Gadgets, Cursive Writing And An EMP

For years now I have printed most everything I write. I began to do so while attending High School because my penmanship was so horrid that I could not even read my own writing. My Teachers stopped complaining about not being able to read my writing once I made the switch from cursive writing to printing my words and, to my amazement, my grades went up. I still print to this day rather than write using cursive script when putting pen to paper. It's not a problem of not remembering how to write rather one of laziness on my part. I was too lazy years ago to steady my pen and make myself write where myself and others could read what I penned there. I will write using cursive script only when something is of great importance to me because I have to take such great care to make things legible. It also takes me a great deal more time than just printing because I am so out of practice with my cursive writing.

Months ago, my Fiancee pointed out to me a disturbing fact. She told me that some schools are no longer requiring cursive writing to be taught in classrooms. I did some research and found that many States no longer require cursive to be taught as part of their curriculum. I thought back to reading some of my Mother's letters and how pretty her handwriting was. My Grandfather's handwriting was even better than my Mother's! His could have been used in the classroom to teach students how to write. He even told me one time that I should never stop writing with cursive script. Maybe I'm an alarmist these days but I agree with him now.

I watched a segment on a local news program last night that shocked me even more than I felt it would. A Third Grade Student from Kentucky can write cursive and a Seventh Grade Student in this State cannot. The local Student admitted to not being able to read or write the cursive script. Shameful! The school systems feel there is no longer a need to be able to write when the technology is advancing so rapidly. They further explained that students are still taught to read and write the Alphabet by printing the letters I assume as to better allow them to write with the computer keyboards so prevalent in schools these days. I see several issues with this line of thinking so please follow along with me and overlook what you may assume to be my apparent ellipses as I traverse the subject matter of decreasing literacy and our ever increasing dependence on technology.

According to many Archaeologists and Historians, the Human Race had little advancement of any kind prior to the written language being invented. Stories and more passed on by way of word of mouth can sometimes leave room for inaccuracies being introduced and their numbers increasing exponentially each time the story is told. Experiments to this end have been documented many times over the years. When something is written, however, there is less room for misinterpretation and the insertion of personal opinions into the subject matter. There are some exceptions to this rule.

When translating or reading texts or scripts from long ago one must first understand the culture and at least have an understanding of the prevalent religions and politics of their time. The first thing to realize is that many an innocent person has been murdered by organized religions and political factions throughout history as a result of what they had written. In other words; what you say (or write) can hurt you! Once you've learned about the culture and popular religion and politics of the day you must take all that knowledge into account when reading anything written during those particular times and in that particular location. It can sometimes be a daunting task but realizing the way religion, culture and politics affect more ancient writing and story-telling can help you better understand what the author was trying to convey. Put simply. This better affords you to draw your own conclusions and arrive at your own opinion regarding the subject matter you're reading.

There have been many discoveries about known historical facts that have been previously taught incorrectly for many years. One subject that comes to mind is the City of Troy. It was long taught that the story of Troy was just another Greek Myth about romance, greed and power. Guess what? Archeologists are now excavating an area which has been identified as Troy. No longer is the city a myth. This tends to lead us in the direction of historical accuracy when considering some of the rest of the stories told about Helen, Achilles, Hector, Agamemnon and lastly, the Trojan Horse. If Troy is not a myth we must assume that at the very least portions of the remainder of the tales are historically accurate evidence of things past. Put in simpler terms, the ancient stories written about Troy were written during a time when the teacher taught history by telling a story as if it were a drama or a play and the lesson was sometimes scribed as it was being told or performed. Believe it or not, we do a similar thing today with movies. We remember facts much easier and more accurately if they are presented as entertainment. To think the Greeks realized this so many years ago seems to be beyond our grasp today. A problem arises only when the scribe writes down an inaccuracy being told him or when he omits, adds or changes things because of his opinion regarding content or relevancy. History is only as good as its' author.

Let's consider writing. More correctly, typewriting. We learn to type by first recognizing the letters of the Alphabet then finding them on the keyboard. Some students are even taught the “QWERTY Keyboard” and how to type on it utilizing the “Home Keys” and more. The remainder of the students which are not taught this are what I refer to as the “Hunt-And-Peckers”. These folks use two fingers to navigate the entire keyboard then complain about their hands and arms getting tired after a short time of typing. Maybe these folks should try to type using an old Underwood mechanical typewriter for a while. I bet that would make them want to learn the proper way to navigate on and type with a keyboard. There is a problem with typing using the muscle memory of Home-Key, QWERTY Keyboard typing. You don't look at the letters while you type. You only see the monitor which displays your work as you go. Stay with me here.

Another problem comes up wile looking at the result of your keystroke on a monitor. When a person types a word incorrectly, a usually red, squiggly line underscores a misspelled word unless the operator has disabled the function on their word processing program. Most folks don't disable it because, like me, they have learned to rely on it far too much to make them spell correctly. Others simply don't know why the squiggly underline appears from time to time. Worse yet, still others know why it's there and how to use the spell correcting feature but refuse to correct the incorrect spelling. Spelling and Grammar travel hand-in-hand. Poor Grammar results in words like “Sale” and “Sell” taking on new meanings when used incorrectly. Other words like, “yore”, “your”, “you're” and “then” and “than” are most often used in the wrong contexts as well these days. This could cause historical inaccuracies if the word “than” is inserted in the place of “then” and vice versa. This is a Grammatical issue but is just as important to accurate communication which should also be addressed by contemporary teachers.

So far I've talked a lit bit about Writing, Spelling, History and Grammar. Let's have fun adding another subject to the conversation. Math! How many of us used to be able to perform rather complex Math equations in our heads? I used to be able to accurately resolve accounting formulas, hand-written in long form ledgers without the use of a calculator or pencil and paper. If you can do the same, you are most likely at least a half-century old. My Math skills were once superb but now I struggle to calculate percentages without the aid of some sort of computing device. It is said that Math is the only true Universal Language. Well. There is a problem with assuming Math is an infallible, universal language. Math is also, as it would seem, sometimes only as accurate as the solver's interpretation of the equation. Your interpretation of an equation may very well differ from your child's understanding on how to gain a solution to the query it may create and you may find your respective answers different. At times there are more than one correct answer to an equation but those times are very rare. What is needed at times is us putting one part of an equation into context with its neighboring strings of numbers and symbols to find a solution. Sadly. Many of our children are being taught less and less of the subject of Math because we have computers that give us more accurate answers faster than we are capable of attaining them. Therefore the tides are turning more towards just letting the technology get our solutions for us. The problem with not calculating the Math ourselves? If you don't use it, you loose it!

Let's back up a little here. Remember the speech I wrote above which pertained to Home-Key, QWERTY typing. Learning to type correctly is rapidly becoming a dinosaur as well as writing in general. Think about it. We command our phones to look up the correct spelling of a word via the internet connection it maintains throughout the day, a phone number, or any number of other things. Your phone verbally asks you to verify the command and waits for a response. Once the command is confirmed, the phone tells you the appropriate answer with an almost human voice. You didn't type or write a thing and you didn't have to read anything. The same technology is becoming more and more prevalent in computers and other electronic devices in use daily by millions of human beings on a global scale. Many of our devices will read our texts, e-mails and more aloud for us so we don't even have to look at a written word again and will transcribe for us anything we wish. What do you suppose is happening here? It puts me in mind of something said just a few lines back. If you don't use it, you loose it. If you don't believe it, just ask the nearest musician.

I will make a supposition here that any reader still following this storyline is more of an abstract thinker and is beginning to see what I'm driving towards. If you can see where I'm going, the facts should hent your attention to the point of terror at what may lie on the horizon for humanity. If you are what's known as a linear thinker and your interest is somehow piqued, please stay with me as I attempt to summarize.

Do you own a phone that you can command to get information and perform tasks for you? Do you have a similar program for your computer? Do you have a program on your work computer which allows you to speak your correspondence while the program transcribes it for you as you rare back in your office chair and close your eyes because of the really bad head-ache you have? Does your phone or notepad read newspapers or novels for you as you drive down the highway headed home after work? Do you speak into your phone to create reminder notes or schedule an important date? Take a moment here and seriously consider how much you rely on technology yourself then imagine a world suddenly stripped of the technology to which you've grown so attached. No! Really! Take a moment to ponder what your world would be like without all your gadgets!

Now. Let's all Fast-Forward about one thousand, nine hundred, eighty-eight years into the future. Paper mills all shut down long ago and there is very little paper left except in some of the few remaining museums around the world. The museums are considering closing because no one visits them any more. Everyone gets their information from technology. They can download images directly to their own brain with the tried and true image procurement technology that has been in use since the early twenty-one hundreds. What do you need the museums for when you can download it and see it right in your own head? Most governments have outlawed writing because of its arcane nature. After all. Writing is no way to communicate!

Then it comes! Whether it was a man-made disaster or natural phenomenon, the effects of the global electromagnetic burst is realized. Nothing works! Everything which was connected to a power source whether powered on or not has now been fried and rendered useless! Roughly one percent of the world's population can still read but they are old and near death. There are a few books but not enough people left to teach the rest of the world how to read now. Hell. People have barely actually talked to each other for so many years now their vocal bands have begun to shrivel and waste away because they haven't been used. All the verbalization has been done by computers for the last five hundred or more years! Teaching Math was discontinued way back around twenty-one sixty because our technology did our calculations faster and more accurately than we could. So why bother learning how to add or subtract? There are no more architects or people left who can even read a blueprint. Robotics has taken over all the tasks of building from instructions given them by computers which are designed and built by still other computers and robotic devices.

Laugh and think me a doomsday fanatic if you wish. Before you do, however, think about the world just two hundred fifty years ago. If someone were to have said they were building a rocket to go to the moon and another vehicle to drive around on its surface, they'd have been burned at the stake for being possessed by a demon or the Devil himself. Think about how someone from three hundred years ago might try to describe you using your Smartphone of today. You might have been thought to be God incarnate if you talked to your phone and it talked back to you or played music or even showed moving images as if it were real. Why, then, are you having so much difficulty in believing the possible world I partially described above or seeing that writing might just disappear forever if we allow it?

We need to encourage our school systems to get back to teaching all the basics and never stopping to teach them. There will come a time when it will be important to all of us once again to rely on our own brains and our own mouths to communicate. What a joy it would be if we could still write our thoughts down for eternity. If your child's school won't teach them, then the responsibility rests on the shoulders of parents and anyone else willing to share the knowledge with future generations. Don't let cursive writing fall into the black hole of oblivion! It could be just one more small step towards a world populated by nothing more than sheep.

Post Script: Sheep are dumb. Don't let yourself or your descendants become sheep!