I will be the first to admit that I was one of those kids in third grade.  I was dead-set convinced that I was going to have lovely handwriting.  For a long time, it worked.  I played with scripts and I even received a false “incorrect” mark on a peer-corrected spelling test because I made my “a” look just like that one.  (He had, somehow, never seen an “a” like that.  I was given my marks back.)

However, by the time I reached middle school, that went flying out the window.  It was printing or bust.  I hated using cursive.  The eternal “no one uses cursive anyway” argument was becoming more prevalent, and, I realized, more accurate.  After all, my own dad’s penmanship was it’s own kind of illegible.  (Sorry, Dad.)  I was going to make sure my writing could be read.

High school and college formed what I’ve deemed my “prinsive”.  It’s my own hybrid of printing and cursive and it seems to be what 90% of my friends use as well.  If I want something truly legible, I don’t use any form of cursive.  However, prinsive is my everyday choice.  Writing a note to myself?  Prinsive.  Taking notes in class? Prinsive.   It’s fast and, for the most part, legible.

I’m not certain that it’s a bad thing to see handwriting evolve.  I would agree that it is first and foremost — in recent years anyway — the fault of standardized testing.  After all, if it’s not on the test, it’s clearly not important.  Besides, that is one thing I find beautiful about handwriting: everyone has a distinctive style.  I can tell who in my family wrote something based on the writing.  My dad’s is more or less chicken scratch.  My mom’s is similar to mine, but loopier.  My sister’s…well, my sister is 11.  She’ll get it.

Then there’s this kid.  I’m not sure — I could be remembering wrong — but I’m fairly certain that even my third grade teacher, Mrs. Little, wasn’t as excited about pretty handwriting as this little guy.  We all have our passions, but I don’t necessarily agree with his staunch “you have to have nice handwriting” point of view.

But really, they’re contrasting opinions.  If the kid is going to revolutionize his generation, more power to him.  I’ll be over here with my prinsive.

“The Medieval Helpdesk.” This is one of those videos that caused me to hit my head against the wall repeatedly only because I can imagine my sister with her iPod not wanting to open a book.  She never even reads the directions for video games because she doesn’t want to take the time.

It’s almost frightening how accurate that video is.  It’s a book.  Pull the plug and open one.

/paper is better rant.

If poor Mrs. Little could see my prinsive…I’m fairly certain she would be weeping.

I tried, Mrs. L.  I really did try.  Lectures caught up to me.

At least I didn’t miss those notes.

Prinsive, ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy.