In Which I Ask You to Tell Me About Your Adventures in Penmanship

So I'm writing this play. And I'm hoping you'll help by sharing some of your experiences.

The play is tentatively titled MISS PALMER'S SCHOOL FOR PENMANSHIP AND CIVIL BEHAVIOR, which takes place in 1972. I'm attempting to draw a correlation between the disintegration of our national handwriting, and the erosion of civility.

But mostly, it's about Miss Palmer, an almost extinct species of teacher who remains passionate about "beautiful, useless things" in spite of emerging technologies and America's obsession with pop culture. When the ill-mannered mother of one of her students openly challenges her by offering a course in keyboarding, Miss Palmer goes head to head with the future, and is forced to see the handwriting on the wall.

Here's what I need your help with:

Please leave a comment and tell me about your experience learning cursive handwriting. Was it torture? A pleasure? Was there anything your teacher did or didn't do that contributed to your attitude about learning penmanship? How much time did you spend on it in class? How would you describe your handwriting now? Do you think quality penmanship is important?

Your experiences will help me construct the pro and con attitudes about the importance of penmanship in a technically advanced world. I hope you'll share them with me.

Thanks!


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