If your children’s Christmas wish lists are hard to distinguish, pity their teachers who have been struggling with confusing schoolwork ever since schools reopened.
“ Younger kids failed to learn letter patterns and formations while older kids lose speed and clearness without regular practice during the shutdown of schools, ” says Sheilagh Blyth, an occupational therapist (治疗专家) who studies handwriting.
Of course, it’s a symptom of a wider problem. As Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted ( Office for Standards in Education ), indicated yesterday, handwriting puts an added burden on parents — it’s long been an aspect of children’s school books that they analyse at home.
“ This is a big problem for my almost 10-year-old ”, says one mother. “ When they sent two year’s worth of his books back together, the degradation (退化) was severe and it hasn’t recovered ” .
Another mother worries that her younger son has fallen behind compared with his older brother. “ His handwriting is definitely not where I think it should be, ” she says.
Blyth warns handwriting needs to be practiced regularly and that students need to practise the letter formation and joined-up writing to write well in exams. “ Learning handwriting doesn’t just happen as there are increasingly fewer day-to-day opportunities to write with a pen or pencil, ” says Gill Budgell, an educational consultant who wrote Penpals for Handwriting meant for three to 11-year-olds.
The Write Dance programme is an approach to teaching handwriting that is based on physical movement. Diana Strauss, who runs the programme in the UK with Nicole Barrons, says, “ Whole body movement relaxes the shoulders and the arms and has a positive effect on physical tasks, which handwriting is. ”
Diana is seeing more interest from schools in accessing the Write Dance Programme, which was developed in the 1960s by Ragnhild Oussoren, a Dutch graphologist (笔迹学家). “ We’ve been busy doing live training sessions, particularly with schools in Wales, ” she adds.
Perhaps there is hope for Father Christmas and those gift wish list after all.
28. Why are children’s Christmas wish lists mentioned in paragraph 1?
A.To describe children’s longing for Christmas gifts. |
B.To make a comparison between parents and teachers. |
C.To introduce the topic of children’s handwriting in crisis. |
D.To provide an explanation for children’s bad handwriting. |
29. What does the underlined word “ this ” in paragraph 4 refer to?
A.Schools have long been shut down. |
B.Children have recently returned to school. |
C.Parents analyze their children’s books at home. |
D.Children’s handwriting gets worse on school books. |
30. What opinions do Blyth and Gill share in paragraph 6?
A.Good handwriting serves exams. |
B.Learning handwriting is difficult. |
C.Handwriting is important among 11-year-olds. |
D.Regular practice counts in improving handwriting. |
31. What can we learn about the Write Dance Programme?
A.It has attracted more attention from schools. |
B.It advocates carrying out physical tasks. |
C.It was developed by Diana Strauss and Nicole Barrons. |
D.Its training sessions have only covered schools in Wales. |