[gaetgu]

I am a student here in the US.

I was certainly taught to hold and write with pens/pencils in the way that you describe. That being said, I have noticed that I and many of my peers somehow moved over to holding it with the thumb wrapped around the pen, and the pen held more straight up and down.

I am not quite sure what causes this, but I think that is is related to the way that you must hold many cheap ballpoint pens for them to write consistently. I personally fixed this bad habit when I switched over to fountain pens.

[wrp]

There was a big change over the 1950s in how people held their pens, as we shifted from fountain pens to ballpoints. You can see in pre-1950 movies how people held their pens (and pencils) less vertically.

A fountain pen will encourage you to adopt the old style of grip, with the result of less physical stress on the hand and more legible writing.