Handwriting Analysis

Today's article in the Los Angeles Times, "Remember Penmanship? That's So 20th century," describes how the rise of keyboard computing and packed standards-based school schedules have eliminated penmanship as a subject in many elementary classrooms.

As a reader for standardized writing exams, I can't say that I'm sad to see the subject go. Give me a stack of hand-printed essays any day over a similar pile of cursive ones. And unlike Latin or diagramming sentences or other useful bygone coursework, it doesn't improve students' ability to use words accurately or structure compelling arguments. (I'm the wrong generation to have taken Elocution, but that may have been a useful subject too, particularly for the class mobility it provided.)

The penmanship traditionalists may be losing on all fronts. According to today's New York Times, "The Resurgence of E-cards" is in full-swing. Given that this particular form of communication evolved to mass produce an alternative to time-consuming hand-written notes, it is fitting that even the last token of handwriting, the personal signature, can be eliminated. Since I prefer the D.Y.L. aesthetic, it's a written genre I'm not crazy about, but at least now I can get E-cards for Women's History Month and International Women's Day.

Nonetheless, I think computing has rescued a whole class of otherwise handwriting-disabled people. Personally, I'm still getting over being traumatized by the Palmer Method. I remember there were only two "awards" one didn't want in sixth grade, and I won both of them: "Bookworm" and "Worst Handwriting."