Progress?

It appears that the indiana state department of education has abondoned teaching hoosier youth the ancient art of cursive. what's next, capitalization rules? lets  just do away with punctuation while were at it, people will figure out what we mean if we repeat it over  and over again and turn off auto correct,.!? :)(:():

About two weeks ago, the Indianapolis Star declared that the education department was committed to turning our children into a bunch of uneducated typists by dropping cursive from the curriculum. I know what you are thinking. "Come on Roger. We pay you for timely insightful, pithy commentary on society's trends.  Two weeks old does not timely make."

Back off! Grace has gone to Ghana for 10 months. That's right. She said "if I can't learn cursive in the states. I'll go to a perfectly good third world country and learn how to make a capital Q." Off she went just like that.  So the past two weeks have been a bit emotional for dear old dad. I was afraid that I might start ranting and lose the laser like focus you have come to enjoy and expect on the pages of this blog.

Where was I? Oh right.

With any great societal shift, winners and losers emerge; the sweat shop seamstress and the Luddite respectively so to speak.   "What's a Luddite?"  (This just in. The Indiana Department of education decides the Industrial Revolution and modern history isn't needed by glorified typists so it will be dropped from the curriculum.) Come to think of it things didn't turn out great for the seamstress either, but look at these jeans I got at Walmart for $5.

The winners:

The orthopedic surgeons, who will do all of the carpel tunnel surgeries on the stupefied typists and do thumb replacement surgeries for generation X in about 30 years. Lol

The guy who invented the typewriter keyboard. I wonder how long before we declare his victory complete by having  kindergarteners sing their a, s, d,'s to the tune of 1 little 2 little 3 little Indians.

The losers:

Our children are losing the opportunity to communicate in a form that traces its roots back to hieroglyphics. How else would you explain the capital Q? Quick! Grab a piece of paper and write "The Quakers of Quincy are Quintessentially Quaint." In cursive? You ask. Of course in cursive; now stop stalling for time and start writing. I guarantee that it looks more like that funky man dog on the wall of a pyramid than that flowing backwards above and below the line upside down S that Mrs. Ash tried to teach me. 

The United States Post Office (as if they didn't already know it) is the biggest loser. No cursive means no pens, means no paper, means no snail mail. Unless we expect future generations to write in big block letters with crayons. 

This could be the logical progression. "Here Tommy draw this picture to hang on your family's fridge. Now Tom write a letter to Santa using these big block letters." Who knows? Several years later a group of important people may get together and decide to have Thomas write a declarative document because he is good with a phrase and his big block crayon letters will add a sense of gravitas to the occasion.

WHEN, IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS, IT BECOMES NECCESARY FOR ONE PEOPLE TO WRITE SOMETHING REALLY IMPORTANT WE WILL DO SO IN BIG BLOCK LETTERS WITH A CRAYON!

This just in. The Indiana department of education has decided to drop American history and the use of satire as a rhetorical tool from it's curriculum.

Take care,

Roger