[ti:The Death of Handwriting?]
[ar:Steve Ember]
[al:Education Report]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[01:18.88]This is the VOA Special English
[00:03.20]Education Report.
[00:05.04]Do American children still
[00:07.33]learn handwriting in school?
[00:10.33]In this age of the keyboard,
[00:12.87]some people seem to think
[00:14.56]handwriting lessons
[00:16.76]are on the way out.
[00:18.10]We asked a literacy professor
[00:20.92]at Vanderbilt University
[00:22.96]in Nashville, Tennessee.
[00:25.01]Steve Graham says he has been
[00:28.04]hearing about the death of handwriting
[00:30.63]for the past fifteen years.
[00:00.00]So is it still being taught?
[00:35.72]STEVE GRAHAM: "If the results of
[00:37.04]a survey we had published
[00:39.03]this year are accurate,
[00:40.77]it is being taught
[00:42.03]by about ninety percent of teachers
[00:43.62]in grades one to three."
[00:45.11]Ninety percent of teachers
[00:46.87]also say they are required
[00:49.46]to teach handwriting.
[00:51.15]But studies have yet to answer
[00:53.75]the question of how well
[00:55.64]they are teaching it.
[00:57.33]Professor Graham says one study
[01:00.19]published this year found that
[01:02.53]about three out of every four teachers say
[01:06.77]they are not prepared to teach handwriting.
[01:10.61]STEVE GRAHAM: "And then when you look
[01:12.46]at how it's taught,
[01:13.51]you have some teachers
[01:14.44]who are teaching handwriting
[01:16.49]by providing instruction for ten,
[01:19.02]fifteen minutes a day,
[01:20.22]and then other teachers
[01:21.98]who basically teach it
[01:23.32]for sixty to seventy minutes a day
[01:25.41]-- which really for handwriting
[01:27.30]is pretty much death."
[01:29.00]Many adults remember learning that way
[01:31.53]-- by copying letters over and over again.
[01:35.09]Today's thinking is that short periods
[01:38.97]of practice are better.
[01:40.62]Many experts also think handwriting
[01:43.72]should not be taught by itself.
[01:46.40]Instead, they say it should be used
[01:49.50]as a way to get students to express ideas.
[01:53.69]After all, that is why we write.
[01:56.82]Professor Graham says handwriting
[01:59.82]involves two skills.
[02:01.86]One is legibility, which means forming
[02:06.15]the letters so they can be read.
[02:08.44]The other is fluency
[02:10.85]-- writing without having
[02:13.04]to think about it.
[02:14.44]The professor says fluency continues
[02:18.33]to develop up until high school.
[02:20.88]But not everyone masters these skills.
[02:24.91]Teachers commonly report that
[02:27.81]about one-fourth of their kids
[02:30.37]have poor handwriting.
[02:32.30]Some people might think handwriting
[02:35.00]is not important anymore because
[02:38.09]of computers and voice recognition programs.
[02:42.17]But Steve Graham at Vanderbilt says
[02:45.41]word processing is rarely done
[02:48.50]in elementary school,
[02:50.69]especially in the early years.
[02:53.15]STEVE GRAHAM: "Even with high school teachers,
[02:57.12]we find that less than fifty percent
[03:00.24]of assignments are done via word processing
[03:02.78]or with word processing. And, in fact,
[03:05.18]if we added in taking notes
[03:07.07]and doing tests in class,
[03:08.96]most of the writing done
[03:10.72]in school is done by hand."
[03:12.01]American children traditionally
[03:14.16]first learn to print,
[03:16.05]then to write in cursive,
[03:18.70]which connects the letters.
[03:20.44]But guess what we learned
[03:22.58]from a spokeswoman
[03:23.82]for the College Board,
[03:25.08]which administers the SAT college
[03:28.12]admission test.
[03:29.64]More than seventy-five percent
[03:32.48]of students choose to print their essay
[03:35.88]on the test rather than write in cursive.
[03:39.46]And that's the VOA Special English
[03:42.79]Education Report,
[03:44.24]written by Nancy Steinbach.
[03:46.53]To learn more about handwriting research,
[03:49.62]and to share comments,
[03:51.52]go to 51voa.com.
[03:55.22]I'm Steve Ember.
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA¾©Ïã2018ÏÂÔØ
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