When Did Ball Points Replace Real Pens In Schools?

[Water Ouzel]

I'm originally from the west coast ... Bay Area, California. Elementary school was in the mid 50's. We never used fountain pens that I remember at that time. Middle school or Junior High, as it was called, never had fountain pens at that time, either.

Southern California, started elementary school 1956. Nothing but pencils through grade 5 or so, then some ballpoints. The first time I used a fountain pen was in high school, when I bought one for my self.

[mirosc]

Didn't change at all.

"Real" (i.e. fountain) pens are still used in our schools and until age 12/13 most students write with a fountain pen on a regular basis. Then, with puberty, many turn away from childhood writing and do it like real adults: with a ballpoint...

[sandy101]

Having read what other posters have said, in England there is no national system of pen use - it comes down to the school or county in charge.

 

At my school in the 80's we used cartridge FPs through-out secondary school. They were mandatory until age 16 and most if us continued using what the FPS we had until we left at 18.

 

Most of the FPs were hard plastic own brand shop things, usually with medium nibs that took international cartridges. Some kids had Lamys and Parkers, but considering the number of pens that got lost every year, most kids had cheap WH Smith cartridge pens - which were much better than the current crop of soft grip FPS.

 

After a few years the plastic cracked.

[JulesSilvan]

Another one from the UK. In the 90's I remember using Berol handwriting pens in Junior School, but when we moved to Secondary we could use whatever pen we wanted.

[inkeverywhere]

The question may well be posed when did computers replace handwriting! (Got to laugh I am responding to this post on a computer)

 

How long will it be before children won't have to write at school at all - instead completing all work via the small screen?

 

 

Greg

[Riayain]

The question may well be posed when did computers replace handwriting! (Got to laugh I am responding to this post on a computer)

 

How long will it be before children won't have to write at school at all - instead completing all work via the small screen?

 

 

Greg

 

Soon, I think. With the introduction of fully online courses and even degrees, it's just a matter of time before there may be a day when all school work will be done using a laptop.

 

As for ball point pens replacing fountain pens - I'm fairly young in this community (20) and ever since I was born, I used nothing but pencils, gel pens, and ball point pens. Didn't even know that fountain pens existed until a year ago! So the change obviously started happening more than 20 years ago.

[Mr. Pink]

I started school in the mid 50s. All the desks had ink wells, and later on in grade school some of us did use fountain pens, but fountain pens were never the standard. When we learned cursive, it was with a ball point pen that was made to look like a fountain pen. I seem to recall that the course was the "Zaner Blowser" method.

[View from the Loft]

Went to school in Scotland in the 70s and 80s. Pencil was all that was permitted until Primary 4 (so around these of 8) and then fountain pens only through to the end of Primary 7. From Secondary 1 (around 12), we could use any type of pen (fountain, roller or ball point) but I stuck with FP except for Maths or some Physics when I used RB.

[BillZ]

I graduated from High school in 1963 and I used a fountain pen for all grades after the third. Tha's the grade you learned cursive. But,if I remember correctly,there wasn't any rule about not using ballpoints I just preferred a FP.

[Tancred]

I know that, at some point, when I was in school in a small Southern town, in the late 1940's and early 1950's, I know that in some classes I had to use a real fountain pen for important "papers." I might have had an Esterbrook back in those days, but am not sure.

 

My question is, ---- when do you think that ball point pens REPLACED real pens in schools and in society as a whole?

 

As far as "cultural changes" go, this was a major shift, in my opinion. What are your thoughts on when this change "came to pass?"

 

C. S.

 

I still used fountain pens in primary (elementary) school in the UK in the early and mid 1970s - that was the school rule. At secondary school I could use anything I wanted, so I still used fountain pens (Parker 25 and Sheaffer No-Nonsense) and also a Paper-Mate fineliner and an early rollerball with a grey barrel which wrote poorly and skipped a lot of the time (I forgot the brand).

 

We British are a phlegmatic, low key type of people and don't get so excited about innovations as the Yanks. It always used to take a while before new things caught on here. Now that we are in the internet age/global village this is no longer the case.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Tancred

[Tancred]

 

The part of the writing instrument that gets dipped in the ink is the nib.

 

Ballpoint is short for ballpoint pen.

 

Personal preferences and snobbery don't change reality.

 

Here in the UK we always used to call ballpoints 'biros', after the inventor of this wretched contraption, Laszlo Biro.

[FLZapped]

I think that it was with the introduction of the BIC line in the 1950s that ballpoints finally took over.

Besides, the BIC Crystals made great pea shooters when the innards were removed

You really mean spit-balls, don't you.....

[Sasha Royale]

President Truman's "signing" pens (White House pens) were ballpoint pens. Today, they are "give-aways", but at that time,

the two-tone, plastic, click pens were $10. That was more than a standard model Parker 51. My Dad spent the $10, and

used the pen daily, but his Parker still wrote better for letters. (1946)

 

My older brother began writing with ink in primary school. He estimates forth grade. It was required, and the school

provided dip pens and ink, in the well at the corner of the desk. For his tenth birthday, Dad got him a ballpoint ink pen.

(We think Mom got tired of trying to remove ink from his clothes. ) His was not the first, but virtually all the kids had them

the same year. (A "Mom" driven phenomenon, I think.) When I got to primary school (mid-1950's), the school desks had

the routered pen groove, and the ink-stained hole in the corner, but dip pen and inkwell were gone.

[jar]

School in 50s to early 60s. Pencil (wood) was the norm but the school bookstore also sold Sheaffer Cartridge (aka School) pens, Mark 1 model. No ball points were sold there.

[ANM]

According to this, Truman used Esterbrook Dipless pens to sign bills and gave away ball points as gifts. These pens were stamped 'I stole this pen from Harry Truman'

http://www.loringpage.com/attpensetc/penbookupdate.html

 

Reynolds Rocket was the first successful US ballpoint introduced at Gimbels on Oct 29. 1945. Those pens were $12.50, but they quickly proved to be a failure and they couldn't sell for even 19¢

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/ballpen.htm

 

By 1947, the ballpoints Truman handed out as souvenirs were not expensive. Actually those were from a box of pens given to him as a gift. The US government started issuing ball points made by Skillcraft. They were not expensive but I don't know when they were first issued but probably in the 50's.

Edited November 4, 2014 by ANM

[Bo Bo Olson]

In 4th grade, about 1958, in the mountains of NY, we were taught to write with a fountain pen if we had one. later in the school year after it got cold. Up to then we used pencils.

I know we had to go out and buy a Wearever for me....it was not one of the pretty Esterbrooks. Sigh....

 

It could well be we were also allowed to use ball points.

If I dredge my memory, I'd guess I'd used a ball point in 3rd grade in a different state, in I remember having to take out my pocket knife and shave the clicker to make it work. That had been no big deal either with the ball point or having a pocket knife in Texas.. The 'learning' to use a fountain pen had been. Fountain pens were 'grown up.'

Ball points just were....and back then one got dirty fingers from ball points....was hard to get it off our hands. There were little rings of ink around the tip. Taking them apart to make them work was SOP.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Bo Bo Olson

[Ceilidh]

I started school in 1960. We used pencil until 3rd grade. Then, we learned cursive and when the teacher pronounced it good enough, we were allowed to write with a pen. Sheaffer cartridge pens. Choosing a color at the beginning of each school year was a treat. I don't remember when we moved to ball points. High school? Maybe not till college.

[FLZapped]

My earliest memories extend back to Jr. High in the early 70s. There was a mix of pens and fountain pens were still readily available, but ballpoints were already way more popular. This was also the era when Bic was shooting their pens into wooden planks to show how tough they were.

 

-Bruce

[Pickwick]

Ballpoint pens are real pens.

 

As far as "cultural changes" go, I think the transition from FPs to BPs was pretty minor -- just a blip, really, unless a good argument persuades me otherwise. After all, they are just slightly different ways of accomplishing the same task.

You're right on the button there, and if ballpoint pens {I'm in no doubt the idea was fermenting} had become a reality in the early part of the 20th century we wouldn't have FPN. I grew up in the age of dip along with fountain pens, and looking back, my Grandparents very quickly moved to ballpoint pens.

 

When you look on eBay for so called "Vintage" fountain pens and the seller tells us these pens are found abandoned in drawers, that tells us something as well!

[dragos.mocanu]

In Romania, fountain pens have always been used (I used one, my mother used one, my grandmother used one), at least in grade school (to form a proper calligraphic handwriting)..but most of the pupils hate fountain pens because they are messier, and start using a BP once they are allowed to (pencils are only allowed for maths and ballpoint pens only after 5th grade...or so it was 13 year ago....kids nowadays use a tablet more than even a ballpoint pen, which is a lot worse)..I was lucky enough to be a tidy kid and so, I've kept writing with fountain pens for all my life, and will continue to do so (and pass on the legacy)

Edited November 4, 2014 by Murky