We learned cursive writing pretty early in our school lives. My handwriting was OK. In fourth grade, as far as I can remember, we had new students join us. Those two new girls had the most beautiful cursive I had ever seen. Soon, my goal was to write like them, or as close to them that I could. In the process, I gained two new friends, and today, after decades, they are still my best friends.
So writing has definitely made my life richer – rather handwriting. Also, I discovered that writing down what I was learning, many times over – while taking notes in class, while transcribing them to my notebook, and while studying for tests – helped me learn better. So, there I was – becoming a better student too.
And pencil on paper in a whole other way – drawing is something I love too. Though writing on paper is not something I am doing often enough, I hope to do more regularly now.
Silver winter moon
shines down on our yard so bright
need no light to write.
Today, we are exploring handwriting and its impact on our lives through haibun over at dVerse. And I continue my UBC with this poem and the photo taken late last year for PhotoSunday’s Silver theme. The haibun and the haiku are still poetry forms that I am working on and hopefully with practice, with actually putting down pen(cil) on paper to write them maybe, will get me somewhere better than I am today at these (and other forms as well).
Writing about handwriting did evoke many memories, most of them good in my case! My Hero pen filled with Camel or Chelpark Royal Blue, my Natraj pencils, those cursive writing practice books, and other wonderful memories from school…
he first thing that caught my eyes was the image, with the curlicues and flowers between the lines, and the fluidity of the handwriting. I can remember wanting to write like a girl who sat next to me in class, her writing was so neat and round. I also found I learned things better if I wrote them down many times over. Isn’t is amazing that we are so similar in writing, continents apart. And I love your haiku, Vidya!
thank you Kim!! for your comments and for hosting today’s prompt…
Fabulous moon shot
Mollyx
thank you…
How wonderful… I also had a friend and we wrote together to get the script the way we wanted it.. love the new friends and studying…
thank you Bjorn
and even to date, our handwritings are similar.. though not the same.. theirs still are more beautiful 🙂
I learn by writing notes down multiple times as well. I like the doodles between the paragraphs in your handwriting.
thank you Frank!! and trying to get my kids to be better students too that way.. but so much of their stuff is done directly on the computer 🙂 so writing is not as much as we did..
very beautiful haiku! writing by moonlight is so magical. thank you for sharing a lovely story from your childhood that has shaped your future.
thank you Gina.. loved writing to this prompt
This is a delightful account of your memories and how writing became a source of friendship for you. The haiku was perfect.
By the way, your photo is stunning.
thank you Victoria.. your comment on my haiku and the photo made my day..
Aahh the stories about cursive writing. Do you know that it will soon be a secret code between old folk since many schools have decided to discontinue teaching it? As for the learning part, apparently, the writing exercise sends the information directly up your arm, across your shoulder, up your neck and into your brain. The action of writing seems to stir it around to mix it up with the other things you have learned. In school, I often had to stay after class to “write lines” to help me learn important stuff, like “I must not talk in class.” When that did not appear to be punishment enough, I had to write them on the blackboard with a piece of chalk. It paid off in the long run, when I started teaching, I not only got the chance to talk in class, my cursive writing was legible.
My first experience with writing was in a 2 room school house. K-4 in one room and 5-8 in the other. I was in Kindergarten and every morning the task was to empty a bag of cardboard tiles onto the desk and spell out the words from the alphabet using the lettered tiles. Apple, Boy, Cat, Dog . . . This was as tedious as putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Searching through the pile to find the next letter you needed. I could print the words on a piece of paper much quicker with a pencil than I could sort through the letters. One day the teacher asked me why I was not working on the words. I replied, “it was too much like work”.
So here I am typing on a keyboard when I could be dictating this stuff to my computer. It just does not feel the same.
I think I have written enough here for another day’s blog post.
Blog on!
🙂 ha ha, you definitely have a post ready here for you.. and love the stories from your cursive days here..
I too doodle once pen meets paper – I think the mere act of (hand) writing is a creative thing as we fashion our thoughts into words. I think I should write more on paper…
Anna :o]
yes. writing down on paper tends to give our brains a different workout.. and i like that
Doug is right … one day cursive writing will be only something old folks talk about. Seems it will no longer be taught in our schools. How will they sign a check? Oh, I forgot, they do that on line. How will they sign important papers? Oh, I forgot … digital thumbprint. I’m beginning to feel like a dinosaur among Jedis!
ha ha Bev:) I know, I was just reading about all the smart technology and its future and yesterday’s science fiction is today’s reality, so what is awaiting humans tomorrow? we are definitely dinosaurs 🙂