Thoughts on Cursive Writing; brain development, genealogy, and more

 So, this is a different sort of post, one that I have been seriously thinking about for the better part of a year or two.  It's one that I write with deep introspection and more than a fair share of worry, that has meaning to me, and to society in general, on so many levels.  I hope you'll take the time to read on. 

I actually first started seriously thinking about the demise of cursive writing when my son Ben, now 24, was in middle school.  He, like so many of us, learned cursive writing beginning in the 3rd grade.  That used to be common practice, at least where I have resided.  By 4th grade, all schoolwork handed in was required to be written in cursive. 

But by the time Ben was in middle school I noticed he was back to using printed letters for most of his handwritten schoolwork, and when I asked, he said cursive wasn't required; actually it wasn't ever even mentioned any more.  By high school, I never saw him use cursive for anything.  But his printing was pretty illegible.  You see, my son was (still is) a quick thinker, and my feeling was that with cursive writing, the flow and connectedness would more appropriately match the flow of thought from his brain.  But I'm not a scientist or an expert on the brain.

My classroom was on the same hallway as grades 4-6 classrooms in the school building where I spent my last dozen or so years teaching.  In the early years in the building, student papers on display in the hallway (stories, essays, etc) were always in cursive, but by the time of my retirement this past June, I never saw any cursive work in the hall at all, with the exception of a few kids: these were kids who were new to our school districts; transfers from other school districts, places far away.  If you asked the teachers, they would say that they used to spend classroom time practicing cursive, but didn't any more.  They had too much other stuff to do.  And now, with the adoption of the Common Core, keyboarding is critical but it appears cursive writing has gone out the window.

So I started wondering about how the ramifications of this loss.  A quick internet search made me realize that I was not the only person with concerns about the demise of cursive writing.  Here's a handful of articles that I found, with information that backs up my own personal hypotheses.  Pick a couple and take the time to read.  I truly believe that cursive writing is one of those rare activities that forces our brain hemispheres to work in collaboration with each other, and that the loss of this skill is more than just an 'oh well' concern.  What we do about it; I don't know.

Brain Development Could Suffer as Cursive Writing Fades
Cursive Writing at Risk in US Schools
Left and Right Brain Hemispheres
What Learning Cursive Does for Your Brain
Top Ten Reasons to Learn Cursive
Learning Cursive Boosts Brain Development

 Then, of course, besides the impact on the brain, is the fact that people who don't learn to write cursive, also don't know how to read it!  Imagine looking through wonderful old historical documents, and not knowing what they say!  I have letters written to me by my beloved (deceased) father during my college years, and letters from friends and family that I received at Girl Scout camp, recipes in my (deceased) mom's handwriting, letters and love notes from boyfriends, and so much more handwritten documentation that is really precious to me.  I can't imagine not being able to read them, and I'm glad they were not all just emails that disappeared during a computer crash or were deleted during a file cleaning.

My brother and I have off and on over recent years been involved in some genealogical research, in particular relating to my sculptor/artist grandfather Harry Levine, who I told you about here and and here and  here back in 2011, as we searched for a missing totem pole he had carved in Croton-on-Hudson in NY state.  (An aside here; just two days ago my brother called me in excitement; someone thought they had finally found the totem pole, in Tarrytown NY.  I quickly emailed a photo of it, but unfortunately it was yet again a dead end.  So the search goes on.) My husband also has done extensive genealogical research on his own family.  Imagine not being able to read these documents belonging to my grandfather.

 

 

Now I don't really expect you to be able to read the documents below, even if you still can read cursive, because, of course, they are not in English.  But still, cursive writing is a key to being able to translate this passport (at least that's what we think it is) below, which was for my grandmother, her mother, and two siblings when they were en route to (eventually), we believe, the US having left their home in Vilna (then, Russia).

The postcards below are just a few from a large collection given to me by Grandma when I was young, written in a mix of Russian and Yiddish, and it has been a challenge finding anyone to translate them, but they represent important keys to my family history.

 

 

 

 

 

So my question is this: what do we do now?  How can we prevent cursive writing from becoming a lost art?  How can visual art educators play a part?  I think we have a unique comprehension of the vital differences between holding a paintbrush or pen or pencil in our hand, and plunking away on a keyboard or clicking on a screen.  I want to be proactive but don't have a clue as to how I can make a difference.  I'd love your thoughts.

My Grandfather's carvings, part 2

My Grandfather, Harry Levine, when he came to the United States from Vilna, Russia (or actually Lithuania, but it depends on the "when") had been trained as a woodcarver, a furniture maker. In the US he found himself in Brooklyn, and his life included sculpture classes at the Educational Alliance Art School in NYC. A cool aside here: I spent some time in NYC at the Center for Jewish History, researching Grandpa's time at the Educational Alliance. My big "find" was minutes from a faculty meeting where Grandpa Harry was in attendance (he must have taught a class) as they all discussed a grievance. The faculty at the meeting included Chaim Gross, Abbo Ostrowsky, and more, including Louise Nevelson!! How cool is THAT!?

Anyhow, going through old papers at home I found, in an Educational Alliance Art School exhibition booklet a writeup about Grandpa that said he had been commissioned to carve a series of satyric faces on fenceposts at an estate in Croton. EUREKA! Confirmation!!

Around the same time, my brother was back in Croton, showing around the photos. In the public library, someone recognized the lintels over the garage doors and windows, and the next thing I knew, I had a phone call from my brother who was standing in front of the garage doors looking at our grandfather's carvings (photo below). Except the carved panels in the doors had been removed, and all that was left was the lintels. No sign of a totem pole anywhere, no fenceposts.

Note: I've been separating paragraphs in this post with some photos of the lintels as they can be seen now.

He was taken inside the Jewish Center, where upstairs there is a preschool. Staring down from the ends of ceiling beams were more carved faces! Nobody in the Jewish Center knew anything about the history of the carvings, and surprisingly little about the history of the building. Amazingly, the little pre-schoolers didn't seem to notice the scary-ish faces. And as you can tell by the condition of them, they have not been given much (or any) TLC over the years. The wood is cracked, and they are dusty. :-(

Here they are, plus the one at the top of this post. My husband is looking directly at one:

I arranged to meet my brother at the location (currently the Croton Jewish Center) in late Autumn (last year) when the leaves were off the trees, so we could more thoroughly scout the woodsy grounds. After a couple of hours, about to give up, my husband spotted a pile of stones, right near the entry road. On closer examination, we realized they had been cemented together, and there is a nice hole in the center. It matches the stones in our photos; it's the base for the totem pole! Proof it had been there!!

And further exploration found a little log building on the site, which appears in the background of some of the fencepost photos. But there is now a condo development where the fence/bridge/stream would have been. So our photos are probably all that is left of the carved posts. But where is the totem, and where are the carved garage door panels?

We found other carvings that we didn't know about, in particular these two little gargoyle-like men by the front door. My husband (left) and brother (right) are doing their best imitations.

So why am I spending so much time posting this stuff? Two reasons, really. First of all, simply to share, because of my artistic family heritage. I'm (understandably) proud. But also, you never know when somebody might see something or read something that sparks some memory, that might establish for us a new place to look.

Our trips to Croton have led us on wild goose chases - from a call about totem pole in Croton that turned out to be a Boy Scout project, to a claim that someone so liked the garage door panels that they "copied" them for their bathroom vanity. Hmmmm.... We've learned that the Croton Jewish Center isn't really in Croton, it is in Cortlandt, and we've been sent back and forth and all over the place talking to assessors and historians. We've learned that Croton-on-Hudson's history is rich in the arts, and also that there was a lively community of anarchists around the time Grandpa Harry was taking the train north from NYC to do these carvings. We've put stories in the local newspaper, placed ads asking for information, and tried to make it clear we are trying to establish a historic family record. There was even a story in the Westchester version of the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/nyregion/westchester/28carvingswe.html

We want to find these items to photograph them, not to take them away from anyone who has given them a home. It's been an interesting ride, but I'm out of ideas. Let me know if you can suggest where we might look next!

My Grandfather, wood carver extraordinaire, part 1

These two photos above, which I've had forever, started a search a several years ago, first by my older brother, then picked up by me. We knew that these were carvings by our grandfather, Russian Jewish immigrant woodcarver/artist Harry Levine. We believed that they had been done in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, but had no idea why we knew that, and what would have precipitated our grandfather carving a totem pole. And what exactly are the significance of those carvings on the garage lintels and the panels in the doors?
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The problem is that our parents and grandparents are all deceased, Grandpa Harry before any of us were grandchildren born. So how do you go about finding a missing totem pole? First I dug up an envelope of negatives that included the building in the second photo, which my brother had enlarged.
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In the photos he enlarged were also these pictures of carved heads on fenceposts on a little bridge.




Imagine our surprise! Were these in Croton as well? Did Grandpa carve these too? Actually, was ANY of this stuff in Croton at all? Could we find them? Careful examination of the photos found my grandfather's initials on a couple of the fenceposts, and stylistically, they seemed like his work. (*Note the statue visible in the lower left of the center bottom photo. I wonder if that was Grandpa's carving too?)

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So my brother, who was often on the road for his job, made stops in Croton from time to time, asking around, and visiting the historical society. No success, and the search was suspended for a while. Maybe a year down the road, I got interested and began my own searching. Between the two of us, some doors began to open.
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Tune in for part 2 of the totem pole saga, in another day or two!!!

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Meanwhile, below are links to the two pieces of Grandpa Harry's work that are owned by the Brooklyn Museum. They are displayed in their Luce Center for American Art, Visible Storage area, on the 5th floor of the museum (How cool is THAT?) :
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/research/luce/object.php?id=55234
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/research/luce/object.php?id=55235