Villainous Company

One of the few things in school I did well was cursive. I always enjoyed writing so maybe that had something to do with it. I don't think I have written anything longhand in years - well with the possible exception of initialing or short notes. Sad.

I think cursive is an elegant and not obsolete skill. Consider the warmth of a thank you note that is handwritten. Or time it take to write a letter letting someone know you are thinking of them.

One of my hidden talents is that of a Court Scribe. Yes, I did calligraphy and illuminated my children's haiku and poetry as a reward for writing it. I have a few of Jonathan's as a result.

Though I could not have forseen this particular use of my talent, I designed the lettering for his headstone.

I can't now, as the blasted Southpaw limb is still non unionized, but I teach cursive as more than a 'requirement.' It sets the gentlemen and ladies apart from the boys and girls.

Nothwithstanding the fact that I can type with reasonable accuracy up to 65 WPM.

I still delight in the task of choosing the right words, and penning them in longhand
makes them more poignant, more rendolent of
thought and reflection.

Just saying...

As an Architect, I trained for years to create uniform, all caps letters with a wedge shape on my pencil tip that could be read after dozens of reproductions. That skill is rapidly dying also. I keep a journal in my handwriting and lettering to keep the reflexes active.

I have to admit that, when I write longhand, I print in block letters.

It started in my first job, when my boss kindly informed me that he needed to be able to read my reports. He suggested that, if I were to write in all capital letters, slowly, it might go better...

And so I still do, when I can't type.

Okay, geek confession time: I have a secret letch for Arts and Crafts houses, as well as mid century modern, and loved reading blueprints with the lettering...the talent it took to write like that is breathtaking.

I also have stashed away a Spencerian Copperplate book...someday..

Was mine a "geek confession" too, Crick, or are you speaking for yourself? :)

I do write cursive in personal letters, but you pretty much have to love me to learn to read it. The wife can, and Sovay can, and family, and not too many others. It's unfair to ask them to have to do so.

And I didn't learn cursive until third grade.
We were Not Permitted The Use Of An Ink Pen until sixth anyway, when most children have refined their cursive skills through much erasure
of errors.

Nah, I was speakin' for meself, but I know from experience that writing is not something most boys take to very easily. To read about you and Tyree gives me hope that I can still get the CLU
to write his required summaries, reports, essays, paragraphs, etc. because grown men still do, and it helps the thinking process to slow down and write it out first, and then go through the process of revision before using a keyboard.

The one thing I always write out longhand is poetry. First I write down what I want it to say, without trying to put in in any sort of rhyme or alliterative form. Then, having gotten down the sentiment, I work out how to say it according to form.

As for the rest of it, typing is at least as good a means of transcribing thoughts. So it seems to me, at least.

I think using a keyboard to order one's thoughts is okay...it is just losing a skill with regard to longhand that bothers me. It is sort of like
starting with the frame first before you put it on the footers/foundation.

Seems sorta backward to me. I don't allow the CLUs to use calculators, although fingers are fine. Understanding the process of forming letters is also helping to hardwire the brain to read and think. Understanding the four functions of math and learning them until they become automatic doesn't remove the need for a calculator, but gives them a better appreciation for what it can do.

Shortly after aquiring the Ring of Power from one of the finest LCpl in the Corps, I remember watching Mah Huzzband writing out reports he had brought home to complete - using USMC-issued handwriting templates with regulation-specific sized slots coordinated to specific lines on the ICR. The space inside those slots was, to say the most, insidiously miniscule. The handwriting required was similar to that which Tyree described for basically the same reasons. To this day his writing remains miniscule, heavy and block-printed.
I, on the otter heiny, (having given up cursive in my elementary days for reasons that smacked more of rebellion than a need to be different) would say that my 'style' of writing is something akin to modern calligraphy. The lettering is basically printed calligraphy (sans the miles of curly-ques on each letter) that flows together like cursive.
I feel as everyone here seems to, there is something very special in the handwritten word. It touches something more cultured and civilized inside, invoking memories of by-gone (simpler?) days. I have created and printed my own birthday, Christmas, etc. cards for well over 5 years. Each card is personlized and hand-signed as well as addressed with my best calligraphy pen and wax stamped to seal. It's what I do. I wouldn't think of doing less because this is my opportunity to tell that person, "I was thinking of you."
Having said that, though, I have found that my thoughts not only flow smoother, but I am better able to make corrections on the fly - and thereby retain my train of thought more completely - when I type. (Help, my train of thought lost its freight!) In most cases, I am able to compose more quickly on a keyboard. While writing by hand is second nature to me, (I will pick up a pen and notepad to jot a note without even entertaining the idea of using some form of digital means, ie. PDA) my thoughts usually flow faster and more freely when I type.

And you and Grim articulated exactly why (IMNSHO)
it is important to at least learn the skill before the keyboard. Once you understand the process involved in forming letters, words and then the more complex thoughts to make sentences, using a keyboard speeds up the process. I think technology has been a boon in this and other areas. But I am also one who knits and handspins and loves it when the electricity goes out just so's I can still
cook a meal on the hearth or the woodburning furnace.

P.S.
Ring of Power? ROFLMBO!!!

The Engineer has terrible writing and it is not only a labor of love to decipher it, but to edit it as well. He pulled a 4.0 in college, but he really had to burn the midnight oil to get his writing up to speed, and crash courses in legibility both for ease of reading and flow
along with college classes make for some Tense Moments In The Marriage.

Heh.

I use a PC every day. I also use cursive handwriting every day. Miss Johnson was my 4th grade teacher and she was, how shall I put it- a skilled motivator of young children who would rather be outside playing kickball. She taught me penmanship, and I have used it nearly every day since. I make notes, lists, send cards and such- and always handwritten. When I go on vacations I keep a little travel diary- all handwritten.

I can't imagine NOT being able to write in longhand.

In order to ensure marital bliss, I long ago forswore correcting Mah Huzzband's compositions -- unless specifically asked, and, as I noted a couple of threads ago, that is not something that occurs with any semblance of regularity. He will ask when it is important, other than that, we have just decided to enjoy his phonetic creativity for the little smile it always induces.

"Our daughter in law teaches second grade, and her students are learning cursive already, which strikes us (and her) as unutterably dumb. They're too young and lack the fine motor skills."

And for those of us with arthritis, it's an even bigger challenge.

Most of us can think at 300 words per minutes, while many type at 100 WPM, and write cursive at 10-20 WPM.

Thank the goddesses for micro voice recorders.

I am the WORST at cursive. I hate to write letters for that reason. I'll email, but heaven help you if you're waiting for a letter from me :)

My boys took forever to learn cursive. We spent many an afternoon after school practicing letters. I made them spend 5-15 minutes a day before they went out to play making their letters because they had so much trouble. They hated it and I hated it, but it was the only way they learned and the darned schools made them learn so early.

It really bothered me. I see no reason for kids to learn cursive before 4th grade. Many boys just can't sit still and their fine motor skills just aren't there yet. I really don't think it's worth the frustration, but if you want to teach your children they have to fit in and do what they're told, you go along. But it really made me very, very angry at the time. I said a lot of very bad words to myself, and gave my boys a lot of hugs to make up for it.

And I sympathized, because I had trouble learning to write myself, being a lefty and all.

Sly, my husband's co-workers once gave him a giant blue pencil. He is as bad as I used to be - grammar, spelling, punctuation, the works.

My office used to send me everything that went out for proofing. You'd never know it to read my posts though :) I never used to let a typo out the door.

Now I save it for work - I can only do so much. I think being on the Internet corrupts you.

I too, avoided the opportunity of looking over the Engineer's writing unless cornered, trapped, or bribed. He was in enough pain...but I did spend at least an hour a week teaching him about
the beauty of revision, why It Was Important.

Educated in the UK (in the 1960s and 1970s) we were allowed ink at about age 7 (I'm not sure what grade that would be). Cursive was required - printing and block caps would have been laughed to scorn. Actually no, they would have been derided and punished: we were learning to write! Fine motor skills were not a problem after some practice, which was done daily, usually after a quick repetition of the multiplication tables (up to 12).

Speaking as a mathematician, I cannot imagine being without it. No-one can do real maths at a computer!

Talking of which, when anyone says to me that they're stuck writing something (maths or otherwise), I tell them to separate the two jobs of writing/composition (creative) and being a secretary (typing). Anything substantial is extremely hard to write at the keyboard: one is too distracted by all the supplementary details of typo-fixing, layout, fonts, display etc. etc.
The feedback from those I have so advised is universally extremely positive - particularly from those writing up their PhD theses.

I picked up the habit of printing when I write longhand from my Pappy. It's far more legible than my cursive "style"...

"My Pappy," eh? Say, you're not a gambling man by any chance?

Age seven would be about second grade. When we lived in Germany, I saw some of the sloppiest cursive from the Germans...and they would ooh and aah over my cursive, how neat, elegant, etc. it was.

My calligraphy teacher in high school was a protege of Jacqueline Svarin...one of the Queen's Calligraphers. It used to give her fits that I was left handed and flatly refused to use a lefty pen. I still have my Osmiroid set after all these years...had to replace a nib or two but have fond memories of doing Roman caps with a brush.

I picked up the habit of printing when I write longhand from my Pappy. It's far more legible than my cursive "style"...
Posted by: camojack at October 11, 2006 06:16 PM

"My Pappy," eh? Say, you're not a gambling man by any chance?
Posted by: Grim at October 11, 2006 06:26 PM

Not me. Gambling is against my religion...