Do American children still learn handwriting in school? In this age of the keyboard, some people seem to think handwriting lessons are on the way out. Steve Graham, a professor at Vanderbilt University, says he has been hearing about the death of handwriting in the past fifteen years. So is it still being taught? Steve Graham says, "If the results of a survey we have published this year are accurate, it is being taught by about ninety percent of the teachers in grades one to three." Ninety percent of the teachers also say they are required to teach handwriting. But studies have yet to answer the question of how well they are teaching it. Professor Graham says one study found that about three out of every four teachers say they are not prepared to teach handwriting." Steve Graham says, "And then when you look at how it's taught, you have some teachers who are teaching handwriting by providing instruction for only ten to fifteen minutes a day, and some teachers who basically teach it for sixty to seventy minutes a day, meaning the death of handwriting." Many adults remember learning that way-by copying letters over and over again. Today's thinking is that short periods of practice are better. Many experts say it should be used as a way to get students to express ideas. After all, that is why we write. Professor Graham says handwriting involves two skills. One is legibility, which means forming the letters so they can be easily read. The other is fluency-writing without having to think about it. The professor says fluency continues to develop up until high school. But not everyone can master these skills. Teachers commonly report that about one-fourth of their kids have poor handwriting. Some people might think handwriting is not important any more because of computers and voice recognition programs. Why do about one-fourth of kids have poor handwriting in America?
Professional teachers spend only a little time in teaching them. It is a time full of computers and voice recognition programs. They don't master the skills in handwriting. Each reason mentioned above is possible.