Thank you, Jonathan. I have totally lost my ability to write in cursive. I am at least glad I can still write regular notes in the margins of books and also in my journal!
Great work, thought-provoking. The mind-blowing question for me, through many years of keyboards and writing by hand, is "why" the difference exists between mediums. My mother was practically a savant at predicting things, and out of the blue, in 3rd grade, she made me spend a summer learning how to type on her Selectric. It wasn't to punish. (read: circa 1976, and I was not happy with her dictation (meaning 2)).
She made me do it because she knew the utility of typing would increase exponentially as computers took over business. I freak people out sometimes because my chat responses are almost too fast. It's not a fact I'm proud of.
My reflective thought: The mindful presence required to write reveals a deeper answer to why I choose to ditch the keyboard and pick up a pen quite frequently these days. It's to slow ideas down and elongate them into fully formed structures before committing the one-way act of putting pen to paper. Sure, I can and do scratch out whole sections of garbage - I'm an equal opportunity idiot when it comes to my thinking. It's the effort required to think before acting, which I find I'm more inclined to do when disciplining myself to write a full set of ideas down on paper. Discipline builds mental muscle, and as I age and my memory deteriorates, I find it compelling to do what I can to slow the process.
I appreciate your observations and thoughts, Cryn. You provide insightful, tangential, and central questions and ideas. They're one of a kind, and thank you for your composition! Excellent!
Wonderful work. When I write, I have hand written notes all over but I need to see the words on the laptop. I need to move paragraphs like a jigsaw puzzle. I type fast so I need spellcheck.
Amazing. I was actually thinking about this yesterday and it's giving me chills that we happened to be thinking about it around the same time. Yesterday morning, I noticed how I frequently address myself in the second person (you're this - you're that) when typing a journal entry on my PC (call me weird but I write to myself letters of encouragement; more often of reprimand). The exact thought I had in my mind was this: there seems to be a separation between myself and my writing self; perhaps if I went back to handwriting we can reunite into one.
Oh, wow! First, that's really interesting how we have found ourselves thinking about writing by hand at the same time! Second, I find it intriguing that you write to yourself in the second person, and that you generally do so to reprimand yourself. That actually makes me sad for you. I do wonder what it would be like if you started writing by hand — would it be different?
Oh, don't be sad :) It's mostly about being a chronic procrastinator when it comes to writing -- something I've been working on for quite sometime and it's improved a lot after I got myself a lockbox with a timer for my phone (highly recommend it for those of us wrestling with phone addiction). I also wonder if handwriting would make it different; I'll have to find out!
Like my late law partner, I'm left handed. His handwritten notes to me were difficult to read at best.
As a youngster, I was forced to learn how to write in cursive style - 3rd grade at Brown Elementary in Dayton, Ohio. All the desks had right hand reaches. Teachers in Dayton back then had the right to administer corporal punishment. So when I attempted to learn to write in cursive script with my dominant hand, it got smacked with a ruler. Not wanting a second administration of a whack on my hand, I learned to write right.
My handwriting today is miserable as was Arnold Grubman's.
We moved east after my 3rd grade experience. At Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut, I took typewriting in the first semester of my sophomore year. In the second semester, I took Gregg shorthand. In each of those classes, there were only three boys other than me -26 or 27 girls. I loved it. My typewriting is clear and crisp. My shorthand notes (yes, I still use the skill 65 years later) enable me never to miss a thought when interviewing a client. The effort learned has paid off in spades.
I didn’t realize you were also left handed, Don! I am, too. I had to also deal with the dreaded right handed desks. We had the left handed desks, but they were too high and awkward, so I also sat at right hand desks and turned my paper to write.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I also owe you an email.
No left-handed reaches in Dayton back in 1953. I'm more than a full generation older than you. I'm also confident that even Kansas didn't have corporal punishment available for your teachers to use back in the early 80's
The Vice-Principal, Mr. Toledo, had a paddle that had a hole in it. If the teacher called for him to administer a blow, it was out in the hall where the sound of it whacking a miscreant would echo throughout the school.
Once my left hand flipped a map of the U.S.A. up abruptly. It angered the teacher, Mrs. Brinkman, enough to inspire her to send me out to the hall. I was then given the paddle, and it left a bruise that I was able to show to my mother late the same day. She went BERSERK and came with me to school the next day to scream bloody murder at Mr. Toledo. Thelma was warned that police would be called if she continued to rant in her stentorian voice that also echoed down the same hall. It was one of the reasons we ended up moving to Connecticut just a couple of months later.
Westport was a completely different sort of town. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward lived a mile away from us just the other side of the Aspetuck River. Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone) lived less than two miles away right by the Synagogue on Easton. Max Shulman (The Dobie Gillis Show) lived near Staples High School, Elizabeth Taylor who then was married to Michael Todd (Around The World In 80 Days) lived down by the Cedar Point Yacht Club, and my buddy Michael Dill (n/k/a Michael Douglas) was the quarterback of the football team when I was right tackle at Long Lots Junior High. He moved to New Jersey after 8th grand, but I'm still in touch with him close to 70 years later on Bluesky Social.
At age 84, I seem to have forgotten how to write with a pen. I make notations on my paper calendars, but often have trouble reading them back! This keyboard is my main method of communication.
I just picked up a “learn cursive” practice book for our ten-year-old. It is currently meeting the full side-eye exaggerated groaning requirements, but I was appalled that their signature might be lopsided block letters.
I’ve really been leaning back into my typewriters for writing. For me they hit the sweet spot between speed and deliberation. Easy enough to scan and use ocr if one wishes, or simply enjoy the physicality of the page you’ve written on.
I’ve been into them a long time and yes I do have a few. My favorites for high volume are an ibm correcting Selectric, and a smith corona Electra 220. Among the manuals I especially like my smith corona 5 silent with a cursive type face. Don’t get me started on typewriters - I really love them and find them profoundly useful right now, today, not as a relic. They are wonderful, to me.
Excellent post, Cryn. I love using a fountain pen, but I’ve realized—much to my disappointment—that I’ve nearly lost the ability to write in cursive.
Thank you, Jonathan. I have totally lost my ability to write in cursive. I am at least glad I can still write regular notes in the margins of books and also in my journal!
Great work, thought-provoking. The mind-blowing question for me, through many years of keyboards and writing by hand, is "why" the difference exists between mediums. My mother was practically a savant at predicting things, and out of the blue, in 3rd grade, she made me spend a summer learning how to type on her Selectric. It wasn't to punish. (read: circa 1976, and I was not happy with her dictation (meaning 2)).
She made me do it because she knew the utility of typing would increase exponentially as computers took over business. I freak people out sometimes because my chat responses are almost too fast. It's not a fact I'm proud of.
My reflective thought: The mindful presence required to write reveals a deeper answer to why I choose to ditch the keyboard and pick up a pen quite frequently these days. It's to slow ideas down and elongate them into fully formed structures before committing the one-way act of putting pen to paper. Sure, I can and do scratch out whole sections of garbage - I'm an equal opportunity idiot when it comes to my thinking. It's the effort required to think before acting, which I find I'm more inclined to do when disciplining myself to write a full set of ideas down on paper. Discipline builds mental muscle, and as I age and my memory deteriorates, I find it compelling to do what I can to slow the process.
I appreciate your observations and thoughts, Cryn. You provide insightful, tangential, and central questions and ideas. They're one of a kind, and thank you for your composition! Excellent!
Rick, that's funny how quickly you send messages to people. My family tells me the same thing (lol).
I guess we're both equal opportunity idiots when it comes to texting.
So, I guess we both could learn a thing or two from what I wrote. :)
Wonderful work. When I write, I have hand written notes all over but I need to see the words on the laptop. I need to move paragraphs like a jigsaw puzzle. I type fast so I need spellcheck.
I still write notes with a fountain pen. And sometimes I remember it’s important that my calligraphy is beautiful.
Amazing. I was actually thinking about this yesterday and it's giving me chills that we happened to be thinking about it around the same time. Yesterday morning, I noticed how I frequently address myself in the second person (you're this - you're that) when typing a journal entry on my PC (call me weird but I write to myself letters of encouragement; more often of reprimand). The exact thought I had in my mind was this: there seems to be a separation between myself and my writing self; perhaps if I went back to handwriting we can reunite into one.
Oh, wow! First, that's really interesting how we have found ourselves thinking about writing by hand at the same time! Second, I find it intriguing that you write to yourself in the second person, and that you generally do so to reprimand yourself. That actually makes me sad for you. I do wonder what it would be like if you started writing by hand — would it be different?
Oh, don't be sad :) It's mostly about being a chronic procrastinator when it comes to writing -- something I've been working on for quite sometime and it's improved a lot after I got myself a lockbox with a timer for my phone (highly recommend it for those of us wrestling with phone addiction). I also wonder if handwriting would make it different; I'll have to find out!
If you do explore it, let us know if it changes how you address yourself! I'm curious.
Will do!
Like my late law partner, I'm left handed. His handwritten notes to me were difficult to read at best.
As a youngster, I was forced to learn how to write in cursive style - 3rd grade at Brown Elementary in Dayton, Ohio. All the desks had right hand reaches. Teachers in Dayton back then had the right to administer corporal punishment. So when I attempted to learn to write in cursive script with my dominant hand, it got smacked with a ruler. Not wanting a second administration of a whack on my hand, I learned to write right.
My handwriting today is miserable as was Arnold Grubman's.
We moved east after my 3rd grade experience. At Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut, I took typewriting in the first semester of my sophomore year. In the second semester, I took Gregg shorthand. In each of those classes, there were only three boys other than me -26 or 27 girls. I loved it. My typewriting is clear and crisp. My shorthand notes (yes, I still use the skill 65 years later) enable me never to miss a thought when interviewing a client. The effort learned has paid off in spades.
I didn’t realize you were also left handed, Don! I am, too. I had to also deal with the dreaded right handed desks. We had the left handed desks, but they were too high and awkward, so I also sat at right hand desks and turned my paper to write.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I also owe you an email.
No left-handed reaches in Dayton back in 1953. I'm more than a full generation older than you. I'm also confident that even Kansas didn't have corporal punishment available for your teachers to use back in the early 80's
Oh, yes. Of course. But you were BORN left handed, correct? And, no, they didn’t.
Yep - Southpaw from day one.
The Vice-Principal, Mr. Toledo, had a paddle that had a hole in it. If the teacher called for him to administer a blow, it was out in the hall where the sound of it whacking a miscreant would echo throughout the school.
Once my left hand flipped a map of the U.S.A. up abruptly. It angered the teacher, Mrs. Brinkman, enough to inspire her to send me out to the hall. I was then given the paddle, and it left a bruise that I was able to show to my mother late the same day. She went BERSERK and came with me to school the next day to scream bloody murder at Mr. Toledo. Thelma was warned that police would be called if she continued to rant in her stentorian voice that also echoed down the same hall. It was one of the reasons we ended up moving to Connecticut just a couple of months later.
Westport was a completely different sort of town. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward lived a mile away from us just the other side of the Aspetuck River. Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone) lived less than two miles away right by the Synagogue on Easton. Max Shulman (The Dobie Gillis Show) lived near Staples High School, Elizabeth Taylor who then was married to Michael Todd (Around The World In 80 Days) lived down by the Cedar Point Yacht Club, and my buddy Michael Dill (n/k/a Michael Douglas) was the quarterback of the football team when I was right tackle at Long Lots Junior High. He moved to New Jersey after 8th grand, but I'm still in touch with him close to 70 years later on Bluesky Social.
At age 84, I seem to have forgotten how to write with a pen. I make notations on my paper calendars, but often have trouble reading them back! This keyboard is my main method of communication.
I understand, Sandra! It’s how we all communicate. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts. I appreciate it.
I just picked up a “learn cursive” practice book for our ten-year-old. It is currently meeting the full side-eye exaggerated groaning requirements, but I was appalled that their signature might be lopsided block letters.
That’s interesting, Cie, and makes sense!
I’ve really been leaning back into my typewriters for writing. For me they hit the sweet spot between speed and deliberation. Easy enough to scan and use ocr if one wishes, or simply enjoy the physicality of the page you’ve written on.
Do you have several typewriters? Which one do you prefer?
I’ve been into them a long time and yes I do have a few. My favorites for high volume are an ibm correcting Selectric, and a smith corona Electra 220. Among the manuals I especially like my smith corona 5 silent with a cursive type face. Don’t get me started on typewriters - I really love them and find them profoundly useful right now, today, not as a relic. They are wonderful, to me.
That’s so great! I could listen to you talk about typewriters all day. :)