Bringing Back the Fountain Pen

According to this article, a private school in Scotland is requiring its students to learn how to use fountain pens and to use them for all written school work except math. They also have handwriting classes that help them work with the pen and improve their penmanship. Though the title of the article says "School shuns tech, teaches fountain pen," the article itself states that "there is a full range of facilities for computer lessons and technology isn't being ignored." School administration says that the policy has improved student work by forcing students to take greater care with what they are writing and to focus more. In turn, this has improved self-esteem.

I thought this was an interesting phenomenon in the increasing emphasis on high-tech schooling. Of course, this is a private school, which is an important point. I doubt they are doing the same thing in the public school system. I have to say that I think there should be more emphasis placed on student handwriting in our own schools, especially since students are required to hand write on all those standardized tests that we will have to grade somday, and deciphering student writing is often no easy task. Not that I think fountain pens are the answer. I've never had to write with a fountain pen in my life. Apparently they were before my time. Don't you have to put the ink in yourself or something? Of course, if Scottish seven-year-olds can do it, maybe I should give it a try too.