Remember having to write in cursive for every class in middle school? I was never any good writing in cursive, but I adored my regular handwriting.
I can’t say I like my handwriting anymore, though. Its barely legible, my hands cramp up around my pen and even my signature has been reduced to a violent scribble.
Put me in front of a keyboard and I’ll look like I’m playing the piano, but in front of a pen and paper, I lose all my motivation to write.
Handwriting is no longer a part of my life and I miss it. It really is an art; so much so that people can analyze someone’s handwriting to determine personality traits. We’re losing this art to the keyboard and it’s sad.
My mothers’ handwriting is as beautiful as it’s always been, but by the same token, she’s spent more than half her life writing by hand. I wonder if my kids will even know what’s it’s like have to sharpen a pencil, they’ll probably laugh at the fact that if you didn’t sharpen it, you couldn’t write. They won’t know how pencil shavings smell, the pretty patterns and the mess those shavings made and how the lead would smear on your fingers.
I keep hearing about schools allowing students to bring their laptops to complete their school work and as much as I agree with the eco-friendliness of this new requirement, I still think it’s very important for kids to practice their handwriting.
What do you think? Have you seen a drastic change in your handwriting?
I too suffer from the same disease as you
I can only hand-write a couple of words at a time before my hands start to hurt and me complaining and asking if I can type it better.
I still think schools will have the kids use the Pen/pencil and paper, but as the kids get older, I do see them taking their laptops to school.
BTW… I don’t even remember how to write up a check… Now, that is sad!
I was just talking about this with a friend this past week. I wonder if the future holds any value for someone with good handwriting?
Too funny… I was at the Mont Blanc boutique in Boca a few weeks ago attending a champagne event (of course… you know me) celebrating World Literacy Day. Mont Blanc has a line of writing instruments with the UNICEF wreath and a sapphire on the crown (UNICEF’s color is blue) – 10% of the proceeds go to UNICEF to help a child to read.
Anyway, they had a handwriting analyst there – I don’t know if it was the 3 glasses of champagne I had, but I could barely write in cursive. I blamed my scientific background (a lot of block printing goes on in science and design laboratories), but I also told the analyst that handwriting is a dying art form. I’m probably one of the few people at my company who actually wrote letters to people in college – I’m talking about picking up stationery and WRITING letters, not typing them into an email.
Good to see your article Agustina – nice to see someone else is thinking along the same lines.
I totally agree with you, and it’s a dying art that I love. I’m very much like you in the sense that I prefer to write on a keyboard, where I can jot down my ideas quicker. (I won’t get into the shortening of our collective attention spans!) But I try to make it a point to keep my handwriting legible and nice by writing all my to-dos at work by hand. (And that list gets long!)
I would love to study calligraphy too. Is it time to start a calligraphy meet-up group?
I can’t believe you write your to-dos by hand!
When I’m in meetings, I take notes by hand. Partly because I categorize them by using different bullet shapes… an action that would take three times as long to do on the computer, but mainly because I find it rude to sit in front of someone, pay attention and have a mini wall up in between us – maybe I should get a Tablet in that case.
I wonder how many people would show up to a calligraphy tweetup. I say go for it! I’d go
I use different bullet points for main points, sub points, sub-sub points. But I like your idea of using the different shapes for different categories. It’s going on my to-do!
See? Handwriting is not a dying art! We’re keeping it alive!
Unless that fabled Tablet actually comes out. Then it’s toast