Musings: Writing By Hand

Image: Killingly Public Library

Ok, I realize that there’s some irony inherent in typing a post on writing by hand. But, after many years of neglecting (and underappreciating) the ability to handwrite, I’m revisiting it…and striving to improve mine. But is it important in today’s tech-driven society? Regardless of how reliant on technology we’ve become, I do think that preserving the art and skill of handwriting is a worthy endeavor.

Do you remember seeing (or maybe even reading) letters from grandparents or other folks of earlier generations? They were full of the swooping, elegant letters of cursive writing – lovely to behold. Great care was taken in composing these.

These weren’t hastily dashed-off notes, full of crooked and crammed-together letters and undecipherable abbreviations. I take copious notes during meetings, but sometimes found that I had trouble reading my own notes afterward. Sad, but true. And I had apparently developed some kind of “shorthand”, dropping letters here and there. Egads – what’s next? Disemvowelling words?

Whether you believe the arguments that cursive writing skills are important for information retention, brain development, cultural preservation, or other reasons, it seems a shame to let this form of writing fade into obscurity. Handwriting, in general, is personal; losing cursive skills means losing a form of personal expression.

This TEACH Magazine article illustrates the (many) reasons why cursive writing skills still have value. Near the end of the piece, the author, Meagan Gillmore, writes “handwriting creates room for peace.” In this hyperspeed hamster-wheel world, who couldn’t use some peace? So…go practice your cursive and mellow out. ☮️

Where do you land in the debate on the value of cursive writing? Tell us about it in the comments!

 

3 thoughts on “Musings: Writing By Hand

  1. i think learning cursive to still important…………but teaching kids who feel they will never need it, that is another story! 🙂

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