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Re: OT More pens (was Re: Phoneme winnowing continues)

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Monday, June 9, 2003, 16:41
Christophe wrote:
(en réponse à Kendra)
> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > "Handwriting was hardly taught"? To me, it's identical to say "writing was > hardly taught". In France, when we learn to write, we learn handwriting!
As I understand it, Kendra is referring to the progression print (called writing or printing I guess) > cursive (called handwriting). As far as I recall, we printed up until about 4th grade (age 10), then learned cursive, to be used from then on. The printing we learned was basically what you are seeing in this email-- except no serifs, and the "a" and "g" were simpler, and "t" had no curve at the bottom. I can distinctly remember being quite unable to read cursive (connected) script until I'd learned its secrets. The problem in days before inexpensive fountain pens, and pre-ballpoints, was that there were only 2 options-- pencil or penholder-with-nib. The latter was an improvement over the quill, in that you didn't have to first catch a goose etc....Nibs cost maybe a penny. But as I mentioned (in a post that hasn't yet reappeared), use of the pen required more control, I suppose, than little hands were capable of. (Another name was "scratch-pen", very accurate).

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H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>