the lost tradtion of beautiful Catholic Handwriting.

[TimothyH]

Thank you.

I can’t tell you the last time I wrote something. Everything is either on the computer, phone or tablet.

It is sad that I spent hours at school, hunched over, writing sentences over and over again.

I had a desire to write in my mid 40’s. I wanted to write beautiful letters. I purchased a nice gel pen and started writing cursive. It was actually painful until the muscles in my hand got used to it.

I can be re-learned but I see no reason to beat kids over the head with it nowadays.

 

[HelenRose]

Handwriting lessons… Rifle team… Typing class… Land lines… Horse and buggy… Flat earth… All gone. Whadaya gonna do?

None of these have anything to do with Catholicism, let alone the traditionalist movement.

We can teach our kids handwriting and meanwhile China and India are teaching their children material science and how to code in java.

I do wish that kids would be taught basic machanical skills tho. Kids grow up and don’t know the difference between a nut and a bolt or how to change a spark plug in a lawn mower.

-Tim-

Flat Earth was not part of the curriculum. I am not sure if it ever was.
You are right about teaching basic mechanical skills.

 

[HelenRose]

Growing up we had handwriting class. The good sisters taught us how to put a heading on paper, make it neat, have well formed letters and so on… Sometimes I would get an assignment handed back to me because of “sloppiness”, and have to re-do it.
Sadly the sloppy papers I did back then are equal to the best work I see coming home from my kid’s school these days–and it’s Catholic!

This served me well- and handwriting lessons were sometimes combined with religion-writing prayers, writing beautitudes, so it was a two-fold lesson.

The art of having a beautiful Catholic school handwriting is fading and it makes me sad. Did you grow up with handwriting class in your school? How did the sisters help you? Do your children attend a school that values this tradition today?

I want my kids to have this wonderful gift, yet I am swimming against the current here.

Thank you!

It makes me sad too but printing is easier for computers to recognize than cursive.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

It makes me sad too but printing is easier for computers to recognize than cursive.

Well…what made me sad was when I would have final exams come back for grading and I would see what was written in the test booklet! Granted, the exams were timed so they had to write as if they did not have all day. But still.

With so many, they had the hand dexterity of a child when it came to handwriting – whether in cursive or printing.

Of course, when I was ten years old, I was not understanding how a year of penmanship, five days per week, drawing line after line and page after page and notebook after notebook of interconnecting circles and those interconnecting vertical lines, was training the muscles in my hand on how to hold a pen and have the fluidity to form the letters, words and sentences. And if you didn’t do the figures just right, perfectly between the lines, not short or over, and overlapping just so, you started again.

But, after all these decades, I still have the same penmanship. It is so funny when people remark it. It is the most artistic thing about me, alas. But I am so grateful I have it. It is the most enduring gift of my dear fourth grade teacher.

 

[TimothyH]

Flat Earth was not part of the curriculum. I am not sure if it ever was.
You are right about teaching basic mechanical skills.

Yeah, flat earth was back in my time.

We had to walk to school… in four feet of snow… uphill… both ways. http://www.bikeforums.net/images/smilies/old.gif

-Tim-

 

[mommy_k]

Is “Catholic Handwriting” different than the handwriting kids learn at other schools?
This is a lost Catholic “tradition”?

.

Yes -Catholic school students used to have a distinct handwriting. The sisters were ahead of their time too-as many knew that writing the lesson, with attention to the detail is retained better by students too—

We were taught that our handwriting was a reflection of how we wanted to project ourselves to the world-with respect to the recipient, ourselves and the words that we wrote— prayers were written penmanship class.

I can notice Catholic school penmanship a mile away…

 

[mommy_k]

Yeah, flat earth was back in my time.

We had to walk to school… in four feet of snow… uphill… both ways. http://www.bikeforums.net/images/smilies/old.gif

-Tim-

I also miss the tradition of the good sisters cracking a ruler over the heads of smart aleck kids

 

[ProVobis]

I also miss the tradition of the good sisters cracking a ruler over the heads of smart aleck kids

We didn’t have sisters in the UK but those teachers could really whack across the palm of the hands in front of the class.

Our handwriting style BTW was more upright than slanted as was done in the states. I still have my “exercise” books from the last grade attended there.

 

[maryjk]

Yes -Catholic school students used to have a distinct handwriting. The sisters were ahead of their time too-as many knew that writing the lesson, with attention to the detail is retained better by students too—

Do you know when would have been?

Both my mother and my MIL, both went to Catholic school. Both have/or had very precise handwriting. But the handwriting doesn’t look anything alike.

They were both born in 1944.

 

[acadiANNA]

My father taught me to write clearly so other people could read it. People write-they understand what they have written, but if you need to pass the information to someone else, can they read it? Recently I was given an appointment card and I couldn’t tell if it was 10 or 18. A pet peeve of mine is sloppy handwriting. Maybe just that I micromanage.

 

[mommy_k]

Do you know when would have been?

Both my mother and my MIL, both went to Catholic school. Both have/or had very precise handwriting. But the handwriting doesn’t look anything alike.

They were both born in 1944.

Perhaps your mom and MIL have personalized their writing? I would ask them about penmanship class. This is not a timeframe thing–it has been taught from what seems like forever-and some schools still teach it. You even got a grade too!. But It is fading-from what I am seeing from my own kids.

Here is a link for what the handwriting looks like written by a Catholic woman.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=gfiC8c-f9wk

 

[maryjk]

Perhaps your mom and MIL have personalized their writing? I would ask them about penmanship class. This is not a timeframe thing–it has been taught from what seems like forever-and some schools still teach it. You even got a grade too!. But It is fading-from what I am seeing from my own kids.

Here is a link for what the handwriting looks like written by a Catholic woman.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=gfiC8c-f9wk

Neither of their writing looks/looked like that.

But mine does. And I went to public school.

Edited to add: My MIL has always said that her writing is exactly what the nuns taught her.

 

[Matthew125]

The art of having a beautiful Catholic school handwriting is fading and it makes me sad. Did you grow up with handwriting class in your school? How did the sisters help you? Do your children attend a school that values this tradition today?

I grew up with this. Unfortunately, the Sisters realized I was a lost cause at some point. I vividly remember being graded on our handwriting. Some of the girls in my class had beautiful, flowing script. It reminded my of my Mom’s handwriting. They received the highest mark, “A - Angelic.” My grade was “F - chicken scratch.” I have been block printing ever since.

Matt

 

[babochka]

Perhaps your mom and MIL have personalized their writing? I would ask them about penmanship class. This is not a timeframe thing–it has been taught from what seems like forever-and some schools still teach it. You even got a grade too!. But It is fading-from what I am seeing from my own kids.

Here is a link for what the handwriting looks like written by a Catholic woman.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=gfiC8c-f9wk

My mom, born in 1948 and educated in public schools has handwriting just like that.
My dad, born in 1944, went to Catholic schools. I’ve never seen his cursive, as he writes in his own style, mostly all capitals. I guess the sisters failed with him, too.

In the 1950s, the vast majority of schools in the US taught the Palmer method.

I was taught a slightly different style in Catholic school in the 1970s. The sisters utterly failed with me, though, or perhaps I failed them. My handwriting is atrocious, although I can write well if I try. It is not effortless.

The Palmer method was designed to keep up with the typewriter. No form of cursive can keep up with computers, I’m afraid.