My parents used to get complains from my teachers about my handwriting and poor spelling.
In those days, I used to get punished for it each time they complained. And punishment usually came, not once, but twice: once by the teachers in school, and once by my parents at home. At times, those cane and ruler marks on the hands and legs would serve as reminders to produce neater handwriting the following days, or so they hoped.
It was a painful learning process. I couldn't spell many words till my university days. In my high school days, the humiliation did bring vivid images of life's ending across my mind.
Naturally, I was elated and extremely thankful then for the spell checker on the computer in uni. (Here's to you, good ol' Steve Jobs!)
Now, from research and practice, we know more about the causes of these 'problems'. When we know the cause, we can find the solution. Many of the treatments today are much more effective, and most important of all – much less painful. My regret is that these were not known earlier and spared me the agony.
My mission now is to spread these knowledge and treatment to as many people as possible – children and adults – to spare them agony and vindicate them from the pain of their learning difficulties.
My handwriting is still dreadful.
ReplyDeleteAt school I was always envious of those who had nice or even pretty handwriting, they always seemed to score better and were better treated by the teachers... or maybe my handwriting is just one example of my general attitude and approach. If the latter,then, in spite of changing rather significantly from those bygone days, how come my handwriting didn't magically get better?
As for spelling? I blame the keyboard these days, someone keeps swapping the letters around ;-)
As far as I know, I'm not dyslexic, disinterested at school for sure. And however many times they whacked the back of my hands with rulers it made no improvement to my writing though huge effect on my rebellious streak... In fact one of my key drivers to gaining a doctorate was to be in a position to change the system from the inside.
Back to the question... what do you do about poor handwriting? use a computer...
What do you do about poor spelling? If you are still communicating what was intended, does it really matter?
If I, as an educator, am unable to communicate with anyone, that is my responsibility to fix because communication is the response you get. Similarly, if I do not understand what someone is communicating to me (whether dyslexic, or any "learning difficulty"... it's my responsibility to make sure that I understand.
Rulers, canes, slippers and punishment are the weak and inept person's attempt to enforce their opinion through the use of power.
Yes, John Kenworthy, punishment in this case is not the solution.
ReplyDeleteAppreciating beauty is.
At least it was for my case. I had my share of knuckles being rapped by wooden rulers -- even meter rulers -- didn't work. There was also the public humiliation when a teacher derided me in front of the whole class..."Your handwriting looks worse than a grade school child."...those words etched deep into my memory.
Then teenage came and, with that, the romance of youthful years. The wish to impress my dream girl, the opening of my eyes to caligraphy by an art teacher, the discovery of the pleasures derived from the feel of the contact between the tip of a fountain pen and the texture of good paper, plus the sheer determination to practice changed my handwriting for good.
Subsequently, my handwriting transformed. From a source of shame, it became my source of pride. Peers and colleagues praised my handwriting and would even ask me to pen on formal occasions, like making charts, writing notices, and greeting cards. Can’t say I could make a living out of it, but it was a personal triumph.