I used to practice my signature everywhere. I wrote on napkins and notebooks, in crayon on restaurant placemats, with a finger in the wet sand. I even remember a grade-school art project in which I wrote my name and its mirror image, and then used the pair to create a creature: the top loops of the “C” as its antennae, the lagging tips of each lowercase “n” its feet.
That carefully-practiced motion has become a jumble, even though now I have more reasons to write it: in pen on the bottom line of checks, in crayon when frantically filling out preschool forms in the car, with my finger when I use my chiropractor’s smartphone to pay my bill.
Some would say I’m not losing much: longhand is so last century. My kids might never have to learn how to write in cursive: it’s not included in the Common Core standards that California recently adopted, joining 44 other states.
But while our keyboards and our thumbs have elbowed out our handwriting, practicing with a pen or pencil isn’t passé for the brain. Continue reading
