Cursive club creates opportunities for changes in writing

ABBEY KROENER, Sports assistant editor 

 

 

     One day Mr. Bob Ott woke up in the middle of the night and thought, “We have seniors that can’t write cursive, and that can’t sign their name.” This led to the idea to start a cursive club because “that’s just unacceptable; since in the adult world, the real world, you gotta sign your name a lot.”

     Ott is in charge of the club and plans to meet every Hawk Soar in the Media Center.  “ I imagine it will take four or five Hawk Soars to get through, to teach all the letters and to practice them.”  The club organizer plans to make different sessions to keep the groups small and focused. There will be ten students per class.  A class will last as long as it takes to get through the alphabet and get enough practice in. Once that class is complete, another sign up sheet and group will form and Ott will go through the teaching process again.  The sign up sheet is normally located in the library on the front desk, right by the sign in sheet.  

     The librarian claims that he has never done it before so he is kind of guessing his way on how things will turn out but he is going to try his best and learn as he goes.  “This first group is a trial and error to see what happens.”  

     The meetings aren’t meant to stress anyone out, they will be informal, in a casual setting and self paced. A typical meeting will involve some type of snacks, “you gotta have snacks,” says Ott.  He plans on introducing each letter and going through it, with each taking their own time to figure it out. Ott excitedly says, “it should be relaxed and fun.”  

     Ott thought that it was a shame that this huge part of American culture, “which is really kind of a little bit of an art form,” is just going away.  According to Ott, he heard that the senior class was the last grade to be taught cursive. He says that its a skill that he would hate to see go away, “because cursive handwriting is beautiful.”  Ott also states, “if you wanna write someone a love letter, it’s better in cursive.”

     The club was inspired by Ott’s desire to give others the chance to be rewarded.  He wants others to appreciate, “that you get to learn a skill for the rest of your life and once you learn it, you will be proud of yourself that you attempted to do something and you were successful at it.”  He adds says, “it is also about building good habits and understanding that hard work pays off.”

     Starting this club was from the mind set that “every student who didn’t know how to write cursive would sign up, but that’s not the case,” says Ott, “ I know students who can’t write it that aren’t interested.”  His goal is to get people who cannot write in cursive to sign up, along with those who want to improve their cursive. The first ten for the first class are mainly students who claim that they already know it, but just want to create a more beautiful style, claims Ott.

     Playing it by ear, Ott is going to see how the club goes this year.  He mentions that if there is a need and interest for the cursive club, then he will continue it.  Sign up for the cursive club and expand your horizons. Ott says, “I thought If I were a student and I didn’t know how to write in cursive, I would jump on it,” so you should too.