Handwriting

I admit it—my handwriting is terrible; always has been fairly poor. But after retiring—I suppose due to less discipline—it has gotten worse. Sometimes I have been unable to read a reminder note I made to myself. Paige and I were married for fifty-seven years, and having been a first-grade teacher, she often said, “I wish I had been your teacher—your handwriting would at least be legible.”

The decline in teaching cursive handwriting in some schools is sad to me. Recently, I heard of an elementary school child who said, “Mom, here is a note my teacher sent for you. She wrote it in code.” (actually a neatly handwritten note). My dad had distinctive handwriting; having flourishes and personal quirks. He had been taught Palmer’s Guide to Business Writing (1894), still popular into the the mid 20th Century, circa 1950. Dad had a writing box—an old neatly crafted box. In that box he kept a fountain pen—that must be filled with ink from time to time. The box had a bottle of blue “Skrip Ink,” writing paper, envelopes, and stamps. Every Sunday afternoon he wrote letters to his parents, who lived in different states.

As a kid, I was interested in his swirls and swags as he wrote those letters—but I was especially impressed with his signature. It rivaled that of John Hancock. When I was in the eight grade, my class received new English books. Over time that year, I practiced developing my own distinctive signature—in the middle margin of every page in the new book. I would be smarter today if I had had studied every page as carefully as I had crafted my signature. (as an adult, I realized I had damaged that new book). Years later, a bank teller, looking at my signature said, “We won’t have to worry about anyone forging that signature!” I took that as a compliment. It wasn’t.

Computers and other technologies have all but voided cursive writing. That is sad. In May, 2024 NPR published the following report: …giving up (Handwriting) this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that’s uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

As a writer, I know this cost from experience; when I find an article I want to remember, and only highlight, copy, and paste it into a document, I barely remember it later or its main idea. For a number of years, I kept a hand written journal. Then I decided to start this Blog. The handwriting method was great for my mind—but to proof-read, I had to, well, read it; which my handwriting of late made that extremely difficult. So I compensate, by re-reading maybe as many as twenty times or more editing, proofing, and mulling over. It is not the same as the process of handwriting. But it does help give my cognition something of a workout.

Maybe you, as do I, appreciate, and even occasionally keep a handwritten note from a friend, or family member. We do so because we know that person spent time, attention and care by writing this note. Unlike a message texted, or in another electronic medium, we know this time, we received a part of that person’s time, attention, and most of all—their care. 

©Copyright 2025 Willis H. Moore