DEAR ABBY: What's up with penmanship these days? A few years ago, my mother gave me some old letters written by my grandfather to my grandmother. Some of them are treasures because the written words are not only loving and endearing, but the penmanship is beautiful. The script writings are actually examples of "art" in this modern age.
I work at a bank, Abby, and many of the signatures I see every day are illegible. Is written communication becoming obsolete? With the electronic age and schools going paperless, will penmanship become unnecessary? -- MARY IN HUNTSVILLE, ALA.
DEAR MARY: Years ago, penmanship was routinely taught in the public schools, and students spent nearly an hour a day practicing how to write legibly. Today, I am told that 10 minutes is devoted to teaching students to PRINT. If the emails I receive are any indication, capitalization and punctuation are also being jettisoned. And if the electric grid ever goes down and battery power runs out, we'll have to start over with stone tablets and chisels.