By Mary Frost
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BOERUM HILL -- It all started when parents noticed that their kids couldn’t hold their pencils properly or write legibly.

So many children had terrible handwriting at Boerum Hill’s P.S. 261 that they were referred, en masse, to the school’s occupational therapy specialist, Nadia Rohrs.

“The parents were frustrated with their children’s handwriting,� said P.S. 261 Principal Zipporiah Mills. “They saw their kids holding their pencils like this.

“We felt that this was something that could be done in class.�

Penmanship has not been on New York City’s official curriculum for roughly 25 years – and illegible handwriting is rampant. So the P.S. 261 PTA dug deep into their funds to provide the school with a $17,000 training program called "Handwriting Without Tears.�

And on Election Day, while the kids were off, more than 70 teachers and specialists learned – to the beat of music and with the accompaniment of a white stuffed “Magic ‘C’ Bunny� -- how to teach a skill that many of them had never learned themselves.

Mastering handwriting sets children up for other learning successes, according to Diane Eldridge, who was instructing the teachers on how to use the curriculum.

“Schools are noticing that handwriting is a missing art,� she told the Brooklyn Eagle. The program uses a variety of eye-catching techniques – including the magic bunny -- to teach kids how to write legibly. “We look at letter formation from a developmental standpoint, incorporating music and movement.�

On long tables covered with cut-out letter shapes and workbooks, teachers bent over small chalk boards learning a techniques called “Wet, Dry, Try.� Children are taught to draw a letter first with a tiny wet sponge, then by a little dry piece of paper, then by a standard piece of chalk, all while making appropriate sound effects. “They are hearing, seeing and doing every time,� Ms. Eldridge said.

Teachers gamely played along, swooping their arms through the air and singing a ditty about the shape of the letter D.

‘Gone By the Wayside’

Sara Cookingham, a data specialist at P.S. 261, coordinated the training workshop. “When I was in elementary school there was a whole block on handwriting. But we don’t really do that anymore.� Cookingham said that it hard to squeeze the teaching of handwriting in because it’s no longer mandated. Teachers at P.S. 261 plan to devote 15 minutes a day to teaching the subject. “It’s a lot,� she said.

Principal Mills said that other mandated subjects – reading, writing and math – left little time for niceties like handwriting. “It really has gone by the wayside.�

She praised the PTA for providing the funds at a time of drastic budget cuts. “This was hugely expensive,� she said. “Seventeen thousand dollars to buy all the equipment for over 800 kids. They are wonderful.�

Principal Mills has been teaching for 25 years, but she never heard of the Palmer Method, once the most popular handwriting system in the United State.

“See how easily things get lost,� she said. “I’ve been teaching for 25 years, and I’ve never heard of it. See this young teacher here – think of what she’s never heard of.

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