Evolution of Handwriting
By the 1500s, European countries were writing in Latin script, using upper and lower-cased letters. Scribes would write out each letter individually and manuscripts took a long time to create. Enstrom (1969) describes cursive writing as a “swift, running, or flowing” handwriting style that was not invented but rather “evolved over centuries” (p. 327). It was gradually developed to help scribes write faster and in the process they looped points, rounded corners, and did not lift their writing tool within words (Enstrom, 1969). At first, only individual letters were created without lifting the writing tool, then letters where there could be a flow from one letter to the next, and eventually there were slight modifications to the letters to allow the joining of all letters within a word.
In addition to increasing the speed in which one could write, another advantage of cursive writing was the legibility of hand-produced creations. The word was now one unit and the ability to distinguish between words allowed for handwritten pieces to be much more legible (Enstrom, 1969).
Handwriting was passed on from adult to adult, usually from father to his son who was in the process of becoming a scribe. At this point in history, there were no formal attempts to teach handwriting to young learners. Many early schools in America had “writer masters” or teachers that taught the students to only handwrite. Older girls and boys caught on quite easily, but younger learners struggled with handwriting (Enstrom, 1969, p. 326).
In 1913, Edward Johnston from England promoted using a simplified Roman print with lower-cased letters for young learners because they could write part of a letter, stop, and then finish the letter. Then in later grades the students would be introduced to cursive handwriting. Majorie Wise was one of the first to bring this way of teaching handwriting to America and teachers still use the print-to-cursive method today.
In addition to increasing the speed in which one could write, another advantage of cursive writing was the legibility of hand-produced creations. The word was now one unit and the ability to distinguish between words allowed for handwritten pieces to be much more legible (Enstrom, 1969).
Handwriting was passed on from adult to adult, usually from father to his son who was in the process of becoming a scribe. At this point in history, there were no formal attempts to teach handwriting to young learners. Many early schools in America had “writer masters” or teachers that taught the students to only handwrite. Older girls and boys caught on quite easily, but younger learners struggled with handwriting (Enstrom, 1969, p. 326).
In 1913, Edward Johnston from England promoted using a simplified Roman print with lower-cased letters for young learners because they could write part of a letter, stop, and then finish the letter. Then in later grades the students would be introduced to cursive handwriting. Majorie Wise was one of the first to bring this way of teaching handwriting to America and teachers still use the print-to-cursive method today.