“I can’t use a pen because I don’t have a pen licence because my writing is not good enough.”
These words came out of an 8-year-old I assessed recently! This was prompted when I offered him a variety of different writing implements to complete a spelling test. It’s no secret I have never been a fan of a pen licence, either as a parent or teacher. It feels pointless! This is because as a teacher I just want children to write, and I don’t care what they write with as long as they feel confident enough to just give it a try. I don’t need children to love writing but I need them to learn the mechanics so they can communicate their thoughts.
Children that are awarded pen licences don’t need the extra kudos. They already love writing and likely have natural ability! The children who don’t have a pen licence need ALL the help and encouragement they can get. They need as many opportunities to write with purpose as possible using whatever they like to write with that gets the job done! I mean, at the end of the day if writing is not secure and messy it will be messy in pen or pencil.
Teaching children to write on every other line is a much better strategy to help them organise their work and for readability. Have you ever thought that by segregating children into pen users and non-pen users it reinforces the fact that a non-pen licence user is not very good at writing? By doing so this exacerbates the issue further by pointing this out and reminding them every time they put pencil to paper that their writing isn’t good enough. It also creates an additional self-esteem and confidence barrier that makes them scared to make marks on paper regardless of whether it’s pen or pencil!
Oh, and by the way, I didn’t have a pencil, so the student HAD to use a pen! He was super chuffed when they realised that writing with a pen was not impossible, and his handwriting didn’t look that much different to when he wrote in pencil!