My brother @galenkp wrote a post in his School Days community about handwriting, which reminded me of one of my own experiences from school (the same school) with my own handwriting and my rebellious streak that doesn't like authority. Unlike my brother though, my handwriting wasn't substandard - it was exceptional.
My mother taught me to read and write.
She taught us all. I mention this because there is a bit of an age gap between my brother and I and while his writing compared to others was apples to apples - mine was apples to oranges. Because in the writing classes at school where they taught the shapes and distances on paper with special lines and what not, the style of writing changed between when he went to school, and when I went to school. Cursive was the norm for him, but for me, the cursive turned into some kind of big bubble writing that was more akin to comic sans than beautiful handwriting.
As said, my mother taught me.
She wrote in old cursive, with flowing lines and loops and intricacies that while unnecessary, were beautiful and added flair and emotion. The modern writing style I was learning and did in the lessons, was garish, ugly, and artless. It was functional, but it lacked feeling. And the conformity of it across the student population was a start of the continued drive for consolidation of thought of the masses, where everyone has to do the same, and think the same.
Fuck that.
But, in the writing classes I learned the bubble letters that looked like the average American, so that I could get my "pen license". This was a stupid certificate for those who could write well enough to transition into using pen, instead of pencil in year three - so at about eight years old. I was the second in the class to get mine - because Abbey was the teacher's pet.
Even at eight - she looked like an experienced librarian.
But while I got my pen license, I didn't actually write that way, and the next year it became a problem. We had a term-long project (10 weeks) in the class, that amounted to about 30 pages of pictures and text based on Australian geography and history and the like. It was a lot of research (encyclopaedias at the time) and a huge amount of writing - relative for a nine year old kid.
Mine was great!
The problem was, that when I got it back from grading, it wasn't accepted, because I wrote in flowing script, not comic sans bubble letters. I said, my parents taught me to read and write and I asked,
"Can you read it?".
My teacher, who was likely in her mid-forties at the time could read it no worries, because that is how she had learned to write herself, but it wasn't the "accepted" way to write, so she said that I would fail, unless I wrote it again. I of course argued that the project isn't about the way I write, but the information itself, and since she could read it, there shouldn't be an issue. This was unacceptable, and I had to write it all out again.
Fuck the establishment!
I wrote it all again.
I had a week to do it. And this time, I made sure that my handwriting was even better than before, still in flowing script, complete with loops and unnecessary intricacies. And at the end of the week, I handed it in to the teacher, who looked at it and I could see the blood pouring into her face like everything from the rest of her body had been squeezed up to the top, like rolling a tube of toothpaste.
She exploded.
She screamed and shouted about my insolence and how she is going to fail me for the term and all of the rest that went along with it. She also would call my mother and talk to her about how I haven't done what I was told to do and how unacceptable it was. While this wasn't a pleasant experience, I was still defiant and even as a kid, I was pretty pragmatic with this kind of thing - this is primary school, it isn't that serious.
So, my mother was called into the school to have a conversation with the teacher, and while I stood there, the teacher explained to my mother the assignment, me writing it in inappropriate cursive, then rewriting it in the same way, even though I was told to write in the accepted form, and how she is going to have to fail me for the project because I didn't do what I was told and it kept going.
My mother sat patiently listening.
And when the teacher had finished her rant, asked,
Can you read it?
My mother wasn't supportive in many ways, but she always had my back when authority tried to force me to conform to imaginary standards.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I understood from what I could read that this was, first of all, a tribute to your mother, who:
Of course, the topic was different, and I think I understood what you were saying about the force wanting to impose one rule for all and trying to inhibit everyone's specific personality. You were a rebel and opposed the regulations that led to standardization... I understand that you have a good memory, which helps you recall things from your childhood.
However, the effect on me was to remind me of my mother, who, like your mother, took care of me and encouraged me to read, learn, and write beautifully, as was said at that time. That is, to write the way she wrote, somehow archaic and much more pleasant than the writing imposed by school.
Thank you!
It is a tribute to a part of her - but in many ways, she was a terrible mother! But we all have our pros and cons :)
Then the piece has done its job :) Bringing up past memories, both good and bad, give us that chance to reflect and learn, and maybe come to terms with the bad, and appreciate the good a little more. Hopefully, you have a better feeling after reading.
Yes, I have. I understand that there are many facets of your mother, and I acknowledge that some of them were terrible. However, with time, we may forgive, and perhaps we understand the context better.
Of course, we understand and appreciate the good, and we strive not to repeat the mistakes that parents have made in the past. I'm sure you don't repeat those mistakes.
Thank you!
There's always a smart ass with exceptional writing, just wasn't ever me.
Now, down the the real story...
Abbey, hot or not and did you go there? 🤣
She got hotter a bit later, but still in that librarian kind of way. Her glasses even had those plastic chains on them :D
Ah ok, you might have dodged a fucken bullet there.
She probably turned into a hottie as an adult. Or a heffalump.
No in between? Yeah, you're probably right, I'm now curious to know for sure. 🙄
That is cool your mom had your back. Mine did as well, as long as I was on the right path. Otherwise she would side with the teacher.
They don't eveen teach cursive in most schools around here anymore. I5 is all print or typed. I am not sure how I feel about it. My youngest son can't even read cursive writing. I find this a little sad I guess.
My mother was strict in many ways. The "right path" was clear and the wrong path, painful.
On the writing versus typing thing - I have a weird theory. We are left or right handed and our dominant hand guides our thinking. Our personality shines through when we write. But, when we type we use both hands, meaning different parts of our brains and thoughts are accessed at the physical level, so I think this impacts on what we write in some way - maybe making it harder to think, or less clear or something. I am not sure how large the difference is, but I suspect there is a difference.
I also think that writing with a pen gives a more physical connection than typing, with pressure, flow and feel involved - it is a group of skills that typing doesn't capture.
Same for me. It was like Jekyll and Hyde. She could be the sweetest person, but if you crossed her and disobeyed, the ramifications were sometimes extreme.
I am not sure what my writing would say about my personality then. Maybe a little bBi-polar, schizoed.
Wooooh! I never thought about anything like "pen license". Was it a government launched idea or it was specific to your school. And what if a person never reaches to the standard? Would he ever be allowed to write with pen?
It's astonishing for me to hear a story where a readable writing was not accepted only because it did not meet certain standard. Isn't that a non-sense? Is there a need to craft letters with particular strokes to regard the writing as acceptable. I think readability is the only requirement the writing requires, and yes neatness too.
I am wondering what happened to you afterwards. Did she fail you in a exam for handwriting, that was not meant to guage handwriting?
Seriously, I never expected education system to be that stupid.
No idea. And, I guess at some point, they just give up. The kids that didn't get it, likely weren't going to do much in life anyway :D
I think that this al speaks to how the focus has changed from the content, to the delivery. Much of the content these days is delivered well, but is poor quality - like most superhero movies and TV shows. It is all about the look, not the ideas.
And yeah, I was failed for the project - but what does it matter for an eight year old? :D
🤣🤣
I think Bill Gates said, "If you cannot mqke it good, make it look good."
That's what the world is after. The appearance
Mmmm. It may or may not matter. Depends on the support system I think
Sometimes even I have troubles reading what I wrote. I think I mentioned this but years ago I tried to write books. A detective, a continuation of lord of the rings and my favorite a fantasy story of my own.. I did not finish any of them. And writing by hand, then typing to pc and then translating it to english was pain in the ass. Still I enjoyed it. But now I am glad that I have already posted it on Hive- now I have a hard time understanding what I wrote.😛
This is what is important for a hobby - even an unfinished project can bring the necessary enjoyment of the process.
Your mother acted bravely and correctly. I don't like these standards and templates either. It's good that I wasn't scolded at school for my handwriting, my handwriting was terrible :)
You could be a doctor! :D
There was such a joke in the Soviet Union too :)
I was home-schooled, so I learned reading and writing from my mother. She says I was trying to teach myself to read, so she just stepped in with some guidance at first.
We used a curriculum called "The Writing Road to Reading," a systematic book with manuscript and phonics leading on to cursive in later years. It had a specific way to write those cursive letters, so I learned that method before eventually developing my own style from that foundation.
When I went to college to learn drafting and design, it was at the tail end of learning how to use traditional tools. We learned computer-aided drafting, of course, but there was also board drafting with pencils and pen-and-ink. Proper block lettering was part of the process, and anything hand-written was to be turned in with uniform capital letter text. I have hardly used cursive since.
I did technical drawing at high school and really enjoyed it. The connection to what is being designed is greater, and there is more understanding in what is being created. I work with a lot of design engineers and the older ones who started prior to CAD have a far better understanding of the practical nature of what they are designing. They can "see it" before they draw a line.
Writing is a dying art, and I think that something is missed because of it. I reckon the act of physically writing prose of some kind, accesses a different part of the brain than typing the same thing. It is also more personal - but who the hell writes letters anymore?
Oh, I write short ones to my daughter every weekend :)
What a crazy idea with the bubble letters. They were still teaching cursive in the States when I was in school so I learned it. It wasn't the old flowing style, but was one of those hybrid systems that aimed to keep some of the old elegance while making it easier to learn (so that schools didn't have to spend as much time on the subject, I imagine). I think it was the Palmer method. My writing was always terrible, so I switched to print only as soon as I was able. Oddly, when I started using fountain pens, I naturally switched back to cursive since it is easier to write that way with a fountain pen, and now my writing is pretty good.
Anyway, that's cool that your mom had your back on that one. Generally I try to be supportive of teachers, but a teacher digging in her heels like that in support of a dumb policy needs to be stood up to.
This is interesting! I think the tools we use definitely affect what we do, and these days, most people don't know how to use a pen properly. I notice it in kids who spend a lot of time on phones, that they aren't able to "shade" using a pencil - they are far too heavy-handed.
Some teachers deserve support, some don't.
That is pretty funny. I was always getting in trouble in school, so my parents were a little less forgiving with me. It was usually my fault and they knew it. That pretty much went away once I got past 6th grade or so. The only time they had to come in after that they totally took my side against a teacher.
:D
What happened? A story for this community perhaps!
Yeah, I can't really remember to be honest. I just remember my dad came home and said that guy is a moron. I've definitely got some stories from school. I will just have to wait for the right time to write them up!
Good job, mother! My own mother entered school already writing cursive, thanks to her older brother. The teacher wanted to make her print.
As for me, my cursive degraded as I tried to keep up with notetaking in engineering school. My husband and I print when doing technical communications, although our courtship correspondence from around 1980 is in cursive.
!BBH !BEER
Engineers are the worst! ;D
(Everything is print)
Can you imagine getting a love letter all in capitals? :)
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Cool story! Didn't know Galen was your brother. I saw his stuff a while ago, just didn't stick with me. Though I do know he is big on Hive.
But makes sense, you are both kp.
Yeah - we have been brothers for a while now :)
My first writing-reading was in Braille, as I was in my first years of primary school in a school for the visually impaired. After the surgeries, I learned to read, it was difficult for me to shape my cursive handwriting, as learning the strokes at the age of 9 is different than for a child of 6. With practice and the use of a method known as Palmer Calligraphy, I managed at around the age of 14 to have a decent handwriting, which helped me a lot when I was writing on the acrylic board when I was a teacher.
My dad was a teacher and he had exceptional blackboard skills - him writing was like there were lines on the board guiding him :D
Do you still read braille?
Yes, of course. These are skills I have to keep for when, if and if the blindness gets worse, but I do everything I can to keep the 20/70 vision in my left eye. That's how you learn to live. Thank you for asking.
Wao
View or trade
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BEERKING.Good on your mum.
The imaginary standards thing is one of many reasons we didn't do school. I like standards to make sense.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@fiberfrau(1/5) tipped @tarazkp
Come get MOONed!
Your memory and assumptions are wrong. My mother was Australian - blonde and blue-eyed.
And yes, the teacher failed me.
You are a strange creepy dude.
You mentioned your English a long time ago, but here you are still making invasive, ignorant and rude comments and remarks,suggesting things that are untrue and that you have no idea about.
The fact that your English is not good doesn't negate th need for manners and courtesy. Those things transcend language barriers.