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This just makes me really sad.  I’m not that old, and we were able to balance writing time with everything else just fine in school along with computer time, PE, and science, and I came out of school far better educated than many kids today.  In my opinion, learning cursive is as much about discipline, patience, and form, as much as it’s about “writing pretty.”  Sure, we all type WAY more than we used to, but that’s hardly justification to kill off a tried and true practice of education from the past hundred years or more.  This would only be fixing a symptom of the larger problem in education today.

Technology, new standards crowd cursive lessons

Third-graders in Michelle Webb’s Burnett Creek Elementary classroom were practicing how to form a lowercase f in cursive on Friday.

Determined faces sprinkled the room as the children wrote again and again — f, f, f — perfecting the “loop the loop” on top and bottom. Student teacher Allison Touloukian demonstrated the correct slant and curve on screen for the class as students practiced forming words.

Learning to write in script is a time-honored tradition. But in today’s time-starved classrooms, some around the country are questioning whether, given everything else vying for space in the curriculum and the increasing use of technology, teaching these children cursive is even necessary.

…via IndyStar.com

I’ve received an email from an Esterbrook fan, lauding my choice to include an Estie as co-Miss January. This is part of why I do these sorts of things, but dagnabbit, I do wish sales would pick up. Ain’t paid my bills yet, y’know.

FWIW, here’s a list of all 12 months.

January: Waterman’s Emblem Doctor’s Pen, Esterbrook SJ Nurse’s Pen

February: Targa 1019 “Vintage” by Sheaffer

March: Waterman’s Patrician…

Finish reading this post »

This will be a short little entry today. Sometimes it can be tough finding just the right stuff to repair those old pens you find in wayward drawers around the world. Many of you will be very familiar with these sites. For those not so well acquainted, I thought it would be worthwhile to share some of my favorite sites for pen repair supplies.

Woodbin

Marty at the Woodbin is a great guy to deal with. Always very prompt and pleasant to deal with. They do operate out of Canada, but shipping rates are among the most reasonable I’ve ever seen. They do, however, lack an ordering system, and correspondence is handled through e-mail. I normally use PayPal with them, and have yet to have a single issue. Out of anyone, they probably have some of the most competitive prices on the Net. Read more

Frequently, I see the question raised by people both in the know and not, of why we choose to write with fountain pens. I think it is a good question, though also one with no straight answer. This is usually true for questions of this nature. It does, however, have a lot of interesting story to it. So I thought what the heck, I’d spin my thoughts on the matter, and see what the community thinks, too. So, what follows is my stream of consciousness opinion on the matter. Nothing is really researched, and a lot of it comes from my experience and the experiences of those I have talked to.

If you’ve been by the site recently, you might have noticed the poll I was running to the right asking why you used fountain pens. The results, highly unscientific and from a very small sample, were easily interpreted. More than three-quarters of those who responded said that it was everything: the look, feel, and the chance to be a little special. And let’s face it, who out there among us doesn’t draw a certain pleasure or satisfaction when we pull out our pen and hear someone say: “Wow, that sure is a nice pen!” No one, that’s who! But really, there’s more to it than that, and as my poll showed, it really is a combination of things. We are complex people using complex pens. Read more