Girls win state penmanship titles

Wednesday, May 28, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.

In the dot-com age of e-mail, instant messaging and online chatrooms, third grader Sarah Bessen says the computer keyboard will never replace her trusty pen.

"Everybody's typing looks the same," Sarah said. "When I write, people know it's from me."

First grader Danielle Moody said writing is fun, especially when she uses her favorite pink pencil.

"I keep it in my bag all the time so I can write when I want to," Danielle said.

Danielle and Sarah may write their way to national recognition.

The two won state titles for their penmanship and will compete in a national competition. They are part of a small dynasty at the private Warren Walker Elementary School in Henderson, where the pen is proving mightier than the keyboard.

The small campus on Windmill Parkway has had six state winners in the past four years.

While most Clark County schools have long since forfeited a dedicated class in penmanship, students at Warren Walker begin their formal training in the second grade, said Principal Ron Bennett.

"It improves hand-eye coordination, communication and concentration," Bennett said Tuesday. "For us, it's all tied in one tight little package."

Each year Zaner-Bloser, which publishes handwriting texts and copybooks, sponsors a national competition seeking the best in student penmanship at each grade level.

This year, Danielle won at her grade level for her manuscript printing and Sarah won at her grade level for cursive script.

The 115-year-old company started the contest in 1991 in the hopes of encouraging teachers to keep up penmanship instruction, even though cuts in education funding had forced the elimination of the formal class in most schools.

The state winners will go to a national competition, where one grand champion will be picked for each grade, one through eight. Winners will receive a $500 savings bond and other prizes.

While Sarah and Danielle each picked the first letters of their names as favorites, they agreed on "Q" as the most difficult to write. They're not alone -- several years ago Zaner-Bloser revised the standard for the cursive "Q," removing the troublesome loops so that it more closely resembles its printed incarnation, rather than the number 2.

With the popularity of computers in schools, homes and workplaces, typing has largely replaced the elegant loops students once painstakingly traced over in their copybooks. But that doesn't mean handwriting isn't important, Janice Klein, treasurer of the National Society for Graphology, said.

Graphologists usually don't analyze writing by children because they are still developing their individuality, said Klein, who coordinates the accreditation division from the society's New York office.

But by winning the state titles, Sarah and Danielle have demonstrated their ability to follow directions, as well as "good self-esteem and intelligence," Klein said.

"Handwriting is a form of body language. It expresses who you are as an individual and can reveal who you are psychologically and emotionally," Klein said in a telephone interview. "A child who writes well is expressing a desire to not only communicate but to do so in a way that's aesthetically pleasing to them and to others."

For Sarah, an appreciation of fine writing -- and implements -- is a family trait. Her father's hobbies include carving wood into pens.

"My dad's pens are supposed to stay at home," said Sarah, explaining why she didn't use one for her contest entry which was completed at school. "If I ask him he usually lets me use one."

But when it comes to the talent that earned first grader Danielle Moody a state handwriting championship title, her mother is sure of one thing -- it isn't genetic.

"I never got good grades in penmanship and her father's a doctor," Sharon Moody said. "Danielle's done this all on her own."