LEHMAN TWP. — She’s a lefty who has to make those letters lean right. She’s got a clenched-fist grip on her pencil that the teacher concedes is all wrong. But she has one other thing that makes everything else irrelevant. Aubriella Wojnarski is officially a Grand National Champion in cursive writing.
“You can use whatever grip you want,” teacher Donna Richards said with a laugh as Aubriella demonstrated her penmanship prowess at Lehman Jackson Elementary School.
Well, of course she can. Telling the 10-year-old charmer to switch pencil grips after winning the biggest title in cursive culture would be a bit like telling the quarterback hoisting the Super Bowl trophy that his passing form is all wrong.
Aubriella spends most of her school days hiding behind a face covering, of course, and she admits some masks are less comfortable than others. She’s so soft spoken her humble words occasionally fail to get past the the multi-ply material, but ultimately it comes through. Technically, she won as a fourth-grader in the spring, but the COVID-19 pandemic and school closings meant she didn’t learn of the impressive victory until August, and didn’t get official recognition until a virtual ceremony this week.
How did she feel when she learned of the victory?
“Surprised!” she replied, the truth of the statement unhindered by the mask. “There are so many people who enter it. I didn’t think I had a chance.”
How many is so many? This is the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest, started in 1991 and estimated to have had more than 4.5 million students participate since then, attracting some 250,000 entrants each year from kindergarten through eighth grade (K-2 students submit entries in print).
Aubriella isn’t just a Grand National Champion for grade 4 (there’s one for each grade), she’s the only student from Pennsylvania to have even made it to the semifinals.
Zaner-Bloser, by the way, offers handwriting education materials to schools still determined to teach it in the age of the internet. Lake-Lehman uses the system, and begins cursive lessons in second grade, where Aubriella started mastering her championship style.
She likes handwriting to other people because it adds a personal touch you can’t create through typed text. “If you write, it shows you care.”
She also concedes her computer technique is hardly award-worthy. “I type a little weird,” she admitted, before demonstrating with an imaginary keyboard, using two index fingers in the classic “hunt and peck” system.
The National title comes with perks. Along with a trophy, she’s getting a check for $500. “I’m saving it for college,” she insisted, even though she’s not sure what she wants to be when she grows up. Her favorite subject these days is social studies. “It’s interesting to learn about the past.”
Her teacher gets classroom materials worth $1,000. Her parents also rewarded her. “I got a long board, it’s a kind of skate board.”
So did winning a national championship make her big woman on campus at the elementary school? “Mmm, so so,” she answers.
Richards is a bit more forthcoming in expressing pride for her student. “She’s a perfectionist. She wants to make sure she always does the right thing. She practiced and practiced, on her own time.”
Cursive writing lessons have been vanishing from schools in the past decade or so, in part because of increased pressure to improve standardized test scores, and in part because laptops and computer pads have steadily worked their way into lower grades.
Political battles have actually flared up in some states with pushes to make cursive writing a mandatory part of curriculum. Proponents point to studies that suggest learning print and cursive improve fine motor skills and actually make learning typing easier (in part because handwriting makes the difference between capital letters and small ones visually obvious, while keyboards don’t).
Richards had a simpler reason to keep the lessons in the early grades. “Kids don’t realize writing in cursive is faster than writing in print,” thanks to all those connected letters, keeping pen or pencil on the paper in a smoother motion.
Aubriella, of course, conducted almost of the the interview and writing demonstrations wearing a mask and following school safety protocols. But she did agree to unmask outside for a picture, and she revealed something else a champion should have.
A winning smile.