So my friend recently learned that her daughter's new school is not teaching cursive anymore. And all of a sudden, all I see lately are stories about how it's apparently being phased out at many schools all over. And I am so irate over this — not because I believe it's an art that needs to be taught (how's that from someone who's pretty much a purist about everything, eh?), but because of the endless string of bad grades I received in the subject because I was so terrible at it. And those times in the third grade when I had to stay in from recess to work on my handwriting (for real. Way to make a kid really hate something, you know?) are all for naught now? UN.FAIR.
Now, I understand that the whole point of making me work on my handwriting was so that I could eventually be understood when taking pen to paper, but it did make me feel kind of inferior, given that I sucked at that AND math (I had to take basic skills that year) AND was made to feel not terribly gifted athletically by my school that year (I had to take an extra gym class once every other week in third grade. Which is weird because I was active and outdoorsy and loved to play as a kid - and I was way underweight at that age too. But I guess I lacked coordination and/or an overly competitive nature - that seems to be an only child trait. I mean, really, I never had to fight anyone for my parents' attention. I sure as hell wasn't going to fight someone for possession of a soccer ball - or something? It was never explained to me, but, again, it made me feel weird, as awesome as getting out of my regular classes was). It sucked.
And my chicken scratch wasn't due to laziness or innate sloppiness or whatever one teacher I once had implied. In fact, I know exactly what my problem was with cursive — my brain worked faster than I could write, so to try and keep up, I'd always try to write fast and it thus became messy. I wasn't the most patient kid when it came to getting ideas out, either, so slowing down was not an option, especially when I was writing my stories. I mean, it might sound crazy, but I've kind of always been a writer - since I was six or seven, the thoughts, to me, have always been more important than the way they looked. Which is why typing is pretty great for me now. But back in, oh, second through sixth grade? We weren't exactly learning communication on computers yet. I know I was printing by seventh grade, and that is only marginally better than my cursive (see my Yankee Journals for proof of that now). But for those years of cursive-induced torture, I could expect at least one lousy grade on my report card every term. Which, BOOOOO.
So if people are reading this blog, like, hundreds of years from now, wondering if this ancient civilization known as the 21st century was bummed out about cursive going by the wayside, know that I am not broken up over it. I will say this, though: What's going to happen to signatures? Are people just going to initial things? Autograph-getting is going to suck, if that's the case.
But at least kids will have their recesses to actually, you know, play, instead of working on their effing penmanship.
