Where have all the scribes gone?

It is tragic to observe some real and useful practices fall into 'The Dead Zoo Collection'. Yet, even what I am now doing contributes in a small way to this national occurrence. I refer to the increasing loss of the essential skills of handwriting as a practical, personal ability, whose loss has become a national tragedy.

The many hours spent as a young student, sitting at our desks striving to shape the modified 7th century Latin based alphabet, whose names we had already learnt as a younger child thanks to the heritage of our mother, into a recognisible form with that fragile, sharpened (to a point), faithful HB pencil. The days spent trying to achieve a required standard (and back then it was just that - required- so we did it !)  as black draped shark-like predatory nuns, armed with ever ready wooden rulers (which we were sure they presharpened prior to class) patrolled the aisles and whose so mentioned rulers would collide loudly with a desk top, or hand (if a hand was left in the wrong position), when an error was keenly observed. Whether it was posture of the student, poorness of the text or simply concentration. You paid attention! The rows of young impressionable students whose tongues struggled to encourage their pencils across the lined paper into those essential shapes. But we learnt, and, over 40 years later can still produce that required skill when needed. Pleased as I was to only have the nuns teach me for a few years their 'dedicated methods' and contribution cannot be ignored.

Unfortunately the proliferation of electronic devices, the propensity towards laziness in many of the youth (with the support of biased, ignorant and incredibly short-sighted civil libertarians) is leading to a society whose knowledge will not be able to survive without some form of electricity. Even if we can still talk, the errors in word of mouth (remember playing 'chinese whispers'?) is dangerous. The massive percentage of people today who cannot write in their own, or primary spoken language is staggering and more importantly, frightening. So where are the scribes?  Remember, it was writing that evolved into an international ability to record history, events and details and allowed the rise (or fall) of a society and, when everyone has the skill, it can  even contribute to that most important of human situations which we try achieve, equality.  The very real need to maintain such an essential basic, but life-enabling skill exists, and if not recovered now, then will be lost and lead to greater division in society on many levels.