Teach Primary Issue 18.4

The author is a teacher in England. VO I C E S Rewarding those pupils who are more suited to writing is an unnecessarily divisive practice Pen licences should have been consigned to history long ago H andwriting. A skill that has always been high on the agenda in primary schools, and one that still gives me the shivers today when I see it approached badly. To those outside of education, handwriting may seem to be a dying art. Indeed, with the rise of computers, tablets, and modern technology, why do children need to able to write fluently in cursive by hand? In secondary schools, in fact, the idea of cursive handwriting is obsolete. But in primary schools, it is still the Holy Grail, and a target we expect children to achieve if they wish to meet the expected standard in writing in the KS2 SATs. It’s not cursive handwriting that I have an issue with though; my gripe is around pen licences. It’s 2024 and there are schools out there who still don’t understand why this practice should be archived into the vault of ‘never to return’ alongside triple marking and Brain Gym. As a child, I was creative. I would write and draw on everything, about everything, everywhere. I remember distinctly being around three years old, taking a paper clip and scratching stick people proudly into the wood of my dad’s bureau. This creativity did not serve me well when I started primary school. I would use both my left and right hand to draw and write, but had not chosen a preferred form. As draconian as it sounds, I was told it was better to be a right-hander, and was thereafter forced to use my right hand only. As a result, I never felt comfortable writing by hand, and was made to stay in at break to write ‘better’. In fact, I suspect I probably would have written better if I'd been allowed to use my left hand... To this day I still do certain things as a left-hander would, including playing guitar and setting knives and forks at a table. But at school I was never given the freedom to find out the best hand to write with. I was never allowed to use pen in primary school, either, as my writing was ‘too messy’ – and that stigma persists today. As a teacher, whenever I write on a board or in a WAGOLL book, I still hear that inner doubt. No child should be made to feel this, or carry it into adulthood. I don't know exactly when this obsession with perfect cursive handwriting in primary schools started to manifest itself in the issuing of pen licences, but it's something I see all too often, unfortunately: the idea that those children who are deemed worthy enough can wield a pen in lessons and elevate themselves above their peers with a biro. Now I know for a fact that ‘child me’ would never have achieved this. Child me got an A* in English lang. and lit. GCSE, despite my appalling handwriting, but child me would not have got a pen licence. My son never did. It was humiliating and demoralising for him – and totally unnecessary, as the moment he went to secondary school, all students were expected to write with a pen. And not to use cursive handwriting! My arguments against using pen licences stem from an emotional resonance as a parent and my own background. Personally, I feel that pen licences are not inclusive. They create segregation in class between peers and they negatively impact self-esteem. As a teacher, I also know how some of my left-handed pupils struggle to apply adequate pressure with a pencil, but suddenly fly in pen. How can anyone judge how well they will write in different media until they experiment? As a teacher I value the discipline of writing in cursive. It trains the brain to learn functional specialism and improves memory and fine motor skills. I’m not debating the explicit teaching of good handwriting and the impact it has, simply stating that a pen licence has no part in this model. Just teach children as they pass through primary how to explore different writing tools and what suits them best, because after Year 6, they'll be writing in pen whether you chose to deny them in primary or not. TP “Those children who are deemed worthy enough can wield a pen in lessons and elevate themselves above their peers with a biro” www.teachwire.net | 19