Sunday morning during choir practice I became fixated on my notebook's name label. Our director's son had used his very best handwriting (print) and neatly labeled everyone's books at the beginning of the year. I love the way he looped the top part of the M, and I wondered why I never ever made my "m"s that way. But I know why. My teachers demanded pointed Ms; that was the proper way to write. In fourth grade, a friend of mine started adding nice curls to her cursive letters, and I decided to make up my own cursive Q and F. I never liked the book's version of those two letters. The following year I started at a Christian school, and creativity was not encouraged. I acqueised for the sake of my grade and started writing ugly letters again. Until high school, where I rebelled and would print Es, Fs and Qs before writing the rest of the word in print. But for some reason my print Ms always stayed pointed, even though I think the curved humps are much less austere.
Yes, my mind easily chases rabbits when it should be focusing on other things, like music notes and rhythms and whether or not I'm opening my mouth to pronounce a proper O or E or singing it in the southern lazy mouth way.
So I found it quite funny to get home Sunday night and read A.C.Snow's article in the paper. I remember as a child my parents writing notes to my teacher in cursive and it frustrating me because I couldn't read what they wrote. Many of my Chinese students couldn't read cursive, either. Yet as I reflect on our changing society, I'm not convinced it's still needed. It's never made sense to me why it was mandatory to "sign" your name, but then print it because no one can read the signature. We were told in school that cursive was so important because it was a faster way of writing and we would need it in taking notes in high school and college. I found many people in college mixed the two as cursive easily becomes illegible when you're writing in a hurry. But now? Colleges require laptops, meaning notes are taken on the computer. Typing skills are much more important than writing in cursive. I'll be curious to see whether or not schools continue to teach cursive or if becomes an art form of writing (like the Declaration of Independence, which very few people can read now). And this method of writing drilled into me will be yet one more thing that stamps me as an old fogey to those of younger generations. Aunt Monica doesn't have a smart phone (shoot, she doesn't even have her phone charged most of the time!), she shakes her head at "normal" music, and she'll probably always write loopy. I suppose there's a reason why my youngest niece tells me "You're a good 'ol Aunt."
Yes, my mind easily chases rabbits when it should be focusing on other things, like music notes and rhythms and whether or not I'm opening my mouth to pronounce a proper O or E or singing it in the southern lazy mouth way.
So I found it quite funny to get home Sunday night and read A.C.Snow's article in the paper. I remember as a child my parents writing notes to my teacher in cursive and it frustrating me because I couldn't read what they wrote. Many of my Chinese students couldn't read cursive, either. Yet as I reflect on our changing society, I'm not convinced it's still needed. It's never made sense to me why it was mandatory to "sign" your name, but then print it because no one can read the signature. We were told in school that cursive was so important because it was a faster way of writing and we would need it in taking notes in high school and college. I found many people in college mixed the two as cursive easily becomes illegible when you're writing in a hurry. But now? Colleges require laptops, meaning notes are taken on the computer. Typing skills are much more important than writing in cursive. I'll be curious to see whether or not schools continue to teach cursive or if becomes an art form of writing (like the Declaration of Independence, which very few people can read now). And this method of writing drilled into me will be yet one more thing that stamps me as an old fogey to those of younger generations. Aunt Monica doesn't have a smart phone (shoot, she doesn't even have her phone charged most of the time!), she shakes her head at "normal" music, and she'll probably always write loopy. I suppose there's a reason why my youngest niece tells me "You're a good 'ol Aunt."
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