By MARSHA MERCER
When President Barack Obama composed his thoughts about the
Gettysburg address, he wrote much as Abraham Lincoln did 150 years ago. He used pen and paper.
The White House Tuesday released both the handwritten and
typed versions of Obama’s essay. Had Obama, or more likely an aide, simply typed
the tribute on a laptop and hit Send, the text would have been just another news
release. Instead, many people stopped to
read the handwritten page.
In our aggressively digital age, the handwritten note or
essay may be as practical as a top hat, but no writing is more personal. (OK, writing a check for the electric bill is
hardly personal, but online banking has freed people from most check-writing.)
When we handwrite a letter, we send something beyond the words.
Holding the same paper, the reader glimpses the fallible human being who held
the pen. For example, the president
sometimes forgets to cross his Ts. This may not
come as a surprise.
It’s rare for most adults to take the time to find pen and
paper, wait for thoughts to flow and put them down – although we can. Sadly,
we’re in danger of losing the art of writing by hand.
Schools long ago let penmanship slip. Cursive writing is so
foreign that some children can’t read the handwritten letters their
grandparents send. Parents have to
translate.
The Common Core educational standards for grades K-12 dropped
penmanship in favor of keyboarding as an important skill. Everyone needs to use
a computer keyboard, of course. Word processing is the inelegant term for what
we do at the keyboard. We produce a commodity called content.
We moderns talk and type
constantly, but our tweets and status updates are often out of our hands before
our brain has registered the meaning of our words.
Must our choice be keyboard or pen? Why not both? Among the
45 states that have adopted Common Core standards, seven want to reinstate cursive
writing instruction, the Associated Press reports. They are California, Idaho,
Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Utah.
In North Carolina, the
“back to basics” educational movement means that students are learning to write
by hand and to memorize the multiplication tables. Proponents say cursive writing helps eye-hand
coordination and improves reading and writing. Critics say practicing cursive
script is irrelevant, similar to using an abacus or slide rule.
While that debate simmers, we all could learn from the presidents
who believed in the power of the handwritten word.
Ronald Reagan was a prolific letter writer, penning
thousands upon thousands of letters. In the White House, he turned his
handwritten letters over to typists who prepared them for mailing. The former
president was 83 when he wrote by hand the poignant letter telling Americans that
he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
“I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset
of my life,” Reagan wrote on Nov. 6, 1994. “I know that for America there will
always be a bright dawn ahead.” He died in June 2004. His letters have been
gathered in several books.
The letters of President George H.W. Bush, another
prodigious correspondent by hand, were compiled in “All the Best, George Bush:
My Life in Letters and Other Writings,” published earlier this year.
Obama has had a habit of reading 10 letters a night from
citizens, and he responds by hand to a lucky few. Some recipients burst into tears and vow to save
the president’s missives for posterity. Human nature being what it is, though, others
race to see how much the letters will fetch from online auctions.
Speaking of which, earlier
this year Obama’s half-brother put two of the president’s hand-written notes for
sale for $30,000.
Such commercialism cheapens the seller but not the handwritten
word or the writer.
Obama’s handwritten essay about the Gettysburg address at
150, along with similar essays by several former presidents and other notables,
will be on display at the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Ill.
You don’t have to be famous to pick up a pen and write. Your
handwritten words are just as priceless.
© 2013 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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