I just looked up D’Nealian, and unless they’ve modified it over the years, it definitely isn’t what we were taught in elementary school (as previously mentioned, that was circa 1985 in a suburb of Vancouver, BC). D’Nealian seems more rounded and uses less rigidly repetitive forms than the hand they taught us. There was an ascending stroke that was bowed up in the middle (used to get to the top of a lowercase M or N, and also for the loops), a similar ascending stroke that was bowed down in the middle (used to start a lowercase I or B), a tall thin loop stroke for lowercase L (which was also used for the vertical components of B, D, F, etc., etc.), loop-closing strokes, and not a lot else. I think the only thing that wasn't rigidly standardized was the lowercase R, which resembled the D’Nealian one.

As you might imagine, a line of text written in this hand was almost impossible to read unless you already had some clue as to the content, or unless there were a lot of letters that stood out like i and t. The ONLY difference between a “u” and a “v”, for example, was that the departing stroke branched off halfway up the side of the V and at the bottom of the U. They were otherwise identical.

I suppose it had the advantage of being quick to learn, but when you consider how illegible the results tended to be, one has to wonder why they bothered.

Oh.

I think I learnt D'Nealian. (It looks almost exactly like what I learnt—if there were any differences, I can't tell them.) Circa 1997 Suburb of Toronto, ON.

But yea, I hate it. My current handwriting strays from D'Nealian a lot. Even back then when I learnt it, I never used it, preferring to print. Poor me back then didn't know that printing sucks. I thought cursive was slower because you have to write more lines and go back and cross Ts, Is etc.

The sad thing is that my school didn't really enforce cursive, if you wanted to write in printing it was allowed, and most did so.

Well here's a sample of my cursive:

Clicky!

As you can see I don't follow the "rules" of writing cursive really either ( at least when it comes to writing certain letters ). So I guess if my primary school teacher saw this she'd kill me! XD

But Idk why they're so strict about the whole thing either. They get so uptight when you don't write the "proper way" as I tend to call it but honestly they have to realize that they don't either! There's always going to be variations and adaptations in one's handwriting as they get older.

Especially in cursive. Oh and the sample was written for the Handwritten_LJ community back when I had a scanner. When I get another one I'll start posting again there as I'm sure they miss me. XD

Another sample:

Sample #2

What my printing looks like. Another one for the Handwritten_LJ community. Enjoy!

Let me know what you think!

I don't contest that she would kill you, but I'm sure her reasoning would be more because of the content, rather than poor handwriting.

And wow, your ascenders are /short/. I got "l"s confused for "e"s.

I believe that by right they should be strict about the whole thing. Otherwise children would be writing letters in a poor manner. You can't be expected to take a look at the way every kid writes some letter and judge whether it is good or not—especially if you are an elementary school teacher.

Also, when they teach cursive, they teach a particular style, and to conform with that style you need to be able to write everything "properly". Only problem is that not every style is for everybody.

Damn. I never realized that my ascenders were "too" short because I've always been able to tell my "l"s and "e"s apart. But I guess it's because it's my handwriting and I know what I'm writing therefor I can read it. I know that the 'e' in "eons" looks more like an 'l'.

I think it might've been the pens that I used because gel pens are very smooth flowing and ( at least for me ) it makes it easier to write cursive because I find that most ball points are "scratchy" when writing in cursive and so I use the gellies. But I do agree that the teachers need to be strict about the whole handwriting thing but I feel that they can sometimes get too strict and go overboard.

And I also agree that not every style of handwriting is for everyone. I know because I speak from experience. So what do the schools do then if they realize this? Teach multiple styles or just let the 1 or 2 kids that "can't get it" learn another style that's hopefully easier for them?

And I'd like to see a teacher actually do that. But I don't think they would unless all of them were like Ms. Kerry Crimmins ( one of my teachers best I've ever and will ever have ).

She's a member of the family now too. ♥

Serali, your cursive writing seems quite easy to read compared with my own, except for two problems: (1) the aforementioned _really short_ lowercase Ls that look like lowercase Es, and (2) good gravy woman, with the best will in the world, that is some ATROCIOUS spelling. Your elementary school teachers must have missed something there.

No offence intended here, but I think your writing teacher wouldn’t even notice the relative quality of your penmanship; they’d be too busy trying to find some mind bleach to erase the memory of your spelling.

The thing I don’t understand is that your posts here, at least as far as I recall, have all been spelt correctly. Go figure! :¬)

Your lower case Fs look like my lower case Bs, Ls look like Es, and Ss look like As.

Really? I know about the l's but the rest of them.....seriously? Dang!

And about the spelling errors that's what happens when you're over tired. For some reason sometimes my mind slips up and I think I'm writing what I'm thinking ( which is the correct way ) and I wind up writing something completely different. XD

But I will admit that some of my teachers weren't the greatest but that's for completely different reasons....some of them don't even involve education.