Joined-up handwriting

Joined-up handwriting

I know kids who can’t read cursive writing.  Oh, the horror of it! 

Nothing sets older traditionalist and younger futurist on an opinion-laden trip like the cursive vs. manuscript writing style.  The English call it joined-up handwriting.

One friend, a retired elementary school teacher, regularly posts an item on Facebook looking for “likes,” confirming that we should teach all kids cursive writing.  I never respond because I don’t agree.  

 When I went to school, and this dates me, there were two major writing programs in elementary schools: Zaner Bloser and Palmer Method.  Emphasis was on how to hold your pen, angle of the hand, how to sit properly, and how to draw circles by moving only your hands.  Through college and beyond it was the “normal” way to write.  In the 1980s, the desktop computer took center stage and everyone had to become proficient on the keyboard.  Cursive writing is no longer the de rigueur of writing.  When one does write, today, manuscript is the norm. 

Some people argue that without cursive writing skills we won’t be able to sign our name to a letter or a check.  Maybe that’s true, but very few people have or use checks anymore and all our computers have electronic signature capabilities.  When my signature is required, most times I’m asked to print it out as well.  Most “writing” is digital, isn’t it? 

I’m convinced that taking 15 minutes a day for six or seven years of elementary school to teach a skill no longer used is a waste of time.  That’s my opinion.  The data about the advantages and disadvantages of kids learning cursive handwriting is mixed.

Steve Graham, a professor at Arizona State and a top U.S. expert on handwriting instructions says that he has heard every argument for and against cursive.  He says that “The truth is that cursive writing is pretty much gone, except in the adult world for people in their 60s and 70s.”  At least 41 States do not require the teaching of cursive reading or writing.  The new standards promote keyboard skills.  A recent article in BBC News noted that when people read cursive and manuscript pages in an MRI machine, the cursive lights up the reading sections of the brain more than manuscript does.  Cursive is generally faster when taking notes, but computer apps take notes now.  Older people like cursive because that is what they learned and used most of their lives.  We remember our mother’s beautiful handwriting and our founding documents written in cursive.  We hang on to nostalgia rather than practicality. 

More than just writing skills changed over the last twenty years.  Homework assignments are submitted on -line, books are on-line, tests are taken on computers, many courses, especially at the college level, are taken on-line, with test monitoring on-line. 

I’m sticking with my original opinion:  Teaching cursive is a waste of time.

Commercials - who needs them?

Commercials – who needs them?

I mute television commercials.  I listen to NPR because its commercial free and PBS News Hour because it’s commercial free, except during Pledge Week.  I mute the begging.  I pay a little extra each month to enjoy Pandora commercial free.  Cable TV is expensive enough, but I would consider paying a few more dollars a month if I could stream my favorite shows without commercials, as Pandora does.

I understand the need for commercials.  TV and radio stations need the revenue and advertisers need to convince us to purchase their products.  It must work because companies keep advertising, people keep buying, and there are correlations that show the relationship of one to the other.  That doesn’t mean I have to listen.

I record most of the shows I want to watch on a regular basis.  That way I can watch them on my schedule and speed through the muted commercials.  I can also binge watch a whole season of episodes in a couple of evenings.

Local TV news shows advertize themselves during their own shows.  They would reap more watchers if they advertised to the people who watch afternoon shouting-match shows: Maury Povich, Gerry Springer, Judge Judy, and the like.  Their audiences really need to learn what is going on in the world.  Why advertize to me?  I’m already watching.  It’s one of my biggest peeves.  It’s my opportunity to make tired but true stale snide remarks like older people do.  Besides, commercials ruin cocktail-hour. 

Today most people carry a computer in their pocket, which lets them see the news as it happens, or within seconds.  I can remember that as a kid we would sit in front of the radio to listen to the evening news: Gabriel Heater, Lowell Thomas, H.V. Kaltenborn, and others were must-listen-to-news years ago.  The reporters were famous in themselves and they reported the news down the middle.  “This is Edward R. Murrow reporting from London.  The noise you hear in the background is from German bombs exploding all over the City.”  I like my news straight up, no ads!

Every day, usually during the news programs, pharmaceutical companies tell us to ask our doctor if we should take their medicine.  I don’t go to the doctor very often, so when I do go the list of medicines I need to ask about is pretty long.  The last time I did that, the doctor’s reaction was as scary as the side effects listed at the end of the commercials.  I mute those commercials now.  It’s better for my health.

Highly creative people cobble together short messages that will convince me to change my life style, buy a new car or a better toilet cleaner.  Advertising wants to make it easy for me to choose a particular product, to distinguish it from the other twenty-two competitive products.  It’s a $190 billion segment of the economy.  In fact, I guess I just don’t like the commercials, on any program.  All that creativity wasted. 

Maybe I have too much time on my hands.

Four Quarters or 100 Pennies?

Four Quarters or 100 Pennies? [i]

“What will you accomplish in the next ten years?  The instructor posed that question in a management seminar nearly forty years ago.  We all gave the usual and expected answers.  We younger managers spoke of promotions to vice-president, gaining a patent to cure an exotic disease, or writing the definitive textbooks about plant management.  More seasoned members of the seminar had already achieved those goals and spoke of running large enterprises, influencing legislatures, or passing on their expertise to the likes of us.  One manager stood out.  His goal was simple: have five good friends before he died.  That seemed odd to me at the time, yet I still remember that afternoon

Social media alters our definition of friend.  How many “friends” do you have on Facebook?  People ask us to “friend” them?  Most of my friends on Facebook aren’t really friends.  They’re acquaintances.  I wish Facebook would let us acquaintance people, instead of friending them.  Why can’t we ask people to acquaintance us?  It would be fun to see who has the longest list of acquaintances or how many of us have mutual acquaintances.

I’ve met thousands of people over the years, worked closely with hundreds of others, and enjoyed the company of many.  A few of us became close friends.  We still are.  A few have passed.  Of those that remain, some are nearby, others across the country.  Some of us have the same political convictions and others diametrically opposed.  Some are affluent, some on the edge.  It doesn’t matter if you’re friends. 

Growing up in a small town made it easy to make friends.  Schools were small, churches were close-knit communities, youth groups plentiful, and everyone knew each other.  They also knew your mother.  If you got into trouble, she knew it before you got home.  It was easy to build friendships in that environment.  I’m still friends with kids I went to grade school or high school with.  Most, however, are folks we’ve met through our kids’ school life or community involvement wherever we lived.  Parent clubs, fundraising events, and volunteering brought many of us together, and we stuck. 

My Facebook account has a list of hundreds of acquaintances but only a few friends.  Four quarters are always better than 100 pennies.

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[i]Steve Maraboli 2017