Buda resident Mary Gail Leming demonstrates the precise art of cursive handwriting. (Photo by Wes Ferguson)
by WES FERGUSON
She’s not naming names or pointing any fingers – not even at her grandsons – but Mary Gail Leming has come across some pitiful handwriting in recent years.
Cursive is becoming a lost art, she says. High school graduates insist on printing in block letters, as though they’re a bunch of first-graders.
“I am so disgusted with these kids,” says Leming, a retired school teacher from Buda. “They cannot write.”
Leming is far from the only person who is concerned about the decline of cursive. The most recent blow came just weeks ago, when the state of Indiana announced that cursive would be erased from the list of curriculum requirements for elementary school students.
And although children in other states are still being taught to write in cursive – with its looping, joined characters – educators are focusing less on handwriting and more on subjects that are measured by standardized tests.
What’s more, young people have grown up reading and typing on computers. With fewer opportunities to write on paper, in longhand, it would seem that handwriting is only doomed to grow sloppier.
But not if Leming can help it.
Leming has written a book, “The Mailbox Surprise,” that uses stories to teach children how to write in cursive. Her manuscript recounts the adventures of a kindly old farm couple, Mr. and Mrs. McElroy. As the farmer and wife go through their day, events keep reminding Mrs. McElroy of cursive lessons.
For example, when Mr. McElroy’s goats escape, he must walk over a hill, bring them back and swing the gate shut. His route calls to mind the cursive letter A. They visit a busy feed store, drive a truck through muddy ruts and see children playing on a swing set.
“The story progresses on and on and on,” Leming said.
For many of the chapters, Leming draws on her own experience growing up on a farm in rural Texas. She has taught school in Buda, Austin, and a few other cities, and she is looking for a publisher for her book.
“It’s very interesting for beginning hand-writers, like second-grade students,” she said of her manuscript. “There’s a lot of repetition, lots of color, lots of visuals. When you teach it in that manner, they will remember it.”
And maybe next time they reach for a pencil or pen, they’ll remember to write in cursive.
