I write up on the board a series of titles and instructions in a deliberately old-fashioned secretary hand. During the class I go to rub it all off only to hear the students ask me to stop. They say they like the look of it. I ask whether they're kidding me. No, they genuinely like it. Two or three ask whether I could teach them to write like that.
Calligraphy classes for a generation already bored of Power Point? There's a thought.
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Today, boys and girls, we’re going to look at ‘Song of the Chinchilla’ by Lisa Jarnot*. I liked the poem immediately – and I’ve given it to ...
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April Fool?
2 comments:
Interesting. Wonder if that's happening anywhere else. (It isn't here in Jersey where my thirteen-year-old was taught cursive writing but never mastered it like most of his classmates.)
Oddly enough a colleague sent me a link to a report in the States suggesting all sorts of psychological and motor benefits of handwriting (vs keyboard tapping). Ironically, there's an application which allows kids to trace letter forms on the screen. Perhaps it would be just too much to expect them to grip an actual pen and feel the contact of nib on paper?
Believe it or not I miss the chalkboard that was in my classroom 14 years ago. OK it was dusty but chalk is satisfying to write with. And if it was good enough for Joseph Beuys it's good enough for me!
JJ
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