Large Fierce Mammal

Without the ability to read Cursive, much of even recent history might as well be written in code.

Literacy is a set of skills based upon three legs; one passive, and the other two active.

The passive one is Reading. It requires no output on the part of the participant, necessitating only the ability to comprehend the written word. The two active legs of the Literacy tripod are:

• Writing; and
• Speaking.

Now, when I refer to these three vital components of Literacy, I mean something very specific, for to represent True Literacy demands that each of the three components be expressed in strict accordance with the rules of the Tool called Language. In this, for example, there is a world of difference between Speaking and simply talking.

Never mind that hand written letter from your Grandmother. If your Literate girlfriend gives you this and you can’t read it, it’ll be just you and your hand tonight, and a long list of nights thereafter.

True Literacy is no longer reliably taught in public schools for reasons that parallel the rest of society. Look at the evolution of the computer industry, in its move away from full size desk top machines toward a focus on portable devices. Even lap top computers are being supplanted in the lives of many by smart phones and tablets – devices crafted to facilitate consumption rather than creation of content – and in that, dear Reader, there is a problem.

There is currently debate among those who “craft” education policy over whether or not schools should continue to teach the use of cursive script at all. Grounds generally cited by proponents of this misguided move focus on how most people do their writing exclusively on keyboards or touch sensitive electronic equivalents. And so, we have a 19 year old witness at the George Zimmerman trial who was outed on the stand as having lied in her testimony when she was unable to read aloud a letter she claimed to have written. The reason, in her own words: “I don’t read cursive.” As it turned out, the only part of the letter she could interpret was her own name.

When I was a child, learning to print letters, words, and ultimately entire sentences was what was mastered in elementary school. Cursive – Penmanship – was what grown up people did. At university, my first year English Professor actually forbade anything but properly penned pages, executed to his very high standards of legibility, in all written assignments submitted to him. Keyboarding skills have been essential to Writers since the typewriter was invented, but until very recently, all significant documents were hand written. Not to read cursive is to shut yourself off from pretty much all of the heritage you are heir to.

A segment of the CBC Radio show The 180 that aired on 28 March 2014 dealt with this very matter, and I welcome you to listen to it now by clicking here. You know where my own sentiments lie.

Some additional and related mind fodder can be found at the websites of Handwriting Without Tears, and The Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild.