Today is my daughter's 11th birthday. Now, last Saturday, my girlfriend and I took our daughters out to a local restaurant for their birthdays. Well, during the course of the dinner, I mentioned to the other girls how my daughter has had pen pals and inquired if they would be interested in pen palling with my daughter. The next thing I heard was my friend's 12yro daughter ask what pen palling was! I jokingly explained to her that in the days long before email and texting, that people actually put pen to paper and mailed letters back and forth to each other.
This got me thinking about how detached humans are becoming because of advancing technology. The things that are suppose to make our lives "easier and more efficient" are actually making us isolated and irrelevant. We are losing the art of letter writing. We are forgetting how to spell. (Our children are born with ten fingers and toes, not an F7 key, aka - spell check key). We are losing the art of conversation. We are losing the art of handwriting. Most young people can text/keyboard as easy as they breathe, but ask them to read or write in cursive, many cannot.
For those home schoolers that will be taking the SAT exam soon, be forewarned that there is a hand written essay portion. Poor penmanship can cost you a deserving high score and/or possible scholarship(s).
As a parent, teacher and primary example to my children, I am committed to preserving these lost arts. I write letters in cursive as well as email. I journal in cursive as well as blog. I still have to remind myself, sometimes out loud, that
" i comes before e except after c" when spelling, as well as, hitting the F7 key.
Okay, enough venting. Happy Birthday Bug! I am proud of you as a maturing young lady and for getting you pen pal letters done tonight so they can be mailed out in the morning.
Does anyone remember what time does the Pony Express come by? I keep forgetting...............:)
V - This is a conversation my husband, co-workers and I have been having quite a bit recently. Your observations can be substantiated all over the place. I'm seeing this in every aspect of my life, not only with my child. Try to call anyone about anything...people (in business) frequently won't even answer the phone any longer. They want you to send them an email instead. I'm finding, especially where I live now, that communication in general is severely lacking. People do not know how to talk to each other, problem solve, work as a team, etc. I have seen resume's written in "chat". I have received professional letters coming from people in "position" where are are so many spelling errors and grammatical problems that it makes me cringe or want to cry.
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know that there is someone else out there that notices these things.
Andrea Gillman