Mary Beckman, a now-retired special education teacher in the Elk
River (Minn.) School District, says that new discoveries in
neuroscience, and the face-to-face and online approaches they
have helped create, aren’t the only way to influence the
developing brains of young students. Beckman argues that there’s
a longstanding approach that does its part to develop the
brain—handwriting. Eight years ago, that belief led Beckman to
co-develop the ez Write Handwriting Program and start her own
consulting company. What started at the pre-school and
kindergarten levels has since expanded the approach through
grade 5. K2 classes use unconnected letters, while older grades
practice in a simplified print writing method of cursive. The
approach, spread over 10 weeks, teaches eight basic strokes,
including one formed in the shape of the letter “C” and another
slanting down at a 45-degree angle from left to right. These
shapes are reinforced visually in drawings of a round wall clock
(in which the “C” section is marked out