How The Ballbpoint Killed Cursive

[corgicoupe]

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-the-ballpoint-pen-killed-cursive

 

An old 2015 article from The Atlantic worth reading.

[pajaro]

I doubt that it was the ballpoint that has put pressure on cursive use. I think the ballpoint makes cursive writing easier than with fountain pens.

[CS388]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

Not sure I fully agree, but it's all conjecture, anyway.

I'd guess that when Bich came up with the final design for the Bic Cristal, he would have been thinking of a pencil - the tool most of us (worldwide) would have first used to make marks on paper - so, despite the mention of it being uncomfortable, it is a brilliant design! The cap even has a clip to fit it into your pocket. And with the cheap price tag, it must have been a revelation in its day! Even if it led to the demise of our beloved FPs!

 

Enjoy.

[Bo Bo Olson]

1954 or 55 more than likely, early summer day.....My father did not take the black and gold Snorkel to work. In his fatigue pocket was a free (to government workers and military) Skillcraft ball point. .

It wrote better on greasy engine tags, of an AF's Landing Boat....if it broke or got lost....no big deal. I do remember those few minutes clearly after a life time.....in I knew the Snorkel was the King of Pens.

 

The ball point pens of the '50's had problems***....so a teacher didn't go AS, when a kid pulled out his pocket knife to shave the clicker so it worked. Often back then the ball point would not retract so one had to push it back in......and there was that little ring of ink that clung to the tip......dirtying up everything. ...The pencil sized 'BIC' pen, long, too long for a shirt pocket, with a small hold onto cap, so it woulnd't be stolen....the pen that was famous for being shot through a board....came out in the mid '60's. Re-fills were so hard to come by for one's Sheaffer, Playmate or any other 'name' pen, And when found were very expensive. Back in '62/63, I'd found a 10 pack of refills (cheap brown government style cardboard box) for a dime.....a years worth of ink..............never again found anything like it. Must have been something from the Army/Navy store of government surplus.

 

Like cartridges for fountain pens, ball point refills (and not even the super expensive huge Jotter re-fill) were very expensive when they were found......

Bic's disposable pen held more ink and sure was cheaper than even a Playmate ball point. And the re-fill was near the same cost if one could be found....and smaller.

 

Living in Germany have no idea what a Bic Crystal pen is.

 

***I have some NOS ball points of a fountain pen sets from the mid '50's....some other ones including capped ball points, and Pelikan 450/455, and even the dirt cheap free ball points of today are 'better'.

 

 

Eventually my hand writing became so bad with a ball point, I had to print to read my own writing.

It did take me a while to be able to read my cursive writing with a fountain pen, but I can now............my wife can't.

Edited March 2, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[Tseg]

The computer/internet truly killed cursive. My son is 17 years old and since he was young they never taught cursive in school. He has to print his name on the back of checks.

[AlohaLani787]

 

The computer/internet truly killed cursive. My son is 17 years old and since he was young they never taught cursive in school. He has to print his name on the back of checks.

 

 

I agree with you, while I don't think that's the sole reason. Many schools (US) no longer teach cursive after third grade, but keyboard or typing classes have made a comeback. At least in the school systems with which I am familiar.

[sciumbasci]

More likely the school system has degraded over the years. To save resources, many basic skills have been neglected.

 

I am ashamed to admit I write in what is known to graphologists as "script".

As left handed side writer now, overwriter before forcing myself to use the tripod grip in an attempt to go underwriter (I still can't, HELP!!) it is a wonder I can write legible enough.

 

Though I have seen right handed people holding the pen between their middle and ring finger, or between their thumb and index as over writers. Teachers just don't care, really.

[TSherbs]

Teachers just don't care, really.

That's just bull****

[sirgilbert357]

Heh, this might get heated, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway:

 

-Your kids weren't taught cursive in school? Teach them yourself then! Plenty of easy books out there to walk you through it.

-Ballpoints didn't kill cursive. The lack of interest by individuals to want to learn and use it did. We can debate the reasons for the decline in interest though...

-I've seen people who have never held a fountain pen in their life write with absolutely GORGEOUS handwriting, cursive included - using a ballpoint. I fail to see how the tool being used can "make or break" one's handwriting. If your handwriting changes that drastically just because you picked up a different tool, then you simply haven't adjusted to that particular tool. Having no DESIRE to use a given tool is a totally different thing...

-Impossible to back up the blanket statement that "teachers don't care". I know quite a few teachers and they ALL care about handwriting given that they have to grade papers, homework and book reports that are handwritten. Sloppy handwriting makes their job harder than it already is. Teachers are still employees and have bosses -- and those bosses usually dictate the curriculum being taught. If "handwriting", in whatever form, isn't on the agenda, then what can a teacher do? Thankfully, some parents teach their kids at home. My wife's school is teaching handwriting - cursive actually. It's still up to the child to "care" and the parents to enforce the practice and homework at home. We come back to that DESIRE point above...the kids and parents have to care, either about getting a good grade on the work or actually being good at it and taking pride in one's own accomplished handwriting; cursive takes practice after all...for most of us, lol.

Edited March 2, 2019 by sirgilbert357

[dayrow]

Y

Edited March 2, 2019 by dayrow

[Bo Bo Olson]

Writing a Western Saga, by the 1870-80's a Business Script close to Palmer was taught in HS (paid by the parents to get the boy a job as a 'white collar' clerk), self taught (lots of how too books on everything) , or taught in 6-12 week Business collages. Clerks stood 12 hours a day.

 

Spenserian was a signature script....or a show off script.....something for the upper classes to show they had time to learn it.

Spenserian is not easily readable, nor fast.

 

The first carbon paper was double sided, one sent the copy....in the original was written on the front and the copy was on the back. Single sided Carbon paper came in in the late 1860's for the rail road....five copies of a train order was made for every train that came into and stopped at the station.

That is not something that could be done with 'flex' nibs.

 

Was surprised (am a generation older) how many items from 1880 office were used a hundred years later.

[Tseg]

Heh, this might get heated, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway:

 

-Your kids weren't taught cursive in school? Teach them yourself then! Plenty of easy books out there to walk you through it.

 

 

By the time I cared he couldn't write cursive he was 16... when I started to accumulate foutain pens. At that point learning cursive was the last thing on his mind. Teaching him how to read an analog watch was tough enough.

[sirgilbert357]

 

By the time I cared he couldn't write cursive he was 16... when I started to accumulate foutain pens. At that point learning cursive was the last thing on his mind. Teaching him how to read an analog watch was tough enough.

Your post triggered my response, but I'm not necessarily saying you could do anything different. If he was already that old before you cared about it, then it's obviously going to be hard to get him to care at this point too.

 

For the rest of the parents out there, whose kids are younger, there are many resources to teach cursive...

[Karmachanic]

Today I attended a set of two lectures given to an international audience. Open seating. At the first I sat next to a mid 20s Polish woman who wrote impecable cursive notes with a ballpoint. At the second a young Swiss woman who took elegant cursive notes also with a ballpoint.

[ridiculopathy]

Ha, I was taught how to write in cursive using a ballpoint pen (the splotchy, sticky, erasable ones *shudder*).

 

BUT what I think the article is saying is that cursive was developed around the characteristics of liquid ink/dip pens/fountain pens. And that new advances (i.e. ballpoint ink) made it less necessary to write in cursive. It seems like a lingering death because cursive was still being taught even though it wasn't technically necessary anymore.

 

There's holes in that theory (like where do pencils come in?), but I think it has some merit. The less obviously marketable a skill, the lower a priority it becomes.

[miwishi63]

My wife is a teacher here in Arizona. Cursive is making a comeback - as are fountain pens. The younger generations see both as "retro" and therefore worth exploring.

[Bibliophage]

My sister in law is an elementary teacher, and they've been ordered to 1) not teach cursive, and 2) not correct the hand grip of pens/pencils of the students.

 

They care - but the administration/higher ups don't.

[Noihvo]

 

[loganrah]

As someone who grew up after the demise of cursive (I was taught a rudimentary form in primary school, but never required to use it nor taught it particularly thoroughly) I'd have to say that it is definitely computers and the internet that is killing it now: cursive is now useless as a practical skill. Even if it is still a beautiful skill.

Almost all writing tasks can now be done on a computer, and many can only be done on a computer. So the need for cursive as a fast way of writing has completely disappeared. The speed at which I can type (and I've never specifically practised, just been at university for a very long time) is faster than even the fastest cursive writers of old. 70+ words a minute is not difficult with a keyboard, but would be impossible with handwriting (very few people can get above 20 words per minute in cursive).

The benefits of good cursive writing are now restricted to the aesthetic and, perhaps, some small use for people like myself who find it useful to sometimes be forced to write slower because my mind can wander more easily when I'm typing at 70+ words a minute. But I write for a living so the extra time taken to write out a page by hand can make up for itself if the writing I produce is better.

 

For the vast majority of people cursive handwriting is now a waste of time to learn. I for one am quite glad if it stops being taught in schools (assuming that time is actually spent on something useful and not wasted on something else useless). Those of us who wish to keep it alive as a beautiful aesthetic practice can do so at our own leisure.

 

Of course it is still a practically useful skill to be able to write legibly, and reasonably quickly, by hand. Not everything can be done without using a pen of some kind (or a pencil). But I don't think anyone is going so far yet as to not teach their children to at least be able to print.

[Tseg]

Not many people wax over the slide rule anymore (although my geeky engineering brother collects them while others look at that as strange.). There is a reason people dont teach their children all about using slide rules anymore. Just saying.

Edited March 3, 2019 by Tseg