An elegant hand
I drill myself daily on my formation of cursive letters as I found myself losing the skill due to typing. I will never lose this art.
Your choice of the cursive style on the editorial page, however, was a poor one. There were many styles of cursive taught in the schools in the early 1960s, and before or later, but I have never seen that. Many of the letters and words were not clear upon first glance.
Cursive was created during the age of quills because quills would break easily. The creation of cursive made it possible for a quill to never leave the paper or parchment during the writing of each word. Your sample was readable, but with difficulty.
I laud the return of cursive to the schools, and I am not degrading whichever staff member was chosen to write out those words. At least her cursive style is cursive. But there are so many of us whose cursive is stunningly beautiful and readable. Did you sample other staff member’s cursive style? I do understand the point being made by showing the cursive style; it is truly an art.
— Heidi W. Daniels, Crown Point
Keeping cursive
When I moved to Illinois from Ohio after seventh grade, I reverted to printing in eighth grade to better fit in with the new friends I made in that class. For some reason, they all printed. That wasn’t a particularly good move. I printed all through high school. In college, I was still printing. The problem is that it’s easier and quicker to use cursive when taking notes during a lecture. Printing is too slow. As a result, my printing in college evolved into a hybrid of printing and cursive that today would be difficult to decipher.
Laptops were long in the future back then. Maybe typing on a laptop can replace cursive, but my guess is that it’s easier to cross off a mistake than select-and-delete while the instructor is talking. With select-and-delete, the user briefly concentrates on that task and is less focused on the instructor. Bringing or keeping cursive is a good thing. After all, it was developed for a reason that still pertains.
— Tom Paige, Naperville
