Litwit Lounge discussion

Fewer schools emphasize ‘penmanship’ as computer use increases

Any opinions on this? Do you think cursive writing should be taught beyond third grade? at all? Do you still write in cursive? how often?

Anytime that I write anything that isn't typed --a note, a short letter, a shopping list, working notes on any kind of project, addresses in my address book, etc.-- or any time I address an envelope, I use cursive. It's a much easier and faster way of writing than block printing. And yes, I think cursive writing should be taught in school, for as long as it takes the students to master it. Just because people can use computer technology as a crutch (which may not always and forever be there) doesn't mean we should abandon the attempt to educate the next generations, IMO. I'm not comfortable with the idea of living in a world where the adult population is incapable of performing normal functions without a computer, even if the computers do continue to be readily available.

I do miss the excitement of a penned letter from someone and, indeed, snail mail of that import has become a lost art. One might say that the use of cell phones and computers has diminished the art of communication. There was nothing more wonderful than the anticipation of opening a letter to reveal the great character of a person, not in just what he or she said, but in the respect that he or she had taken the time to write so beautifully and formally of the things which had occurred.
I miss the times when the art of communication was in the medium rather than in the message. I never much cared for, say, my aunt's rambling about a new garden or the leaves turning, but I always delighted in receiving something from her. Perhaps, still, it is inevitable and who is to say how such modern marvels or curses as we have may have influenced the personalities of those I remember writing in cursive? Still I am glad that it did not and the memories are vivid.
Writing on a word processor lacks substance, it seems to me, and regardless of the message, I would always associate books of 50 years ago being written out in long hand. I remember Hemingway being an exception but perhaps there were many more. I remember a story of Thomas Wolfe in a Brooklyn apartment feverishly writing things and a typist just as feverishly making it all neat. I want to feel the substance of his hand when I read and in books now all I do is interpolate. For modern books, of course, they already came typed... so where is the soul of the book now? Maybe we have lost more than we know.

Charly's point about the value of the friendships and mutual sharing of ideas and information that we're able to do through sites like Goodreads is a very good one. I'm really thankful for the opportunity to enjoy it! It doesn't necessarily have to be an either/or thing, though; I think cyber-culture and written letters can coexist in the same world --though maybe we'll tend to write letters to different people than the ones we message and e-mail. :-)

Werner wrote: "Anytime that I write anything that isn't typed --a note, a short letter, a shopping list, working notes on any kind of project, addresses in my address book, etc.-- or any time I address an envelop..."

I once took a calligraphy class which I enjoyed very much and love cursive.

I love the physical act of writing with a pen and, yes, I write in my own unique version of "cursive". Unfortunately the hospital where I work is moving towards "paperless" so we no longer qrite out notes in longhand in patients' charts, we do it all on the computer. I have played around with different fonts but it's just not the same.

I am not sure my stepsons (teenagers) even know how to write, lol. One of them will occassionally add something to the grocery list but his chicken-scratching is atrocious. That may be a boy thing. My husband tends to write in a mixture of caps and smalls, print and cursive.

I never achieved a pretty form of pure cursive when I was younger, but I came up with a cross between cursive and italic when I was in my teens that I still use. I do think people ought to have some form of legible writing, whether it be cursive, printing, or something else. It seems absurd to me when someone informs me that he "can't" jot something down because he's not near his computer, doesn't have his Blackberry, etc. "?!" If the computers go down, people are going to be in a world of trouble.

My sister actually prints everything she writes!! And boy is she fast. I like pen and paper but finding it harder to do.