Pen Licences

[fireheart]

How many people here write "illegally" because they never received their pen licence as a kid? I never got mine in Year 3, my handwriting was too "sloppy" to do so. Then when I moved on to Year 4, we were expected to write with a pen right from the start. My handwriting was still sloppy .

Strangely enough, the guys at my high school all had condom licences. Yes, condom licences. I have no idea WHAT they were required to do to get one, but apparently it was a little piece of paper that said they knew how to put a condom on correctly and when to use it. It was surprisingly effective: we had no teenage fathers at the school and any teenage mothers all had dropped out BEFORE they got pregnant. One I've lost contact with, and the other two were 18 when they had their kids.

[SongsOfDragons]

*gonk* Ohmigawd I remember those! Year 2 and 3, we had purple handwriting exercise books where we were taught this dreadful handwriting method and refused you anything but a pencil if you didn't comply. Somehow I managed to get through, but they supplied the pens; these horrible red-barreled thin felt-tip things that always had the nib collapse after a week of work and you had to nick new ones from the stationary cupboards...only in Year 6 did they allow proper cartridge pens, but by then some of us had been using our own for ages...

My handwriting looks like the work of an epileptic drunk tangoing spider dipped in ink. I haven't written joined-up since I left primary school because I never learnt any of the nice easy ways to do joined-up properly and hated how ridiculous all these superfluous lines existed to force every letter to attach to another whether it looked nice and readable or not. I can write legibly and neatly - I got a calligraphy set when I was 10 and learnt square-cut penmanship too!! Might have helped :P

[Scorpodael]

Excuse me while this Iowa boy blinks in confusion at you. *Blink Blink.* All right, done blinking.

[Crossbow]

Excuse me while this Iowa boy blinks in confusion at you. *Blink Blink.* All right, done blinking.

Ny and OH here, but I'm joining you in the confusion. Wha?

[Chanlin]

It's a clever grade school teaching tool whereby you make learning to write neatly a big deal because oh boy now you write so neatly you get a pen license because you never make mistakes.

I make fun, but it can actually work to help younger kids get excited about learning to write by hand. Apparently handwriting isn't getting as emphasized and or not as many schools still use the technique judging by some of the reactions here.

I have my "please type everything license" because ye gods we can't read your handwriting.

[Crossbow]

I have my "please type everything license" because ye gods we can't read your handwriting.

Ok, that one I have. I haven't written in longhand in probably 25 years. If I have to write instead of type, it's printed. I'm not sure I could write cursive anymore if I had to....

[Chanlin]

I'm not sure I could write cursive anymore if I had to....

Oh mine has nothing to do with cursive

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

No way in hell I'd ever be able to keep a pen license. It would be permanently revoked.

My signature is the pen license equivalent of driving drunk for the 563,923rd time. It looks like the pen threw up on the paper.

[Elspeth]

I remember them trying to teach cursive in grade 3 or 4 (age 9 or 10) and that really didn't work. But we didn't get licenses. My signature has devolved into 2 big letters and a wiggle of a line.

[It's me]

Hmmmmm I don't recall a hand-writing licence, per se. I remember needing permission to write in ink, which, IIRC, never actually recieved.

I can write quite neatly, but I have to make a specific, concious effort to do so. My default unconcious mode is a horrific scrawl, the result of years of taking notes at uni. As a result I have trouble reading 90% of the stuff I write down

The pens we had... blue things that had a nasty habit of leaking.

[dalesys]

My handwriting looks like the work of an epileptic drunk tangoing spider dipped in ink.

At least your spider isn't attached to a taser...

[Merriweather]

My handwriting looks like the work of an epileptic drunk tangoing spider dipped in ink.

Please may I borrow that description?

I rarely use cursive, I mostly print, in an effort to be legible. Doesn't really help much Just last night I wanted to put something on a list into the computer, I knew I'd written it down, finally found the list, and hubby was laughing his a** off at me struggling to read my own hand-written list from a few days ago.

I'm especially bad when writing quickly. I think one reason I did well in college was re-inforcement of material covered - every night, I had to sit and carefully re-write all my notes from that day's classes into a notebook, while still fresh in my mind, because if I delayed even a day, I'd never be able to recall enough from the class to actually decipher what I'd written.

[fireheart]

I remember them trying to teach cursive in grade 3 or 4 (age 9 or 10) and that really didn't work. But we didn't get licenses. My signature has devolved into 2 big letters and a wiggle of a line.

We were taught a variation of cursive in Years 3 and 4. To be more specific, it was "link script".

Fun fact: In Australia, every state has their own variations when it comes to teaching handwriting. I'm currently learning the South Australian modern print and link script sequences. (for my teaching degree)

[dawnfire]

I have my "please type everything license" because ye gods we can't read your handwriting.

my son's grade 6 teacher told him if he could type at 26wpm , he could type everything. I don't think he ever got there but is a fast typer.

[dawnfire]

We were taught a variation of cursive in Years 3 and 4. To be more specific, it was "link script".

Fun fact: In Australia, every state has their own variations when it comes to teaching handwriting. I'm currently learning the South Australian modern print and link script sequences. (for my teaching degree)

They seem to change the cursive script every few years. I can still do cursive but it develops a steeper and steeper slant the more I get tired. It's sad to say I have the neatest writing in the house. Hubby and the boys' writing look like a spider walked across the page. (a drunken spider at that)