Re: Cursive Without Tears -- to weep for

Mark E. Shoulson wrote:

>
> My daughter brought home her new penmanship book to be covered. She's
> just starting third grade, they're teaching cursive writing. I'm
> *really* hoping that the book shows the examples it does because it's
> easier to learn that way, and not because they expect you to write like
> that. It's a system called "Handwriting without tears" (this is the
> cursive arm of it), and the cursive is u-g-l-y. With a capital UG. No
> slant, everything is ramrod-straight and plumbline-vertical.... The
> sample desk-cards shown at http://www.hwtears.com/deskstrips.htm don't
> really do it justice; you have to see it in running text...
> http://www.drawyourworld.com/dnealian.html shows it a little better (in
> comparison/contrast with other standards).

The webpage froze up after showing some of the samples, but the only one
I saw that was ramrod-straight and plumbline-vertical was the block
printing in the first specimen. All the cursives down the right side
looked not much different from what they taught me almost 50 years ago,
which was a modified Palmer Method.

Don't worry, these are just the basic framework on which each person's
individuality is molded.

> What have your experiences/opinions been of the evolving methods of
> teaching handwriting?

--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...