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This and That: The art of handwriting
Topics: personality, handwriting, cursive
Posted by Thu Oct 11, 2007 09:17:42 PDT
Viewed 132 times
0 responses 1 comment Handwriting is such an individual and personal expression. One that begins when we first enter Kindergarten. The way we cross our t's or loop our g's, is part of our basic personality. We are taught how to make our letters flow, and the perfect way to print and write. They call it cursive now. My letters never looked like the ones in my handwriting manual. Being right handed you wouldn't expect my writing to slant like a left hander, but it did. In school it made my teachers furious, but try as I might I could not write with the flowing motion to the right.

After a few months of scolding and trying to change my ‘bad habits’, most of my teachers would give up. It was such a relief to be allowed my own interpretation of writing. I can remember a classmate who was naturally left-handed and the teacher kept trying to get her to write with her right hand. On day my friend started crying, saying she couldn’t write that way. Only then did the teacher let her use her dominant hand. There is nothing wrong with my writing, I dot my i's, cross my t's and it really is very legible, but it slants the wrong direction. Both of my sons print as much as they write. In fact they do a great job that way. My brother prints quite a bit, too. He told me he can’t read what he writes unless he prints it.

One of my daughters is left handed, and my other daughter and I are right handed. I would defy you to pick out which one of us is left handed by looking at our handwriting. Whether this says we have the same type of personality or not isn't important, however all three of us are optimistic women. We see the glass as half full. Maybe that’s a trait of people who slant their writing to the left.

To some the art of handwriting is totally lost. I don’t know if they even teach handwriting in school anymore. My father had flowing handwriting and he wrote big flowing letters. Some have lovely handwriting, but their signatures are a few up and down scribbles, long line and a few more scribbles. I've been told it's to keep anyone from forging their signature. Wonder if it works?

Penmanship is fast becoming a lost art. No one writes letters anymore, we phone. When we do write something, we type or use a computer and send e-mail. Too bad, it's much more personal to get a handwritten letter. So what if you can't read it.

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Comment From: LisaWSWV

I must say I am a printer... I did win a handwriting award for my cursive in the second grade though. It's just faster and easier for me to print.