Post a day, Jan 23 (Yeah, I know)

[lunadelcorvo]

Handwriting Day: Do you still write by hand? Can you write (and read) cursive? Do you think cursive should be taught in schools?

Yes, Yes, and OMG, Yes!!!!

It infuriates me that the defense of cursive has become an 'ok, boomer' topic, when there is solid science indicating considerable benefits to learning cursive. I'm also a huge calligraphy geek, AND a fountain pen nerd (I need to get some pen porn up in here....), so handwriting and cursive are incredibly important to me. As a historian, it's so blindingly obvious how important it is to be able to read cursive - there are already tons of forms of script that we must employ experts to read—one word: Sütterlin.

If you're not familiar with it (or if you didn't have half a dozen generations' worth of German ancestors and their ephemera milling about), Sütterlin was the last iteration of a class of scripts known collectively as Kurrent, which evolved alongside German blackletter in about the 16th C. Sütterlin was developed as a 'modern' form of Kurrent around 1911, and used widely in Germany, or then, Prussia. Up into the 1940s, it was taught as the sole form of written script in German schools. It was briefly banned by the Nazis, and while enjoyed a brief resurgence after the war, it never came back into prominence. Now very few people are left who can read it without special training. All the letters, postcards, diaries, and journals written in that period by an entire nation, including those that lived through and documented both World Wars - unreadable to most.

Already, people interested in things like history or genealogy struggle to read census records and other documents written in cursive. The current political climate already threatens to destroy any meaningful past. Much of that past is recorded in cursive. To me, it almost seems like knowing cursive is, if you will pardon the unintended and klunky rhyme, almost subversive...

Comments

[jehanne1431]

I agree with you 10000%.

The past will be shut to those who cannot read it.

[rogueslayer452]

One of my preferred ways of writing is with a pen and a notebook.

Cursive no longer being taught in schools is devastating for many reasons. Obviously being able to write and read cursive is amazing, as you stated for historical reasons, but it also poses an issue when it comes to giving your own signature. I still constantly practice my own signature, sometimes just because.

I'll admit that cursive isn't something I kept up with beyond having been taught in elementary school, it just wasn't much of a requirement after that, and while I can write in cursive it's not a skill I feel most confident and comfortable in. Reading cursive is both a hit or miss. I think I need to reteach myself at least that part, if anything. Regardless, I admire anyone who is able to write and read cursive effortlessly and study in fields where they are deciphering cursive letters and documents. It's an exciting part of history, and I think losing the ability to understand cursive writing by withholding teaching is a mistake.

[lunadelcorvo]

100% agree. It's funny, I hated having to do 'penmanship' when I was in school, but I've been sort of intentional with writing ever since, and my time studying calligraphy and then, of course, using fountain pens, has made it both something both deeply instinctive, but also something I enjoy paying attention to, if that makes any sense at all.

[cmcmck]

I still keep a longhand diary as I have done since I was 15. Well, you know what happened when I hit 15! :o)

I was taught Marion Richardson at school but as a leftie I'll never be one of the word's great penwomen!

My maternal grandfather Snape wrote the most beautiful copperplate hand.

Having had to do a lot of archive research over the years, you come across both wonderful and dreadful hands in every historical period!

[lunadelcorvo]

That is very true! And trust me, as a fellow southpaw, I feel that - I struggled a lot with 'penmanship' in school (I love that term; it makes me think of operating a pen as if it were riding a horse or sailing a ship...), but I love writing now. I don't have time to do much of it lately, though. Maybe that will be the upside of living in the apocalypse - more time to write?

[thelittleone]

I was just talking with my team about how we're alarmed that most kids don't get penmanship classes anymore. And how some of them are making it a point to introduce it either directly to neices and nephews or in local journaling workshops because that's on the rise over here of late.

I love writing in cursive as it's my default when I journal. I think getting gifted my first fountain pen helped get me back into writing because the ink was lovely and there's something so soothing about writing with pen and paper.

[lunadelcorvo]

There really is! And I am always surprised by how many kids want to learn cursive! I have to think there is a relationship between our strange disconnect with language and meaning and the lack of (any) handwriting, cursive or otherwise...

[thelittleone]

There probably is. I know that I process and retain information better when I write by hand -- even just doodling. So I'm making it an intentional practice to do it more and more, even to the point where, sure I'll take notes on my laptop or phone cos it's fast, but I'll set aside time to transcribe things onto my physical planner.

I think honestly, that if the younger folks want to romanticize journaling and associate cursive with vintage -- I'm okay with that. If it gets them interested to look up ways to learn it for themselves from calligraphy content creators out there? Good.

[liriaen]

I love Sütterlin. My dad taught it to me, but since it’s no longer written my Sütterlin looks like that of a 1st-grader - not fluid, not individual.

The practiced individuality is what makes it hard for me to read Sütterlin in letters or documents, too, since everybody’s hand differs quite a bit. I manage, but only with a print out of the alphabet next to me, and some guess work.

[lunadelcorvo]

I wish I'd learned. I have so many old letters from family that I wish I could read... Maybe something to learn someday.

[silviarambles]

This is fascinating. I'm not familiar with different types of cursive script, but looking at Sütterlin it doesn't look massively different from how my grandfparents used to write (born 1920s), or how my mum and dad write (born in the 1950s). We were taught cursive at school and I'm fairly sure it's still the standard handwriting that is taught in schools, though my handwriting adapted over the years (not least because my semi-cursive handwriting is illegible to British people).

EDIT: Oh wait, I just found out they made cursive compulsory in primary school in Italy! I thought it was already.

[lunadelcorvo]

I'm certain there was a lot of influence there. Sütterlin was designed to reflect the aesthetic of that era. As to handwriting taught in schools, nope, at least not in public schools in the US. In fact, very little handwriting is taught past the very early grades, as kids are moved onto tablets of laptops as soon and as often as possible. While I certainly think using an electronic device for writing is also a life skill. I think handwriting has SO much to do with how we process thoughts, words, spelling, all of it, that deemphasizing it has really had an impact, and not for the good.

[glowingfish]

I don't write in cursive, but I do write with pencil and pen! I have a journal (of many volumes, probably almost 30 by now?) going back to 1993, that I keep every day, more or less. All in pen and pencil, depending on what is closest! :) And I feel I can express myself better with handwriting than I could writing things online.

[lunadelcorvo]

How wonderful to have that record - I have tried (I own more blank books than should be allowed), but I have never stuck with it. The closest I have was my LJ back in the day, and now maybe this new iteration? But I agree, it's a lot different expressing oneself by hand vs. typing. For me, because I have done a crap-ton of writing academically, all digitally, it's almost like I have two very different voices, if that makes sense...

[glowingfish]

This is actually part of the handwriting thing---because writing in a paper journal is just a natural physical action, it becomes easy to do it, it is almost a type of "muscle memory".

I also don't write very long entries---often they are just three sentences. Often, looking back, though, just a little description of a daily activity will bring memories flooding back. Sometimes even the type of pen or pencil I use, or a doodle in the margin, will bring back memories. Which is another thing I can't do on a computer journal.

[randomdrops]

Omg the teaching of cursive and writing by hand in schools is such a hot button issue for me. It is so important! I work with young kids and there are so many beneficial things to writing by hand. It drives me bonkers when I see kindergarteners mostly using touchpads in schools (which is totally dependent on the school, not saying they all do this).

I went on vacation with some friends once and the younger (born in the 90s) ones had to ask for help when reading a menu because it was all in cursive. They said it was the same as trying to read in a foreign language to them. I was shocked.

My current handwriting is a weird mix of print and cursive. It makes me laugh to think about generations not being able to read and it looking like some sort of half foreign language. Laugh and despair.

[lunadelcorvo]

Totally agree! There is a huge relationship between fluent composition (to say nothing of spelling) and handwriting, and cursive has been shown to help spelling and a general understanding of how words are 'put together.' I am by no means anti-tech, but I look at things like texting and TikTok and wonder if these don't reflect a severe (and dangerous) shift in how we think...

[green_knight]

I feel slightly embarassed that after the first line, I could no longer read this. (I had older relatives writing in Sütterlin, so I've seen it before.)

I recommend calligraphy to any historian, because often i can't read a text, but I can replicate the lines and go 'oh, that's an (f, d, whatever) where looking does not help me at all.

My handwriting borrows heavily from a printed style. I was taught cursive in school, first with a pencil, then age 9 or so with a fountain pen, and mine was always scrawly and difficult to read, so I changed it in order to have half a fighting chance.

My mum's cursive tended towards a flat line, and eventually, I found pieces of my own handwriting that I *know* I have written from context that were indistinguishable from hers, just a single flowing line with a few bumps.

I mostly write on computer/phone these days. My wrists hurt far less, and I can actually read what I wrote.

[timeofgrey]

For the past six years and change I was using Notability as my digital journal. I loved the search and organization functions, plus it was another awesome use for my iPad. However, when YOU KNOW WHO was announced, I opted to return to analog journaling. Partly for privacy, but I also missed the visceral feeling of pen to paper. I write as fast as a type, so that wasn't an issue -- come to think of it, I cannot remember exactly why I stopped altogether.

My lack of writing by hand has shown. Letters are not as crisp as they used to be and my handwriting is a cursive/print hybrid. But I'm improving. This has also reignited my passion for affordable fountain pens: Three Lamy Safari, two Kaweco Sports, and two Pilot Preras. I prefer cartridges over an ink well.

It's been fun getting back into it.

[avalonautumn]

*nodding*

Indeed!