A Bit More about Calligraphy

From Pamela LaRegina:
“Would you like your child to learn how to think and do? Would you like your child to experience the stimulation, challenge, and order that are the three basic requirements needed for right teaching?
Would you like your child to learn to be aware of his own ability to be creative, to coordinate the thought in the mind with the movement of the body? To not only see beauty but to be able to understand it and create it without having to employ complex or expensive tools? Would you like your child to learn to communicate well, to learn the nature of practice and the path to achievement?
THEN MIND WELL HOW YOUR CHILD LEARNS TO WRITE.

“Now the questions in your own mind may be surfacing: What are you saying and why is this news to me? I do not recall anything about my learning how to write, I do not care for my own handwriting and I do not see what relevance hand writing has to do with this computer-based world, anyway.
What is the big deal?

“When you were a child you were not taught to write in the manner that is being proposed here. Nobody was! Whereas a child can apprehend the learning process by learning to play a musical instrument, not all children have to learn to play one, but all children must learn to write. (This is not to imply that a child who does not wish to write should be forced to do so, for that is not teaching, it is coercion, which never works. However, the desire to learn how to write comes naturally most of the time.)

“Because learning to write teaches the learning process, all other learning that comes after will happen more easily. The brain has been ordered, neuronaly, so to speak, so that the grid work is in place and there is now something for the next learning to connect to.

“The process of learning how to write involves the apprehension of a particular form, the ability to imagine that form, and then the ability to use the mind as builder, and the hand, along with a simple tool, to create that form into something that is visible and tangible -- something that can be seen and understood by others. In brief, it teaches Communication, Language, Drawing, and Self-expression.

“Perhaps you may say that your child can learn similarly by learning how to use hammer, wood, and nails to build a bird house. Well this is very true, and it is also true that learning how to write is an excellent primer for the carpentry experience!”

Ned adds: It’s never too late, or early, to learn how to write; therefore, I recommend calligraphy for adults and children. It truly does lead to learning beyond the making of legible letters.

Tomorrow: As Homeschooling Grows, What Is at Stake?