The Decline of Handwriting
A terrible truth
In our modern world we input our important data through key boards, touch screens, and even out voices with services like Dragon Dictation. Every click, tap, and murmur results in a perfectly formed letter identical to the last few and the next ones, on and on conforming. Students are encouraged to type nearly everything nowadays, and the handwritten word is all too extinct from the contemporary office. The result of this endless automation is the demise of quality printing.
The other day, I saw a boy bring his math work to class typed. According to him he could type his homework, special symbols and all, faster than he could handwrite it. Also, he added, writing with a pen or pencil is terrible. Later I caught a glimpse of a paper he had been forced to scratch out. It was abysmal. His vulgar strokes barely managed to show legible words. Even his name was hardly more than a random collection of loosely grouped vertical scratch marks.
Now I don’t believe it’s his fault entirely. Our school system gave up the practice of cursive classes long ago. Throughout my entire educational career I’ve never once had to practice my lettering at the request of a curriculum. I’ve never gotten marks off for sloppy printing. This is the fundamental problem in this situation. When schools began to phase out the necessity of good printing in favor of typing students began to lose a bit of their unique personality. The result is almost militaristic. Losing a unique definer of self is easily comparable to the head shaving all recruits undergo. You become uniform, a clone. The austerity of the tapped out word is easily akin to rows of bald headed man in identical fatigues.
Thankfully, the fix is a simple one. Practice. It may sound overwhelmingly cliche, but it’s the best solution in this situation. Not too long ago I decided to begin improving my way of writing longhand. A few minutes each day I wrote out the alphabet and a few sentences. It was gradual of course but over time the effect was clear. My printing managed to improve recognizably within a few months.
To me, the way forward is an easy and clear one. The reintroduction of printing and cursive practice to primary schools would vastly improve the crippled state of America’s handwriting. This generation, my generation, is flailing with sloppy fine muscle coordination. It’s a problem that can only decline futher into the future. So it’s really not too late, America’s printing can be saved.
