Why is there no class on teaching penmanship during teacher training? That's ridiculous. I'm sure teachers in Europe are taught now to teach handwriting which is why they don't have this problem.

I went through teacher training many, many years ago. FWIW, I recall very limited training on this. It is not rocket science. For teaching manuscript, it is pretty much top to bottom and left to right. We also worked on grip (this was in first grade.)

I taught before copy machines were in great use. I would take first grade paper and put green dots on the top lines and red dots on the bottom lines in order to teach the kids that the straight lines go from top to bottom. When I taught the specific letters, I also used red and green dots on the pages. It was time consuming, but helpful.

There were also some little rhymes, etc. that we used for teaching the letters--but it was mostly just practice. I would ccompare the lines to a road--the dotted lines in the middle. Some letters take up the whole road--and others must stay on their own side of the road. And, a few (like "y" were allowed to go on the "sidewalks"........this sounds silly, but that's pretty much how it was taught in those days.

Bottom line: practice, practice, practice. There is not magic bullet. I have heard good things about "Handwriting without Tears" and I had a colleague who loved Denilian (sp?).

Occasionally, there is a child who has a learning issue with handwriting--but, mostly it is the kids who are in a hurry who have trouble with it. (I parented one of those. I taught handwriting to kids for years, but couldn't do it with my own DS..He grew up, graduated from college, has a decent job--and, his handwriting still looks like chicken scratch!)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok I'm a teacher and basically handwriting is not a specific skill they work on in 2nd grade so when she says she has no resources, it means since it's not something she teaches, she doesn't have any workbooks or worksheets to send home to you. In order for her to do so she would have to purchase a workbook or scour the Internet for worksheets exactly like you would have to.

So replying with I can't or won't do more than you is a great response to asking for help? You can justify the response as much as you want but it just is apathetic and demonstrates not lifting a finger above what they need to do.

When you get a teaching credential you do not learn anything about penmanship/ handwriting - not even one hour is devoted to it. If your child has poor penmanship, you should have taught your preschooler/ kindergartener how to form letters correctly, then sat next to them with a big eraser to make sure your child writes neatly. By second grade your child's awful handwriting has been ingrained and will be almost impossible to fix. So don't get made at the second grade teacher, get mad at your kid's kinder teacher.

The problem with public school is that teachers think this is a pre-school kindergarten skill when 1. It isn't a preschool skill and 2. Handwriting is something that needs to be reinforced for years. By 2nd grade, teachers should still be reinforcing good penmanship. OP. Have you asked the teacher to mark down your child's grade due to bad penmanship? Maybe that's what's needed to get teachers to realize this is a problem that many parents face.

If it's a problem that many parents face, then how is it the teacher's problem to solve?

Also--do you really believe it's within your right to ask a teacher to mark down a child's grade because that's what you as the parent want?

Good lord. Why would anyone want to become a teacher these days?

I wouldn't expect my teacher to help with this. I'd expect to have to do it on my own.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok I'm a teacher and basically handwriting is not a specific skill they work on in 2nd grade so when she says she has no resources, it means since it's not something she teaches, she doesn't have any workbooks or worksheets to send home to you. In order for her to do so she would have to purchase a workbook or scour the Internet for worksheets exactly like you would have to.

So replying with I can't or won't do more than you is a great response to asking for help? You can justify the response as much as you want but it just is apathetic and demonstrates not lifting a finger above what they need to do.

When you get a teaching credential you do not learn anything about penmanship/ handwriting - not even one hour is devoted to it. If your child has poor penmanship, you should have taught your preschooler/ kindergartener how to form letters correctly, then sat next to them with a big eraser to make sure your child writes neatly. By second grade your child's awful handwriting has been ingrained and will be almost impossible to fix. So don't get made at the second grade teacher, get mad at your kid's kinder teacher.

Why is there no class on teaching penmanship during teacher training? That's ridiculous. I'm sure teachers in Europe are taught now to teach handwriting which is why they don't have this problem.

Nearly all of the testing is online so no need for neat handwriting. Since the curriculum has been pushed down so much, kids who are 3 and 4 are learning to print. Many of them have poor fine motor skills at that age anyway. No need to waste time in teaching education on handwriting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok I'm a teacher and basically handwriting is not a specific skill they work on in 2nd grade so when she says she has no resources, it means since it's not something she teaches, she doesn't have any workbooks or worksheets to send home to you. In order for her to do so she would have to purchase a workbook or scour the Internet for worksheets exactly like you would have to.

So replying with I can't or won't do more than you is a great response to asking for help? You can justify the response as much as you want but it just is apathetic and demonstrates not lifting a finger above what they need to do.

When you get a teaching credential you do not learn anything about penmanship/ handwriting - not even one hour is devoted to it. If your child has poor penmanship, you should have taught your preschooler/ kindergartener how to form letters correctly, then sat next to them with a big eraser to make sure your child writes neatly. By second grade your child's awful handwriting has been ingrained and will be almost impossible to fix. So don't get made at the second grade teacher, get mad at your kid's kinder teacher.

Why is there no class on teaching penmanship during teacher training? That's ridiculous. I'm sure teachers in Europe are taught now to teach handwriting which is why they don't have this problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every summer, my son practices handwriting in a book I buy. I usually get one from Amazon. The problem is that he can write like crap and every teacher accepts it. I went to Catholic school where the teacher would warn students that if she cannot read your writing, you would write it again until she could. The teachers just accept crap and my son knows it. So he hands in crap. At home, I make him do homework assignments so that they can be read. At school, crap is accepted so that is what he produces.

Exactly. This is what is happening at public schools.

Which is why he will be headed to Catholic school next year. He gets straight As and hands in chicken scratch. I don't want him to grow up thinking that this is acceptable when he is capable of producing neat work. I make him rewrite his homework if he shows me crap. He just thinks I am being mean.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok I'm a teacher and basically handwriting is not a specific skill they work on in 2nd grade so when she says she has no resources, it means since it's not something she teaches, she doesn't have any workbooks or worksheets to send home to you. In order for her to do so she would have to purchase a workbook or scour the Internet for worksheets exactly like you would have to.

So replying with I can't or won't do more than you is a great response to asking for help? You can justify the response as much as you want but it just is apathetic and demonstrates not lifting a finger above what they need to do.

When you get a teaching credential you do not learn anything about penmanship/ handwriting - not even one hour is devoted to it. If your child has poor penmanship, you should have taught your preschooler/ kindergartener how to form letters correctly, then sat next to them with a big eraser to make sure your child writes neatly. By second grade your child's awful handwriting has been ingrained and will be almost impossible to fix. So don't get made at the second grade teacher, get mad at your kid's kinder teacher.

The problem with public school is that teachers think this is a pre-school kindergarten skill when 1. It isn't a preschool skill and 2. Handwriting is something that needs to be reinforced for years. By 2nd grade, teachers should still be reinforcing good penmanship. OP. Have you asked the teacher to mark down your child's grade due to bad penmanship? Maybe that's what's needed to get teachers to realize this is a problem that many parents face.

Anonymous wrote:Ok I'm a teacher and basically handwriting is not a specific skill they work on in 2nd grade so when she says she has no resources, it means since it's not something she teaches, she doesn't have any workbooks or worksheets to send home to you. In order for her to do so she would have to purchase a workbook or scour the Internet for worksheets exactly like you would have to.

Ok, but, as a teacher, have you never come across handwriting resources that you could recommend to a parent? Would you just say I have no resources and would have to look it up on the internet just like the parent? There were many parents on here who made suggestions. I'd hope a second grade teacher would have something to recommend, even if she can't send anything home. My DC have had good and not so good teachers, but I couldn't imagine any of them responding like that. Even if I didn't love some of their teachers' teaching styles, they each were concerned about their students and would have at least asked colleagues for recommendations if they themselves didn't have any. I think that's the part that was off putting, not the part about not having resources to send home.