Vintage handwriting 101
So, it begins.The pencils are being sharpened and the pens organized by colour. A new school year is upon us.
Back-to-school often conjures up memories of our own school days. Perhaps we remember what it felt like when our parents dropped us off at University; that feeling of ‘what-just-happened’ coupled with ‘anything is possible.’
Back-to-school memories
I recently came across this vintage handwriting workbook teaching Grade 6 students how to write in cursive.
My memory of learning cursive is tracing over letters in a book similar to the one shown here. And watching Mrs. Tingey (my first grade teacher—I adored her) make it look so easy as she almost magically wrote letters on the board for us to duplicate.
Write with freedom
I find it particularly hilarious that an 11 year old was instructed to ‘write with freedom’ given all the very exact, very precise instructions about posture, ‘gliding on fingernails’ and the need to fill in a writing score card.
Cursive writing method
Commonly known as the MacLean Method of Writing this approach to teaching children how to write was developed by a Canadian in British Columbia, Henry Boyver MacLean.
Ink marks the spot
This was in the day of pen nibs and ink wells. Don’t you just love the ink splotch on the pages of the workbook?
Do not waste space
I don’t want to insult H.B. MacLean, but when it comes to cursive writing these days, I’m thrilled to see it at all and if someone wants to take a whole page to write just two words, then happy writing to them.
Did you learn cursive writing in school?
Hi Barb,
Though I am left-handed, I am pleased to report that none of my teachers tried to make me switch hands. Only one thought my paper should be tilted in a different direction (to match the image you posted!) and rotated it for me. When she walked away I tilted it back to where it was and she never mentioned it again.
I loved learning cursive and took it a bit further with calligraphy.
Thanks for the post, always interesting!
Hi there Christine, happy to hear you actually had ‘freedom to write’ when learning cursive.I love that you pursued it beyond and took up calligraphy. I’ve yet to do this….but some day soon.Thanks for reading along and sharing in my love of pen to paper.
Yes Barb, twice! In the first school, I was taught The Palmer Method and learned to use a fountain pen. I transferred schools at 5th grade and learned a much different method which used a ball point pen shaped much like the one in the illustration – no cap to contain the leaky ink. We were graded for penmanship and needless to say, my grades from 5-8 were not good!
Several points come to mind from those later years with Zaner-Bloser.
We were never to grip the pen, but hold it loosely enough that Sister Mary ___ could easily remove it when she crept up from behind! Feet had to be flat on the floor, tough if you were short ;).
And, the bottom corner of the paper was to point to your middle.
Thankfully, we did not have all the direction of your booklet nor the testing!
Fun post! Thanks Barb.
Hi there Elaine, I can certainly relate to the challenge of having feet flat on the floor if one was shorter…that would have been me for sure. Thanks for sharing your experience learning cursive. Your handwriting is certainly beautiful! 🙂
Yes Barb, I sure did. As a matter of fact it was one of my first traumas in school. In grade 4 I remember the teacher asking us to make sure that our letters were only a quarter of the way between the two blue lines on our sheets, and I thought that was strange and it would be too small to read. But I tried hard to comply. The result of all of my efforts was to get my very first grade below a B, which bothered me for years because it seems so unfair. The comment was that I was writing too small. 🙂 I love these vintage instructions for handwriting and it is hilarious that they say to write with freedom and then have so many requirements for correct handwriting haha. Another wonderful post thanks Barb
Ahhh, the memories we have of our younger years in school; pleasant and some traumatic. Clearly you were a stellar student Ramona, I’m sure your handwriting today would pass with A++ 🙂