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[The Happy Islander]

I had some funny memories come back that I was thinking over this morning. (Well, funny to me, anyway.)

I learned print and cursive in school (went to public school). Don't remember which grade I learned cursive, just that it was exciting yet intimidating. I do remember that after I learned it, I think we used both print and cursive in school, but I rather think we used print more. I also remember a teacher or two despairing over my handwriting. My fifth and sixth grade teacher (had the same teacher both years) was the teacher who actually got me to talk now and then, and I remember her scolding me at one point about my handwriting. It might have been the sort of conversation where the teacher asks, Don't you want your handwriting to be pretty and legible? and I think to myself, No, not particularly, but nod and try to write a bit neater just for her anyway. I think I was using mostly print at that point, but I can't remember for sure. (I don't remember what sorts of things we did in school to practice our handwriting. I'm sure we did--but I was stubborn, and plenty miserable enough that worrying about penmanship along with everything else was simply too much, so it may not have been particularly effective with me.)

After elementary school, I know that I used mostly print in school (I guess I never got very comfortable writing in cursive before, we probably hadn't used it enough). Until I started learning Spanish in 8th grade. My first two Spanish teachers required us to write everything in cursive. And--I was surprised to discover that my cursive (once I got comfortable using it) looked nice (pretty nice, anyway) and was much more legible than my print! Not to mention it was much faster for me and much more comfortable. So I eventually ended up switching to writing in mostly-cursive (which is how I generally write even now).

Nowadays, when I /do/ write in print, I can write neatly if I don't write very much, but if I'm writing much, either my handwriting gets gradually worse and worse or I eventually end up switching to mostly-cursive without realizing it. So cursive is good. It makes my writing legible. Although I do worry sometimes if I should use it, I'm never sure who can read cursive nowadays. I know my older brother forgot how to read cursive.

[miniver]

Thanks, everyone! It's really interesting to hear how many different experiences there are out there. Ajjie, I'd never heard of that hybrid writing style. Fascinating. ( I chuckled over the thought of your being able to read Greek but not cursive at one time.)

I remember all the penmanship exercises with the directional arrows and dotted lines, and indeed I have actually created a few dotted-line models (but just for print letters) in some of the books we've done. Islie, I'm not surprised to hear that you only started enjoying script writing much later. A lot of script writing depends on fine motor skills, and those develop over time, at different rates depending on the kid and what the kid spends time doing. Ironically, writing in script actually improves fine motor skills, so that kids who just press keys on a keyboard to write are missing out on that development. This is one reason that dinosaurs such as me would like to retain cursive writing instruction for everyone.

In fact, Tooky, something you said connects with a clever idea I just read this week, You said that you use cursive writing for artistic stuff. Some teachers, because they have no time allotted in the day to teach penmanship, teach cursive in art class. It can be a work of art, after all.

NG11, your friend who lived in France reminds me of a pen pal I had years ago. He was much older--he was a sort of family pen pal that MiniMom and I met on a trip once, and I was in charge of writing to him because I knew French. His handwriting was gorgeous, very old-fashioned because he was so much older, and I often couldn't read it. I would get a French-speaking friend to read it aloud to me in French, so I still had the fun of translating it to myself. Another friend whose mother was Swedish also has a beautiful script writing; she must have learned it at her mother's knee, because no school here ever taught that style of script.

If nobody learns cursive anymore, I'd like to know how people will create a signature. Will people sign legal documents in block printing? Will rock singers and movie stars autograph their pictures in lettering they learned in the first grade? The mind reels!

[Ajnos]

The answer: With great difficulty. For ages I struggled to get a decent signature that didn't look simply like my normal handwriting. I guess the fact I wrote in Nelson script and not print helped; I'd developed a kind of flowing way of joining up letters with tails a very little like cursive by about grade 4/5, so that helped somewhat. Eventually, I came up with something by overlapping my initials slightly.

On this topic, I thought I'd ask a related one. Do you guys start writing in pen from First Grade, or do you start out in pencil? In my primary school we were only allowed to write in pencil in Grades 1, 2 and 3. At some point during Grade 4, if our handwriting was considered neat enough, we could switch to pen (it was a privilege, though I guess by the end of the year everyone had been allowed to switch). The most annoying bit about the system though was that when you switched to pen, you were only allowed to use "rollerball" pens until the end of the year. From Grade 5 you could use ball point. Rollerball pens have wet ink which is a nightmare for left-handers like myself, since your hand smudges what you've written as you go along. Thankfully my mum found a pen that was labelled as "rollerball" but had fast-drying ink. I'm not sure where she found it (it wasn't more expensive or anything, I think she just stumbled on it), and it was such a good pen it lasted a really long time. I was allowed to use it because it said "rollerball" on it

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

The only time my school required us to use pen was in setting our goals for the next day (the way the system works is that students tell themselves how much progress they're going to make in each of their subjects; rules to this applied, but that was the concept). Everything else was done in pencil since we would correct our work (the system had us score our own work against answer keys).

[miniver]

We had to wait until I think third grade before we could write in pen. It was a milestone of which we were very proud. I don't know how things have changed today. LIke you, Ajjie, I am a lefty and had terrible smudge trouble if the pen was the wrong kind. MiniMom actually had a fountain pen that she let me use once or twice, and that was even worse, which is too bad because ink can make for a lovely handwriting. In middle school we got to do lettering, with a special broad-nibbed pen, and again I had difficulty. Finally I solved that problem by learning how to letter righty (since it's slower than regular writing, I was able to control my movements enough. I haven't lettered in awhile. I should give it another try!

[Lucy Took]

IT'S SNOWING!

And I'm freezing. Snow is great and all. Not being prepared for it AT ALL is not so great.

[Tenethia]

WAAAH, I WANT SNOW.

I haven't seen snow in years

Edit: I take that back -- I saw snow this May when we were traveling through Oregon/Washington. That was really fun. It was only a little teeny bit though, barely enough to cover the ground.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

*burrows gleefully into snow and disappears!* I love snow.

[narniagirl11]

It snowed here today too! It didn't stick around though, but it lasted long enough for our outdoor dog class to be cancelled.

[elanorelle]

I haven't seen snow for the longest time. because we have to travel to see it. The last time it snowed here was when I was quite young, so I can't remember it very clearly.