That A in Penmanship Really Helped

Ely Rosenstock — Fri, 23 May 2008 23:33:59 +0000

Back in junior high school I had to write all my essays in script. For those who don’t remember (or aren’t old enough to know about this), script was the preferred method of writing for education institutions a while back. I hated script. Mainly because I wrote faster in print. The whole point of script was that you could write quicker. That was the upside, no? But it didn’t work for me. I wrote better in print (did I mention the A in penmanship?). And yet, up to the 7th grade, I was forced to write all my essays in this horrible form of wavy-lined expression. I still have no idea how teachers graded papers. Other people’s script is illegible.

Why do I bring this up? I just finished my first year of getting my MBA. For my finals, I had to write over a dozen essays in a short period of time in these little blue essay books. Besides the fact that my hand felt like it was going to fall off after each round of essays, I noticed that my handwriting is much worse than as it used to be. This is, I think, because I don’t write anymore. Who writes? I type everything. The most I write in a given week is when I’m traveling somewhere new and am copying directions from Google Maps.

So here is my theory. Writing, with a pen and paper will be as unpopular in the future as writing script is today. Currently, the average person only uses script when they’re signing their name (except for those few who use it to write birthday cards…just to let you know, we never understand what you’re writing about). Writing in general will dissappear. All school notes, memoirs, and even birthday cards will be typed and the art of penmanship will die out like HD DVD.

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That A in Penmanship Really Helped