Lots of people are disturbed about the trend away from teaching cursive writing. I'm among them.
I've been told I have nice handwriting. This would come as a complete shock to Mrs. Shoemaker, my sixth-grade teacher, who was so disgusted by my penmanship that she actually told me I should learn to type at the earliest opportunity.
I say the deck was stacked. If your handwriting didn't look exactly like Mrs. Shoemaker's, you were guaranteed a check mark in the "needs improvement" box on your report card, and (in my case) several despairing notes to the parental units:
"Michael seems unwilling to improve his penmanship."
"Michael's sloppy penmanship remains a problem. I misread a line in his book report on Guadalcanal Diary as "Vivian Vance has a big butt.'"
"Are you quite sure Michael is right-handed?"
This was back when schools still championed the Palmer Method of handwriting instruction. We Palmer Method students have a bond forged by spending countless hours with our Scripto cartridge pens, making endless rows of circles and loops on sheets of lined paper while our teachers stood over us with cattle prods, reminding us to use our hands and arms, not our fingers, to guide the writing instruments.
I think this business of using the arm to form letters is what has caused my generation to develop shoulder problems later in life. And I believe the method of instruction instilled in us a deep sympathy for cattle.
Because of handwriting, teachers also used to wonder if my older sister Vicky and I were really related. You remember that alphabet banner that was always posted over the blackboard in every school room? My sister's handwriting looks exactly like that. According to my teachers, if Vicky were really my sister, good handwriting would be encoded in my DNA. Which, when I wrote it, looked like "BMW."
Then came high school, when I discovered a talent for forgery. It came about when my father's paycheck was mailed to the house and he wasn't around to endorse it. Jean Yunker at the bank told Mom that any reasonable facsimile of Dad's signature would suffice, so I filled up a notebook page with Patrick H. Redmonds and by the time I got to the last one, you couldn't tell my version of Dad's signature from the genuine article.
And didn't that open some doors. Not only did my handwriting get better, but I no longer had to worry about unexcused absences, report cards, or permission slips. And here's the beauty part: Nobody ever asked how Dad could be signing all these documents when I went to high school in LaGrange and he lived 561 miles away in Washington, D.C.
But back to the issue at hand. I've heard all the arguments against teaching cursive - about how nobody uses it because we do all our communicating with e-mail and text nowadays. And I think it's horse hockey.
You still have to sign checks and contracts.
So kids, learn cursive. If not the Palmer Method, try the Mike Method: Copy from your parents.
And when you sign your own note to the teacher saying you were sick when you were really home playing video games, as you surely will, remember the first rule: Make sure you spell "pneumonia" correctly. I had a close call with that one.
Apparently, it is not enough to tolerate, accept, or even endorse the gay agenda. Now, unless you tolerate and accept criminal behavior committed by gays, you are a hater.
Believe it — that is the very public argument being made in behalf of Florida high school cheerleader Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, who faces criminal charges for having sex with a 14-year-old girl.
Word on the street and in the media is that it will be a really bad summer for mosquitoes. Or should I say, it will be a really bad summer for humans, because it will be a great year for thirsty mosquitoes.
When Barack Obama announced his presidential campaign back in February 2007, he did it in front of the old Springfield, Ill., Statehouse in a speech full of references to Abraham Lincoln.
Ordinarily I don’t take requests, but a bunch of people have written to ask how I’m doing with my weight-loss surgery and I thought this might be the most efficient way to answer.
I am a grandmother who went to the Brownsburg graduation ceremony on June 7 and due to very poor planning on Brownsburg School’s part, I could not sit and watch my twin grandsons graduate in person. I was directed to an overflow room where I had to watch it on a TV screen and could not even take pictures.
What you are now hearing across the land is a collective whine. Blue-state Democrats are upset that Texas Gov. Rick Perry dares come and play in their sandboxes, and worse, threatens to “poach” jobs from their states.
The website Politico reports that Perry’s attempts to lure jobs to Texas are “infuriating to prominent Democrats around the country.”
I am the first to admit I am behind the times when it comes to technology. I remember way back in the olden days of the 1990s when I was actually ahead of the game. Now there are second-graders that are more tech savvy than me. I just decided to stop my forward technological progression a few years back.
College graduates facing a crushing debt – some more than $100,000 – is a very big and a very real problem.
But U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s recent proposal to deal with it won’t solve the problem. It is a cheap ploy to divert attention from the real problem.
An NPR broadcast examines the question of how communities can better prepare for tornadoes like the one that struck Moore, Okla. on Monday. The broadcast features commentary from Michael Fitzgerald, who reported a five-part disaster series for the CNHI News Service.
Commentary
Discussion
The write stuff
By Mike Redmond CNHI
Lots of people are disturbed about the trend away from teaching cursive writing. I'm among them.
I've been told I have nice handwriting. This would come as a complete shock to Mrs. Shoemaker, my sixth-grade teacher, who was so disgusted by my penmanship that she actually told me I should learn to type at the earliest opportunity.
I say the deck was stacked. If your handwriting didn't look exactly like Mrs. Shoemaker's, you were guaranteed a check mark in the "needs improvement" box on your report card, and (in my case) several despairing notes to the parental units:
"Michael seems unwilling to improve his penmanship."
"Michael's sloppy penmanship remains a problem. I misread a line in his book report on Guadalcanal Diary as "Vivian Vance has a big butt.'"
"Are you quite sure Michael is right-handed?"
This was back when schools still championed the Palmer Method of handwriting instruction. We Palmer Method students have a bond forged by spending countless hours with our Scripto cartridge pens, making endless rows of circles and loops on sheets of lined paper while our teachers stood over us with cattle prods, reminding us to use our hands and arms, not our fingers, to guide the writing instruments.
I think this business of using the arm to form letters is what has caused my generation to develop shoulder problems later in life. And I believe the method of instruction instilled in us a deep sympathy for cattle.
Because of handwriting, teachers also used to wonder if my older sister Vicky and I were really related. You remember that alphabet banner that was always posted over the blackboard in every school room? My sister's handwriting looks exactly like that. According to my teachers, if Vicky were really my sister, good handwriting would be encoded in my DNA. Which, when I wrote it, looked like "BMW."
Then came high school, when I discovered a talent for forgery. It came about when my father's paycheck was mailed to the house and he wasn't around to endorse it. Jean Yunker at the bank told Mom that any reasonable facsimile of Dad's signature would suffice, so I filled up a notebook page with Patrick H. Redmonds and by the time I got to the last one, you couldn't tell my version of Dad's signature from the genuine article.
And didn't that open some doors. Not only did my handwriting get better, but I no longer had to worry about unexcused absences, report cards, or permission slips. And here's the beauty part: Nobody ever asked how Dad could be signing all these documents when I went to high school in LaGrange and he lived 561 miles away in Washington, D.C.
But back to the issue at hand. I've heard all the arguments against teaching cursive - about how nobody uses it because we do all our communicating with e-mail and text nowadays. And I think it's horse hockey.
You still have to sign checks and contracts.
So kids, learn cursive. If not the Palmer Method, try the Mike Method: Copy from your parents.
And when you sign your own note to the teacher saying you were sick when you were really home playing video games, as you surely will, remember the first rule: Make sure you spell "pneumonia" correctly. I had a close call with that one.
© 2012 Mike Redmond. All Rights Reserved.
Will the current V.A. backlog on veterans’ compensation claims be the next scandal to hit the administration?
Currently, the backlog is at 865,000 plus compensation claims with a wait time of greater than 125 days.
June 18, 2013
Apparently, it is not enough to tolerate, accept, or even endorse the gay agenda. Now, unless you tolerate and accept criminal behavior committed by gays, you are a hater.
Believe it — that is the very public argument being made in behalf of Florida high school cheerleader Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, who faces criminal charges for having sex with a 14-year-old girl.
June 18, 2013
Word on the street and in the media is that it will be a really bad summer for mosquitoes. Or should I say, it will be a really bad summer for humans, because it will be a great year for thirsty mosquitoes.
June 14, 2013
As a Christian, I feel compelled to respond to a recent letter to the editor.
June 14, 2013
When Barack Obama announced his presidential campaign back in February 2007, he did it in front of the old Springfield, Ill., Statehouse in a speech full of references to Abraham Lincoln.
June 14, 2013
Ordinarily I don’t take requests, but a bunch of people have written to ask how I’m doing with my weight-loss surgery and I thought this might be the most efficient way to answer.
June 11, 2013
I am a grandmother who went to the Brownsburg graduation ceremony on June 7 and due to very poor planning on Brownsburg School’s part, I could not sit and watch my twin grandsons graduate in person. I was directed to an overflow room where I had to watch it on a TV screen and could not even take pictures.
June 11, 2013
What you are now hearing across the land is a collective whine. Blue-state Democrats are upset that Texas Gov. Rick Perry dares come and play in their sandboxes, and worse, threatens to “poach” jobs from their states.
The website Politico reports that Perry’s attempts to lure jobs to Texas are “infuriating to prominent Democrats around the country.”
June 11, 2013
I am the first to admit I am behind the times when it comes to technology. I remember way back in the olden days of the 1990s when I was actually ahead of the game. Now there are second-graders that are more tech savvy than me. I just decided to stop my forward technological progression a few years back.
June 7, 2013
College graduates facing a crushing debt – some more than $100,000 – is a very big and a very real problem.
But U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s recent proposal to deal with it won’t solve the problem. It is a cheap ploy to divert attention from the real problem.
June 7, 2013
Follow me on Twitter
Is Eric Snowden a traitor or patriot?
Tires
Telecommunications
Beauty Salons
Government
An NPR broadcast examines the question of how communities can better prepare for tornadoes like the one that struck Moore, Okla. on Monday. The broadcast features commentary from Michael Fitzgerald, who reported a five-part disaster series for the CNHI News Service.
May 22, 2013 1 Photo
Complete Report:
Part I: Are We Prepared? | Part II: Disaster Dollars
Part III: Lessons Learned | Part IV: Warning Signs
Part V: The Big One
Pit bulls “are considered dangerous animals/dogs and potentially hazardous to the community,” a Bessemer, Pa., ordinance states.
June 19, 2013 1 Photo
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