1
Loops & Curves cursive's connection to modern day
Loops & Curves cursive's connection to modern day
writing and design by
Morgan Lynn Stockton
Š Morgan Lynn Stockton This book was created as part of the Degree Project course taught at the Kansas City Art Institute in the Spring of 2015 by Kelly Ludwig. This is an investigation of how design can display and increase cursive's relevancy in modern day. Good talk, buddy.
to the two most beautiful women in my life, who also have the most beautiful handwriting
09 Note to the Reader 10 Cursive and Personality 18 Memories in Cursive 34 Historical Uses of Cursive 46 Cursive and Education 52 The Science of Cursive 58 Types of Cursive
All the letters from my favorite people are written in beautiful cursive. Years and years, I strived to perfect my own writing to varying degrees of success. I suffered, a still sort of suffer, from a problem that really began with my own generation and has only gotten worse. Cursive just isn't seen as important anymore. Many wonder why we should bother learning cursive when technology is moving to the forefront more and more every day? Why not just let it die? Well, I won't stand for that. So here, in this book, is my arguement. How cursive shows our personalities, how it shaped our lives and memories, how it shaped our nation as well, why we're losing cursive in schools, and why we shouldn't let that happen. So much could be lost and I don't want to see that occur.
—Morgan Stockton
11
cursive and
person a li t y
“
g n i t i r w d han t n a t r o p i s im ll a f o st r fi t i e s u a c be o t d e r e matt . . . e l p o e p
“
*
So much of what is lost in typing a message to a friend or sending a small happy face emoji is that sense of personality. When a note was slid on to your desk from across the classroom, there was no question of who was the sender. You knew your best friend’s scribbles as well as you knew your own. These days it’s lucky if you’ve even seen something that was written by a close friend. Many don’t even realize this is missing from their life. Philip Hensher, author of The Missing Ink:The Lost Art of Handwriting discusses his own personal experience with this in the introduction to his book. “About six months ago, I realized that I had no idea what the handwriting of a good friend of mine looked like. I had known him for over a decade, but somehow we had never communicated using handwritten notes. He had left messages for me, emailed me, sent text messages galore. But I don’t think I had ever had a letter from him written by hand, a postcard from his holidays, a reminder of something pushed through my letterbox. I had no idea whether hid handwriting was bold or crabbed, sloping or upright, italic or rounded, elegant or slapdash.
*Tamara Plakins Thorton, Handwriting in America: A Clutural History, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996, pg. x.
The odd thing is. It had never struck me as strange before, and there was no particular reason why is had suddenly come to mind. We could have gone on like this forever, hardly noticing that we had no need of handwriting anymore.” ¹
¹Philip Hensher, The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting, New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2012, pg. 5.
15
“
our handwriting is an expression of our personality and humanity...
“
*
“Can you write in cursive? Here write this line for me.” This line was greeted with giggles and exclamations of, “God, do I even rememFollowing Page *Philip Ball, “The Curse of Cursive
ber how to do this?” There may have been initial doubts but as soon as a sentence was either hastily scribbled or carefully put down, the
Handwriting,” Prospect: The
personality of each individual shown through. People laughed and
Leading Magazine of Ideas, ac-
pointed at certain characters, saying “Oh, yeah, that looks just like
cessed March 12, 2015, http:// www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/
him,” or “Figures that you would be the perfect one.” Coming from
magazine/cursive-handwriting-
the hand, cursive is innately connected to us as people and who we
philip-ball/.
are. This connection can’t be found in a simple typed email or text.
Cursive and Personality
19
memo se in currsi eiv 21
23
¹Brett McKay, “On the Importance of Writing Letters by Hand,” Birchbox, accessed April 9, 2015, https://www.birchbox.com/guide/ article/on-the-importance-of-writing-letters-by-hand.
Letters left behind to family members can be some of the most important pieces of memorabilia. They show the beautiful script of generations past as well as giving a picture of the people of the time—the time they lived, the people they talked to, the events of their lives. These are the types of letters that can be passed down from grandparent to parent to child. "Because sending a letter is the next best thing to showing up personally at someone’s door. Ink from your pen touches the stationery, your fingers touch the paper, your saliva seals the envelope. Something tangible from your world travels through machines and hands, and deposits itself in another’s mailbox. The recipient handles the paper that you handled and they see your personality and individuality conveyed in your handwriting."¹
Memories in Cursive
33
Personal � National History A historical record of the entire U.S. population, the census is the nation’s largest record set for family history and genealogy. Taken every ten years, from 1790 to the present day, each entry provides a unique snapshot of the lives of your ancestors.
35
histor i c al uses of cursive 37
“
I'm horrified to hear that American children
will no longer learn cursive!!!! American children
“
would not be able to read the Constitution.
Kirstie Alley*
Talking about the Declaration of Independence, “Jefferson is the one who developed many of the words, the really resounding words that we all love,” said Nicholson, the recently retired Deputy Director of the Conservation Labs at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. “Timothy Matlack is the man who engrossed it, wrote it out on parchment in a beautiful way with engrossed letters at the top and that was signed by the representatives.”¹
*Tweet by Actress Kirstie Alley ¹April Brown, “Is Cursive Handwriting Slowly Dying Out in America,”
Matlack, according to Nicholson, was a professional scribe, the type
PBS NewsHour, accessed April
of man who would use a practiced hand to pen important papers
4, 2015, http://www.pbs.org/news-
before printing presses were invented or readily available. “They were professional clerks known for writing beautifully, clearly in a way that anyone could read so they took the place of a formally printed document,” Nicholson said.
hour/updates/long-held-traditioncursive-handwriting-slowly-dyingamerica/. ²ibid.
Nicholson admires the penmanship of the scribes who wrote the many important national documents she has helped preserve, including the Declaration of Independence. “If you’ve seen the elegant writing from the 18th century, elegant writing of many of the great significant documents in the National Archives and other places, to lose that elegance, that sense of elegance, it feels like losing a bit of civilization.”²
Historical Uses of Cursive
39
*“The Lincoln Presidency: Last Full Measure of Devotion,” Cornell University, accessed April 8, 2015,
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was copied into five manuscripts—Nicolay copy, Hay copy, Everett copy, Brancroft copy, and
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/
Bliss copy—each one named for the person who recieved the writ-
lincoln/exhibition/gettysburg/.
ten version of the speech from Lincoln.
¹Roy P. Basler, “The Gettysburg Address,” Abraham Lincoln Online, accessed April 8, 2015, http://www.
"The Bliss copy, named for Colonel Alexander Bliss, is the only draft to which Lincoln affixed his signature. Lincoln is not known to have
abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/
made any further copies of the Gettysburg Address. Because of the
speeches/gettysburg.htm
apparent care in its preparation, and in part because Lincoln provided a title and signed and dated this copy, it has become the
Following Page
standard version of the address and the source for most facsimile
*ibid
reproductions of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It is the version that is inscribed on the South wall of the Lincoln Memorial."
“
The “Bliss Copy” is the only copy of the five manuscripts
“
to include a formal title and Lincoln’s signature.
*
Historical Uses of Cursive
41
Lincoln waited to sign the Emmancipation Proclamation because he wanted to have a steady hand, so there would be no rumors that he had doubt s.
*
43
ยนTamara Plakins Thorton, Handwriting in America: A Clutural History, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996, pg. 191. Following Page *ibid.
An Emotional level
A sense of emotion comes through when something is written by hand. Something about cursive, especially, shows the train of thought, the stops and goes in the writing. History is filled with cursive, everything from the incredibly official to the extremely emotional. President Reagan’s letter to America is an example of history that needed to be written in cursive.
“When, in 1994 Ronald Reagan revealed himself to be a victim of Alzheimer’s disease in a handwritten farewell letter to the american public, it was as much the medium as the message that lent his words their emotional intensity. “After nine years of studying him with objective coldness,” wrote Edmund Morris in the New Yorker, “I confess that I, too, cried at the letter, with its crabbed script and enormous margin (so evocative of the blizzard whitening of his mind).” Had it “been keyboarded to the world,” the letter would have lost half its poignancy, continued Morris, for “matrix dots and laser sprays and pixels of the L.C.D.” can never convey “the cursive flow of human thought” embodied in script, “every waver, every loop, every character trembling with expression.”¹
Historical Uses of Cursive
45
“
When in 1994, Ronald Reagan
revealed himself to be a victim of Alzheimer’s disease in a
handwritten farewell letter to the
American public, it was as much the
medium as the message that lent his words their emotional intensity.
“
*
47
cursive and educati o n
49
“
...you were introduced to the joys of joining your letters together.
¹Philip Hensher, The Missing
“
*
Cursive has been struggling in the classroom. There’s been some
Philip discusses how in America a school teacher “boldly said in
question of whether it’s important to teach this skill to children. Why
2001 that ‘about 50% of kids have illegible handwriting.”² Many
bother when they could spend that time learning technology skills, states are taking actions to remedy this situation while others are
Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting,
like typing and working with digital interaction. And even with print, allowing cursive, or handwriting in general) to fall to the wayside.
New York: Faber and Faber, Inc.,
or manuscript writing, still being valued, many question how impor- England’s National Curriculum, however, now stresses handwriting
2012, pg. 29–30. ²ibid.
tant it is to to continue to teach two different types of writing. The
specifically. ‘The four criteria of the Sats level two handwriting test
way things stand currently are described by Philip Hensher.
are legibility, consistent size and spacing of letter, flow and movement, and a confident personal style.’³
³ibid. 4 Thornton, Tamara Platkins,
“In third grade in American schools—seven to eight—now as it has been for decades, a cursive hand is introduced. In 1984, the New
This fight for the preservation of handwriting as a skill isn’t anything
Handwriting in America: A Clu-
York Times reported a recommendation by a professor of education
new. Tamara Thornton speaks to the slow degrade in her book,
tural History, New Haven and
from Buffalo, New York, that schools should ‘devote about five to
Handwriting in America: A Clutural History.
London: Yale University Press, 1996, pg. 178. *Philip Hensher, The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting, New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2012, pg. 88.
ten minutes to teaching handwriting two to three times a week in elementary school.’ They also managed to find that Houston did “In 1924 Pittsburgh’s supervisor of commercial education reported spend twenty minutes a day in teacher-directed handwriting instruc- that “since the introduction of the typewriter in our junior high tion from first to sixth grade—this was join the early 1980s. In recent
schools, there is a tendency to minimize the importance of the
years, a program called Handwriting Without Tears has encouraged
teaching of handwriting.” Within a few years, the typewriter threat-
teachers to devote ten to fifteen minutes a day on handwriting. ened to eliminate even elementary school penmanship as school Other twenty-first-century initiatives included teaching American
systems experimented with teaching kindergartners and first-grad-
schoolchildren cursive from the start. There seems no doubt that, ers how to type instead of how to write. By 1956 and article in Look here and there, there are many individual schoolteachers in America
magazine maintained that “handwriting nowadays is as out-of-date
sufficiently convinced of the importance of handwriting lessons in
as the hand lettered book.” Business letters, government forms,
their own education not only to reintroduce such lessons but actu- even social correspondences are all typed. “Why, then, do we force ally extend them downwards and upwards.”¹
children to master this archaic system of putting ideas on paper?”4
Cursive in Education
51
Common Core
Common Core has been taking the educational front by storm, usu-
ally followed by a flurry of question and controversy. Already, 43 states (see fig. 1) have fully adopted Common Core, while other states have partially adopted these standards. There’s a huge split with opinions about this new curriculum; some think it’s the best thing to happen to schools while others are more sceptical. Common Core as described on their own website: The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in
The Common Core is informed by the highest, most effective stan-
mathematics and English language arts/literacy. These learning
dards from states across the United States and countries around
goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the
the world. The standards define the knowledge and skills students
end of each grade. The standards were created to ensure that all
should gain throughout their K-12 education in order to graduate
students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge
high school prepared to succeed in entry-level careers, introductory
necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where
academic college courses, and workforce training programs.¹
they live. Forty-three states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity have voluntarily adopted and are moving forward with the Common Core. For years, the academic progress of our nation’s students has been stagnant, and we have lost ground to our international peers. Par¹”About the Standards,” Common Core State Standards Innitiative, 2015, accessed March 6, 2015,
ticularly in subjects such as math, college remediation rates have
vs. Cursive
Common Core makes up the majority of a state’s curriculum, with
been high. One root cause has been an uneven patchwork of aca- 15% available for states to add what they feel is important for their
http://www.corestandards.org/
demic standards that vary from state to state and do not agree on
students to learn. One subject with the adoption of Common Core
about-the-standards/.
what students should know and be able to do at each grade level.
has been that fact that these new standards cut out cursive in favor
²”Kansas Handwriting Curricular Standards,” Kansas State Depart-
of more technology standards. While many states have accepted Recognizing the value and need for consistent learning goals across
ment of Education, December
states, in 2009 the state school chiefs and governors that comprise
2013, accessed February 20, 2015,
ccsso
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/ education/article10892210.ece/BI-
and the
nga
Center coordinated a state-led effort to develop
the exclusion of cursive some states still believe it’s an important part of education. Of the 50 states, 25 have added cursive, specifically, into their standards. (see fig. 2)
the Common Core State Standards. Designed through collabora-
NARY/Kansas%20Handwriting%20
tion among teachers, school chiefs, administrators, and other experts, From the Kansas Handwriting Curricular Standards:
Standards.
the standards provide a clear and consistent framework for educators. “The Kansas State Board of Education believes that cursive as a student skill still holds an important place in the instructional practice of every school’s curriculum and can be integrated in multiple content areas. Research supports the role that handwriting instruction plays in the cognitive development of children and this activity is even more important in an increasingly digital environment. The Board expects educators to ensure that all students can write legibly in cursive and comprehend text written in this manner.”²
Figure 1 States with Common Core States without Common Core
Figure 2 States requiring Cursive States not requiring Curisve Cursive in Education
53
cursive
the science of
55
“
Only letters learned through printing experience, not typing, promote functional connections between a letter perception area in the left fusiform gyrus. ¹
“
In 2013, Alyssa J. Kersey and Karin H. James did a study focused on the connection between reading and writing and the differences between cursive and manuscript. Their full research, named ‘Brain activation patterns resulting from learning letter forms through active self-production and passive observation in young children,’ has some interesting insites into what is happening in the brain when a child reads or writes in cursive.
¹ Karin James, “The Cognition and Action Neuroimaging Laboratory,” Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Indiana University, accessed March 12, 2015, http:// www.indiana.edu/~canlab/research. html.
The Science of Cusrsive
57
“Although previous literature suggests that writing practice facilitates neural specialization for letters, it is unclear if this facilitation is driven by the perceptual feedback from the act of writing or the actual execution of the motor act. The present study addresses this issue by measuring the change in bold signal in response to hand-printed
Figure A This analysis revealed that when comparing all cursive letters to rest, an extensive region in the Lateral Occipital complex, including the fusiform gyrus, was active bilaterally .
letters, unlearned cursive letters, and cursive letters that 7-year-old children learned actively, by writing, and passively, by observing an experimenter write. Brain activation was assessed using fmri while perceiving letters—in both cursive and manuscript forms. Results showed that active training led to increased recruitment of the sen-
Figure B When comparing the individual learning conditions to rest, only the
sori-motor network associated with letter perception as well as the
actively learned cursive letters re-
insula and claustrum, but passive observation did not. This suggests
cruited this region, and only in the
that perceptual networks for newly learned cursive letters are driven
fusiform gyrus, more than rest.
by motor execution rather than by perceptual feedback.”¹ Really, all this just boils down to the fact that a young child watching someone do cursive doesn’t activate the same areas as a young child actually actively writing it.
Figure C Passively learned letters did not recruit this region greater than rest .
Figure D Compared unlearned cursive letters to rest, which recruited the left LOC, but not the fusiform gyrus. No regions were significantly active in the remainder of the brain above rest, including motor cortex. ¹ Alyssa J. Kersey and Karin H. James, “Brain activation patterns resulting from learning letter forms through active self-production and passive observation in young children,” Frontiers in Psychology, September 2013.
The Science of Cusrsive
59
type s rsive of cu 61
Spencerian System of Practical Penmanship Spencerian writing was the popular mode of writing in America from 1850 to 1925. The book on the Theory of Spencerian Penmanship wasn’t published until after the founder’s, Platt Rogers Spencer, death. His five sons carried on teaching Spencerian Script and gathered the teachings of their father to publish them under “the Spencerian authors.” The introduction states: “Writing is almost as imporant as speaking, as a medium for communicating thought. For this reason it is said that ‘Writing is a secondary power of speech, and they who cannot write are in part dumb.’ Scrawls that cannot be read may be compared to talking that cannot be understood; and writing difficult to decifer, to stammering speech. Theory directs, and Art performs; therefore inform the mind and train the hand. If you would attain high excellence in Penmanship, you must master the principles, and faithfully practice them.”¹ ¹Spencerian Authors, Theory of Spencerian Penmanship, Fenton, Michigan: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Inc., 1874, pg. 1.
Types of Cursive
63
Emily Dickinson’s early manuscripts of her poetry, then just written in letters to her sister-in-law, were scribbed in a form of Spencerian that had moved away from the strict traditional script. Dickinson’s writing caused a lot of problems for her publishers later on, with her erratic capitalizations and punctuation. Her distinctive oblique, looped script also makes for occasionally difficult reading, like in these manuscripts from 1861.
Types of Cursive
65
“
The Coca-Cola logo was first published in the late 19th century and contains
“
only characters from Spencerian Script.
*
Palmer Method of Business Writing Austin Palmer created the Palmer Method in response to the complicated nature of Spencerian. His form of writing was a simplified and more efficient. It became quite popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “Palmer was clear on the shortcomings of Spencerian scripts. What he described as copybook writing is very pretty, but, he added, that’s all. With its ornate forms, which often required extensive lifting of the pen and meticulous shading, which entailed the reworking of letters, copybook script was more akin to painting than to writing. It was far too slow, insisted Palmer. Speed it up, and the arm not only tires quickly, but the script becomes illegible.”
¹Spencerian Authors, Theory of Spencerian Penmanship, Fenton, Michigan: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Inc., 1874, pg. 1.
Types of Cursive
69
Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Palmer Method eventually fell away and was replaced by the ZanerBloser method for handwriting in the 1950s. The difference that Zaner-Bloser had was that it encouraged the teaching to manuscript, or print, before teaching children cursive. Zaner-Bloser is the result of a joint effort between Charles Paxton Zaner and Elmer Ward Bloser. Zaner was able to streamline Spencerian by adapting handwriting that was more practical for business documents and personal communication.Zaner-Bloser is what is commonly found in schools in current day as the type of cursive taught to 3rd and 4th graders in the schools still teaching it.
Types of Cursive
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. n e p a Pick up p l e h n You ca e v i s r u c e preserv g n i t i r w by just . s d r o w a few 73
Bibliograph y ”About the Standards.” Common Core State Standards Innitiative. 2015. Accessed March 6, 2015. http://www.corestandards.org/about-thestandards/.
”Kansas Handwriting Curricular Standards.” Kansas State Department of Education. December 2013. accessed February 20, 2015. http://www. kansas.com/news/local/education/article10892210.ece/BINARY/Kansas%20Handwriting%20Standards.
Alley, Kirstie. Twitter. May 11, 2013. Ball, Philip. “The Curse of Cursive Handwriting.” Prospect: The Leading Magazine of Ideas. Accessed March 12, 2015. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/cursive-handwriting-philip-ball/.
Kersey, Alyssa J. and Karin H. James. “Brain activation patterns resulting from learning letter forms through active self-production and passive observation in young children.” Frontiers in Psychology. September 2013.
Basler, Roy P. “The Gettysburg Address.” Abraham Lincoln Online. Accessed April 8, 2015. http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/ speeches/gettysburg.html.
“The Lincoln Presidency: Last Full Measure of Devotion.” Cornell University. Accessed April 8, 2015. http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/lincoln/exhibition/ gettysburg/.
Brown, April. “Is Cursive Handwriting Slowly Dying Out in America.” PBS NewsHour. Accessed April 4, 2015. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/long-held-tradition-cursive-handwriting-slowly-dying-america/.
McKay, Brett. “On the Importance of Writing Letters by Hand.” Birchbox. Accessed April 9, 2015. https://www.birchbox.com/guide/article/on-theimportance-of-writing-letters-by-hand.
Hensher, Philip. The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2012.
Spencerian Authors. Theory of Spencerian Penmanship. Fenton, Michigan: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., Inc., 1874.
James, Karin. “The Cognition and Action Neuroimaging Laboratory.” Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Indiana University. Accessed March 12, 2015. http://www.indiana.edu/~canlab/research.html.
Thorton, Tamara Plakins. Handwriting in America: A Clutural History. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996.