Handwriting - A Lost Art

SEK Wands for Wildlife Fundraiser Note Cards

I remember the years of penmanship in grade school. The proper way to form letters, then the curves and connections of cursive in third grade. However, my mom taught me how to write in cursive once I started school.


I held my blue Laddie pencil incorrectly, so my mom had to purchase these hard plastic torture devices that fit my pencil, but never my fingers. I can only imagine my son's face if I handed him one of these pencils today, where texting by thumb-typing is the most common form of creating letters.
The National handwriting Association states that "modern technology has dramatically changed the way we communicate through writing. However, despite the increased use of computers for writing, the skill of handwriting remains important in education, employment, and in everyday life."
In a study by World Vision from May 2010, "more than a quarter of seven to 14-year-olds surveyed had not written a letter in the last year and one in 10 had never written one...but half had written an email or a message on a social networking site."
According to the study, manners play a large part in children's letter-writing "seven in 10 said they would pen a note to say thank you." This practice is usually enforced more at home with girls more likely than boys to put pen to paper.
In an article written in 2009 by Malcom Jones, he states that "the decline in letter writing constitutes a cultural shift so vast that in the future, historians may divide time not between B.C. and A.D. but between eras when people wrote letters and when they didn't."
So, what happened? Why did handwriting, especially cursive, disappear from our schools? the answer: Common Core. In 2010 45 states adopted the Common Core standards, which do not require cursive instruction but leave it up to the individual states and districts to decide whether they want to teach it.
According to a Washington Post article from 2013, "cursive is becoming as foreign as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. In college lecture halls, more students take notes on laptops and tablet computers than with pens and notepads. Responding to handwritten letters from grandparents in cursive is no longer necessary as they, too, learn how to use email, Facebook and Skype."
Unfortunately, budget cuts and new standards forced educators, "seeking to prepare students for a successful future in which computer and typing skills have usurped penmanship, are finding cursive’s relevance waning, so they’re opting not to teach it anymore."
According to Pattie Leonard, retired 2nd-grade teacher form Girard, Kansas, "the argument was that most everything is printed books, computers, etc. so why the need for cursive? That is true, but my beliefs are that cursive should still be taught in school. It's up to the individual, after they learn, as to whether they want to use it or not, but they should at least be able to write and read it."

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As for cursive, Jennifer Morris, a sixth-grade history teacher in Frontenac, Kansas, believes "it will eventually die out. If you look back at history, with all the various writing styles that were in place for thousands of years and fell to the wayside, this too shall follow the pattern."
As for me, my efforts to encourage handwriting in any form include the creation of fun, specific note cards, thank you cards and other personalized cards. When the cards are used as fundraisers for charities, people tend to do good and give back. then our pride makes us use these cards to show our philanthropic endeavours.
Whatever the reason you write, keep doing it and encourage others as well. If you or they need motivation, contact me and I will create whatever cards will get you writing.

A humorous meme on social media states that the only things needed to cripple an entire generation is to write in cursive and have cars with manual transmission. While this is funny, there are ways to cripple my generation as well - communicate using shorthand.