Hence did the wondrous mystic art arise,
Of painting speech, and speaking to the eyes.
Thus we by wondrous magic lines are taught,
How both to colour and embody thought.
~”The Indian Manner of Writing, and the Substance they use instead of Paper,” The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Several Nations of the Known World, Vol. III, written originally in French, and now published in English, with very considerable amendments and additions, 1731
The first word I can remember writing in cursive style – yes, I do remember this – is “celery.” It was all full of loops and curves and easy and fun to write. I wrote it over and over again and was very proud of myself. Learning to print was an accomplishment, but writing in cursive, taught in penmanship class, was like creating a piece of art. In fact, the definition of penmanship is “the art of handwriting.” Another definition is “a person’s style or manner of handwriting.”
When I was in elementary school, penmanship was a normal part of my hometown school system’s curriculum, but not an everyday class. Like French, which was also taught in my hometown’s schools, we were taught penmanship only a few times a week, and also like French, there was only one teacher in that subject for the whole city. That set it apart from our other subjects. It was special. We didn’t begin learning penmanship until the third grade. In grades one and two, when we were just little kids, we printed in pencil that could be erased and fixed when we made mistakes; but when we were given our first special blue pen for penmanship in the third grade, it was time for perfection! Well, that’s a bit extreme. We were just learning. But if you wanted to do well and earn stars on your penmanship certificate, you tried hard not to make too many mistakes!
I learned penmanship from Miss R., a white-haired, bespectacled, and serious teacher from a different age. At first she was a bit intimidating. She once told me I had very beautiful handwriting “for a lefty.” But when she was handing out those bright star-shaped stickers for a job well-done, she was all smiles. For me, it was doubly enjoyable to get those stickers, since I was a “lefty.” 🙂
My penmanship…my style of handwriting…has changed numerous times over the years (one of my signatures from years ago, used on an important document, looks absolutely ridiculous to me now). It has changed sometimes because of writing quickly or laziness (Miss R. would be appalled); sometimes because I’ve printed more than I’ve written in cursive; and sometimes because I’ve consciously worked to change it. My printing and cursive styles often flowed from each other so that one sentence could contain both styles. That didn’t bother me, but I wanted something new. My mother had the most beautiful handwriting and one of my sisters has such a unique and cool style that I wanted something different for my own.
So I relaxed and practiced – and a new style began to emerge, quite naturally, full of loops and curves (remember “celery”). I had to practice it to develop it and become consistent with it. I admit, most of the time I seem to write on the computer, but to solidify this new style of penmanship, I started journaling by hand again. That helped. So did continuing what had been something of a spiritual exercise for me. At one time, I had begun to copy out by hand the text of a small part of the Bible. My intention in doing so was to immerse myself in the text so that I might understand it better. When I read, I often read quickly, and with a text like the Bible, you can miss a lot that way. It takes time to understand what’s being said. Copying the text out by hand slowed down my reading, calmed my mind, and allowed me to better understand what I was reading. And – back on topic – I became adept at my new style of penmanship!
(I wonder what a graphologist would say about me and my new penmanship?) 🙂
Why go through all of this for a type of writing that is disappearing from the classroom and that many people not only can’t write, but can’t read either? Because I love this artful form of communication. It’s beautiful and personal and is the way human beings have communicated for millennia. It will be a terrible shame if it’s lost, and I’d rather help keep it going, in my small way. And, besides, ever since I wrote my first word, I’ve thought it was fun!
Here are some interesting links to articles on the importance of handwriting (click on the New York Times article; copy & paste the others into your browser):
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/long-held-tradition-cursive-handwriting-slowly-dying-america
Inventing My Universe 