To me, handwriting is my source of power. I have trouble collecting and organizing my thoughts, and I have to physically write down what I'm thinking when I have to explain it to others for school projects and such. The physical act of writing is a good outlet for me and I would hate for that to die. There's just a better feeling when I have a pen in my hand than when I have keystrokes beneath my fingers, I feel in control. Even though these blogs are typed, it's only so others can read it, and many times I write my posts down on paper before hand. I was fully prepared to fight for my right to write once I saw the headline. After reading the story I can understand what CNN means, and my opinion will form as I go on writing, because that's the way I think.
Here's the article http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/08/10/handwriting.horror/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
It starts by saying how teen stars have horrible handwriting and signatures that nobody can read, then saying it is a reflection of the younger generations as a whole and their writing skills. I apologize that Miley Cyrus never learned to write, but I'm a part of that generation and my handwriting is excellent. I have my crappy chicken scratch when I'm writing notes and trying to keep up with the teacher, but then I have decent handwriting as well. However, I strongly believe that handwriting and especially signatures should be individualized. If I want my signature to be "T scribble, A scribble scribble," then that's what it's going to be. Writing should be personalized and reflect your attitude. Although there are many books and lessons to teach people how to write properly, I feel that if we all wrote "perfectly," handwriting would be like the whole world typing in 12 point Times New Roman font; boring. Handwriting is like drawing, it's art. To have somebody's authentic handwriting, like an autograph, is so incredible. I have a script from The Beatles' movie "Help!," that has chicken scratch notes all down the margins that The actual Beatles wrote, if the writers had went back in and typed the changes noted, it wouldn't be so cool.
And then there's cursive. That script that we were all forced to learn and use for the whole year in 3rd grade. I'll be honest, at the time I hated to write in cursive. Print was so much easier. However, after years of the callus on my finger healing, and me learning that I don't have to put so much pressure on the paper, I tend to use cursive quite a bit; I like it. According to this article, many schools are going to stop teaching students how to write in cursive. I don't see how keeping the subject in curriculum hurts anybody, but I see how taking it out can. For years I thought cursive would never apply to anything in life, then when I took my SAT we had to use cursive. There were kids in that room who raised there hand and said "I don't know cursive," and my only thought was how pathetic are they. When I was young, my parents only ever wrote in cursive, and until I learned how to write it myself I could never read what they wrote. Even if you make the choice to not write in script, you surely need to know how the read it. And the article brings this up with the example of reading historic documents. Even if the documents were transferred to print so younger, unintelligent generations could read, it would not be the same as seeing the Declaration of Independence in it's original glory... but maybe that's just the history buff coming out in me..
Even as technology advances, and now students even use their phones to take notes on, I can't see handwriting dying in younger generations, unless the older generations take it away from us. If they make the choice to stop teaching handwriting in 2nd grade, of course future generations won't be able to write legibly. As long as we are taught writing skills, it's our choice on how we use it. Whether we write neat and professional, or sloppy, it should be a reflection of how we feel. Don't define a generation based off of the teen stars who can't write. And forget not being able to write well, somebody needs to teach Miley how to spell...
No comments:
Post a Comment