the great debate Other

 It's common knowledge that there are some strong opposing views in the political arena these days, but let me tell you, there's another debate that stirs passions almost as much.  Today is National Handwriting Day so at least one side has it's own day.  At least I haven't heard of National It's OK to Print Day.  Many people feel that it is essential for people to be able to write cursive.  "Otherwise how can you sign checks and other legal documents?" Actually you can print signatures or just make an X with a witness.  Others argue that it's good for mental development.  I actually think that's true.  I remember, as a third grader, writing pages and pages of all the letters of the alphabet in a workbook and also in special lined tablets with wide apart dark lines with dotted lines in between.  It certainly stirred my imagination.  I especially liked the lower case letter 'c' because after you wrote several rows of 'c's it looked like waves on an ocean.  Then I could add some details to the page like little sail boats and fish.  My teacher was not as amused by this as I thought he might be. I have one friend, in her 80s now, who spent 40 years in education,  first as a teacher and then as an elementary school principal.  She told a group of us at a meeting one day that she has never learned to write cursive, so I guess it's not essential to success.  These days, if I want to be sure someone can read a letter that I send them (yes, I do still use snail mail sometimes) I type the letter, usually in fairly large print.  But. just to show I still can, I do sign my name in cursive.