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Article: Are slanted manuscript alphabets superior to the traditional manuscript alphabet?
- Article from:
- Childhood Education
- Article date:
- December 22, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Association for Childhood Education International. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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On "Back-to-School" night, a 1st-grade teacher was sharing with parents her plans for their children during the first half of the year. When one parent asked about handwriting, the teacher eagerly noted that they would be using the D'Nealian handwriting program (Thurber, 1993a).
The teacher went on to explain that the D'Nealian program did not use the traditional manuscript alphabet, which is characterized by round, upright letters that resemble type. Instead, they would use a modified script in which the manuscript letters are slanted and most of the "small" or lower-case letters resemble their cursive counterparts. She then showed the parents a chart containing the ...