Cursive Hand Writing

Recently, I wrote about the demise of letter writing and the loss of cards and letters in our mailboxes. The Postal Service is having trouble keeping afloat with our high tech world, and if you have not  learned the special symbols used to text these days, you are at a distinct disadvantage. Now, along with this archaic activity, we are  talking about doing away with teaching cursive writing in schools. How do I feel about this? Mixed, at best. I grew up at a time when we still had ink wells on the right side of our desks, and nibbed pens were used for our best penmanship. I can remember having to write and rewrite (in cursive, of course) a Christmas letter to my parents, which the good nuns had us do each year, until I got it just right. The beauty of the penmanship was as important to them as the sentiment of the words. Today, "joined up writing" as cursive is often referred to is becoming less and less popular with students and teachers alike. Why spend time on an activity that does not favor the test of time where many people presently, and in the future will not even have to sign their own name, or will sign it in a way that is unreadable to the mass majority of people. Just trying to read my Doctor's medical orders rests my case. And why teach two ways of writing when one will do? As a matter of fact, many people today use a form of both cursive and print when they write, so why not just learn to print which is readable to all. Have you ever wondered why, on legal documents etc., they ask you to sign and print your name. Why have to do both? For me, being a left hander, I can certainly attest to the trials and tribulations I had trying to learn to write in cursive at a right-hander's desk. But all of that aside, I have to admit that I love the beauty of the written word in cursive. I have only to look at the treasured documents of our fore-fathers to appreciate the elegance of their important messages. What is interesting to me is that, even though many schools today do not require their students to learn cursive (to the delight of the students), many teachers still feel that it is a good skill to have.Writing is one of the major ways kids learn. After school clubs have formed for the very purpose of learning to write in cursive, just like taking an art class. Is it possible that, in the future, people will not even be able to read cursive writing because the have not learned to write it (or read it.) Ah, not to be able to read the original documents and letters of those who have come before us...would this be a significant loss of our heritage. Just wondering. In the meantime, I am glad that I learned to write cursive in school and appreciate the elegance of the written word....sometimes, a work of art in itself.