The Pen is Mightier than the Sword, Except if you're Dyslexic!

Most people enjoy the sight of their own handwriting as they enjoy the smell of their own farts.

W. H. Auden

A side note about handwriting, looking back over the last two generations, my families handwriting style has changed dramatically. 

Both my grandparent's handwriting was genuinely beautiful. It was called 'real writing'. It was a notable achievement if you could master the art, you were judged on it like a status symbol. Maybe they had more time to practise the art of real writing because the curriculum was much lighter in those days?

Both my parents also have beautiful handwriting. Even my dad, born left-handed in 1938 who at school, had his hand tied behind his back, forcing him to write with his right hand. It gave him a stutter, but at least his writing is elegantly looped and neat. He outgrew this Dickensian trauma but didn't forget it.

Fast forward to my own education, there was no pressure at all to form looped letters in a real writing style. At first, I remember only being allowed to write in pencil. We were taught how to join letters together, forming them in small lined exercise books with repetition, and when you'd perfected this skill neatly, you were allowed to use ink. It was a right of passage and a landmark achievement. 

As a small child, I recognised where I was in the pecking order when I got my biro and the feeling of inferiority towards the children who'd beat me to it.

Thankfully - Penny was, as the teachers kept reminding me, in her own little world and absolutely oblivious to such handwriting hierarchy. Now her handwriting is better than mine, and when I look at her written work compared to the initial struggles, I actually can't believe how good it is. What was I ever worried about? 

What I see now, over 16-years on, is that children find their way at their own pace. Sometimes it's not the pace of an inflexible curriculum or outdated expectation and what I worried about so intensely at the time didn't matter in the end. 

The important thing was, she was getting stuff down and could communicate in a literary way. As soon as we realised this, the neat handwriting pressure was off, and things including happiness improved.

It used to be commonly acknowledged that you couldn't read a doctors handwriting on a prescription, now it doesn't matter because the world and technology have evolved. When I think of the late Steven Hawkins in his paralysed state, writing books that have changed thinking without putting a pen on a pad. Yet, we still believe that handwriting needs to be neat and tidy, and still judge our child's progress and ability on presentation, not content when it should be the other way round.

Just to counter the opening quote, here's one from Christan Dior,

A woman's perfume tells more about her than her handwriting.

That's just how it should be!

#spelldyslexia