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Beginnings of Spring, Valentine's Day just around the corner.
Where did January go? I want to reach back and catch it and savor the chilly air, the blue skies, and the sleepy feeling of being inside because of the hard rain, but Time won't let me. It's February and the bulbs start to appear, Spring winds blow against the house and remind me of The Wizard of Oz, and it's time to send thoughts of love to friends and family.
I sit down to make some postcards for Valentine's Day. I bring out stickers, tapes, and search for examples of handwriting. I come across some letters from my mother and sisters. They were well-schooled in the Palmer Method of writing, that simple, elegant style that was taught in public schools from the early 20th century through the 1950s.
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| Practice page from the Palmer Method booklet |
Along with other culture wars lately, handwriting and loss of cursive instruction is lamented by many. Though cursive is still taught in many classrooms, the amount of time for practicing the skill has made way for keyboard instruction, another useful but different skill in our digital age.
Is there value in writing (or printing) for our minds to develop? Research by Professor Audrey van der Meer at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology suggests that handwriting can benefit brain development because of the coordination of visual and motor skills. Writing something by hand activates memory and learning better than using a digital pen or keyboard. These hand-eye coordination skills are so rudimentary that we don't often stop to think of their importance in our own continuing development and creativity.
I keep a basket full of cards and letters I've received. I keep them for the sentiments expressed but also because of their handwriting examples. The basket reminds me of a story a lettering instructor told our class about walking in the financial district of London. He saw stacks and stacks of paper sitting on the curbs ready for the dustbin. He looked through them and discovered the stacks contained pages and pages of Spencerian notation made by bookkeepers and clerks (think of Bob Cratchit shivering over accounts at his desk in a Christmas Carol) during the 19th century. Someday we may look in wonder at the examples of our handwriting in the same manner as the teacher did of the Spencerian samples. Students in that era spent hours practicing Spencerian just as students toiled while learning the Palmer Method, which was supplanted by the Zaner-Bloser Method, and the D'Nealian Method in classrooms. Today, many schools use the Getty-Dubay Method, based on the Italic script font, which easily moves from printing to cursive, and is far more legible.
Did you learn cursive with any of these methods? Did you learn to print instead? When was the last time you wrote or received a letter? How often do you jot a note to yourself with paper and pencil or pen? Even in adulthood, we need to continue these simple, hand-eye practices. How often do we lose something because we aren't paying attention to its importance?
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Read more about the importance of handwriting here:
https://neurosciencenews.com/hand-writing-smart-kids-17113/
Check out Getty-Dubay handwriting here:
https://handwritingsuccess.com
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Tyre D. Nichols might have had a successful photography career. Instead, his life was cut short. See examples of his work here:
https://thiscaliforniakid2.wixsite.com/tnicholsphotography/fashion
Dear Martha, As always I enjoy your posts. I agree that handwriting is very important and if you don't continue to do it regularly you start to lose the ability and its benefits. I have three boys who I write to on a regular basis. They are learning some cursive in school. I love it when they write back to me. Handwriting is fun. I don't know which method I might have learned. It was probably the The D'Nealian Method. I think I will go write a letter now. Have a super weekend and thanks for your inspiration. Sara
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sara. I'm glad you're going to write a letter! I like your story about the 3 boys who write to you too. Keep on writing them.
Deletefrom Cheryl by email: ALWAYS brilliant!
ReplyDeleteDon’t know how you come up with a lot of your topics; guess you just look at what is happening in your life, like Valentine’s Day, and take it from there.
I learned by Palmer. My handwriting was never beautiful like my Mother’s, Dad’s, or Walt’s. It never felt natural nor did it flow. After I started working I created my straight up signature and printing style, which is very comfortable and natural to me, and changed my signature at that time.
thank you, Cheryl! I've straightened up my signature as well. Easier to write, I think.
DeleteFrom Mary by email: It’s interesting to look back on the Palmer Method. I still have some notebooks from college and my handwriting was legible and smooth, amazing. I print everything now and can’t remember why or when I lost it. I love to study and use different fonts for my projects, and sometimes letters to express myself, but a beautifully handwritten note is a treasure.
ReplyDeleteLetterforms are beautiful, aren't they? Thanks for telling your story about your handwriting.
DeleteFrom HH on FB: Ha! Read your post, Martha. I don’t always have time to read it, but I’m somewhat relaxed and near taking a nap in San Miguel de Allendre, Mexico, before I go onto the rooftop to do watercolors looking down on two or three clotheslines lines filled with colorful drying clothes.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog, but I have to say, and I think I’ve told you before, it was your father’s fault that I pretty much stopped writing cursive. He did all capital letters in his daily Bugs Bunny comics but also when he sent sent cards and letters.
It actually wasn’t just his example, but also my admiration for architectural drawings too, with the lettering in all caps.
So an early age I made the decision to usually write in all caps. My cursive was & is crap, hardly legible. There’s a possible limerick in that last statement. Haha.
Anyway, I believe that girls have much better fine finger motor skills than boys, and so have a greater capacity to do cursive as a result.
Of course, contradicting that is
the lettering on medieval illuminations which was, I’m pretty sure, done almost entirely by men.
Not sure I have a conclusion.
And so - I’m done.
I’ll be off in a couple hours to have dinner at Peter and Carrie’s.
Thanks for your blog, cousin.
You are welcome, Cousin! It's funny because my dad got a D in penmanship when he was at SCSU! His printing was easy to read. His handwriting, not so much.
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