Penmanship

Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis

My mother’s handwriting was beautiful.  Even in her 90's, it was perfect.  Every time I see something that she penned (like a recipe), I feel like she’s in the room.  Recently, I was with a new resident filling in paperwork.  As I reviewed the documents, it was like looking at Mom’s handwriting.  I smiled!  It wasn’t just my mom; it was generations of well-trained students.  I was trained too.  Wasn’t it the Palmer Method?  Hours of school time practicing strokes.  I can still do a row of capital S’s with my eyes closed.  My grandchildren are not trained in cursive.  But I will say the 5-year-old is very adept at the computer!  Did you ever have to write, “I will not chew gum in class,” one hundred times on the blackboard in cursive? Maybe that’s why my penmanship is pretty good — practice, practice, practice.

Is it more important for kids to learn cursive or to type?  We don’t have time or space to debate that.  There is no doubt we are losing our grip on penmanship.  As I sit at my computer now, I can’t imagine writing these articles by hand, mailing them to the Capital-Journal to be typeset by hand.  Information and speed are operative words today.  Because of that very fact, the one thing that is increasing in value is a handwritten note. The worst handwriting, the most unadorned paper, the most generic stamp, makes no difference. It is still way ahead of the trickiest, cutest little e-mail.  For communications between you and someone you value, a handwritten note is just awesome. One of the pleasures of working with the Senior population is all the handwritten notes I receive.  Sometimes a little arthritis gets in the way, but that makes the notes even more precious.

“I saw that bad handwriting should be regarded as a sign of imperfect education.” Mahatma Gandhi