In my childhood days, I had a schoolteacher who got fed-up of hearing about the occasional student who complained about their pen refusing to write; it was known by everyone in the class (including the teacher) that ballpoint pens were capable of doing that.
So, one day out of anger the teacher declared that everyone should get themselves a fountain pen; we did just that.
Many of us walked with our bottle of ink for just in case our fountain pens ran out of ink and for those who didn’t have spare ink, our teacher had a box on her table that contained a bottle of ink.
Apparently, that wasn’t enough for her. She looked at some of her students’ handwriting and decided that their handwriting was horrible (Anyone who uses a fountain pen would tell you that it brings flaws to light). So, she told us to buy special books — books that students would use to practice the formal manner of joining our letters; she decided to give the lesson herself and everyone was subjected to a calligraphy lesson.
It was rather nice of her to do such a thing; now, she wasn’t obligated to correct our handwriting flaws since that wasn’t part of the syllabus.
Many of us were grateful for the lesson, because we knew that the other teachers in the school spanked their students for handwriting which they deemed untidy (It was a time where corporal punishment was the so-called “Norm” at schools). Therefore, we students (mostly out of fear) saw to it that our handwriting was neat before presenting it to the teacher.
Today, students are allowed to scribble and it is okay for them to do so once the teacher finds their scribble eligible.
Children are no longer obligated to use fountain pens at school. Any type of pen will do and the preferred type is the ballpoint pen.
The obsession of education with handwriting, spelling and grammar has its place, but often kills creativity.
[ Smiles ] Thank you for sharing your perspective.