The lure of loops and swirls

Wherever we see, we find children, adolescents and adults using block letters in their writing. Teachers no longer insist on cursive writing which requires students to use loops and swirls to form their letters. Most students even do not know what to call rounded letters joined together.

A few decades ago, parents used to give Royal Crown Copy Books to their children to improve their handwriting. It was a pleasure to see young children writing letters and words with 'G' nibs fitted to a pen holder. As there was no flowing ink in such pens, the writer had to insert the nib into a bottle of ink to wet it several times. It was a cumbersome procedure to write with such a pen but the children enjoyed it.

Today we no longer use 'G' nibs and pen holders. Gradually fountain pens replaced the old writing instruments. There were many popular brands of fountain pens such as "Swan", "Pilot" and "Dinky" and later "Cial". They were relatively cheap and every student went to school armed with a fountain pen. They no longer carried bottles of ink to school.

Ballpoint pen

With the arrival of the ballpoint pen, the fountain pen bowed out. Now students, teachers, executives and even ministers use ballpoint pens as they are convenient and cheaper than fountain pens. However, some Heads of State and company directors still prefer to use fountain pens which are too expensive for ordinary people.

The revolution in writing instruments paved the way for the death of penmanship. Today only a few students use Royal Crown Copy Books to train themselves in cursive writing. A new generation of writers who does not care to write beautiful curved letters has come into being. They seem to believe that penmanship like hieroglyphics has lost its glamour. However, should we erase cursive letters for good?

Anne Frank's cursive writing

In the Digital Age writing has taken such a beating that in times to come there won't be a single fountain pen in the market. Even the ubiquitous ballpoint pen seems to have a short lifespan. Those who belong to the new generation prefer to type, twitter, and email. They send text messages using their mobile phones. The humble ballpoint pen is still used to take down notes in classrooms and sign documents and cheques.

Slanting strokes

What do we gain by allowing the written word to fade into oblivion? Penmanship is more than pretty loops and slanting strokes. It's a way to unravel our feelings, character traits and even our past. Graphologists believe that handwriting even reveals our future. Although modern man will scoff at the idea of penmanship, there are a lot of people who just cannot stand to see handwriting die.

Some studies indicate that there is a link between cursive writing and intelligence. Teachers who belong to the older generation will vouch for the fact that students with good handwriting fared well in their studies. On the other hand, those who do not believe in penmanship have formulated all sorts of rationalisations. They say that there is no need to bother about cursive writing because it is now a thing of the past. They ask why we should waste time and energy in penmanship when we can communicate effectively without it. According to them, there are many eminent doctors, legal luminaries and authors whose writing is woefully illegible. Even the great author Henry James used to dictate his novel to his secretary without taking the trouble to write them.

Cursive writing can be a disincentive or even a phobia for modern day students who are looking for ways to do things fast and furiously. Penmanship is not for those who wish to reap quick results. Any child would take a few years to develop his cursive writing. Many children such as Trubeck who struggled with penmanship will begin to hate it for no fault of theirs. Trubeck who later became a professor of English says, "I understand that you need to know how to write, but I think cursive could really just go."

Keyboarding

There are many modern teachers who support Prof. Trubeck's views. They ask why should students worry about cursive writing because it has been replaced by keyboarding. According to a recent study in the United States, children do not spend even 15 minutes a day to practise cursive writing. Even in Sri Lanka most of the students write block letters and they have never heard of penmanship.

The gradual decline of penmanship sounds the death-knell of our identity as individual writers. For instance, The Diary of Anne Frank was written by the young author in cursive writing. The writing shows the calibre of the writer. Although she was a child when the diary was written, her handwriting shows her maturity and wisdom. By any chance, if she had typed it, we would not have respected her so much.

Even Martin Wickramasinghe used cursive letters to write a string of novels. His handwriting too shows the signs of a writer who had a deep knowledge of many subjects. If there was no cursive writing, John Hancock who wrote the original text of the Declaration of Independence would be just another name on a legal document. Even the late Princess Diana was known for her penmanship.

If we do not care to preserve cursive writing, another cultural icon will vanish from human history.