While Middlemarch occupies us with gossip, love and politics-another subject that is repetitively brought up is education. Much discussion is centered on the quality of education and the necessity of it. Fred started with University and then left due to his poor grades. After failing spectacularly as a young man, although in fair honesty he had a lot of help from his parents, he did complete his B.A. only to be promptly chastised by Mr. Garth on the lack of his abilities. Fred questions Mr. Garth asking if he is “too old to learn” his business and is reassured that while the education is not learned from books, a “foundation” can still be laid to provide Fred with a future (pg. 561). Mr. Garth does not question Fred’s learning ability but questions the quality of Fred’s foundation.
What strikes me most is the critique Mr. Garth offers regarding Fred’s education. This evaluation is age old and often raised, as it is today, about how the education of people impact the future. Mr. Garth exclaims at the faulty penmanship of Fred and observes that “to think that this is a country where man’s education may cost hundreds and hundreds” only to turn out a poor product (pg 566). What is interesting is how the penmanship statement is relevant today. Not only a personal statement, penmanship presents a picture to the world – careful letters and straight lines show care and attention to detail. Architects are taught how to write in the standard block style on blueprints before they are introduced to CAD. A need for handwriting analysts for verifying signatures is necessary.
As some know, cursive writing is no longer taught in many public schools. I wonder at how foregoing the instruction of manuscript may impact our future? How will students be able to read historic documents which are full of beautiful and careful script? It is commonly known that with technology so prevalent in our culture the need for certain talents are negligible. I can see in the future that cursive writing will soon be regarded as a “fancy” ability, where cursive is only taught at a defunct finishing school or other private institution, just as calligraphy was dropped from the norm as well. Possibly, there will be some parents who see the need for this style to remain with our culture. I know that I was taught calligraphy – both to write and read – when I was in about fourth grade. Granted, I went to a non-traditional grade school, but remember distinctly being told by the teacher that to have this ability will help in college and in business. Hand written thank your and letters are a norm and the ability to read historical documents, as in our Constitution, would be necessary. This is something that I still use today, in thank you letters and reading documents from the past. Script is very important. It often shows the type of person you are and the care that you take with certain matters.
Recently, I was shopping and overheard a conversation between two employees. One girl, who recently graduated from high school told her manager that she was not able to read a sign in the employee area. This grabbed my interest and I was plainly eavesdropping. The manager asked her why, and the girl said that it was something that they were not taught, that the style of writing was not presented to their class for reading. The type face was Lucinda Calligraphy. It’s a standard script found in most computer programs, and often in company emails to present a more personal style of closing an email. I was shocked to find that this is a standard. I wanted to ask how she signed her name, was it just printed or did she just give up and put a big X? Is this what our society is reduced too – an educational system or standard that is subpar and unable to take the time to recognize and teach a writing style that is centuries old?
Shaking my head, I continued on with my shopping. I felt sorry for the girl, thinking of all the things that she will not experience because of her inability to read cursive writing. How is she going to read others signatures? Will she be able to appreciate the historical documents of our country? How is this going to impact her future? Can all we look forward to is atrocious spelling, computer typeface and made up words with shortcuts established to get our meaning across in one-hundred eighty characters or less? I feel sorry for our future persons who will not appreciate the written cursive word.
I am an avid support of technology – the ability to store important documents on a flash drive, email and text a friend in a manner of seconds and I support companies and entities that endorse paperless environments. But there are a few things that I can’t seem to let go. I love books, not Kindles and Nooks, but books. I don’t want to read by the glow of a blue light or give up my favorite bookmark. There is something so wonderful in the joy of holding the heft of the pages, the feel of the pages and being able to smell the glue which binds it to it spine. I adore the ability to make my own notes in the margins (in script, mind you) and skim effortlessly to find them and even the ability to flip through the pages quickly where they run into a blur. I love the ability to write a pretty and thoughtful letter to a friend instead of sending an email or calling. But more significantly, I love how I sign my name. It’s a personal statement and gives so much information about the personality of who is writing it. I’d rather keep my signature instead of an X or *cringe* a thumbprint or even *horrifying* to lick the paper to seal it with my DNA.
Mr. Garth brings up a great point to Fred: his penmanship is “disgusting” and he needs to consider the consequences of it (pg. 566). Just as Mr. Gath advises, Fred must take the time to “form the letters and keep a straight line” in order to prevent “sending puzzles” across the country (pg. 566). Even if Fred did not go into Mr. Garths profession, his penmanship would affect his abilities as a clergy man. Letters and notes of congratulations or sympathy would need to be drafted. Clarification and documentation for death and weddings and births would have to be officiated – how could Fred not be able to foresee how his writing would impact others? He would be sending out cryptic messages into the unknown, where in the case of our current students – will they be haunted by the ghostly script of Dickens or Shakespeare sending them cryptic messages they are unable to read? In the future, students will not be able to read cursive without the aid of a computer program that transcribes it into plain text. Does this mean that the rare books collection will soon be lost too? Would Rebecca Mead even bothered to visit the New York Public Library to touch, smell and see in person the script of her idol, George Elliot, if she had not been taught to read and write cursive (Mead pg 11)? Right now, the future is uncertain. I hope school districts don’t forget the importance of cursive script, otherwise we will live in a world of abridged manuscripts and forgotten words because someone could not “translate” the code. Cursive writing my well become the next hieroglyphics.
Vickie Culpepper