Happy National Handwriting Day: January 23rd!
Why is there a day dedicated to handwriting? Why not? Many days are dedicated to less practical pursuits. Talk Like a Pirate Day falls on September 19 (Arggghhh!), National Grouch Day claims October 15 (Grrrrrrr…), and January 21st is reserved for Squirrel Appreciation Day (Aww, nuts). I, for one, am more than happy to dedicate January 23rd to the art—and science—of handwriting.
The Science of Handwriting
Handwriting falls under the science of haptics, the study of physical touch. Haptics research tells us that when the muscles of your hand move a pen or pencil on paper to write words, especially in cursive, you are not only improving your fine motor skills, but you are also stimulating your brain and boosting critical thinking skills and creativity.
Writing by hand engages more parts of our brains than when we work on a keyboard or touch a screen. Check out the Learning Without Tears research behind the value of systematic instruction of handwriting in early years in the white paper “Handwriting without Tears by Learning without Tears.” (This is not a sales pitch; I do not receive any remuneration for this promotion. It’s just GOOD STUFF!)
Cursive for Kids is a Lost Art
Handwriting, specifically cursive handwriting, seems to be a lost art. Many moons ago, Sister Irene insisted we use fountain pens with ink cartridges to learn our cursive lessons. It was pure H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks for lefties who smudged the letters across the page, but for us right-handers, things flowed across the page pretty smoothly with practice.
Do you remember learning how to write cursive? If you did not learn cursive in school, you are not alone. Many school systems have eliminated cursive writing in favor of keyboarding. Research-on-handwriting guru Virginia Berninger tells us that when children do not learn block letter formation followed by cursive, they miss brain and fine motor skill development that helps them as readers, writers, speakers, and thinkers (see the white paper). Perhaps January 23rd will encourage schools to reconsider.
But I’ve been told I’m a grown up…
Apps on our phones make it so easy for us today that writing by hand can seem like, to quote my daughter Katie’s favorite cartoon character, Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes, “a big, fat waste of time.” While we writers don’t really have the option to play Jo March and walk our handwritten manuscripts to publishers, we all have moments when handwriting comes in…well, handy. And taking up the offer to write by hand benefits us, too.
Memory: You will remember more of what’s said during a lecture or staff meeting if you take notes by hand. With your muscles involved, your brain is engaged more than if you type your notes. Because the hand is slower than the keyboard, the brain has to filter the words and get right to the important facts. By whittling it down to what you can write, you get to the salient points and remember more of them.
Personal Satisfaction: Try journaling! A journal is a personal process; personalize it even more by writing by hand. Writing by hand slows things down so you can process your feelings and experiences, concentrate deeply, and add personal flourishes.
Happiness: How about all those letters to the editor and notes you’ve been meaning to write? During this quarantine, many people have turned to coloring to fill their time, but how about writing? I, myself, have built a “pen pal” relationship with a friend that I don’t get to see at all due to COVID restrictions (Hi, Rosemary). And I can personally vouch for the Kent State University research behind the joy one gets from both writing and receiving handwritten thank-you notes.
Fine Company
Take a moment to think about the incredible works of American literature that exist today thanks to those who took pen (or quill) in hand to write.
Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), founder of the US treasury and main character in the award-winning musical that bears his name, wrote, according to the National Archives, approximately twenty-seven VOLUMES of “correspondence, speeches and writings, legal and financial papers, printed matter, and other papers.” Fifty-one of the eighty-five essays in The Federalist Papers are included in that count. He really did write like he was running out of time. By hand.
Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) was the first published African-American woman and poet. She wrote myriad religious and political poems and elegies, only fifty-five of which have survived. An enslaved person who risked arrest by learning how to read and write, Phillis is considered a powerful catalyst to the American anti-slavery and civil rights movements.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) authored 1,775 poems from her little home in Amherst, MA. Check out her award-winning recipe for the Twenty-Pound Black Cake, also written by hand. It’s real.
Sure, these people lived during times when pencil or pen and ink were the only high-tech writing tools available to them. Believe it or not, many professional writers today choose to handwrite their works.
Quentin Tarantino is notorious for the red and black felt pens he uses to write his screenplays in regular ol’ spiral notebooks.
Amy Tan writes all her first drafts longhand to get to the heart of the emotions of each character.
George Clooney avoids computers and opts for pencils and pads. He has “people” to do the follow-up typing.
Check out the full list on Mashable: “10 Famous Writers Who Don’t Use Modern Tech to Create” by Yohana Desta.
My personal favorite professional writer-by-hand is past National and International Slam Poetry Champion Gayle Danley, poet and spoken-word genius. Gayle carries a notebook with her everywhere she goes to capture the now and inspire the later. I know this for a fact, having watched her sit at a corner table to craft the poem she would perform twenty minutes later with sheer theatrical brilliance.
Celebrate the Day
The benefits of handwriting are worth considering, and the company of hand writers is exceptional. So, step away from the keyboard, get out your favorite gel pen or #2 pencil, and practice your cursive writing. Who knows? You might like it so much that you write notes to friends on National Compliment Day on January 24th or a full letter on September 1st for National Letter Writing Day. You have plenty of time to work up to it!