Does Handwriting Matter?

“Student: My handwriting is naturally messy. I can’t help it. It isn’t fair that you graded me down on this week’s essay simply because my handwriting was messy. I can’t help it. Besides, don’t my ideas matter more than my handwriting?

Gibbs: What do you mean your handwriting is “naturally messy”?

Student: No matter how hard I try, my handwriting is messy.

Gibbs: How much practice do you get handwriting?

Student: I don’t practice handwriting. Nobody in high school practices handwriting. That’s for little kids.

Gibbs: You don’t practice your handwriting, but you’re positive your handwriting couldn’t possibly get any better?”

-from “Grade My Ideas, Not My Sloppy Handwriting,” my latest for CiRCE

Names Of Things

I wish people would say “hard” or “difficult” instead of “challenging.”

It’s impossible to tell what someone means when they say something is “challenging.” Eight times out of ten, “challenging” means, “I am trying to put a positive spin on something which is tearing me apart,” or, “I am too proud to say just how vexing I find the world.”

Filling A Void

I have begun work on my next writing project, which will be an 8000 word pamphlet which begins:

Greetings.

If you are reading this, it means your parents are considering whether or not they ought to enroll you in a classical Christian school. There are a number of directions things could go from here. As your parents learn more about classical Christian education, they may decide this is the perfect place for you, or they may decide to withdraw their application and look for a school which better suits your needs and convictions. They may decide they want you to become a student at this school, but their application is declined. Of course, your own thoughts and feelings about the matter are important, as well. If your parents want you to become a student at this school, but you are entirely opposed to it, it could mean the admissions office determines this school is not a good fit for you. 

The intended audience of the pamphlet is the 8th through 12th grader whose parents are considering whether to enroll him at “this school.” The pamphlet can be included in the packets which all classical schools have on hand for prospective parents.

The pamphlet will cover topics which classical-oriented subjects that teenagers care about most and will be written directly to teenagers, not their parents. It will also describe the classical approach to popular culture, taste, virtue, and so forth. I am writing it in the blunt, somewhat confrontational style that I usually lecture in, which I will actually inspire teenagers to read it.

I will sell this pamphlet (tentatively titled So Your Parents are Thinking of Sending You to a Classical Christian School) through my website as a PDF. It will probably go on sale in early March.

As far as I know nothing like this already exists, but classical schools have a great need right now to bolster their gatekeeping, and this pamphlet exists for just such a purpose.

Sayings

The less a man has to live for, the more desperately he clings to his life; the shallowness of Modernity has crowned medicine queen of the sciences.