Why handwriting?

Communication in writing nowadays is almost exclusively done in type.  Why, then, should anyone care about being able to write legibly?

An unexpected skill that teachers and tutors develop is that of reading upside-down.  In any one-on-one session with a student, they are generally sitting face to face with a desk between.  When the student sets to work on a problem, it is useful to be able to scan the details without disturbing the student; it is even more useful to be able to follow what the student is doing him- or herself.  Our tutoring consultant finds this easier than he expected, though now and then he reverses inequalities or minus signs.

Something of greater difficulty, however, is poor handwriting.  Something that is difficult to follow right side up is almost impossible upside down.  And there are students whose work is, not to put too fine a point on it, unreadable.  This is not really new; but it startled our tutor to realize that there didn’t seem to be a compelling case for today’s students to be otherwise.

In the Really Old Days, of course, handwriting was all there was.  If something had been written, someone had taken pen (or equivalent) in hand and applied ink to that place.  One can but marvel at the beauty of the writing in a Medieval manuscript, even if one’s Latin isn’t up to parsing it out.  Of course this doesn’t mean that everyone’s handwriting was excellent, even among the tiny minority who could read and write.  When every few pages of parchment means a sheep is no longer producing wool and milk, you choose your writers carefully.

Medievalist friends of ours say the low point of handwriting occurred in the decades following the widespread use of printing.  Since a legible printed sheet is comparatively easy to produce, the pressure on manuscripts to be clear was greatly reduced–and it shows.  At the same time all letters were still handwritten, and the curses of scholars trying to decipher a careless Elizabethan hand can still be heard from many an ivory tower.

It’s sometimes hard to imagine just how important clear handwriting could be.  One of our consultant’s ancestors was a private in the Union army during the Civil War (about which there is much to be said, but not here).  He was often called away from his rifle company to Division headquarters because he had clear and readable handwriting, and it was absolutely vital that the General’s orders be clear and readable.  A cavalry commander ordered to make a flank attack should not be puzzling over a badly-formed letter!

With the invention and spread of the typewriter such services were less vital.  But for many decades these were expensive machines, to found in government and businesses but not in homes.  One wrote one’s letters by hand.  And one wrote one’s school assignments and essays by hand.  Hence teachers, out of self-defence if nothing else, required a long, painstaking education in handwriting.  And there would be a handwriting grade even on the highest sort of philosophical essay.

Well, no more.  Even the most informal text message is now done by keyboard.  The ancient practice of passing scribbled notes to one’s sweetheart, two rows up and one across, is probably dead.  Essays are composed on the computer (with automatic spell-check and grammar tests, neither quite perfect) and emailed to the teacher.  The only advantage of being able to write readably is that the math instructor will be able to tell where you went wrong.

Unless you want to take fountain-pen in hand and actually write a letter.