A Beautiful Hand

By Phil Ponce | Published August 10, 2011

I received a beautiful handwritten note from a person who was involved in teaching people cursive.  He not only taught students and teachers, but also was in the publishing industry producing textbooks on handwriting.  When I saw his letter, I asked him to send me a sample of his writing that I could post on this blog.  I find it beautiful, don’t you?

As you may know, teaching cursive is now optional in most states and actually forbidden in Indiana (because it’s not relevant to testing).  But as you look at the sample below, losing this skill would truly be a lost art, don’t you think?

A Vanishing Art?

This entry was posted in Phil Ponce, unPHILtered. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
  • Viviana

    My fourth grade teacher (many, many years ago) had/has a very, legible cursive handwriting, and she was a lefty too!!

    PS: I wonder if Mr Tufo’s handwriting is still the same after 32 yrs???

  • http://www.wttw.com/chicagotonight Phil Ponce

    Based on his recent handwritten transmittal note, Viviana, I can say that it is still beautiful!

  • Viviana

    Lol, yes, there are some people that, after many years, still have a very beatuiful handwriting. It is so sad to see how the advancement of technology is making some items that are still considered precious to the “older” generation disappear. Viv :)

  • Javier

    I went a period of…oh…about a decade without practicing cursive after grade school. In grade school I disliked it immensely. I though it was pointless. It was slower and more difficult to write in cursive compared to print, and it added nothing to what was written. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why we were being taught it instead of simply allowing it to die out. In high school none of my teachers cared when I used, so I stuck with print. The same happened in college. One year, however, I was given a high-quality journal as part of a Christmas present, and somehow, writing in it in print just didn’t seem right. The result was horrible.

    For many pages, every eighth word or so was scratched out after after one or more of the letters in it was randomly substituted for some other letter in cursive that that I had no intention to write and had no reason to be there. I was flummoxed. I had never cared for cursive, and yet I could find no pleasure in the fact that the only thing I was able to write reliably in cursive was my name. I decided this would not do. Many illegible words followed.

    Today my cursive is frequently remarked upon by others in tones somewhere between appreciative and wistful. I still work on improving it, as I imagine it could look better, but I can find no reason why I should keep writing in cursive. Perhaps it’s like a heritage art form to me. Whatever the case, I continue to use it, and I think others should learn not because it’s particularly useful, but because it would be sad to see certain things die out.

  • Joanne Philpott

    I just read this and can’t believe it as I was just complaining about this in the schools today. I really want my son ( and his friends ) to learn this. Please tell me how to get a teacher out to where I live in Lake Forest so my kids can learn how to write?

    Regards

  • Tim

    Phil, in my genealogy research dealing with handwritten court documents and deeds, wills, estate settlements, censuses, ship passenger lists, et cetera, I have never once met a young genealogist unless they had also learned cursive in school. Today’s kids will have to teach themselves cursive and learn how to read the old cursive writing, such as the double “S” of the 1700′s which can also look like a “P”. I just feel sad for the kids who are missing out on a rich legacy in favor of greater efficiency and productivity. And for what?