Is the pen mightier than the phone?

FOND DU LAC - Teachers say the early grades are where it all begins. But, despite the careful repetition and crushing concentration, could they also be where it ends?

“The need for handwriting on a regular basis isn't as great as it was let’s say ten or 15 years ago,” said Jon Woldt, principal of Faith Lutheran School in Fond du Lac. “Writing a letter to grandma, now it's e-mailing grandma or texting her, ‘how you doing?’”

Woldt says technology is challenging the written word, but handwriting is still a big part of instruction for the Fond du Lac school. Woldt says cursive has become a forgotten art for many kids, but Faith students work hard to master the fluid dance of loose-leaf and pen.

“I just think about controlling my hand motions,” eighth grader Jonathan Witte said. “Taking my time, going slowly.”

That attention to detail paid off for Witte. He never expected it, but says his well-formed letters recently earned a state title in the Zaner-Bloser handwriting competition.

“Then it goes to nationals and it's like, whoa!”

Witte's parents were also pleased. They feel handwriting reflects the individual, but are seeing less of it with every year.

“It's a strange way of trying to read the book by its cover, but yet it does tell something about the person,” Jonathan’s father Dale Witte said.

Print and cursive still have a place in the Fond du Lac school district, but curriculum director John Whitsett says the attention is waning.

“I think the day will come when we'll be doing very little of it,” Whitsett said. “We have some teachers that do very little now.”

Whitsett says advancing technology has made cursive less relevant. He says keyboarding is now the focus, as are reading and math, under federal guidelines.

“The more time you put into that, the more things you have to take out and I think handwriting is one of the casualties of that,” he said.

But with students like Witte carrying the pen, teachers say it won't be lost completely.