Do it my way

Have you heard the latest? Many schools have stopped teaching cursive writing because there is no need for the art now that young people communicate with two thumbs on a cell phone. The most esteemed curriculum for teaching cursive writing, the Palmer Method, and penmanship in general, are on the way to the ash heap of history. The debate over cursive writing’s relevance is just beginning.

Just recently I noticed that the state of Ohio is hoping to pass a law mandating a cursive writing curriculum for all Ohio schools. Legislators are fearful children are losing the skill of handwriting due to all the time spent looking at screens and punching in words with their thumbs. No need to worry about how they should hold a pen or pencil!

In my old school, the individual letters of the alphabet, both uppercase and lowercase, were prominently displayed above the blackboard in every classroom. And there was only one way to hold a pen or pencil to give the proper shape to the letters. Everyone was taught to shape the letters and hold the pencil in the same way.

One of my childhood memories involves the time spent during recess in fourth grade when I had to sit in the school principal’s office to practice drawing smooth, round O’s of the Palmer Method because my classroom exercises had produced O’s not quite round enough to meet the standards of the teacher, and my slanted lines were not the right angle for the teacher’s satisfaction. Strange what one tends to remember from early school days?

I never did quite get the discipline and regimentation of writing in the Palmer Method and wonder now how failure to accept the idea that there was only one way to write has influenced my life. I’ve always considered that I could write legibly so I could communicate but somehow thought having to configure the O’s round enough and the T’s at the right angle was too rigid and uniform for me.

Looking back on that recess experience makes me wonder about authority, creativity and liberation.

It seems my life has been caught up with these issues, and I did not become aware of the relationship of these ideas to handwriting until I started thinking about how young people today have not been subjected to this discipline and have few occasions to write on paper. Texting has taken over for handwriting and, in some cases, even spelling.

Both my personal life and professional life have reflected battles and opportunities around authority because I wanted to do it my way. I feel liberated that I resisted the uniformity of the Palmer Method but also know that I experienced conflict because I too often thought I was right. That fourth grade disciplinary experience predicted a whole lifetime of battles with authority.

Graphology, the art of handwriting analysis, attempts to relate penmanship to personality. Maybe I should have my handwriting analyzed to see if it reveals anything about my attitude toward authority and my creativity, and whether I get my authority from within myself or from outside myself. And then there is the issue of how I relate to the other. All this, graphology says, can be revealed through penmanship. Who knew? What is taking the place of graphology in the digital age?

In this day of communicating with two thumbs instead of a pen or pencil, are we missing a great opportunity to have an intriguing way to know more about the other person and ourselves through analyzing our handwriting?  How will mystery stories be told in the digital age without handwriting analysis?

Today we can throw in the growing popularity of artificial intelligence systems, and a completely new phenomenon enters the writing scene. The whole notion of writing, whether with pen or thumbs, transforms the art of communicating in the digital age.

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence program that generates dialogue, translates this digital message “R u goin 2 b there? I wil C what I cn do. Pls tel ppl that u are here 4 th show 2morr” as “Are you going to be there? I will see what I can do. Please tell people that you are here for the show tomorrow.” ChatGPT understands. Is this the future?

In today’s digital age when handwriting is less emphasized, we might be missing out on a unique window into understanding ourselves and others. Stay tuned.