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Why are children not allowed to use pens in the beginning of elementary school?
So they can learn how to use erases.
Because they have yet to master the art of signing checks.
Once they figure out how to spell their names, pens are permitted.
It’s not just a matter of being able to erased. I imagine if you ask an OT, they will tell you that one needs to press harder with a pencil than a pen. Which means they have to hold the pencil with a firmer grip. It trains their muscles so that they can write the letters properly. When they master that, they can use the easier to write with pen. Kind of like having to memorize the multiplication tables at age 8, but then being able to use a calculator when older.
I used a mechanical pencil for math even in college- so much easier to correct an answer. white-out is just messy, smelly, hard to write over it. Erasable pens did not really exist then- those that claimed to be erasable were not really that erasable.Sorry for your pain, RebYidd.
Reminds me of when my 4th grade teacher scared my parents at a parent-teachers conference by telling them I had a real serious problem. I did not old my pen correctly. Oy vey.
I was also one of the last to receive that coveted “pen” on top of my assignments that meant we could graduate from pencil to pen.
I still hold the pen wrong to this day. B”H I have very few opportunities to write with actual pen and paper these days. Yesterday, someone asked me to write something in my own handwriting and I typed a rough draft on the computer first.For all you youngsters:
It has nothing to do with writing control, muscle development, dexterity, etc.It goes back to the days before Ballpoint pens.
Little children could not be trusted to fill their fountain pens from the inkwells at the front of school desks. Old time desks had a cutout to hold the ink bottle. Children would make a mess with the ink. Girls’ long hair would be dipped in the ink by the child behind.
The lever on the fountain pen could turn the pen into a squirt gun to shoot ink at others.Lastly, fountain pens were much more expensive than a pencil. That’s why a fountain fen was a traditional Bar Mitzvah gift in the USA through the 1950s.
When ballpoint pens first came out they were very expensive $20-40. By the early 1960s Bic was manufacturing their blue stick pens to sell for 19 cents in the US. No longer did people stop at the bank or Post Office and refill their fountain pens for free at the checkwriting stand.
Little kids shouldn’t carry penknives (pocket knives) to school to sharpen a quill tip on a pen.
Old habits die slowly and most of you and the teachers are far too young to remember these things and new reasons are invented.
Ask you bubbe or zaidy (if they are 75 or older about inkwells and filling fountain pens in school
Fountain pens are a newfangled invention. Tnere’s no need for an ink bottle on every desk with fountain pens. Unless you’re writing a novel, you can fill them a couple of times a week. I used fountain pens probably from high school into my 30’s. I don’t like the force required for ball point pens. Today I use gel pens.
Ink bottles on students’ desks date back to the era of dip pens (aka nib pens), which held only the amount of ink that the narrow slit in the nib could hold.
I believe the reason ball point pens used to be so expensive is that the ball has to be precision engineered. Apparently until very recently, the Chinese did not have the capability to manufacture the balls, so they had to import them to make ball point pens. The story of their “breakthough” was all over the news earlier this year.
CT, your explanation makes sense for back then, and maybe for when I was in school shortly after that time period, especially because the teachers may have used pens with ink when they were in school, but do you think people are stam continuing the practice 50 years later for no good reason? Especially considering what a mess pencil sharpeners make? After all, they don’t continue to make holes in desks to hold obsolete ink bottles. Learning to write with a pencil does have an advantage for developing fine motor skills, and perhaps that is why the practice continues. Meaning same practice continues, but the reasons have changed. My son’s OT stressed that he should draw with crayons and not markers for that reason, and I am extrapolating that to the preference for pencils over pens.
Then again, it could be all a plot from the pencil and eraser manufacturers.
PS- your description brought back fond memories of one of my favorite childhood book series by author Caroline Haywood (B is for Betsy..)Since Bic, a French company was able to mass produce ball point pens, ship them across the Atlantic and retail them for 19 cents in the USA more than 50 years ago your theory about the Chinese does not apply.
BTW, I used a fountain pen in elementary school. It was a Waterman…the bladder needed filling at least once per day. You never knew when it would run out and we had bottles of Schaeffer ink in the wells on our desks…circa 1963
WTP
Many practices are continued for decades for no good reason, just because it’s easier to continue than learn a new routine.
Our area public schools introduce ink pens and cursive writing in the spring of 4th grade. By 78th grade the students will never use cursive again, and 90% of all assignments are done with a keyboard and submitted electronically.maybe, or maybe they just have not shared their reasoning with the general public. Considering how frequently the curriculum is changed, and not necessarily for the better (new math anyone?) , I don’t think that schools will continue a practice with no redeeming educational value just because that was how it was done some 50-60 years ago. I mean, how hard is it to let kids bring in pens instead of pencils before 4th grade?
“I imagine if you ask an OT, they will tell you that one needs to press harder with a pencil than a pen. Which means they have to hold the pencil with a firmer grip. It trains their muscles so that they can write the letters properly. When they master that, they can use the easier to write with pen. ”
disagree. the pencil really does nothing for that and it is purely the erasability that makes teachers opt for a pencil in early writing days. When accomodations need to be made, it is usually in the opposite direction. Meaning, pencils are the default but if the child is legitimately lacking muscle strength we may offer a marker for increased legibility. Also, if they have sensory issues (like me and rebyidd and millions of others) and the pencil is torturous (for me this extends to fine point pens as well *shudder*) we go for the pen.
When needing to adjust grip pressure, usually the choice is a fatter pencil or marker.
just my two (professional) cents.My pet peeve about holding pens: Why is that I got 4 points off of a Chumash test in 12th grade for bad handwriting? And why was my handwriting always criticized?
If my handwriting was really so bad, why didn’t someone along the way just teach me how to hold my pen correctly or fix whatever it is I needed to fix instead of making me feel bad about my handwriting?? Okay, so I didn’t actually feel that bad about it, but even so, wouldn’t it have been more productive for someone to tell me what to do about it instead of criticizing me for it???
We weren’t allowed to use pens until our teacher decided our handwriting was good enough to make the switch, sometime in fourth grade. She would give out a “license” to each girl along with a pen once they were allowed to start using them. She gave me the license on the second to last day of school even though my handwriting was awful just because she felt bad for me. In the upper grades I used to write with colored pens. There was a rule against students using red pens but no rule against purple or any other color.
My 4th grade general studies teacher wrote the word ‘penmanship’ on our preprinted report cards and a big red F. My parents protested adding a grade for a course not on the official curriculum. The grade was removed, I was sent to summer school to learn to type. Best skill for me to learn at a young age (this was before personal computers).
As I said in a different post above, I was extrapolating what I learned from the OT about crayons/markers to pencil/pen. But as a professional, I defer to your opinion, as I said..”I imagine if you ask an OT.”
Question- is the sensory issue holding the pencil (texture? shape?) or the scratching of the lead on paper?It’s the scratching. Sound and feel.
ew, I hate thinking about it“We weren’t allowed to use pens until our teacher decided our handwriting was good enough to make the switch, sometime in fourth grade”
It’s good I didn’t have teachers like that; I’d still be using pencils!
Pens can draw on clothing, walls, skin, etc.
Pencils are less messy in that sense.LB – good point! Even at my age, I always get pen marks on my hands! Imagine what would have happened when I was 6!
CTL, if you google “Chinese ballpoint pen engineering” you will find numerous recent articles on reputable websites (Fortune, Bloomberg, the BBC) about how the Chinese have cracked the apparently difficult engineering problem of making the balls for ballpoint pens. Think about how high tech items are very expensive when first introduced but later become dirt cheap. Once you’ve mastered the process, it’s not expensive to mass produce them.
I was also in elementary school circa 1963. IIRC, at some point the teacher issued stick ball point pens to the students. We weren’t given a choice as to what pens to use. Nobody used fountain pens.
Most people use something like cursive for their signatures.
Also how do you standardize pens? Pencils must be #2 lead. Maybe the thickness. Thicker pencils for small hands. Pens may still use those grippy block things but anyway.
There are fountain pens and ballpoint pens. Are you using inexpensive ballpoints that clot in weird places? Nicer ballpoints?
Fountain pens that run all over the place? Getting pen marked smeared on your page and the side of your writing hand?
Does each teacher announce which pen to use? Can you bring a pen that you got for free from the bank?
Thank you
Our teachers didn’t issue pens, we were required to [provide them. I used a Waterman fountain pen (I still have it) a 9th birthday gift from my Zaidy…it had a 14K nib.
In 5th grade I had an annoying English teacher who made us write on yellow legal pads. I bought a bottle of Schaeffer Peacock Blue ink and my writing would appear green. She called my parenst and accused me of using green ink..against the rules. My father guaranteed I was using blue. After two months, we were using white paper.
I don’t use yellow legal pads in my practice, only whiteLightbrite…………..
sorry to burst your bubble BUT pencils come in other numbers besides 2. There are 2 different scales for lead pencils. One rates the hardness of the lead, the other the blackness of the impression.
Boys were required to take mechanical drawing and drafting in Junior High School when I attended and we used #2,3 and 4 both hard and soft versions.Most exams read by optical scanners are designed for #2 pencils and instructions require their use, but the others exist.
RY, aren’t those sharp blades enclosed in plastic or metal with the sharp part facing inward?
Actually, most schools are stopping tot each cursive now. And using laptops, so this whole discussion doesn’t really apply.
Actually, most schools are not teaching cursive anymore, since it’s not really used. Also, Schools are using laptops, so barely any writing involved either way. (This does not include most frum schools tho). Personally I always wanted to use a pen but now that I can I use pencil anyways. The only time I used pen was in 7th grade which was the first year I was allowed to . Pencils are so much easier.
Children are not allowed to use pens to keep the walls clean.
Children are not allowed to use pens to keep the children clean
RebYidd- ever heard of mechanical pencils? my favorite invention.
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