to not want my left-handed child to have to use a fountain pen ...

[Nickoka]

Child is in year 5. The school previously tried to get year 6s to use fountain pens but this year has extended policy to year 5.

My DD writes slowly and with 'hook hand' sometimes, so I bought her the Stabilo left handed rollerball pen in the holidays. The teacher however has issued (right handed) fountain pens and wants the kids to use them for everything but maths. I had a meeting with teacher. He was nice and it was a reasonable discussion. Teacher's argument was they wanted all children to be the same. However I think fountain pens are a rubbish idea in the 21st century for left handed children, just causing smudging and frustration. I don't want to buy a left-handed one as suggested by the teacher. Am I just being stubborn or am I right to fight this? Views from lefties particularly sought!

YANBU. I just wrote at length in another, old, thread about this. To summarise: Being from New Zealand, where ballpoints are the norm, I cannot understand why any schools would insist on fountain pens. DD's teacher thinks ballpoints are "scratchy and blotchy", which I think is odd because that's how I would have described fountain pens. I have not noticed NZ children's handwriting to be any worse than in any other country (my DD has lovely handwriting, despite being a lefty and having learnt with a ballpoint), so the only conclusion I can come to is that it's a cultural prejudice rather than anything based on actual evidence.

I find it additionally weird in combination with stories like this. I would have thought that with the UK national stress about all things education-related, that anything perceived as even potentially risky to GCSE results would have had ink pens discouraged long ago.

I am a leftie, I can write with a fountain pen as long as it's a leftie one. I don't write with a "hook" hand and I don't see the need to. I have never had a problem with smudging etc. as I write normally.

Ring binders are annoying though.

Just buy a leftie pen.

My son is a leftie and at 13 now he won't go near any "wet" style pen at all. They're a disaster and his work is completely illegible if he uses one. It all depends on how much they drag their hands over their paper-some do,some don't. Maybe try it and if it is really bad surely the teacher will understand and let your child revert to a dry pen??