The Capital Letter Problem Part 2: Pressure and release
In my last post I defined what I'm calling The Capital Letter Problem and set out some of its causes. Briefly, children pick up and embed bad habits when writing and, although they often know what should be done, they'll revert to what's been practised when under any kind of pressure. One solution could be to take a lesson from the world of horse training. Horse trainer Linda Parelli talks about the use of pressure and release. As she explains it, "Pressure motivates, release teaches." ... teaching and training horses really is quite simple, because it involves not much more than the appropriate application [...]