I've heard friends recently lamenting how poor the next generation's handwriting is. We get thank you cards that are hand lettered and badly. When those in my children's generation write cards or letters to us, their penmanship is pretty bad. Penmanship--that's what we called it in my elementary school when we started learning to write "cursive". Some call it a lost art.
I have thought about this and have resisted chiming in on the "old farts" brigade.
Perhaps it's because I never had particularly good penmanship myself. Mine was so bad that I would try to copy others' handwriting styles. Penmanship and art were the only subjects that I hope to get a C in.
Of course, most in my generation eventually got to the point where they could write fairly legibly (except, of course, those who became doctors). In my case, we started learning penmanship in the third grade and continued through the eighth grade. Even I could learn to put something legible on a piece of paper after six years.
Like many of my contemporaries, I was introduced to the typewriter in high school. In my school, it was pretty much expected of you to submit work in either typewritten or double spaced handwritten form. By the time I made it to college, everything in the liberal arts arena was typed. In fact, I preferred typing. I had a background in piano, had been taught typing in high school, and had helped in my father's office during the summer's for the secretary who took off to be with her children. Typing was just natural to me.
Now, let's consider the next generation, the boomers' children. They have been exposed to computers since elementary school. My daughters were taught something called "keyboarding" early in their education. I'm not sure how it differed from my typing lessons, but I do know that they can keyboard faster than I can type.
So, if it's a good thing that they have learned to use computers and, further, that both our and their generations communicate electronically more than any other way, why lament the decline of handwriting? Electronic communications are fast, legible, and you don't have to go out to the post office and get stamps. I think our generation should let go of the standard that says proper (or, if you will, formal) communications be handwritten.
Further, I think Emily Post should update her book to allow electronic communications (and here I mean nothing lower on the technological ladder than email) for all kinds of things that heretofore were expected to be handwritten and snail-mailed. Thank you messages, birthday greetings, holiday greetings, and so forth.
At some point, lamenting the loss of good penmanship will be like lamenting the loss of our distant ancestors' tails. They both are vestiges whose time has passed.
Now, having said that, I do think that anything written on a computer should adhere to the rules of grammar. (Of course, so should the old fashioned handwritten communications.) Talk about a lost art!
As a post script, I'd like to talk about that electronic messaging form commonly called "texting". I don't like it, although I will use it infrequently out of necessity. I don't like it, primarily because its shorthand standards (lol, btw, omg, etc) are starting to creep up the communications ladder into email and, God forbid, handwritten notes. And never mind the threat to life and limb texting presents to those who try to text and drive at the same time.
So, do not be surprised if my next "Thank you" card arrives electronically.
No comments:
Post a Comment