Judging by the way that many young actors on TV hold their pens and pencils as they write their police reports and medical prescriptions, handwriting is not much taught in the schools anymore.
Grasping the pencil as one would hold a ski pole does not promote comfort or legible writing:
Gripping the pencil like ski pole
Neither does clutching it in a death’s grip with fingers wrapped tightly around it. The pencil should not be held between the fingertips as if it were something nasty.
The "wrap around" grip
The "keep away" grip
It should not be held so tightly that the index finger mashes down hard enough to make the mashed finger turn red.
The "mashed index finger" grip
Nor should the fingers hold the pencil so close to the tip that it rests beyond the wood.
The "pinched lead" grip
Fat pencils, and novelty pencils with feathers or other things dangling from them do not belong anywhere near school or schoolwork.
Inappropriate writing implements for schoolwork
Don’t fall for the notion that cutesy notebooks and writing instruments make learning “more fun.” Gaining the rudiments of education is not supposed to be “fun.”
It is to be hoped that learning will not be unpleasant, and that it will often be enjoyable, but get rid of the ridiculous idea that you or your child’s teachers are supposed to make learning “fun.” The only enjoyment that matters in the context of instruction is the joy that children experience when they realize that they have mastered something that seemed hard at first.
Finally, it is not easy to write comfortably or legibly while lying on one’s stomach. Lying on the floor to color may be fine as a leisure time activity, but a child learning to form letters or a child doing homework belongs seated comfortably at a desk or table. This rule goes for teenagers as well. Lying on their stomachs with a cellphone glued to their ears as they “study” just doesn’t cut it.
This article at Suite 101 offers useful tips about the early teaching of how to hold a pencil.
Ah, yes. Learning how to write legibly, if not elegantly, has gone the way of so many things that used to be taught in schools on both sides of the Atlantic. Learning how to sing and read a bit of music in primary schools is another lamentable deficiency. You only have to listen to the often atrociously harsh voices of groups of the young in public to realise that they have no inner standard by which to measure the sounds of their own voices; or even any motivation to make such judgements. Stridency is the fashion.
I should have said, “Learning how to sing…is also missing” instead of “…is also another lamentable deficiency”. Sorry, perspicacious folks.
I worry about the effect of dropping so many activities that used to engage children in activities such as group singing, penmanship exercises, memorization, oral book reports, and other behaviors that require physical input and mastery. Such teaching techniques as Whole Word reading instruction and the early use of computers seem to encourage children to be observers rather than doers.