As a left-hander, I was often scolded by my elementary school teachers to hold my hand so that my cursive letters would slant correctly. Each report card came home with “N” for my handwriting grade (N= Needs Improvement).
For many of today's elementary school students, the handwriting assessment is replaced with “keyboarding,” a function that allows both hands to work easily towards a readable outcome. Many states do not mandate that cursive writing be taught.
At the least, our children will lose their unique signatures and perhaps tragically not be able to decipher grandparents' letters or journals mom wrote in college. And one's need for spelling skills may disappear, too, with Spell Check and texting shorthand. What will the future hold? IDK.
Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with Catherine Johnston, an Olympia, Wash., writer who works in hospital administration, write about issues of grief when facing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.
Ask a question: Rebecca and Catherine answer grief questions in their syndicated EndNotes column for McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Email them at endnotescolumn@gmail.com.
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