"SCRIPT & SCRIBBLE": IN DEFENCE OF PENMANSHIP

Of course you know that today is National Handwriting Day, in honour of John Hancock's birthday. But our days of mastering penmanship seem long behind us. Kitty Burns Florey ruminates on this lost art ...

Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

Did you get one? Nor did I. I stayed home and watched the inauguration on a screen. But a million inauguration invitations were sent out. There was a time when each of these would have been addressed, floridly, by hand, but needless to say these hordes of envelopes were done by machine.

And so is everything. With the exception of the odd thank-you note or letter from Aunt Gertrude in Florida, we seldom see anything handwritten in our mailboxes. I suspect there are actually people alive today who have never received a letter written with a pen on paper and mailed in an envelope with a stamp.

When I stumbled on an article about how learning handwriting in school is being replaced by keyboarding instruction, my first reaction was the predictable horror of someone who spent large portions of her youth mastering Palmer Method under the tutelage of the nuns. Keyboarding? Who even knew that was a verb? No more Palmer Method? All those loopy L’s and fancy G’s–gone to the dustbin along with the blotter and the inkwell?

I decided to write a book about it ("Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting"). And I resolved to remain open-minded. If handwriting is over, is that really so terrible?

After all, we live in the digital age, and the digits of most of us are working overtime as we keyboard our way through the day. I began writing books back in the late 1970s, pen in hand, notebook on my knee, typewriter at the ready to receive my completed manuscript in its various incarnations. (Somewhere in a box I have 13 typed revisions of my first novel, which probably should have been called "The Death of the Forest".) But when the computer came along and made cutting and pasting virtual instead of messy, I saw it as the compulsive reviser’s dream machine. My last eight books are children of Microsoft Word, and virtually everything I write, from a long book to a short email, is done on the computer. The only person I know whose life doesn’t revolve around the infernal machine is my artist husband, and lately even he is showing signs of e-mail addiction.

My handwriting of course has suffered. But so what? Who needs it? Can’t we say goodbye and good riddance?

I was surprised to find that the answer is: Not so fast! By the end of my journey into the world of penmanship–from the Phoenicians to the Bic, from monks in their scriptoria to Bill Gates at the keyboard–I’d found plenty of evidence that handwriting is a skill that should be kept alive.

Educators I talked to claim that kids master reading more easily when they write a word as they learn it: the writing process keeps their attention focused as they match symbol to sound. Quite a few teachers whose schools make little provision for teaching handwriting have wedged it into the curriculum anyway because they’re convinced of its importance.

Kids certainly need to learn to type on a keyboard, but they also need legible handwriting–for taking tests, writing reports, working at the chalkboard. Many schools have adopted some version of technology for these tasks, but far more haven’t the resources for it. Children are judged by their handwriting; if they produce indecipherable chicken-scratching, a teacher will not be sympathetic. And if writing hasn’t become easy and automatic, they’ll lose their train of thought, be unable to plan ahead as they write, and, in the end, dislike both aspects of the writing process: forming their letters and expressing their ideas.

For many pro-keyboarding anti-handwriters, the real bugaboo is cursive writing--the Palmer Method and its offspring. When the computer crashes or the electricity fails, when repetitive stress syndrome threatens or they’re on a mountaintop in Colorado with the urge to write a poem and only a notebook at hand--what, they ask, is wrong with printing?

The only sensible answer is: nothing. An even more sensible answer is that it’s possible to learn a writing system that combines the clarity and simplicity of printing with the speed of cursive. Many of us have, informally, devised such a script for ourselves out of desperation.

As I worked on "Script and Scribble" I was introduced to the phenomenon of Italic writing, which is based on the beautiful, elegant, and far from fussy hand devised by writing masters in 16th-century Italy. It’s a flexible and far from difficult system that allows for individual quirks and preferences, that encourages linking letters when they need to be linked and printing them when that seems quicker or more pleasing. There are several wonderful modern versions (Getty-Dubay, Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting) being taught to home-schoolers and in enlightened school districts. One of Italic’s virtues is that kids don’t have to learn two different ways of writing--first printing, then cursive. It’s all one.

The result, a loosely systematised version of what we do by instinct, is immensely satisfying. I have worked out my own personal Italic: no more ugly, rushed scribble. (I was so impressed with my prowess that I included before and after examples in the book.) It’s a superb solution for anyone who craves better handwriting, or who believes it’s still necessary, or who simply hates to lose something that’s historic and beautiful.

What’s vital, though, is to keep using it. Now that a new president has been inaugurated, we can relax a bit and think about something besides the state of the nation. Just as there’s a “slow foods” movement, maybe there should be a “slow writing” movement. January 23rd, John Hancock’s birthday, is National Handwriting Day. I suggest you set aside half an hour, grab a piece of paper and a pen, and, in your best script (be it Italic, Palmer, or a cleaned-up version of your usual scrawl), write a poem, start a diary, send a note to a friend, or--well, Valentine’s Day is coming--compose a love letter.

Picture credit: kevinzim (via Flickr)

(Kitty Burns Florey is the author of nine novels and many short stories and essays. "Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting" has just been published by Melville House.)

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Comments

handwriting

January 23, 2009 - 19:21 — michael garrick (not verified)

Humph specialised in calligraphy. So should we all. Standardisation equals death. The result of net and email is that people put up barriers round themselves. Handwriting perhaps expresses more about ourselves than we want others to know. Handwriting is human: we all should keep in mind that electronics are NOT.

Cordially ('tho typed)

Michael G.

handwriting

January 24, 2009 - 04:39 — J. Ward (not verified)

From my experience most students starting to learn to read 15th and 16th century manuscripts (in Dutch) are appalled by how bad the writing is. At which point their professor or instructor may ask: do you think emperor Charles V employed copiests who could only write badly? It then begins to dawn on us that there are esthetic norms in hand writing which can change throughout the ages. I used to find it curious that Americans, in the 1950's and 60's before computers, completed the handwritten letter i with a small circle instead of a plain dot as the British do. But if you would like to see the reproduction of an original early 16th century letter, carefully written by an official copiest and then signed by Charles V, you might have a glance at my website (above, homepage).
With all best wishes
Yours sincerely
J. P. Ward.

Photography did not replace

January 24, 2009 - 09:12 — Visitor (not verified)

Photography did not replace painting, but altered it in that artists were freed from the pressure to make 'photo realsitc' descriptions of reality. Photography documented day to day life, painting was free to explore our psychological landscape.

Keyboarding (not just computers, but typewriters before them) is most effective way to get text to paper and serves that well. Writing can be reserved, not for the finger taxing chores, but for the pleasurable, the expressive. Even withing writing, there is a psychologial difference between the flow of my favorit fountain pen, and the sketches I make with a technical pencil.

Having said all that, I work with a community support organization, and we periodically get long handwritten letters from people looking for assistance. Even if the handwriting is not 'bad', I still have a very difficult time parsing it... reading it is too slow for my thought train and I dearly wish they had typed it.

Handwriting

January 24, 2009 - 09:40 — Howard Handlen (not verified)

I also was instructed to use the Palmer method by the nuns. I never did it well; I had the habit of interrupting my hand before I got through a word. I greatly admired those who could do the Palmer well - all the nuns were superb writers of it. I am to this day attracted to graphic art (for surely that was what Palmer was); the beautiful forms done simply with inked line, included the comic pages - Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates) was my favorite artist.

I began to mimic hands I liked and so lost my own and staggered into printing in my verion of the architectural hand. I can still do a goodlooking script but it is very slow, done more like drawing than writing.

Architectural Lettering

January 24, 2009 - 10:36 — Arktek48 (not verified)

Part of my early training as an architect required developing lettering skills by practicing architectural lettering. This process required precise printing with guidelines until a uniform, legible style was developed. It took years to master this skill, but the end product produced architectural drawings with legible notation and pleasing composition. Using drafting instruments to form the letters was tedious and notoriously slow. Once the instruments were discarded and one began to letter freehand, speed increased and using slight variations to the architectural standard one was able to develop a style of their own. Of course this has all been replaced by computer generated font that is always perfect and simple to compose and rearrange (not to mention copy and modify) Along the way something has been lost. There is no longer the hand eye connection between draftsman and drawing. The drawing pen has been replaced by the computer. The end product is better in terms of legibility, speed, etc. so there is no going back to old methods. Something has been sacrificed along the way for all of this expediency. Comparing drawings produced by architects who learned how to hand letter and those of the computer generation shows distinct differences. Composition, organization, proper emphasis all stand out in the work of an earlier generation while the drawings of the computer generation are flat, lifeless, having no hierarchical value. The solution to this quandary may be some type of synthesis that combines the best features of each approach. Continue to draw and letter by hand on occasion to develop and maintain your dexterity and reserve the computer for work.

To quote George Orwell, "in

January 24, 2009 - 11:13 — Chuck (not verified)

To quote George Orwell, "in the neat handwriting of the illiterate."

For the Love of Clack

January 24, 2009 - 14:06 — Bryan (not verified)

By the third grade, I quite literally believed that the "Palmer Method" referred to a system of terrorism whereby nuns brutalized children for unspecified crimes. My parents, sensing an incipient battle of epic proportions, bought me a typewriter. It took me 48 hours to learn to touch type, using a diagram from the World Book Encyclopedia, and in the ensuing 40 years I've done everything in my power to completely eliminate handwriting from my life. For me, lifting a pen lies somewhere between telemarketing calls and dental work, and penmanship nostalgia is a fetish comparable to whale bone stays or foot binding.

My only regret is not having been able to confront Sister Damien with a MacBook Air in 1965.

Orwell quote

January 24, 2009 - 14:36 — J. Ward (not verified)

So, was Orwell a snob? I still try to write according to the standards of the primary school in Scotland in the early 1930's. How many of us are left?
J. P. Ward

chalkboards?

January 24, 2009 - 17:19 — Mark (not verified)

What's a chalkboard? It sounds like a rather unpleasant form of medieval English torture.

As a former literature teacher, I had all of my students submit their essays by email. If I wanted to check on my students' handwriting, I could always look at the tops of their desks.

It's pleasant to think of a slow-writing movement, in the same way it's somewhat appealing to dream of a slow-work movement, or relationships that require a minimum amount of maintenance but bestow enormous emotional benefits.

To go back to my students: they were all Korean. Not only did they study and write about Shakespeare in English before going on to Harvard, Princeton, Amherst, etc, but our school also required them to study an additional foreign language, usually Chinese or Japanese.

Before any high school students run out to save the dead art of cursive hand-writing, I strongly suggest they at least learn how to write lewd poetry in Chinese first.

Time

January 24, 2009 - 17:32 — Visitor (not verified)

The problem with teaching handwriting is that it takes up an immense amount of time, time that might better be spent working on math and sciecne skills. Our national education emergency is that young Americans have increasingly slim math skills and cannot think scientifically. Cut the handwriting and add another period of math.

Or, Mr./Ms. Time---the time

January 24, 2009 - 18:31 — Visitor (not verified)

Or, Mr./Ms. Time---the time spent on teaching handwriting would, in your case, be better spent on teaching spelling.

A Word for "Time"

January 24, 2009 - 18:33 — Visitor (not verified)

Perhaps in your case, Mr. or Ms. Time---the time spent on teaching handwriting would be better spent in teaching...say...spelling?

Handwriting With The Other Hand

January 24, 2009 - 19:16 — bill (not verified)

I've occasionally wondered if it'd be possible to learn to write with my other hand - the idea being, after 59 years, I'm not likely to be able to clean up my normal style, whereas the other hand doesn't 'know' how to write. Then I think: And just how long do you think that would take? Ah.....

Still kind of like the idea, though.

Bill - break an arm and

January 24, 2009 - 19:37 — Visitor (not verified)

Bill - break an arm and you'll find the other hand jumps right in... until about three days after the cast comes off.

I find, very often, that writing with a pen and paper (usually a post-it note) is the most useful way to leave someone an important note such as "Ouisa, don't eat this! Nuts in the bread" or "Walked dogs at 5:30" or "Clive Owen - please wait five minutes! I had to go give CPR but will be right back for our long-planned tryst!!!"

Handwriting

January 24, 2009 - 21:17 — Visitor (not verified)

My late father-in-law (born in the early 1900's) collected stamps. These stamps were, of course, attached to correspondence (postcard, letters) which were, to me, in many instances not just fascinating, but provided an emotional connection to those long gone who had written these correspondences. There was a letter from a soldier in WWI France to home, a note from a child (so long gone now) to his grandparents thanking them for a present, and, most unusual, an almost complete series of letters between a man and woman which portrayed a growing closeness and affection. Knowing that these writers had picked up pen and put their thoughts to paper gave (and gives) the reader a feeling of closeness to those so far distant in time that an electronic correspondence could never offer.

It was learning cursive in

January 24, 2009 - 22:39 — Mike (not verified)

It was learning cursive in 6th grade that ruined my handwriting forever. I've since learned to print neatly if I slow down, but it takes time.

Re: Time

January 24, 2009 - 23:34 — Visitor (not verified)

With logic such as that, we should delete (or drag to our proverbial virtual ash cans) classes that are not science or math related? Please! Music connects to math; physical activity connects to physics, and more; and handwriting assists with eye/hand coordination. Not to mention, learning to write allows students to lengthen their ability to focus beyond a 15-second commercial for Spongebob. It's time to look beyond the idea that one discipline alone will solve the problems plaguing our educational system and socio-economic ills.

Breakage

January 25, 2009 - 13:01 — bill (not verified)

I have, in fact, broken my shoulder, hip, and leg, at various times, but all on the left (non-writing) side. My wife tells me that if I break anything else she's going to see if there's a return-policy on me. So, I'll likely not do the hand-breakage idea.

But I think of my mother's still-elegant handwriting.... perhaps I could just *fake* the break?

Time

January 26, 2009 - 05:18 — Visitor (not verified)

I think all those smartypants jumping to correct Mr/Ms Time should give him/her the benefit of the doubt. It does appear to be a simple typographical error. Even the best spellers in the world can fall victim to a typo.

Penmanship can count

January 26, 2009 - 10:46 — CarfPen (not verified)

Many,many years ago whilst in parochial school, the nuns made us learn penmanship. While it did not require the use of a fountain pen, I elected to use one, and have used them almost exclusively ever since. Having good penmanship, at least for me, helped me measure and think things through. The mechanical versus electronic, pen versus keyboard discussions will always be with us, but with things mechanical---as in handwriting something other than a grocery list or post-it note---you can slow down and think. And when one can slow down a bit to think, the written words have a greater potential for clarity. I enjoy writing with a fountain pen and thus penmanship as well. In public, the instrument and the way it writes becomes an ice breaker for conversation. And for the many letters I write, a means to stay connected on a more personal level. Letters to friends and family do mean more and my penmanship has thus become a banner of sorts standing out from many things unsolicited sitting in our mail boxes, be they electronic in nature, or physical at the end of one's driveway or front door entrance.

handwriting

January 26, 2009 - 16:38 — Visitor (not verified)

I love handwriting, but ...
Did you ever try to read a hand written message from a foreigner? I prefer typescript from a foreigner, because I can read foreign languages in type script. A hand written letter from abroad gives a lot of trouble in reading it. (English is a foreign language to me)
But I do keep some handwritten letters somewhere, because of the trouble and energy the writer took to write it. Christmas cards with a printed wish are not as dear to me as hand written wishes on a card.

Importance of Math, Science, Engineering, and Technology

January 28, 2009 - 15:35 — Visitor Dick (not verified)

Re: Time -

It is critical that education emphasize Math and Science curricula. That said, handwriting is important as well. Perhaps one way of stimulating the economy is to lengthen the school year, with a corresponding increase in pay for teachers.

handwriting vs. key boarding

January 31, 2009 - 21:32 — Captain Nemo (not verified)

I am an old cruising sailor, who learned his business at the hands of sailors who were of the old pre-computer era. Neatness and accuracy of thinking and hand were requisites of my youth.

One skill I learned was to navigate by star and compass. Then came LORAN AND GPS, both of which are routinely more precise than the old methods.

Until the power goes out.

If you think that the power can't fail on you, and key boarding is the solid defacto standard, well then you probably think that the stock market can't fail to rise, and the banking system is too sophisticated to ever cause a problem.

But as ancient a mariner as I am, I think I recall a couple of times recently when the Blackberry system failed its users on Wall Street. And was it last week that the new White House staff was paralyzed because their email servers collapsed? I think I heard a rumor that an ice storm shut down electrical power in the northeast.

I,m too frail of mind to understand what all that means to modern key boarders, being an ancient mariner.

For myself, I will hang onto my compass, sextant and charts, and make my computations and log entries with my primitive pencil and pen. Then look to the GPS if its working for confirmation of what I know.

And if and when there is power for my computer, I can always scan my information into it, or key it into a file at my leisure.

computer error

February 1, 2009 - 12:10 — Visitor (not verified)

The ancient mariner reminds me of a former colleagues at the railroad who always carried his telegraph key and fountan pen with him while on duty. At the time our train dispatching office was being converted to computer-aided dispatching. He was more concerned with the computer dying and making sure he could continue running trains.
Handwriting is still a necessary skill for communication and should be taught to all students. Personal notes, love letter and research notes from college texts are several reasons to keep handwriting alive.

Penmanship

February 2, 2009 - 15:01 — Visitor (not verified)

It may no longer be necessary to perfect one's penmanship because most documents are typed these days. However, one's penmanship is likened to hygiene. If one cannot print or write neatly (or at least with a style) he or she is considered sloppy. Everyone knows the difference and no one wants to read an adult's handwriting that looks like it was done by a six year old. Besides, the practice of making loops and studying how a letter is formed surely influences how one thinks.

Time

February 2, 2009 - 22:53 — Visitor Marya (not verified)

Funny, I've just found myself ahead of the curve; I recently decided, why am not sure, to practice writing mindfully. I've been taking the time, when I write, usually once or twice a day, to Only Write.

This may seem ridiculous but it is often the only chance I have in a busy day for mindfulness. Might the same thing be said of Penmanship lessons at school, by slowing down the hand, perhaps it helps to discipline the mind.

cursive is better

February 4, 2009 - 21:31 — Jamesm (not verified)

At this point we must also point out that since the process of manually recording notes, text and other information and thoughts tends to lead to even greater levels of inspiration, it should be encouraged at every turn! For the human mind to coordinate the hand and body into harmony is to empower the mind, body and soul into greater integration. The man or woman who has fully integrated his or her mind, body and soul seems better equipped to work towards the total integration of society at large . A pen gliding over paper in the manner and under the power of the writer is unique to the human experience and those who engage in it are bound to be more attuned to the truth (perpetuation of the species?) and to be free and more likely to love one another (as God has loved us) and more willing to carry out the divine plan (to offer up our lives for others and to love our enemies.) If the human mind is concentrating on assembling a large assortment of curves, angles and dots so as to connect them in order to spread this good news, this is really very mystical and, if harnessed properly may even bespeak transcendence into the spiritual realm.

don't let it waste away...

February 4, 2009 - 22:49 — Jamesm (not verified)

Continued disuse of the human hand causes dystrophy (for children it may cause atrophy!), and since writing and thinking and learning are so positively correlated it may also cause atrophy/dystrophy of the mind! But since humanism requires sharing (what’s mind is yours and what’s yours is mind!) and that necessarily promotes synergy, allowing the deterioration of the mind will be considered a crime against humanity and a big fat lie: a mind is a terrible thing to waste! (And if one mind is a terrible thing to waste, what about the wasting away of entire generations?)

THE RIGHT to WRITE

February 5, 2009 - 05:34 — Jamesm (not verified)

Julia Cameron is the author of this book and is very passionate and can help us learn to more fully appreciate writers, and she actually goes on to propose that each one of us is not only capable of writing but that we all share a kind of duty to participate in the writing process! As a kind of encouragement, she suggests putting the pen to page whenever possible but especially first thing in the morning for 20 minutes or sow seeds of inspiration No keyboreds! (Or at least a marked reduction in usage of keyboards!)

anger management

February 5, 2009 - 05:46 — Jamesm (not verified)

Furthermore, evidence abounds that people get relief from tension by practicing cursive scripting! Also, we have determined that time spent writing now provides therapeutic value on an ongoing basis so if you get busy now, you might anger-proof your lessons!

A recent informal survey has been suggesting that if students exhibit anger, that may very well be linked to the fear of becoming poor or simply the fear of appearing to be poor, so true education with a massive dose of cursive scripting is sure to help in this regard also! By doing more writing, the students will be learning more and they will be reducing the probability that they become poor and they will be reducing their anger! (As usual, the media can be cited as a major source of confusion here as well: by portraying images of people who conspicuously consume (or those who appear to be doing it!) as the heroes of this generation, the media causes high levels of tension based on the segregation of the classes.)

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