It is tragic that our children aren't taught to write with fountain pens.

[alphafemale]

And why did they stop teaching shorthand?

Society is collapsing!

[riverbendviewgal]

1. lol

Did both!

[Arkansas Granny]

4. Me, too. lol

I also went to a one room schoolhouse with 8 headed, one teacher and no indoor plumbing. I'm a real relic.

[Ms. Toad]

12. I thought the rest of us one room school graduates had died out.

Not really - my father is still alive ...I did have indoor plumbing. They put it in the year I started kindergarten.

For some reason I ended up on the facebook page of one of my teachers. Even though I knew the worst of the teachers didn't have anything beyond a high school diploma, this one was one who was actually decent - and she was no more than 19 at the time she was my teacher.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Fountain pens discriminate against lefthanders... n/t

[Warpy]

3. And birds!

Bring back the quills!

[PoliticAverse]

7. Good point. The Constitution was written with a quill, so all other pens are unconstitutional. n/t

[Cleita]

24. I pretty much learned with that technology, except the quill.

We had little inkwells on our desks and metal tipped pens that were fitted into wooden handles. Then there was a technology explosion, I believe when I went into the fourth grade, ball point pens. Our teachers leapt to this new invention because the inkwells had been so messy with ink spilled all over desks, clothing, books, floors; little boys dipping little girls hair into the inkwells.

Christ, I feel old.

[DesertFlower]

42. lol. i remember the ink wells.

my late husband loved fountain pens. when my grandfather died in '70 hubby found an old fountain pen and took time restoring it.

[pinboy3niner]

43. My dad worked for the guy who introduced the first ballpoint pens to the U.S.

Though the guy's company my dad worked for was a different one. It made printing machines.

[JDPriestly]

52. I learned with the inkwell and the wooden stick into which we stuck a

pen point. I was young, and the ink just dribbled everywhere on my desk, up my sleeves. My mother used to soak my white blouses in milk to try to take the ink out of them.

But when ball point pens became the norm, even I missed the elegant look of cursive scripted with liquid ink and a stick pen.

[Cleita]

61. Me too. When I got to college I took a course in lettering from a nun, who was so

old, she probably learned the art from a monk before printing was invented. (Just kidding.) I missed the look of a fine script. Until my hands became arthritic, I always lettered my greeting cards by hand with metal tipped pens of various sizes and shapes and india ink.

[winter is coming]

6. And thus do God's will.

[Honeycombe8]

5. Sure, kids still write with fountain pens.

What makes you think they don't?

[CreekDog]

53. most kids aren't in Harry Potter novels, that's why

[Honeycombe8]

68. Maybe your definition of fountain pen is different from mine. nt

[randome]

8. It all went to hell when we stopped making typewriters.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[Historic NY]

9. And did away with rotary dial phones...

people complaining about the government listening in on phone calls have no idea what a party line was.

[pinboy3niner]

11. What a Royal mistake!

[NoPasaran]

15. Remington Standards are declining!

[pinboy3niner]

17. IBMostly inclined to agree with you there

We used to be more Selectric. Alas, it's one error that won't be fixed by correction tape.

[Whisp]

54. remember the Pica and Elite gang wars?

[JaneyVee]

10. I think the Polaroid camera was the peak of human species. Take picture, have physical picture.

[backscatter712]

13. It's a shame children aren't taught to use slide-rules!

Where's the world coming to?!

[PoliticAverse]

16. The switch to electric calculators caused global warming... n/t

[backscatter712]

19. How is the next generation going to build things like the Apollo program without slide rules? n/t

[GObamaGO]

65. I really miss my abacus

[cali]

14. lol. and rapidographs! A rapidograph for every child at age 10.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/koh-i-noor-rapidograph-pens/

[Travis_0004]

18. I disagree

[img]

[arcane1]

33. Handwriting was a form of unique self-expression that has been replaced by choice of ringtones.

[NightWatcher]

20. And where the hell did Latin go

Speaking of, what about Sanskrit?

[Generic Other]

21. Old corn cob works best in an outhouse

who needs Charmin?

[mitchtv]

22. My mother loved it

we had to wear white long sleeved shirts/ and I came home regularly with ink to my elbows. I loved South Sea blue ink

[Whisp]

23. and if we still had the abacas, there would be no NSA. n/t

[IDemo]

25. Who needs an abacus, anyway?

[Whisp]

26. impressive, but try to stick that in a phone line.

[Liberal Veteran]

31. Is a phone line anything like a telegraph?

I'm not up on new technology.

[IDemo]

39. Kind of, but

you have to crank the phone so the operator will answer, then she will connect you to your party.

[pinboy3niner]

40. Apparently the ancient contraption was powered by something called 'ringy-dingies'

[LWolf]

56. Thanks for that trip

down nostalgia lane.

[struggle4progress]

41. I thought about getting an abacus but I couldn't find one with a 120V AC adaptor

[PoliticAverse]

44. Apple sells an ibacus that can be charged via USB. n/t

[struggle4progress]

45. I guess I'll look into it, but I bet the USB connector has got some funky nonstandard Apple twist

[Cleita]

46. Hey, don't forget slide rules. Before we had pocket calculators we had slide rules

to make calculations.

[struggle4progress]

49. !

[Whisp]

50. what fancy slide rules you talking about.

we had fingers!
unless you were a carpenter.

[oneshooter]

57. And you never had to count past 21 either.

[Whisp]

58. I had to walk uphill both ways to count that far.

[Jackpine Radical]

27. Hardly any of them know how

to properly sharpen a goose quill.

[Liberal Veteran]

32. And I can't remember the last time I broke the wax seal on a letter.

[Marrah_G]

48. I had the coolest teacher in middle school

He would do after school classes and summer classes on things like calligraphy, Russian egg painting, beginner sign language etc. Coolest guy ever!

And he started teaching in a school with both Hatfields and McCoys! <3 you Mr. Sowden!

Not sure if the schools in my hometown still do those extra curricular classes anymore or if it's just sports, but damn I love them.

[Cleita]

62. It's too bad, that there isn't as much emphasis on lost crafts like this like there is on

sports. I learned a lot of cloth crafts, knitting, crochet and embroidery after school like that. The younger women I know don't know how to do those things. I'm presently learning hand spinning and making tapestries on a loom. I find it quite a pleasant hobby.

[Lex]

29. I'm still pissed that we don't teach kids to write with a quill anymore.

I mean, WTF?!

[Arugula Latte]

38. If nothing else, that skill would be a feather in their cap.

[WovenGems]

30. Or

Learn to speak in reverse.

[Liberal Veteran]

34. True story, my brother didn't learn how to read an analog clock in school.

I felt so very old when I heard him say that.

[WinkyDink]

64. Thus, he had/has no understanding of the "60" concept. Does he know how many hours are in a day?

[madrchsod]

35. i still have my mother`s comptometer

when the business she worked for became to big she finally switched to an electric machine.

it still works but i have no idea how it does.

[Cleita]

47. I got training for one of those and many other office machines that today

aren't used, making my skills pretty obsolete. However, if we descend into an apocalyptic world where we no longer have electricity, I will be able to train the next generation in analog stuff that doesn't require batteries or a plug.

[JVS]

36. I got my hands on a fountain pen in 3rd grade.

My mom had one with refillable cartridges and I played around with it. Penmanship had never been my strong suit, but with the fountain pen a lot of the rules of cursive handwriting made good sense since cursive handwriting is based on the kinds of strokes one can make with a traditional pen.

One day, I took it to school and was sitting in class outlining the reading for history, outlining being one of the skills they were teaching us that year. As I sat there reading I was absentmindedly flipping the pen back and forth rapidly. Eventually I looked up and saw that I had spattered black ink between myself and another pupil sitting one row over and one row ahead of me. Not only were there large ink spots on the floor, but quite a few on her chair and sweater. It was a long time before I used a fountain pen away from home again. In 7th grade art class they taught us to use calligraphy pens though.

[Arugula Latte]

37. Someone has her bloomers in a bunch.

[CreekDog]

51. oh you're a keeper alright!

[Thav]

55. I think it is more tragic that

grammar and punctuation are falling by the wayside as well.

[CreekDog]

59. i wouldn't put the loss of fountain pen training in the same category

[oneshooter]

60. I still know how to use pen and ink. I also know how to

properly sand a letter, 3 fold a letter and properly address an envelope.


All are lost arts I'm afraid.

[WinkyDink]

63. Apparently, the teaching of "analogy" has also gone by the wayside.

[DonRedwood]

66. How about a nice quill?

[kentauros]

67. And computer manufacturers discriminate against graphics tablets

by only supplying a mouse for graphical interfacing



My input tool of choice at home:






~