Thinking about how you write.

I read an article this morning about classes in penmanship being run for senior students of high schools in New South Wales.

Keyboard Kids lose the art of handwriting

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Apparently these teenagers are so accustomed to keyboarding, texting and so on that their handwriting is illegible – and they now need it for their senior exams! Oh dear.

What fascinated me about this piece was that it discussed the links between handwriting and other aspects of a person’s development; socially and intellectually. I’ll deal with one of those issues in this post.

It was pointed out that “Handwriting is an important expression of a student’s personality.” I’m sure we have all known a person who insists on dotting their lower case letter “i”s with a circle, or a smiley face or a love heart. Perhaps we even ARE those people.

We have seen our grandparent’s beautiful cursive writing, wondered over the copper-plate script of earlier generations (while trying to decipher it) and tried to get our own writing good enough to be allowed to use a pen in class. I know that I take particular delight in watching my 3 year old nephew biting on his tongue while he is trying to drive a crayon on paper.

Mind you, I also chuckle watching his 69 year old grandfather biting on his tongue while trying to drive a car – but I digress.

There is something about having total control over a writing implement that says you’ve officially made it to the status of individual. You are your own person when your handwriting is clearly recognisable as yours. When you can address an envelope, leave off the return address and know that the recipient will identify you as the sender before they even open it… well, that has a kind of magic to it.

It’s like writing “Hello, old friend” in invisible ink.

I know that there was a time in my life when my penmanship skills disappeared completely and it devastated me. I had carefully schooled myself out of the university scrawl I had acquired during my Masters degree and regained something that was really quite nice. I could even do the same left-handed!

Then my hands stopped doing what I was telling them to do and I could write no more. There were no elephant stamps for me for quite some time. Even now, each time I pick up a pen, there is a dread moment of suspense before I learn if I can write that day.

But what of the young adults who have never learned the power of a handwritten word?

Those kids who send love notes by text message instead of a chit of paper tucked furtively into a book somewhere?

Who hear from their grandparents frequently by telephone, instead of wonderful, seasonal, multi-page letters that tell all the news and require concentration and dedication to write?

In my view, no word-processed document can convey deep sentiment. It’s an impersonal and almost bland method of sending a message when compared with a hand-written note.

Of course, that’s just my opinion. Still, it would be interesting to know what our young teens would think if they were suddenly deprived of access to all keyboards and had to communicate handraulically instead. Would they even bother?

Till next time,

S.