2003-03-18

Palmer? I hardly even....

It was only a matter of time before the rest of my department found out about my dope fresh handwriting skillz, yo.

Here's the poop: I learned the Palmer Method. I am probably the only person under the age of 35 who writes in the Palmer Method style, with the exception of my grade school classmates, who more than likely managed to unlearn it over the years, what with computers and all. And, then, there are people like my sister, who had all the same teachers I did yet has very distinctive, feminine penmanship. Mine looks exactly like the friggin' charts we had hanging over the blackboards.

There's absolutely no sense in trying to analyze my handwriting; to do so would yield nothing in the way of the mysteries of my personality, or would just prove once and for all what an obsessive compulsive little spore I am.

I distinctly remember spending hours practicing my handwriting, hunched over the coffee table in the living room. Z's and capital Q's drove me to tears. But I plowed ahead, bound and determined to have the most precise, letter-perfect handwriting ever.

It is a skill that has subsequently never left me, and, like so many other things that I am intrinsically drawn to, has now been deemed "archaic" and "impossible to learn."

One day in eighth grade I was sitting in the library, idly covering the margins of my notebook in loopy scribbles, when a Popular Girl� approached me, all smiles. "Hi!" she chirped.

I looked up, bewildered yet hopeful. "Hi?"

"I was wondering....you know the WAC project we have to do?"

(In the public school system I was a part of between seventh and twelfth grades, there was a program called Writing Across the Curriculum [WAC]. Grades 8, 10, and 12 were assigned a project that would be graded by both the English and Social Studies teachers. That particular year we were told to write and design a Colonial-era "newspaper.")

"Uh huh."

"Well, I was wondering, cuz, you know Jeannie? She told me you do old lady cursive and I want my paper to look like olden people wrote it."

To be singled out as the kid who does "old lady cursive" is not the worst thing that can befall an adolescent, but still.

At any rate, I've spent most of today hand-addressing invitations to my company's Spring fundraiser. I delivered a stack of finished envelopes to my co-worker, who stared at them for a second before commenting, "Lees, that's scary."

"What? My handwriting?"

"It's like from another century or something."

"It's the Palmer Method. Didn't you learn it?"

"You must have gone to Catholic school..."

"Well, yeah."

lisamcc at 4:15 p.m.

1 comments so far
debbie
2003-10-26 18:11:58
I too have learned the Palmer Method and the correct use of a fountain pen which I still use today. I'm sad that even though I send my children to catholic school, they don't teach this method any more. As a result my kds have sloppy handwitting. I am found your site by trying to find info on teaching this method to my kids. I wish my handwritting was still as beautiful as the one on the forms over the back board. I envy you. Debbie
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