Handwriting - Is On the Wall

9/20/2014

Back in the day, which may or not apply to you depending on how old you are, children were taught to print neatly on blue lines. The emphasis was on capital letters stretching to the top of the row and lower case letters staying in the middle.  This practice was unchanged for years.  At a certain point, children were taught cursive and I remember having penmanship classes!  I can assure you that they don't do that any longer.

I recently did some data entry work, typing in people's names, addresses, etc. for use on mailing labels.  Time after time I might as well been trying to read Greek, that's how bad the writing was. More time was lost on my part while I tried to decide if the letter was a "v" or a "w" for example.

It appears now that children are taught printing in kindergarten and first grade.  After that, the focus is on typing. Studies show that children, writing by hand, helps them improve letter recognition, which is really important when it comes to learning to read.

It has also been found that adults write better and longer, when they are faster at writing by hand, because we may process what we write by hand more deeply. 

I don't know anything intellectually about the pros and cons of handwriting versus using a keyboard; but, here's what I do know - there is nothing, and I do mean nothing, that means more to someone who receives a signed card or handwritten letter in the mail.

I don't know about you but for years I have never even felt a remote possibility that I would receive "real" mail.  It's a shame that such a simple thing like putting pen to paper, is almost becoming a lost art.

Some of you will remember writing on paper that looked like this: