Handwriting Practice Sheets

In this modern age, it is easy to neglect such older formalities as handwriting practice sheets in school. After all, many people think, who needs cursive practice sheets when computers and the Internet are the wave of the future. I have always taken a different approach than that. To me, The purpose of handwriting worksheets is to teach people to take pride in their own writing. In school, you address every aspect of writing. Composition, spelling, grammar, and punctuation must all be flawless. By neglecting handwriting practice sheets and other methods of training cursive writing, we do our students a disservice.

I'm not unfamiliar with the other side of the argument. When I was a kid, I used to absolutely despise having to do handwriting practice sheets. I had a lot of trouble with my handwriting sheets, and my penmanship was absolutely atrocious. I simply didn't want to take the time to develop what I saw as a useless skill. After all, my handwriting was good enough for me to read and for my teacher to read, so what was the problem.

Than one day, my parents took me to an art exhibit of calligraphy. I had never seen calligraphy handwriting before, and I was absolutely awestruck by how beautiful it was. The fact that people could gain that level of skill in making beautiful and original letter art struck me with awe. For the first time, I understood what those handwriting practice sheets had been leading up to. I understood that, after practicing handwriting, I could learn to make my compositions into an art form. After that, I never thought about practicing handwriting sheets again.

Nowadays, I struggle with the same issues with my own child. Recently, he got a failing grade on some of his handwriting practice sheets. His teacher believed that he was not applying himself, and looking at his handwriting work I can see why. Next weekend, I'm going to take him to a calligraphy exhibit. I hope that it will have the same effect on him that it had on me. I know that you can grow up and be a model citizen with lousy handwriting. As a matter of fact, some of the greatest thinkers of all time had atrocious penmanship. Nonetheless, I think that they missed out on something. Learning to write beautiful letters is like learning to write beautiful poems. The joy of creating something lovely with your own hand in your own thoughts is the same.

Summary: Handwriting practice sheets are still around much to the horror of parents who probably got bad handwriting grades when they were in school. The torture continues with their own children, although some kids do develop beautiful handwriting thanks to the teachers that encourage them to practice using these worksheets.