The charm of cursive writing

I remember in grade school having that special three-lined paper to learn penmanship and cursive writing. Often the paper came in booklet form. The teachers would draw a perfect letter on the blackboard, and we would try to replicate it.

Having that dashed center line was a big help. It made it easy for young hands to size the letters consistently.

Believe it or not, I was actually able to write legibly in cursive from following this regimen. I wasn’t great at it, but I could read back what I had written and even turn in assignments.

Some of us were better at it than others. In general, maybe because they took more time or cared more, it was obvious the girls were much better at neat, legible, and in many cases, quite beautiful cursive writing.

Most of the boys, it seemed, just did it and then moved on, though there was always that one guy in every class who could write and draw like an artist through some gift from God. You know the one, the guy who could just sketch freehand something incredible like it was nothing. How I wish I could do that.

My handwriting wasn’t bad until I got my first serious job, which was at a bank. I was a teller, then a head teller, then an EDP (Electronic Data Processing) Auditor. Each new job came with increased responsibility.

This meant I was signing and approving things all day long. After a while, speed became more important than legibility. You think I’m kidding?

Try being a bank teller at 4 p.m. in Penn Station with a hundred seething people in line and everyone anxious to not miss their crowded train home to Jersey or the Island. You better not dawdle, or you’ll hear about it quite vociferously.

At some point, due to the need for speed and the lack of practice, my handwriting had deteriorated to the point where it was easier for me to just print when I needed to take notes or write something down. This meant I was only using cursive for my signature.

Without regular cursive practice, my signature degraded to the point where I would get asked if I was a doctor or something (doctors are notorious for quickly scribbled prescriptions that are barely legible).

Not being able to read your own writing is pretty bad. I had the kind of jobs where quick note-taking in meetings was essential; no way could I do that fast enough in cursive and still have it be legible.

Nowadays, the kids have laptops or tablets and type their notes in class or at work, but that wasn’t an option for us Baby Boomers. So are kids better off today with typing and not even trying to print or, God forbid, actually write in cursive?

I would argue that cursive writing is an essential skill that should be taught in schools and used more by adults. Ironically, cursive writing — that is writing without lifting the pen off the page — was intended to speed up the process of creating written information. By not lifting the pen you, theoretically, should write more quickly.

But, in my case, it’s just too easy to get sloppy unless I go really slowly. I can actually print using simple block letters much faster than I can write in cursive. I’m sure that’s not uncommon.

When you even see actual handwriting these days, which is as rare as the unicorn, it’s usually simple printed block letters. The use of good cursive script is a rarity.

The only time most of us ever deal with cursive writing anymore is when we sign our names. Some signatures are legible. Most are anything but. I can’t complain, because mine is just a scribble.

If you go to a book-signing, often the author’s signature will not be legible. However, if I had to sign my name 200 times in a row, unless I went excruciatingly slowly, mine would be illegible too. I’ll give authors a pass in this regard. It’s got to cramp your fingers to sign your name that often.

Speaking of authors, imagine all the classics like “Moby Dick,” “Walden,” “The Great Gatsby,” and so many more that were written with a quill, ink, and a yellow legal pad or something similar. How awesome is that?

When those authors needed to “cut and paste,” they literally got out the scissors, cut out a part of their draft, and pasted it somewhere else. Those of us who write with word processors have no idea how easy we have it. And I didn’t even mention spellcheck.

When my father was alive, we’d need him to sign various forms for insurance, benefits, etc. He never wrote anything in his whole life. Signing his name was the only time he used a writing instrument.

Incredibly, he thought that, if he didn’t sign his name perfectly, people would think he was stupid. So he always signed his name excruciatingly slowly, so he could get it right.

I mean, when he would start to sign his name, you could get up, pour yourself a cup of coffee, come back, and he’d still be on his first name. But let’s give him some credit, because at least he eventually got it.

There are some people who cannot sign their name at all and have to use “X” as their signature. That’s sad, really. We should have a literate society. The fact that we don’t is sad, to say the least.

If you want to see some beautiful handwriting, look at the Declaration of Independence. The gorgeous cursive writing, including the famous signature of John Hancock, is truly stunning and lends gravitas to this foundational and historic document.

How can anyone look at something so grand as this and then say we shouldn’t teach it to our kids? Kids, early on, need to be exposed to good penmanship. It’s a foundational skill. Remember “reading, writing, ’rithmatic?” There is no debate! Kids should learn to write in cursive, period.

My lovely wife has a long-time friend who does calligraphy. This is cursive writing on steroids. It’s handwriting and penmanship that is so beautiful it’s used on wedding invitations and other formal documents.

Safe to say calligraphy is art. That calligraphy is just really carefully done cursive writing — something that we should all be able to do — is amazing. Maybe we’re all artists if we just took the time to slow down, pay attention, and care.

My plan from here on out is to improve my signature so that it’s legible, no matter how long it takes me to do it. I’m also going to try to use cursive writing just for the sake of getting better. Maybe I’ll write my wife a love letter. I don’t know if she’ll be more surprised by the content or the cursive. We shall see.