Handwriting

  

Handwriting-Putting  pencil, pen, paint brush to paper, creating a series of words with meaning.

 

Horrified. 

When we moved from Massachusetts to Bluefield, West Virginia, my mother was horrified at the schools. She was not going to entrust her daughter's brain, mine, to the school system.

Miss Blanche's private school was the solution. She had a kindergarten in the morning and Grades 1-3 in the afternoon. There were only a few pupils. She was the only teacher.

I only remember Bobby with his curly light brown hair. He messed his pants because Miss Blanche wouldn't let him go to the bathroom.

The problem to my being enrolled was Miss Blanche considered me woefully behind for her first grade.

Dar (grandmother) to the rescue. By March I knew my times tables through to the 12xs, could spell hundreds of words and could read interesting stories. No more boring "Dick run, Run Dick run."

Dar made it fun. Miss Blanche did not. 

Back in Massachusetts my third grade teacher, Miss Berry did not want my adult handwriting. Nor did she want my neat printing. I was told to go to large printed letters and I couldn't learn handwriting until late in the year and even then it was to be larger than I learned.

By fourth grade the school system had changed the type of handwriting but at least it was smaller. I don't remember the different names of the systems.

Now many schools are debating teaching handwriting at all. It may go the way of the stick shift. People won't be able to drive cars that aren't automatic nor will they be able to read letters and documents from the past. It's an even greater seeping of knowledge into ignorance than we are now experiencing. 

Granted, I don't often sit down with medieval manuscript. Because of a course I took way back, I recognize the letters, but I'm woefully ignorant when it comes to Latin as I am of many languages. Computers can translate for me, just as they speed up my writing as words go from my brain through my fingers onto the keyboard where auto correct helps me perfect them.

At the same time, I can handwrite everything from a grocery list to a condolence note, and a manuscript from long ago if I so want. It's not an either/or but a both. If the computer goes down, I can still leave a note for my husband on where I've gone and better yet he can read it.

Many school systems no longer want to teach cursive writing, a pretty name for handwriting. There have been articles that handwriting does something good to the brain that is lost. 

https://annsmyth.com/blog/handwriting-neuroscience-brain-connectivity                           

https://www.neuroetpsycho.com/en/handwriting-cognitive-power/                                   

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/ 

I'm relieved that I'm not just a COW (Cranky Old Woman) on the subject. Don't try and take my laptop away. I want all that word processing does including auto correct. I remember the short stint I had long ago as a legal secretary when every typed document had to be perfect or you started over.

Don't take my beautiful pens away.

Don't limit children's future ability to do more than hit keys hoping the server isn't down.