SCHOFIELD – Mason Kluck, a student at St. Peter Lutheran School in Schofield, was recently selected the fourth-grade semifinalist in the 32nd annual Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. That means Mason had the second-best cursive handwriting among all of the fourth-grade entries from across the country.
Each year, 20 winners are chosen, including one grand national champion and one national semifinalist in each grade.
Winners have been tested through the competition, which begins at participating public and private schools throughout the country. Schools choose their own winners, who then advance to their respective state-level competitions. State winners advance to the national competition, where judges select nine grade-level grand national champions and nine grade-level semifinalists.
All students write the required sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” because it contains every letter of the alphabet. Judges select winners based on Zaner-Bloser’s four keys to legibility: the shape, size, spacing and slant of the letters.
Mason’s entry:
Mason-Kluck-entry-formVisit https://www.zaner-bloser.com/national-handwriting-contest/about-contest.php to meet all the winners.
Along with the fun of competition, contestants reap the cognitive benefits that stem from the handwriting process.
“Research tells us what handwriting can do to support cognitive development and better academic outcomes,” said Zaner-Bloser President Lisa Carmona in a news release. “That’s why we’re committed to recognizing those schools that encourage the use of manuscript and cursive, and the students who work so hard to master it.”
Each semifinalist receives an engraved Zaner-Bloser trophy. The semifinalists’ schools and teachers receive certificates of achievement handcrafted by master penman Michael Sull.
