Thursday, March 6, 2008

A Dying Art

It makes me a little sad that the written word has such a different meaning than it did before computers and email etc etc. Generally, no one writes letters anymore, and there's no need for any person other than yourself to view your handwriting. As such, there is NO emphasis on penmanship. Of course, this is a talent that has been diminishing for quite awhile, but even looking back to my grandparents old lettes, there was certainly more attention paid to writing beautifully. I have never been able to write beautifully, but today I decided to start writing my class notes in cursive. It's pretty ugly and takes a long time, because I had trouble remembering how to make certain letters. But I think with practice it might look nice.

When I was a kid my sister got a calligraphy set for her birthday pretty much every year. I don't know why she always got them, but I liked to play with them. Unfortunately, I'd get so frustrated with my ugly Fs and Is and Ts (they were hard for some reason) that I would give up. I think that I probably have a better handle on my fine motor skills now, and I want to give the calligraphy set another try. Ebay, here I come!

4 comments:

Andrew C Berner said...

I KNow! Grandparent handwriting is always so beautiful! that must have been all they taught in elementary school back then

MOLLY said...

i agree that handwriting has had a sad decline however i take it quite seriously. i believe handwriting can make or break a first impression.

i'm kidding i don't think that at all, but i do take pride in neat handwriting (does handwriting imply cursive? if so, than i guess i mean printing?)

also there is a russian girl in my class who has wonderful cursive, apparently it's all they teach THEM in elementary school

Adele said...

i started writing my class notes in cursive at the beginning of the semester. it was hard to get used to, but i've gotten a lot better pretty quickly. also, i'm at the point where it's easier to write fast and neat when i write in cursive. you got this :^)

Rach said...

i like that caligraphy set! when i was little my grammy would babysit for me and she would always make me practice my cursive. she always told me that i held my pen wrong. i think i still do but i can't change! that made her sound mean but she is actually very sweet.