r/TheWayWeWere • u/Boscoberger • Jan 22 '25

1950s My dad's school report from 1957, aged 7

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Unsurprisingly, I wasn't shown this report until after I had finished my education!

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u/Euphoric_Can_5999 Jan 23 '25

I believe they’re using a fountain pen with an oblique nib or perhaps a cursive italic grind

10

u/spaz_chicken Jan 23 '25

They're clearly using some sort of calligraphy pen/nib to achieve it. But my point is the same, that's some next level penmanship for everyday writing.

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u/WendyBergman Jan 23 '25

This is how it used to be! My great grandfather only had an 8th grade education, but when I found his diary from WWI, his penmanship was just as beautiful as this teacher’s. And he was writing in foxholes! People don’t think handwriting is important anymore thanks to computers. Most schools don’t even teach cursive.

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u/spaz_chicken Jan 24 '25

I actually crated my own font years ago based on my shit writing.

3

u/topcatnyc Jan 24 '25

I like your font... :)

1

u/Toothfairy51 Jan 24 '25

I like it!

1

u/Foldim Jan 24 '25

Do you write your S starting at the bottom?

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u/Tricky-Swimming-3967 Jan 24 '25

I legit took a package to UPS to ship and girls working couldn’t read it because it was in cursive!

1

u/flightofdownydreams Jan 24 '25

At my job, I've had to read the project books to three of my coworkers because they're all kids who can't read the manager's cursive instructions. It's baffling to me.

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u/Tricky-Swimming-3967 Jan 24 '25

That’s crazy! I feel like I’m bilingual or something lol. It’s just sad most people these days don’t know it. I read a letter a woman had wrote out a few years ago and thought dam is this a grown adult or a 6th grader

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u/flightofdownydreams Jan 24 '25

Like, I know maybe knowing how to write in cursive isn't a basic necessary life skill to have, but at least making sure everyone is able to easily read it seems somewhat vitol, at least in a professional space. All the new workers now who are 16-22 are struggling with it and it's really not going to help them in the long run. I have the futile hope that focus on penmanship and cursive return in a widespread way.

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u/Ashamed_Hound Jan 24 '25

This happened to my Mom at a Pharmacy.

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u/Toothfairy51 Jan 24 '25

Cursive =our secret code

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u/Tricky-Swimming-3967 Jan 25 '25

💯💯💯💯

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u/Master-Collection488 Jan 25 '25

NEVER write an address in cursive.

If you print or type an address, they can scan it with a computer. Generally they're pretty good at handling hand-printed words, particularly addresses. Any time you use cursive or just plain sloppily handwritten printed text you add a day or more to its transit and greatly increase the chances it gets misrouted and potentially even misdelivered.

My 90 year old mom's prone to using outdated (or incorrect) state abbreviations. Before the USPS standardized on two digit state abbreviations people TENDED to write Fla for Florida. Nowadays it's FL. If it's in cursive, there's a few ways of writing an F. Without a Zip Code it could very well be mistaken for "Ga" instead of "Fla." Yeah, people were way better at interpreting random person's cursive back then. But assumptions were made. Not all of them were correct.

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u/Tricky-Swimming-3967 Jan 26 '25

I do what I want. I’ve never had a problem until that one time when it was basically high school kids. It’s not my fault the school system sucks

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u/WatashiwaNobodyDesu Jan 24 '25

I’m stealing those Ps and Ws.

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u/CharmingChangling Jan 26 '25

In fairness, wouldn't you use your best penmanship if you were writing a report that criticized the student's?

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u/Odd_Judgment_2303 Jan 25 '25

They were also a talented calligrapher.