Of course I have to weigh in on
this subject but I must confess that I was terrifically shocked to learn that
cursive writing is going the way of the dodo bird. It was some years ago when I discovered that
my nephews had not learned cursive writing in school. As much as I liked to hear about what they
were learning in school this was something I had never questioned.
First of all I must say right off
the bat that I adore writing (as opposed to printing). I love the feel of it, I love the way it
looks, I like how it sooths me, I like the way I express myself when
writing. In short, I like it. I don’t have particularly nice writing, in
fact I think it is a little eccentric in style but my mother tells me that I
have “nice writing”. And when I advanced
from printing to writing I was the last girl in my class to be promoted to
permanently writing in my exercise books.
I was a little messy I guess. But
I took to writing like a duck to water.
I did some Google research on the
value of cursive writing and there seems to be a split decision on whether or
not the experts are right in saying that it is useful with cases of dyslexia,
that it helps with cognitive ability or that it helps with creativity and
personality. Is writing faster than
printing? can you believe one report
said no? I used an expletive and
questioned the researcher – the rest of what he wrote went in one ear and out
the other because I highly doubt any of what he said after that. At the end of the article was a sample of the
author’s hand printing (hmm, is that a clue right there?) and from its back and
forth leanings I can say something but won’t (gee, aren’t I being nice
today?). Also not straight, another
clue. Get my drift? But that’s another story.
I am getting up there in age and
I suppose despite trying to stay current I am going to have some old fashioned
opinions but for what it’s worth here’s what I think. I think a person who writes rather than
prints indicates that she is educated, intelligent and may have a creative
personality. Why? Handwriting is invariably distinctive where
printing is generally primitive looking even when neat and tidy and doesn’t
really show much style. Going back to
the author defending printing, his printing was wavy and had pretentions to
writing in being somewhat swirly and my thoughts were “wannabee” writing. I know that when I put my thoughts in
writing, compared to when I compose on a keyboard, I have a steadier, stronger
sense of the ideas I am formulating. I
do not need to edit myself nearly as much with handwriting as I do when
typing. I would never dream of printing
as I find it much more awkward and childish.
Even with my elderly fingers writing flows much better from my pen. But that’s me. When it comes to writing, I confess, I will make judgments.
Teachers and individuals are
going to do whatever as the mainstream changes but I feel that cursive writing
is a valuable skill and I feel sorry for those who won’t experience the flow of
thoughts into a stream of writing on paper.
