Conversation with Jon

My nephew was over to see his dog Monday night and after he told me about his trip to Philadelphia we got into a wide ranging discussion about many things. One of them was about fonts.  It turns out that the Times New Roman Font is the best font to use for readability so I have changed my fonts on the blogs. The Ariel font is good for titles and sub headings but the TNR font has little lines implied in the tops and bottoms of each letter and that is supposed to make it easier to read.  I also have difficulty reading small print so I either have to enlarge the font by using Control + or I sometimes just skip it all together.

Since the purpose of my (and other) blog is to communicate I decided to make the change and while not as sexy as the font I was using I think this makes it easier to read.

Then he made a statement that I totally disagreed with.  Sometimes he does that.  He is a University Student after all and most of them have opinions about everything.  Jon often educates me about insects and tried to get me to agree to eat some caramelized crickets.  But Monday Night he made the statement that it was awful that the schools had stopped teaching typing in the elementary grades (I agree) and then went on to make derogatory remarks about cursive writing.

Now that is where I disagreed so we got into a discussion.  You see I used to teach cursive writing to my fifth graders and I also insisted that they turn in their papers in cursive.  I got static from some of them but I reminded them that it was my classroom and my rules.  The teachers before me complained that they taught cursive in third and fourth grades and then the students didn't have to do it in the upper grades so it was not embedded in their day to day use.

Well as Jon is wont to to he challenged me when I said that learning cursive was important.  He said that shorthand and typing was enough.  Besides he said the students did not have the "fine motor skills" in third and fourth grades to write cursive.

Whoa there.  Fine Motor Skills?   I don't thinks so.  I demonstrated the correct way to hold a pen or a pencil:

Then I showed him that you use the large muscles of your arm to write and not the tiny muscles of the hand and fingers.  It takes practice to do this as most students do it incorrectly.  

I told him about how I could stand at the front of my classroom and observe the students pens and see whether or not it was "bobbing" up and down or remaining in the same position as the illustration above. Bobbing pens were an indicator of an incorrect method because you are using the finger muscles to write. This practice will cause the hand to clench and writer's cramp is the result.

If you switch to using the large muscles and if you practice using the exercises that our grandparents (or maybe it is great grandparents) used you can develop an elegant, easily readable free flowing script that can be written quickly and efficiently and will communicate to your reader.  The problem with shorthand, I reminded him, is that he is the only one who can read it. Shorthand is so personal that you often cannot translate another's message.

Whereas the sample above can be read by anyone,

If you use the large muscles of the arm for writing and hold your pen loosely (so that I can pull the pen out with no effort) you will not tire while writing. Once you have the basics down there are things you can do to increase legibility.  

• Write on the baseline
•  Have a consistant slant to your writing
• Give your letters the proper space
•  Place spaces between the words. 
• Join the letters correctly

 Good readable handwriting can show that a "real person is involved in the writing."  It shows that you care enough to take the time to write in longhand.  It was actually developed to help speed up writing.  It is faster and requires less pen-liftings and in many ways it can be easier to read than printing.

One more thing. I have seen some people who feel that writing their signature so that no one can read it is the way to go. I suppose so that no one can copy or forge the signature.  But that does not communicate the name.  I really hate it when I can't read a signature.  Brother Bill always asks the new Master Mason as he signs the By-laws to make sure that they write their name legibly so that 150 years from now people will be able to read the name.  

We do keep records for that long.  We have minute books in my Lodge that go back 125+ years.  When I was Master I read back through the old minute books.  The script of some of the early secretaries was truly beautiful.

One of my former students who had resisted cursive writing got in touch with me after he was in college and wanted some help learning cursive.

I did a little research on cursive writing and was surprised to find that some states are dropping the requirement to teach cursive writing and worse yet only 12% of the teachers are trained in how to teach it. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hugs,  j