“Young lady! We do not need to see handwriting that is that elaborate! That is a sign of too much ego. Now, make it plainer.” And the black-garbed nun turned her back and swished down the aisle between our rows of desks.
Back in the day (really dating myself here!), we all had lessons in handwriting in elementary school and some of us caught the ‘script bug’ more than others. I have always had handwriting that was like the track of a soaring bird — dips and swoops and elegant loops. But several of the nuns who taught me in high school would have preferred that I be less generous with the dippy-swoopy-loops so that I fit in like the proverbial peg. Twas never to be!
The sight of an envelope with my name and address hand-written still gives me a momentary tingle and I do adore postcards from friends as they travel overseas. But how rare those things have become in our tweeting, texting, emailing world — and I miss them.
An article online at MSNBC today states that Cursive writing is fading, but so what? According to the article, more students are expected to use keyboards each year and teachers would actually prefer that students just print the answers on a test so that they are guaranteed to be legible.
I feel a sense of sadness that this beautiful skill, something as basic as writing — not printing, is being phased out of school programs and that a mere handful of people in the future will have the inclination or skills to sign their names instead of print their names.
Embracing technology is one thing — but failing to save or savour some of the small joys in life, such as the sight of a finely hand-written note, seems to me to be quite short-sighted. I know — I sound positively ancient when I prattle on about such things to people who care little for anything other than the sound of fingers on a keyboard. But surely I am not alone in this minor sense of mourning. Tell me it is so!
