Cursive to Qwerty

Indiana is the latest in a slew of states that don't require schools to teach cursive anymore, but are requiring "keyboarding."

I may be getting old, but I think this shift from cursive to querty is a shame. 

I remember being both apprehensive and excited to learn cursive in third grade. Cursive was a big-kid thing, a teacher thing. Once you learned cursive, you were practically an adult! I loved tracing the lines, writing the sentences. It was like drawing, for me, except the lines actually went where I expected them to go! I loved it.

For a while.

Once we learned it, we were required to write in it all the time, and being forced to do something always dulls it a little in a kid's eye. When I entered high school, and the teachers couldn't care less how you wrote as long as they could read it, I felt this enormous sense of freedom! I could write how I pleased (and in any color ink I wanted!) Also, having migrated from Catholic school to public school, I could wear colors! Oh, high school. I felt wild and free.

When I started college at Columbia College, the sheer volume of time I spent writing quadrupled. Quintupled. Hex-uppled? Well, it increased. Two fiction classes a semester will have your forearms muscular and your tendons screaming for relief. It was then that I reverted back to cursive. The strain on my hand was much less! I didn't have to pick up my pen after every letter. Instead of smearing my print letters together, I glided effortlessly along the loops of the cursive letters. I found myself pressing more lightly on the paper. And when I went to type up my work, by golly, I could actually read it! It was easier and faster to write, and I've written almost everything (except for short phrases and labels) in cursive since.

So maybe it's a little sentimental that I chafe at this twist towards the cold, precise "keyboarding" and away from my easy-going, flowy, tactile cursive.

Another thing: it's not cursive itself that I feel is so essential. Its the act of sitting down to a task that requires patience and attention to detail that I think is important. I realize that's hard for kids. Life is hard. Learning to do hard things is a part of life.

Also, I think "keyboarding," which I call typing, is something a person is going to learn anyway--like how to use an idiom or time a joke.  I didn't learn to type in a class. I learned to type in an IM. I DID learn to write in cursive in a class, and I write in cursive 99% of the time now. It's more legible, faster, more even, and prettier than my print.

I both write and type a lot. I think that both forms of communication are important. But hitting a keystroke to make a letter doesn't require the same amount of attention. It's easier. Teaching a kid to type doesn't add any value. They'll learn to type any way. All you need to do is teach them where to position their fingers, and they will learn by IMing friends, typing into search bars, typing out papers, updating Facebook and Twitter.

Finally, as a general observation about handwriting and typing, however a person chooses to communicate: Do everyone a favor and spend an extra millisecond in your busy, ultra-important, super cool life to make sure your handwriting is legible, your words are written out, and you are using punctuation to your advantage. no 1 wants 2 rd wat u say when u right lyke this cuz iz hard 2 rd n stuff esp wen u dont use punctuation   And no one wants to decode your handwriting.  So have a care.

And maybe if we did spend a little more time on slowing down and paying attention to detail in lower grades, the general public would have a better time expressing themselves.

Festival!

Every year has new artwork.

Last weekend, I got a real treat!

The fates (and the finances) aligned themselves so that Gordon and I got to drive up to Michigan for the weekend, surprise our parents, and go to one of my favorite Grand Rapids summer traditions, Festival.

Festival (follow them on twitter!) is the largest all-volunteer arts festival in the country. The first weekend in June every summer sees downtown Grand Rapids shut down, marquees and stages go up, and hundreds of thousands of people descend to listen to music, people-watch, sunbathe, eat food off sticks, watch performances, create art, and more! It's a tradition to get your first sunburn of the year at festival, and it marks the start of summer in Grand Rapids.

I remember going to Festival when I was little, and it was a wonderland. As a kid, you can ride in a giant tire swing hung from an iron sculpture. You can create masterpieces with wood pieces at the Glue-in. You can paint pictures. You can do swing art, which is when you suspend markers above a large piece of white paper and swing it back and forth and around to create spirally, loopy, helixy patterns. There's a station where princes and princesses can make crowns and hats. There are buckets of sidewalk chalk to mark up the paths.

From the iron sculpture hangs a giant tire swing, the di Suervo Swing.

For adults, there's music at almost every corner, a pavilion where local artists sell paintings, sculptures, jewelery, what have you. Monroe street is lined with booths from local communities offering every kind of food from Mexican to Polish, American, Bosnian, Indian, Vietnamese...Things that don't even look like food, but smell like heaven.

In addition to all of the things out in the newly-summery sun, the art museum is free the whole weekend! If you feel like you're about to get sunstroke out in the street, you can head into the cool of the museum. In the museum, you can see the Art Prize winners from the previous fall.

Click to view full size!

My mom and I only went one day this year, Sunday, the last day. We were in a mood to praise Festival as one of the triumphs of Grand Rapids, after all of this business with Newsweek allowing idiots to post things saying that my pretty city was dying. And as we walked through throngs of people in tank tops, shorts, tshirts, and sundresses, right down the middle of the street, through clouds of wafting smells, hearing snatches of music, I realized that not only is Grand Rapids emphatically NOT dying, it is improving and becoming a better place to live every year.

I only get to go back every few months, so the changes are really apparent to me. I notice how things are getting cleaner and newer. Every time I go home, new buildings are being renovated. Every time I go to an event downtown, it's more successful. Every time I hear about Grand Rapids, it's something positive.

And this year's festival was full of people to reinforce that.

Calder Stage, with Calder's sculpture, La Grande Vitesse. 

There were many stages at Festival: the Calder Stage (right in front of the sculpture by Alexander Calder that is the symbol of the city,) the Fountain Stage (on the corner of Monroe and Fountain streets,) City Stage (on the corner of Monroe and Ottawa streets,) and Circle Stage (a permanent stage in Rosa Parks Circle, which can be seen in the ubiquitous lip dub.) There is no way anyone can see all of the performances throughout the festival, and admittedly, some are better than others. My mom and I had no interest in the mediocre gospel choir, but back at the Clock Tower stage we found a duo we liked and sat in the sun to watch

On the stage were two men, one with a guitar (Bruce Evans) and one with a bass (Gene Brott.) They were playing a popular Matchbox Twenty song we both knew, which is what drew us in, but primarily they play classic rock. They admitted to the audience after the song that they were only two of a complete band, but the soulfulness of Evans's voice and the fullness of the music could have fooled me. They were a part of a cover band called CounterBalance, described in Festival's program as "a 1968 to 1988 classic vocal rock band." After the Matchbox Twenty song, they played a few songs from those years, and then closed with "Freefalling," and it was a perfect summer moment for me. The sun was hot, and there was good, live music in front of me.

Bruce Evans and Gene Brott of CounterBalance

After the duo from CounterBalance finished, we decided to wander off and see what else there was to be seen. At the City Stage, we found the Ardan Academy of Irish Dance  performing. They were young people, from a tiny 7 or 8 year old girl in white-bright blond hair, all the way up to teenagers. The music was energetic and modern, and the dancers matched every beat of the intricate music under the bright sun as if it were effortless. Even the tiny girl hit every mark. When they came out as a group, they were in sync. They were a joy to watch, and there was not a seat to be had in the audience. My mom and I jostled for a good view, and when the dancers finished, we clapped enthusiastically along with the full audience.

Festival this year was hot and crowded, just as it should be. It remains one of my favorite parts of the year, whether I get to go all three days or just one, whether I stay for hours and do everything, or stay only a short time and enjoy the ambiance.

And it reinforces to me the values that are evident in Grand Rapids: Community, innovation, involvement, and enrichment.

Babies, Babies, Everywhere, and Not a Wedding Ring

Hey, good news! So, in 2008 (a little old, I know) less teens were getting pregnant! Great, right? A teenager could never care for a baby properly. They're still kids themselves!

But if you are 20+, go ahead, ladies. You don't have to be married. You don't have to have a boyfriend.

All you need is sex.

Something wrong with this picture? Is it just me, or are more ladies in their 20s having babies (s!) out of wedlock?

It's not just me. The same Reuters article that says teen pregnancy is down reports that more women in their 20s are unapologetically having kids without husbands or boyfriends.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

I mean, this IS 2011. It's the latest it's ever been. The first Sci-Fi novels didn't even consider this year. (I always have a feeling they'd be disappointed that we're not zooming around in space cars, but utterly flummoxed by an iPad.) 

How Many Kids are Too Many? 

So, maybe I am just behind the times, but I am amazed (and shocked) at how many of my Facebook lady friends are having multiple children out of wedlock! I've been married for about a half a year, I graduated college, I've been relatively independent for about three years, and I can't imagine having a kid or two. It's one of my biggest fears: an uninvited, unforeseen bundle of responsibility that I can't handle either financially or psychologically.  I have a hard enough time keeping myself fed and happy and out of too much debt. And these ladies, some of whom are still dependent on their parents, are creating expensive, dependent humans. That's two layers of dependency. Is that responsible? Don't we as citizens of our world have a responsibility to provide as well as we can for our children? How can we possibly provide for them if we can't even get out from under our own parents?

Maybe three generations in one house is preferable. What is it that people say? It takes a village to raise a child? Maybe, in the absence of a mother-father team, a mother-grandma-grandpa team is quite as good. I don't know though. I have only my own experiences. I was raised an only child in a house with my mom and my dad, a couple of cats and a springer spaniel. I accept that there might not be one "right" way to raise a child. And sometimes mothers are not single by choice.

But there seems to be an alarming amount of ladies on who seem not to care whether or not there is a relationship between mother and father. From what I see, they're attempting to foster a relationship between the child and his father, but the mother seems to be completely unattached, whether there's been a break up or what.

And the comments, when a single lady announces that she is pregnant again! Congratulations drip all over the comments. "Likes" add up. I suppose you can't say to a person, "Dammit, Lady, how the hell do you make this enormous mistake twice!?"

Society dictates that my harshest response be "no comment."

One comment I saw recently on a photo of a single lady's second baby offered their congratulations, and then commented that she'd have the perfect family: herself, one boy, and one girl. I was surprised to hear her refer to that as the "perfect" family.

But what is a "perfect family?"

I know it isn't the 1950s. I know a nuclear family isn't necessarily the ideal anymore for everyone. But I think, traditionally, family styles tend to reflect the overall life style of the parents. Farmers have many kids: free farm hands! Working parents have one or two: that's all they have time for (and can afford to give the lifestyle they prefer.) I've read a couple news articles recently that talk about the middle class having smaller and smaller families. One or two kids now is the norm, as opposed to the three or four that was common several years ago.

Still. I cannot imagine myself raising two kids by myself.

And it's not just being able to provide the love and guidance to children...it's also a financial thing. The link under the photo up there brings you to an article that says that the average cost for raising a child is over $200,000. How can one mother provide enough for herself and both of her children? If I weren't married, I'd never be able to live on my own. I just don't command the economic resources to pay rent on an apartment, buy a car, keep myself in food and electricity. Forget the internet, a cell phone, a TV, or furniture! How would I ALSO manage to pay for baby food, toys, clothes, diapers, school supplies, winter coats, roller blades, dance lessons, medical bills, college!? I could never do it. I could not provide for my child if I were single. I would have to depend on the charity of others.

And is it really anyone else's responsibility to provide for my bastard children? I don't think so. Still, a child is a child, and all sacrifices must be made to provide for it. It's a human. If you bear a child, you have to take any help offered to rear that child successfully.  For the child's sake.

I propose taking EVERY precaution to avoid conceiving children out of wedlock, or out of financial solvency. I don't care if you have to take birth control, wear a condom, or simply abstain.

Once you conceive, you're in it for the long haul. But that's an entirely other blog post.

"All I can think of is the emaciated bodies of the children on our kitchen table as my mother prescribes what the parents can't give. More food..... And here in the Capitol they're vomiting for the pleasure of filling their bellies again and again." - Suzanne Collins in Catching Fire, p80