cursive – Ink, Yarn & Beer

National Handwriting Day 2023

Handwriting has gone the way of the dodo, and cursive even more so. When I was teaching, it really surprised me to find students who were barely able to hold a pen or pencil, much less form readable printing or cursive. Apparently kids are forbidden to use cursive in hand-written work these days because they just can’t do it neatly. And while I disliked practicing handwriting, today I will say that I am so appreciative of the fact that it was part of my public school curriculum on a daily basis for grades 1-8. Today? Well, keyboarding is taught, and learning to touch type in high school has really paid off, but I still turn to pen and ink and paper, and on a daily basis I prefer quills I have cut myself, and iron gall ink I make as well.

Here in the US, National Handwriting Day has apparently been a thing since 1977. Choosing January 23 is because the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence was John Hancock, whose signature is famous for its beauty. The expression of “put your John Hancock here” or anything similar is a way of saying “sign on the dotted line.”

Times change and we need to adapt, but there are times when I think modern technology and the wonders of the computer age mean we lose what we use to have. In a way, the book Fahrenheit 451 makes a point for preserving older technologies, and having people memorize whole novels is much like the oral traditions of countries where not everyone could write. Working together, old and new can preserve our history – and what we consider to be a daily thing (i.e. writing a letter on paper!) can vanish. Digital archives preserve such knowledge, but to acquire this knowledge again means actual, physical experience.

If you look at my little blurb in the photo, you can see my handwriting is okay, but I don’t always make my letters correctly and have to backtrack over them. When I was in school, if I had to turn in a handwritten essay, such mistakes would bring down my grade. And if I made them – well, I just started over.

So, cheers to National Handwriting Day. Reading cursive and handwriting is important and the best way to learn is to be taught at an early age. Apparently students not taught handwriting and cursive lose out on far more than just an ability to pick up a pen or pencil and communicate on paper.

Come to think of it, do kids even pass notes in class? Or do they text and hope they don’t get busted for using a phone in class?

The Power of the Pen

I love pens, particularly fountain pens, especially vintage ones. My collection is largish, but not like some people’s. Modern fountain pens seem just be made for making money, but every now and again a new pen hits the market that is worth considering. For me, I often turn to the Japanese companies of Namiki, Pilot, Sailor, and so on. I love the beauty of lacquer or abalone, the hand-ground gold nibs, but they cost so much! When the Vanishing Point came out, I liked it immediately, but it was too large to be comfortable. And then I came across the Decimo, a slimmer version of the VP, and bought one. In lavender or purple, whatever you want to call it, with a broad nib.

I’ve had the pen for one day. I’ve used it a lot! I have used it to copy quotes from my current read – Wuthering Heights – to doodle with, to practice cursive. My checkbook has new entries in it, with a fountain pen. Next week’s check-paid bills will be with a fountain pen. Click! Write. Click! Nib contained.

The physical act of writing is my form of meditation these days. I write on paper with a pen. I consider a word, then write. Yes, I do have Scrivener, I have a Chrome book, and I have scrumptious paper that lets a nib glide across its surface. I practice my roundhand, my Spencerian, my Palmer cursive. Ascenders and descenders are considered for slope, looping, length.

Ink is also important. I have bottles; some vintage, some just more than a few years old. Colors range from trusty black to iron gall for dip pens to ones with exotic names like Poussiere de Lune. New inks and extra converters are arriving on Monday. More paper, too. I can practice my penmanship and write a story or two. Maybe I’ll write a friend a letter and seal it with wax, or write secret love letters to my husband and hide them, so he can find them years hence to open when I am gone. Pen and ink dreams in a mechanized world.

Penstalgia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xUDehNvbrE

So many people these days cannot write cursive, much less read it, thanks to the insistence on “new technology” in classrooms. Keyboarding takes place of learning how to write using a pencil or pen. Printing seems to be the only thing taught, and mastering it is not even encouraged. It’s funny to think that the hours I spent in the classroom learning to print, to write cursive, and to touch type are now returning to being recognized as skills more valuable than just being able to communicate. Eye-hand coordination, fine motor control, neurological benefits. I probably could do some research and list a thousand things. All this automation and such makes life easier – no doubt! I love my dishwasher! – but the satisfaction of working with your hands is completely lacking.

Cursive has become a foreign language to students born in the last 30 years. They cannot read it. It’s not just U.S. students who should learn cursive, but students coming in from other countries could also benefit from it. Other languages have other alphabets, and their beauty is certainly something to be appreciated. Good handwriting is really an unfancy form of calligraphy. The practicality of good cursive is just as it was advertised years ago – it is clear and readable.

I’m revisiting what I learned ages ago, and it is a lot of fun. I’m using a fountain pen, and I am using a dip pen. A dip pen is not so hard to master, once you learn how to hold it and adapt to holding it at the right angle and tilt. Once there, it is smooth sailing. Repeating letters and practicing strokes, curves, and circles is very soothing. Like coloring, there is something that simply refreshes, like a deep meditation.

Anyway, because I was blundering around on YouTube, I came upon the above video, which I totally enjoyed. It’s informative, classic, and if you like fountain pens, wait until the end – you will learn a few things you may not have known!