
Photo: Edesaintjores [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
The art of penmanship has long faded into the distant past. However, for anyone who has ever attended Catholic Schools in the twentieth century, the development of proper penmanship was a major part of the curriculum. Even in most public schools in the twentieth century penmanship was a part of the curriculum. I can still remember those script uppercase and lowercase letters hanging above the chalkboard. We practiced penmanship every day. We were graded on our penmanship. We were told penmanship was a reflection of caring about your work. The discipline of practicing penmanship was a study in the development of both physical and mental skills.
The methodology behind the use of cursive was that once the art of writing in cursive was attained, the brain was free to engage in more analytical thinking as cursive flows much more freely than printing.[1] Of course, as kids we didn’t understand that, we just knew that if we wrote sloppy, doom and gloom would soon follow. Nonetheless, time and technology has changed the way of thinking for many. There have been arguments against the use of cursive. In the 2012 New York State Common Core curriculum change there was no mention of teaching cursive anywhere in the curriculum. Opponents feel that cursive is not needed in a society that has overly embraced technology. Nonetheless, have you ever seen someone trying to sign a form or a check that does not know how to write in cursive?

Photo: Abbie Rowe [Public domain]
The ability to write in cursive enables one not to only sign checks or legal documents, but in even more simple terms, the ability to sign greeting cards or other social documents with a beautiful handwritten signature. Receiving a birthday card from a thirty year old who printed their name just does not seem to cut it.
In the end, penmanship may not be regarded as that important anymore because of technology. Yet it still serves a purpose on many different plains. However, revitalizing the lost art of penmanship just may be a battle that has run out of ink a long time ago.

Photo: Joe Haupt from USA [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons