Handwriting will no longer be taught in Finnish schools(2)

Should we bother teaching handwriting?

我们应该把精力花在教学生写字上吗？

As prevalent as keyboards are, handwriting isn't obsolete quite yet, so it remains important to teach letter formation to young children.

虽然键盘大行其道,但是手写至今也还未过时,所以将字母编排教给幼儿依然重要.

The letters of the alphabet are complex abstract symbols and children can't begin to write their letters until they can draw a circle. If they can't draw a circle then they can't form letters like a, b, d, o, p, q.

字母表中的字母是复杂而抽象的符号,只有等孩子们可以画圆圈时,他们才可以开始书写字母.如果他们不会画圈,那么他们便写不出a、b、d、o、p、q这些字母来.

This ability to draw an enclosed shape is a very important marker of both cognitive and physical development, and it is a skill that emerges from their scribbles. So drawing, scribbling and playing with crayons and pencils are an important part of learning to hand write.

画封闭图形的能力是认知和身体发展的重要标志,这项技能从涂鸦开始形成.所以画画、涂鸦和摆弄蜡笔与铅笔是学习写字的重要部分.

An old-fashioned anachronism?

手写过时了？

The history of handwriting has always been one of convenience and change according to the writing technologies available.

方便省事和根据已有书写技术产生的演变共同谱写出了手写体的发展史.

In our first alphabets, Phoenician, Greek and Roman, the letters were angular due to the writing technologies of the day - chisels, granite, marble and clay. The first writing was from right to left across the page – a more natural direction for the chiseller.

在最早的字母表——腓尼基、希腊和罗马字母表中,由于当时的手写技术为錾子、花岗岩、大理石和粘土,字母呈一定的角度.最初人们写字的方向是从右到左的,对凿工来说,这一顺序来得更自然.

But when ink and paper came along, moving from right to left was too messy for right handed writers and the direction of our writing changed from left to right. (To the chagrin of all left handers, until the invention of the fast drying ballpoint pen!)

人类发明了纸和墨之后,对习惯于用右手写字的人来说从右到左写字太麻烦了,于是书写的方向就变成了从左到右（但这也让左撇子们恼怒不已,这种情况直到人类发明了速干圆珠笔之后才得以改变.）

It wasn't just directionality that changed as we made the shift from stone to paper. Pen and ink made it easier to produce curves rather than angles, and the shape of our letters changed accordingly.

在我们的书写载体从石头到纸张演变的过程中,改变的不仅仅是书写的方向.笔墨让画弧线变得比画角度容易,字母的形状也由此改变.

The technology of the fountain pen meant directionality of strokes became important. Down strokes were important because the shape of the nib and flow of the ink didn't easily allow for upstrokes.

钢笔的发明让笔画的方向性变得重要起来.要知道钢笔尖和墨水的流动是不利于写向上的笔画的,因此向下的笔画很重要.

The invention of the ballpoint pen meant we no longer relied on ink refills, and nib shapes. Felt tip pens meant that even gravity no longer played a role in the way we write. Yet children still complete pages of handwriting exercises based on the technology of the fountain pen and ink.

圆珠笔的发明意味着我们不再需要勤换墨水,不再受笔尖形状的限制.签字笔意味着甚至连重力都不再影响我们书写的方式.然而,小孩子仍然需要用钢笔来完成一页又一页的书写练习.

Handwriting vs writing

手写vs写作

Handwriting is often wrongly conflated with writing ability. You only need to glance at the handwritten manuscripts of our greatest writers to know there isn't a link between handwriting skills and literacy skills.