Today I again thank John at The Sound of One Hand Typing for his weekly writing prompts there. One such idea this week was to write a post about the word “surprise”, so let’s go with that.
Color me surprised. The U.S. government thinks I have a “superpower”. Or at least one independent branch of it does. Because the National Archives are in the midst of a growing crisis… they have some 300 million digitized pieces of paperwork that need transcribing and fewer and fewer people are able to decipher them anymore. That, because the old ones, some as recent as the 1950s mind you, are mostly hand-written. Emphasis on “written”. And most of today’s youth can read that as easily as they could decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. In fact, Suzanne Isaacs of the Archives calls reading cursive a “super-power”.! Wow, who knew I was so gifted with such a rare talent? Funny, when people have asked me if I could have one super-power, usually things that come to mind are like being able to become invisible or be able to fly or have a healing touch or perhaps have irresistible, magnetic charm for super-models (or at least was before I got hitched that is!) but I never really picked “be able to read curly handwriting.” But a super-power is a super-power, I guess, so lucky me!
It does point out a real problem though and illustrates another sign of the times. When I was in school, we had to learn how to “write”; we’d be chastised and probably lose grades if we handed in a report or test written in block capitals, at least until high school when some teachers preferred we typewrite our essays or reports. At the time, I was constantly praised for how neat my writing was; that’s now as long gone as the corduroy slacks I was usually sent to school in. Now should I actually “write” something, I have trouble reading my own work an hour later. I still do put down a lot of notes and thoughts on paper with pen, but I scribble them out in block letters. However, the grade school skill hasn’t left my eyes; I still have no trouble reading cursive. Unless it’s penned by someone of my current penmanship levels. And that’s always been a chunk of the population. One of the Archives spokespersons said going through page after page of old government forms, immigration paper, census data and so on was tough because of spelling mistakes, obsolete words or terms and of course, messy writing. “Justices of the Peace, their handwriting is atrocious!”, she exclaimed.
I should also point out back when I was in school, I think we just called that form of communication “writing” or “handwriting.” Presumably “cursive” only became the preferred term recently, since it provokes much cursing in young people who encounter it.
It’s logical that cursive is becoming a rarity in today’s computerized, digitized world… who (besides me I guess) still writes out notes for articles or random thoughts with a pen or puts a note inside a greeting card? Do you ever go to a grocery store and see anyone under-65 who’s not me with a shopping list on a piece of paper rather than their phone? I drive by Walgreens stores and wonder how many of their under-40 customers even actually know their logo says “Walgreens”? Many school boards dropped it from the curriculum by 1990, although recently some 14 states have added it back, including California for the very reason the Archives are describing. Whether its your grandparents’ old correspondence or the nation’s constitution, it’s better if people can actually read it and not have to take mere guesses or rely on someone else’s interpretation.
It makes me wonder just how many other super-powers I have without knowing it. Being able to tie up my shoes? Being able to place a call on a phone that has a dial instead of a touch-tone screen? Being able to find the number to call in a physical phone book? Maybe I will be Captain Codebreaker and Hollywood will make movies starring Ryan Reynolds, or some dude who’s considered a hottie these days, as me!
Yeah, “vivid imagination”, another one of my super-powers!
Everydave Life 