a

I’m trying not to be the grumpy old fellow on this one, despite my initial reaction of, “You gotta be kidding!” I have given it some thought and admit that it isn’t black and white. In 2014, most states will adopt national curriculum guidelines for elementary schools that do not include the teaching of cursive writing. You know, “longhand.” This seemed ridiculous to me until I thought about how much I write in longhand myself. Not much. Of course, being a cartoonist, I’m biased toward “manuscript.” That’s printing. The importance of cursive in modern society is approaching that of the Latin language. School time is considered too precious to spend teaching kids some boring old skill which, to be honest, they probably won’t use much. I mean, if they want to read the Declaration of Independence, they can read it online, right? It’s more important to learn typing, the reasoning goes. That’s probably true, too, but I can’t help thinking that I learned both. Personally, I’m glad I can read a letter from someone whose world does not revolve around computers. They’re bound to have an interesting viewpoint, don’t you think? You know what else? I wish I’d had the opportunity to study Latin. Having talked it out, I guess I am a grumpy old fellow.