What Handwriting Did You Learn In School?

[NedC]

Palmer method. Dominican nuns with their red faces framed by tight wimples and wielding brass edged wooden ruilers as they patrolled the aisles and attempted to slip the pen from your hand. That was the test, a death grip on one's pen was answered with a swift and gently firm rap across the knuckles with the ruler. Never the brass edge though, that was just for intimidation. The pens were clear plastic Sheaffers with chrome caps and cartridges of washable blue lest we ruin the white shirts of out school uniforms.

 

I've gotten over the aversion I had developed to Sheaffer pens but not quite the aversion to light blue inks. I still loathe the look of the Palmer method which to me seems ugly and childish–my script has morphed into some hybrid of styles and is still developing, I also reverted to writing left handed over time as I was strongly encouraged towards writing with my wrong hand by the nuns, and that was reinforced by the poor ergonomics of the school desks which were designed solely for the convenience of the right handers of this world.

[wollollo]

I was taught the standard Norwegian school style, which looks like this:

You get to choose whether you loop or not. I believe this has been the standard in Norwegian schools at least since the 70s.

[Guest Gracie]

Developed in Victoria by educator H. B. MacLean between 1921 and 1964, the MacLean method was used across Canada as the official handwriting method in schools, particularly in the Maritimes, parts of Quebec, Manitoba, and BC. We practised this hand every day with a dip pen, and I am grateful for it. I believe it was a good start to whatever penmanship we wished to continue from there. It makes me very sad to see handwriting being discontinued in so many schools simply because students "text" on cellphones. It is a sad generation that will grow old without family letters, cards, exchanged recipes and so forth, and memories only of deleted text messages and emails.

[topaz]

For me the discovery of writing was in 1968, in France.

 

It was supposed to look like the "French Cursive" font that is presented there:

 

http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~beffara/soft/frcursive/

 

As a computer font, it looks a bit artificial, but it is exactly the style of handwriting that I was taught, and still is as far as I know. The difference is that in my days, and for the first 2 years of school, only the dip pen was allowed. The pen was always a steel Sergent Major pen. I remember finding it difficult to use, and dreaming of the day I would be allowed to use a ballpoint, immune to ink blots.

 

Ohhh! I really love the way this looks! I was taught Zaner Bloser with all the ugly capital letters that I hated writing the way I was supposed to.

[Newjelan]

Attending school in Victoria, Australia in the 1970's we learnt to write with biros and there was little focus on handwriting. We were taught the same script as that practiced by mizcutiepielivzi in England in 1998. I love beautiful penmanship but find the loops and flourishes of many styles overpowering and they often feel old fashioned to me. Clearly a legacy of the plain style I was taught. I prefer beautifully crafted, unadorned handwriting.

[hark40]

Attending school in Victoria, Australia in the 1970's we learnt to write with biros.

 

In NSW in the 1970s, it was the same thing!!!

 

What we learnt is almost identical to the Linked NSW style shown at this site with a couple of minor differences. With usage over the years, I have made some other changes myself. (My lower case f and s are more like Palmer versions for instance.) I found some old school books on the weekend; had lovely handwriting back then. Now with using a keyboard all the time, my handwriting is a mess

[melissa59]

So interesting reading what method of cursive you all learned as children. I had to look at the examples to figure out which style was used at my school. I was taught to use the Palmer method in 3rd grade here in Southern California. As a child I especially hated the capital Q, which I thought looked more like a number than a letter. And for some reason, I never could get the capital Z right, either.

 

I somehow inherited some little girl's composition book that she used in the fall of 1900. Her handwriting is lovely, but I have no clue what script she used. I'll scan a page tomorrow and post it.

 

Melissa

[pencils+pens]

I learned the Palmer Method in the early 1960s in Catholic School.

 

I studied and learned various styles while regaining my penmanship skills. My lower case letters prettty much remain Palmer. The biggest change is in the upper case letters. I have dropped almost all the flourishes that mark the Palmer upper case letters. My uppers case letters most closely resemble Zaner-Bloser, especially the Q. ZB is one of the few cursive styles were the Q does not resemble the number two. What is really strange is I don't know where I picked up ZB from - it is not one of the styles I studied nor practiced. I think it may have morphed naturrally from my original Palmer style as it was influenced by my italic studies.

[javachoco]

This is an excellent sample from a 4th-grade child in my country. I don't have mine in primary school to upload, and my handwriting isn't as nice as this one. But generally, this handwriting is what kids are taught in primary school.

[AloofObserver]

I think that I was taught D'Nealian cursive. The reason for my uncertainly is that I had been using block style upper-case letters until recently. I am now relearning D'Nealian upper-case and given my ease of adoption and the feeling of familiarity, I suspect that I was indeed taught D'Nealian in school. The strange Q was perhaps a give away since I do remember that.

Edited July 19, 2012 by AloofObserver

[javachoco]

I think that I was taught D'Nealian cursive. The reason for my uncertainly is that I had been using block style upper-case letters until recently. I am now relearning D'Nealian upper-case and given my ease of adoption and the feeling of familiarity, I suspect that I was indeed taught D'Nealian in school. The strange Q was perhaps a give away since I do remember that.

 

Thank you for letting me know the name of the style. It's interesting because I've never known the names of different cursive writing styles.

[Vignette]

In Finland there is always one official style of handwriting taught to everyone. When I was in school, we were taught this placid, odorless, tasteless, sterilized abomination, designed by Toivo Heiskanen and used from 1986 to 2004:

 

http://www.opettaja.fi/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/OPETTAJALEHTI_EPAPER_PG/2007_38/114451.jpg

 

As soon as we were no longer micromanaged about conforming, I rebelled by gleefully applying bits of the previous standard, used from 1931 to 1985 and designed by Toivo Salervo:

 

http://www.opettaja.fi/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/OPETTAJALEHTI_EPAPER_PG/2007_38/114450.jpg

 

As you can see, the 1931 was better for ink users, but worse for lefties, pencils, and those with fine motor control issues. I am glad that the 1986 style was more egalitarian - but I still think it is ugly. My own handwriting is a personal blend of the 1931 and the 1986, with majuscules particularly "1931", and linking good for inking.

 

From 2004 onwards, Finnish children have been taught the newest style: Designed by committee, in Nordic partnership, reportedly "based on British styles", it looks...well, I don't want to criticize something that I have not tried, but let's just say that I have no desire to even try it.

 

http://www.opettaja.fi/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/OPETTAJALEHTI_EPAPER_PG/2007_38/114452.jpg

[mboschm]

I tried to learn something similar to this (Catalonia/Spain, late 90s and early 2000s, then I gave up cursive until two years ago), which I find tasteless, too difficult and too "childish", for any kid wanting to use it after 10 years old, which was the time when we were allowed not to write in cursive.

 

 

http://www.fonts101.com/previews/427/MeMima_font_preview_50982_2.png

[CDKeth]

I tried to learn something similar to this (Catalonia/Spain, late 90s and early 2000s, then I gave up cursive until two years ago), which I find tasteless, too difficult and too "childish", for any kid wanting to use it after 10 years old, which was the time when we were allowed not to write in cursive.

 

 

http://www.fonts101.com/previews/427/MeMima_font_preview_50982_2.png

 

Some really strange capitals there.

[KenD]

I was exposed to the Rhinehart Method in Massachusetts. It would probably be inaccurate to say I learned it. I vaguely recall that it is (or was) a Palmer variant or competitor. I remember it as fussy.

[N2theBreach]

Like other Yanks, I'm not sure what method we were taught, though I'm sure it was trademarked on the green cards along the top of the blackboard that showed us what it should look like. It would have meant nothing to me anyway. To us, it was just how you were supposed to write. I suspect it was Palmer.

 

This was in the early '60s in Maryland. We learned it in two phases. First, we learned to print, using fat, round, red pencils with thick lead. Then, in second grade, we graduated to learning cursive with Bic pens. It was like starting all over again but that was OK because it meant we were big kids now.

 

A few of us went through an informal phase three. At age 13, I had a teacher who was originally from the Netherlands who thought our handwriting defied description, at least in polite company, so he put us through something akin to a cursive bootcamp. An hour a day, for who knows how long. Time stood still for that portion of our schooling. However, I think he had an impact on me. I've been conscious of my cursive ever since.

 

He taught us an assessment technique that I still use--turn the paper around and hold it up to the light and you can see if the slant, spacing, height, etc. are consistent much easier than if you are looking at it straight on. It works by disengaging portions of your brain. When looking at the writing straight on, our ability to read is so dominant that it makes it almost impossible to objectively assess the quality of the cursive. We see the content, not the form. By turning it "wrong way around," it becomes harder to read. Since our brain isn't distracted by the content, the style and form become dominant.

 

Well, I didn't intend to write this much. I hope it's useful.

[atamantara]

I was taught D'Nealian for years, I never learnt good block printing or even to hold properly the pen (being left handed: deaths grips, smudging, pain in the hand after writting some pages,...). It should be a crime to let some people "teach" kids.

[sjones581]

I was a elementary student in the 60s in Texas and was taught the Zaner-Bloser method of handwriting.

[FountainPenCowgirl]

Palmer, helped along by my former elementary school teacher grandmother. Once I was past situations when I was graded for my decidedly less than perfect technique, I developed my own preferences for some letters (especially capitals, that probably were hard for me to do the "right" way). Some continue to be whatever the heck comes out of my pen. For example, I have two different lower case r and s versions that sometimes change within a single word.

 

My handwriting history is, and remains, a very checkered thing.

[LJ50]

Absolutely none that I can recall. My memory is simply that if your writing was legible you were considered taught (Scotland in the 80s).