The Writing on the Paper

An article in the NYTimes today bemoaned the loss of cursive writing. Students might be taught, briefly, how to write in cursive, but usually stick to block print. In fact, one college student, not only unable to write in cursive, was even being unable to read her own grandmother's writing. "It was kind of cryptic," she said.

It makes me want to go write a long letter in cursive, something I use off and on in my nightly journalling, depending on my mood. I can write faster in cursive, though my writing is neater in block print.

I would be sad to think my kids would not be able to read my handwriting, or their Gommie's. Pop's handwriting is pretty blocky (hmmmm, so is his sister's, my aunt Paula). But his mother's, my grandmother's, is downright illegible, even to me, as it seems to be one long line with some short loops and dots.

But there's hope: our kids are learning cursive, or at least the beginning blocks, as their school teaches the loopy D'Nealian form of printing so that kids can more easily learn cursive next. I didn't learn D'Nealian so it's funny to remember to add loops and such when I print for them so they can read it (because they never identify my unadorned "i"). Funny though, to see first words and writings, with all the flourishes.

What's in a Signature?

The kids have been practicing writing their names. For a year now, Bud has been "BUD" and Sis has been "SIS," with each having also designed a clever symbol interlacing their letters. Of course, you can't sign homework with a symbol and the kindergarten teachers want upper and lower case. So Bud is now "Bud" (often with backwards letters) and Sis is "Sis." Though, she prefers "sis" which she likes to make all curly, like magnets we have spelling out her name. It's odd to see them morph from ALL CAPS to a combo of Upper and Lower Case because I've been seeing them the way they were for so long.

Of course, my signature has morphed from carefully curly to completely illegible in 35 some-odd years. Though, always with either my middle initial or full middle name. Never just first and last. In fact, I saw my first and last in print recently and didn't think of it as me right away. Funny how caught up we get in our names. And our handwriting. Though, probably, each generation less so, I'm guessing. I mean, how much handwriting will Sis and Bud do after elementary school? I barely do any these days.

Which I became increasingly conscious of as I wrote out thank-you notes this morning. Writing up 4-5 little lines of text 14 times put a strain on my writing, which went from relatively neat to erratic. Funny, we used to write pages and pages at a time. A lost skill.

But I'm passing it along, watching the kids carefully sign their names to each note. Some BUD some SIS, some sis, some Dub. That last one not because he can't spell his name, but because he had trouble squeezing in next to "Sis," so it went up the edge of the card. Other signatures were above the note! We can work on epistolary form later.

Besides, they've already mastered email! And could type their names long before they could write them . . . .