I also find this very sad Seeler. Handwriting is important, not just practically, but as a skill, and a personal expression. That's why I started my handwritten thread a few months back. Not many of us took the plunge to post our script, but it was sure fun to see the person through their handwritting, those who did. It tells a lot about a person.

I can't read my father's script very well, as he was taught in Germany in the 40's and they had a different writting then. He has to write in block capitals for me. That makes me sad. And yes, I do think we are loosing our skill to read handwritting. It requires familiarity with many differnet quirks. I am still embarrassed I couldn't quite identify one of Qwerty's words.

ANd writing changes over time too, as well as with personal age. I value reading handwriting and writing it very much. It is a right, and an art that we should all possess.

Yes I think there will one day be cources on interpreting handwriting. I don't think it will dissapear entirely though. But I also hope my diaries will be readable in a hundred years time.

Just for fun, here's one of my favourite scripts: Thomas Edison's:

My son can write but is neither particularly good at it nor particularly comfortable with doing it. I'd love to attribute it to/blame it on growing up with computers but I didn't have a computer until I was 17 (I'm in the generation that was already in school when the microcomputer first appeared in the mid-late seventies) and I'm the same. IOW, I'm not sure I can fairly say whether using the computer caused his attitude to handwriting or if his discomfort with handwriting leads him to use computers. For myself, I hand write short notes, meeting minutes, that sort of thing, but for any substantive writing out comes some kind of keyboard, even if it's just the thumb board on my BB. I just find it easier and more comfortable.

Mendalla

Hmm, I've never used a blackberry, and it looks like a pain to write on to me, just using two fingers on those tiny buttons. I still write lengthy stuff by hand. I write faster when it's just for me though, as I can interpret what others can't in my own writing.

I taught my son to read and write at age 3 & 4, and he has nice handwriting, but he does write badly if he's bored. He takes pride in his writing when it matters, and invents personal quirks he thinks are cool about his writing. The teachers recognize his penmanship as amongst the best in the class, and I stressed to them how important it is in my mind.

I didn't get into computer use much til the age of 26. That's when I "learned" to type (as she looks at her fingers...)

I remember people in my high school having bad writing, boys actually. Can't remember any girls with bad handwriting... I have my old yearbooks still with the handwritten messages from friends in it. Everyone has their own personal script, the bubbly girls write bubbly, the artistic people write fancy.... I admired guys who could write nice. It always impressed me. I remember one of my guy friend's in particular, it was really interesting.

I learned to handwrite in school, and wrote out notes in jr. high and probably part of high school because I was told it was faster.  I found it wasn't true for me, and my printing was also easier to read, so I went back to printing almost anything if done by hand.

Classmates used to tell me that my printing looked like a boy's.  I think they were surprised because I got good grades so they expected my work to be really neat.  If I have to print neatly I can, but it takes a lot longer and usually isn't worth it.

Not to brag but my four year old niece can read hand writing!

She doesn't even know how to write cursively but yet can read it.

Neat eh???

When I was in school, teachers had to "print" on the board because several in my class were unable to read cursive as they had trouble learning it and had trouble reading printing to begin with.

So I didn't see it too often (as books and computer screens just had printing) so I only use it today to sign my name.

My printing and cursive melded together a long time ago. I can still do both, but it's like remembering what I was taught in elementary school to do it. My blended script is most practical for me.

Me too Elanor. I can both print and hand-write neatly, but my blended script is more efficient (but also harder to read - especially if I wrote it quickly).

Has anyone else noticed that their handwriting looks similar to one or both of their parents' handwriting? Mine is like a blend of both.

I have noticed that about handwriting somegal.  Mine is very much like my mother's and my sister's. 

I regret the low quality of handwriting in general and presumably it will get worse if schoolkids aren't even taught about it.  A friend said recently that she was appalled to see that her teenage grandchildren couldn't read writing - only printing.

The best handwriting I've seen tends to come from those who were merely helped to see the logic of joining letters together so they would flow off the pen.  My sister's kids were shown a variety of ways to join various letters and given one period to practise (talking, sharing and comparing allowed),  It was very successful.

I remember enjoying mastering each new cursive letter. It was artistic to me. The Q was so cool, it looked like a 2. ANd K's were neet with the loop on them. I remember though, being surprised at first that "we have to learn 26 letters!" Mom laughed at that.

Mine doesn't really look like my parents', but my mom's looks like both my aunts'.

I just found out yesterday Vincent VanGogh had nice writing.

I recon there already are classes on interpreting handwriting of the past, such as tudor and earlier.

Oh, and I didn't mean to boast upthread, just stating facts of possible interest.

This thread reminds me of learning to write in school.  And it reminds me of cartridge pens - as that was the required type of pen we had to use.  I remember the blue stain on the knuckle of the finger, the dark blue and peacock blue cartridge refills, the various colours available of the part of the pen that held the cartridges, and the nibs that would sometimes plug.

If I take my time my penmanship can be neat, but generally when I write a note or something on a paper I hurry and it is more scrawly than neat.

It's hard to imagine children not learning penmanship, at least at this time.  But my guess is that that the handwritten word will eventually become obsolete.

One of my first jobs as a 17 year old clerk typist was at the head office of a bank.  Sometimes files would come in from branches in small cities, and sometimes their clients corresponded by handwritten letters.  I remember one aspect of my job was to provide a typed copy of these letters.  One particularly stuck in my mind - beautiful penmanship but weak on grammar and punctuation, indicating to me perhaps a grade 3 or 4 education.  The writer was explaining why she couldn't keep up payments on the loan she had received a few years previous for house repairs.  Her husband had hurt his back and couldn't work. The kids had a hard time in school.  All they had to eat was moose meat and she didn't know what they would do when it ran out.   And she didn't have any money.   A covering letter from the branch manager advised head office that it wouldn't be worthwhile foreclosing on the house that had been used as collateral as it was 'little more than a shack; falling apart; and it was difficult to see where the repairs had been done'.      I remember feeling sorry for that poor woman.  I think the branch manager did too, and I'm glad the head office agreed to write off the loan as a bad debt.

Another time I was called upon to read a handwritten report was at a church board meeting.  I spent a few hours each week as church secretary.  The new young minister had terrible handwriting, but gradually I'd learned to work my way through it and only have to guess occasionally.   But this letter was addressed to the Chair of the Board and he was attempting to read it to the group.  After he stumbled through the first sentence, puzzling over every second word, I volunteered:  "Would you like me to read it for you?"  and he looked at me in amazement as I read it smoothly through.  "Practice," I explained.  "And I make up the parts I can't make out."

I still think handwriting is important - Keyboards might not be around forever.

True - and we don't always have one handy!  I can recall lots of times when I've been driving and asked a child to add something to the shopping list.

I'd like to point out that what is being lost is cursive writing, not being able to put a pencil on paper and write words.  Printing is still a huge part of the learning in the primary grades.  People can still jot down notes in printing.

Yes, I'd like it if my students learned cursive writing, but compared to the other things they don't know how to do, this is way down at the bottom of my list.  I teach grade 4 this year and many of my kids can't add single digit numbers without counting on their fingers or drawing tick marks on a paper.  Subtraction is even worse, and don't get me started on multiplication or division.  Their spelling is atrocious and several of them are reading way below grade level.  Important to note: this is NOT a special education class.  Nearly everything I try to do is too hard for some of the kids, so I keep adapting things down lower and lower so they can learn.  I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because I'm supposed to be teaching grade 4 curriculum, but if I do stick to grade 4, not only will the kids fail at it, but they won't learn much of anything because they won't be challenged at an appropriate level.  So...I have handwriting worksheets available for kids who want them, but I'm not pushing it. 

Wow, this is distressing. Really makes me wish I could use a private or gifted school. How can my kid possibly progress at his own level and meet his potential, if the other kids have such difficulties. Sounds like a difficult job MoS.

It is too bad that education is underfunded and understaffed.  It is so unfair to have one teacher, however many kids, IQ's and general knowledge ranging from way up to way below average, and then expect the teacher to challenge each child appropriately.

The schools in my area do have some special staff who work with the students who aren't achieving at the required level.  This is good.  In the classrooms teachers seem to teach to the lowest level.  Bright, curious, questioning kids are bored and get into mischief - then trouble.

One teacher told me that she had in her HS science classes students who couldn't read or do basic math and students who, purely for fun, were working on projects at home that were at the university level.  She also had students with diagnosed learning disabilities, students who needed a one on one assistant, students who were non verbal and students who were suffering from various illnesses and emotional disorders. 

Yeah, holy! eh.