Handwriting will no longer be taught in Finnish schools(3)

人们往往错误地把书写能力和写作能力混同起来.你只要看看我们那些伟大作家的字迹,便可知道书写技能与写作水平无关.

I remember my son's Year 2 teacher was very worried about his handwriting. Apparently he started his letters at the bottom, using upstrokes instead of downstrokes. His teacher was concerned it may hamper his literacy development in some way, and that I should "train" him out of it.

我记得我儿子读二年级的时候老师十分担心他的书写.很显然,他写字都是从底部开始,用向上的笔画而非向下的笔画.老师担心这可能在某种程度上阻碍他写作能力的发展,而认为我应该多教孩子写字.

There may have been a few reasons why he wrote his letters this way. The first language he learned to write was Greek, which has a different alphabet. He is also a left-hander and they often do things a little differently as they try to reconcile their way of seeing the world with that of their right handed teachers. Or maybe it was just his style; natural and automatic to him.

他这样写字可能有以下几点原因.他最早学习的语言是希腊语,而希腊语有着一套不同的字母体系.他也是个左撇子,这使得他在协调自己看待世界的方式与习惯于用右手写字的老师看待世界的方式的时候,写字的上下顺序有所不同.或许他的书写风格就是这样,他写起来流畅自然.

It was not, however, an indication of a literacy difficulty.

然而,这并不表明他的写作能力低下.

Perhaps there are more important things to do

也许我们还有一些更重要的事情要做

With so many things to do in a school day, it is hard to see why dedicated handwriting lessons persist.

学校的一天当中有那么多事情要做,很难说专门的写字课为什么要保留.

No matter how standardized we attempt to make handwriting, we all end up with our own style. So perhaps there are better things to do in the school day than have children complete pages of handwriting exercises. Perhaps we'd do just as well to let children play with drawing and writing implements and find their own style.

不管我们试图让自己的书写变得多么标准,我们最后总会以自己的风格去写字.所以,比起让孩子们完成数页的写字练习,在学校可能还有更重要的事情值得去做.也许,我们只需要让孩子们学会使用写字画画的工具,从而发现自己的风格.