someone’s smudged a spider across the page, but beautiful it ain’t
.

I've responded via David's blog as this is something that I feel strongly about.

I suggest that many teachers simply are not trained at all or well enough to teach handwriting.

So, the will and the wherewithal is not always - but often missing! :cry:
Debbie Hepplewhite
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