The lost art of handwriting
It's hard not to notice how slowly we have transformed from writing using pen to typing using our keyboards and touchscreens. More and more texts are electronically typed. Rarely do we leave handwritten notes. The other day when i was jotting down quickly on a sticky note did i notice my handwriting in a long time. As a child, having a neat cursive handwriting used to be a norm. We tried hard and took days to perfect cursive writing. I remember when my grandmother used to take out old letters written to her by my grandfather in perfect cursive writing. The writing which i must say, perfectly legible handwriting, which i don't know if the millennials could ever write it. It looked like an art in itself. I was awed. I never mastered cursive writing, but i did write in a clean legible way.
On my last trip to India, I found a Cursive writing practice book for kids. I was at once taken back to my memories of tying to learn it and thought it will be wonderful for my child to get an idea that a thing like cursive writing did exist. I am not sure if schools in India still insist children to master cursive writing but i am pretty sure its virtually non-existent in the present day schools of United States. I have seen some of the worst handwriting's over the years. Doctors have been notorious of having completely illegible handwriting's. Those prescriptions scribbled by my family physician could only be decoded by my pharmacist. At times it was so worst that i had mark some hints to follow the dosage instructions. I remember a preschool teacher having a really difficult handwriting to understand. Once when visiting the bank, the teller's way of holding the pencil was weirdly different, but not uncommon, i have seen more and more people it hold it that way. I thought for a minute about all my preschool teachers, my parents, who have guided me countless times to hold the pencil in a proper manner. Also very common those days in India, was to purposefully trying to make a left-handed person write using the right hand, saying being left-handed will cause problems and inconvenience throughout your life. I myself used to write left handed only to be frowned upon and made to write in right hand. I don't know if i was a leftie, but being rightie was the best thing to do.
Unlike me, my daughter had a prominent hand very early on, she was rightie and there was no doubt. Her handwriting legible from the early years on. But wait will she ever get a chance to learn the art of handwriting? Will she ever learn to write cursive? Its difficult to say, but nevertheless as a mother i must try. Now i cannot expect cursive handwriting classes at the corner of every street like in India, but i thought to give a try using that practice book that i brought.
Children give you the most honest opinions ever. Their thinking unpolluted and straight on point rather amuses me. She was surprised, that English alphabets she has learned till now looked so different in cursive writing, at times she needed me to tell her which alphabet it was. Soon she was interested in practice it, because she felt it was more like drawing than writing. I doubt if her teacher can decode if she ever wrote cursive. It may have no academic importance, but cursive was a way of life then. A time when handwritten notes and letters meant so much personal connection, than the countless texts, facebook and whatsapp messages we get these days. We are slowly forgetting an art taken over by an unavoidable interference of technology. Handwriting meant individuality, no one other than you can have the same type of handwriting. Though writing will stick around for the years to come but in limited amounts. Cursive writing is almost extinct, other than the memories of people who belonged to a different generation....Am i sounding too old here??
Unlike me, my daughter had a prominent hand very early on, she was rightie and there was no doubt. Her handwriting legible from the early years on. But wait will she ever get a chance to learn the art of handwriting? Will she ever learn to write cursive? Its difficult to say, but nevertheless as a mother i must try. Now i cannot expect cursive handwriting classes at the corner of every street like in India, but i thought to give a try using that practice book that i brought.
Children give you the most honest opinions ever. Their thinking unpolluted and straight on point rather amuses me. She was surprised, that English alphabets she has learned till now looked so different in cursive writing, at times she needed me to tell her which alphabet it was. Soon she was interested in practice it, because she felt it was more like drawing than writing. I doubt if her teacher can decode if she ever wrote cursive. It may have no academic importance, but cursive was a way of life then. A time when handwritten notes and letters meant so much personal connection, than the countless texts, facebook and whatsapp messages we get these days. We are slowly forgetting an art taken over by an unavoidable interference of technology. Handwriting meant individuality, no one other than you can have the same type of handwriting. Though writing will stick around for the years to come but in limited amounts. Cursive writing is almost extinct, other than the memories of people who belonged to a different generation....Am i sounding too old here??
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