
How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive - CraneWorm
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/ballpoint-pens-object-lesson-history-handwriting/402205/
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kevindong
Personally I hated learning cursive and writing cursive in school in the mid
2000s. What's the point? For me, it took more time to write in than normal
handwriting. Even the "good" cursive handwriting was overly ornate which
actually made it harder to read. Bad cursive handwriting is just outright
unreadable.

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eigenstuff
I spontaneously starting writing in cursive in my 8th grade math class one day
and never turned back. I can write extremely fast, having written in cursive
exclusively for 15 years. I have no idea how quickly I wrote when I started
off, but I was probably pretty slow. It's definitely something to get used to,
you can't expect to write lightning fast overnight, but isn't that true of
most things?

Now my problem is, whenever a form says "please print," it morphs into cursive
halfway through...

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Isamu
I thought this was an interesting article although I doubt the argument.

>My experience with fountain pens suggests a new answer. Perhaps it’s not
digital technology that hindered my handwriting, but the technology that I was
holding as I put pen to paper. Fountain pens want to connect letters.
Ballpoint pens need to be convinced to write, need to be pushed into the paper
rather than merely touch it.

>Sassoon’s analysis of how we’re taught to hold pens makes a much stronger
case for the role of the ballpoint in the decline of cursive. She explains
that the type of pen grip taught in contemporary grade school is the same grip
that’s been used for generations, long before everyone wrote with ballpoints.
However, writing with ballpoints and other modern pens requires that they be
placed at a greater, more upright angle to the paper—a position that’s
generally uncomfortable with a traditional pen hold.

That is an interesting observation, but then I grew up learning traditional
cursive with ball-point pens, and it wasn't really a big deal. Really all I
remember as a downside is that the school-issued ballpoints would still have
ink problems where a few of them would be leaky or broken and then you got ink
over everything anyway.

I really think it just became seen as not such an important skill, when you
have so many other things that are pretty important to learn. Remember
penmanship was one of those things that continued into the upper grades, and
advanced skill.

Typing became more important. Although the typewriter had been around forever,
they were becoming cheaper and easier, because they were becoming electric.
More schools taught typing. More people had a typewriter and more students
knew how to type, and submitted papers typed. Previously if you didn't type
(which was usual) you would need to submit a paper in pen, in cursive. Now
that vanished.

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gknoy
A fountain pen is noticeably different from writing with a pencil or
ballpoint, because you do not have to exert significant pressure, and because
there is a lot less friction of your pen on the page.

Writing with ballpoints and pencils has conditioned us to Press Hard (whether
for exam books or carbon copies). This leads to our hands feeling tired and
cramped much more easily.

You're very right about the impact of typing, but even now I miss using a
fountain pen after discovering them years ago. (I tend to use gel pens, as
they are close, less messy, and cheap enough that I don't worry about losing
them, but they're not as nice to write with.)

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Isamu
I enjoy the Uniball Micro, for the ease of use that you mention. It is fluid,
the stroke width tapers with pressure, it just feels more civilized than the
old ballpoint pen.

But I agree fountain pens are pretty nice, I may be getting one to control the
inks I use in art projects.

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tomatotomato37
Have you tried fineliner type felt-tips? I've found them an easy upgrade over
ballpoints without going all the way to fountain, and I would consider them
the minimal for anything regarding art

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comonad-colaboy
I think people were waiting for a reason to kill out cursive handwriting. It
seems it was on the rise or being promoted in schools because of some weird
myth that intelligent folks and cursive writing were a thing and established
some causal relationship going from cursive writing to higher form of
intelligence

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calvertdw
Has the author tried the Pilot precise v7? I'm sure there are more brands with
a similar performance that provide low pressure writing without smudges. There
is a HUGE selection of pens these days and I would think nearly every issue
has been resolved.

