10 Years

Milestones have meaning. Milestones cause us to pause and reflect. Ten years may seem so small for people who have graced the earth for so long like my ninety-five year old grandmother, but for someone my age, a decade is a big deal. This summer gives me the opportunity to recognize ten years since finishing undergraduate college. The great thing about my alma mater is that it schedules an alumni reunion weekend every summer. Class years celebrating special milestones organize a committee to plan extra reunion events to bring the cohort back to campus.

Even though the years between present day and college are ever increasing, I still talk about my experiences at college quite often. And since I am my mother's daughter, I have no idea how many times my husband has heard the same stories told over and over again. He has yet to complain, though. I asked him if he would like to go with me to my class reunion because I wanted him to be able to experience a little bit of that place so near and dear to my heart.

A lot can change in a decade, and while the campus of my alma mater may look somewhat different in some areas, it still feels like home. My husband's remarks about how small the campus seemed certainly gave me pause to stop and realize that it never felt that way while attending school. The walk through the main hall where classes were held and then peeking into one of the dormitories in which I lived was an entertaining trip down memory lane for me.

My husband was merely convinced all of the buildings were haunted, which to be fair, some of them do have stories. I usually win instant brownie points with middle and high school kids when I share with them that I lived in a haunted dorm in college. Honestly, I never truly believed in ghosts before my sophomore year in college. Entertained the possibility? Yes. Actual convictions? Not until fall semester 2001. While doing a quick walk sometime between midnight and 1 a.m. around Heffron Hall as the resident assistant on duty one night, I saw a shadowy figure on the third floor for which I have no explanation. I was so rattled that I actually skipped my last round of the night. My girlfriend, who also lived in the dorm that year, kindly reminded me this weekend of the night we tried to watch a movie. For some reason the VHS tape kept popping in and out of the VCR player on the television as the movie played. After some failed determination at getting it to work properly, and becoming increasingly spooked, we decided it was a good time to take a late-night walk around campus. Reunions are great for trips down memory lane because I had completely forgotten that incident. She and I would take a lot of midnight walks around campus that year and in the years that followed.

(For fans of ghost stories, there is an excellent series on the evolution of the Heffron ghost in the Winona Post written by a classmate's father, Patrick Marek: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 )

Coming back to see everyone again had a different feeling for me since I only had a roommate for one year. Working for the Office of Residence Life had its perks, but sometimes I wish I had had a few more roommates. That is, until I recall walking in on my freshman year roommate and her boyfriend getting frisky with each other. She apologized to me profusely, but I was never able to burn the vision of her boyfriend's butt cheeks from my retinas. So, no roommates can be a nice thing.

The years I spent in college really shaped me, but it was not always from positive experiences. There was a suicide in the dormitory my sophomore year, and I spent much of the next few months unable to shake a feeling of guilt for accepting my hall director's offer to check on a student, after having received a phone call from concerned friends, since I was just about to leave for the computer lab when my phone rang. It seems so silly now, but it was something I struggled with some months afterwards. I even had the displeasure of a good friend inexplicably stop talking to me senior year, to the point of not even saying hello back to me when we crossed paths in the plaza. While I never figured out what her motivation was and have not thought of it much since, explaining to my husband about with whom I socialized the most in college certainly brought back some less than pleasant memories. It was cute to see how he was ready to throw down the gauntlet in my honor after hearing about that for the first time.

My husband and I meandered into the history department to find a picture of another one of my history professors who passed away in 2011. It reminded me of some advice he gave me as I contemplated what to do after graduation. I was considering graduate school, but I had not decided on the program or the school yet. Dr. Gaut, who had attended the University of Minnesota graduate school, bluntly told me I would not fit in there. It irked me at first until I realized his implication was that I was not uppity enough the mesh with the attitudes of the people in that program. I am grateful he was so straightforward with me.

As a history undergraduate major at a small, Catholic university, there were a whopping five of us the year I graduated. For our senior thesis class, one of the five studied abroad fall semester. There was another classmate who only sometimes showed up for class. Needless to say, when there are only four students who should be there, the professor knows when you miss class. So, that meant we usually spent the first fifteen to twenty minutes talking baseball, since my professor was a huge New York Mets fan, as he waited to see if he would have three or four students for class that day. One does not find experiences like that at large universities.

After walking around the campus for a bit, my husband asked how we did not get bored. It is funny because, while I enjoyed my classes, most of my memories from college have to do with things outside of classes. We were always inventive with how we entertained ourselves. Perhaps that is part of the rite of passage into adulthood: learning to make one's own way in the world. As an underclassman, I was way too afraid to try things on my own without someone else there for moral support. As an upperclassman, I spent a lot of time eating on my own in dining halls while reading the newspaper or taking naps on some of the random couches around campus. I just no longer had that fear.

The education I received was certainly a good one. I was part of the Lasallian Honors Program as an undergraduate, which has helped shape how I teach by utilizing the Socratic method. As a sophomore, I spent time in the archives of the library translating an old book from German to English for a research paper on the 1410 battle of Grunwald. It was the first time I had encountered Fraktur print, so it took me quite some time as I had to decipher the old letter style. Needless to say, my professor had questions for me when I turned in a paper that included a book printed in German as a reference since German is not offered as a class at the university. I read Fraktur print on a regular basis now when researching 19th century education in Minnesota. My favorite class, though, was a public history class I took senior year taught by the director of the Winona County Historical Society. He took us on a walking tour of the city and went into great detail about some of the old buildings in town. As part of that class, we were required to volunteer time with WCHS. I helped out with the Victorian Fair that fall by teaching kids how to play marbles, which landed a girlfriend's and my picture on the front page of the Winona Daily News. I also worked the annual event Voices of the Past: Woodlawn Cemetery Walk, serving as a tour guide between the stations. Ten years later, I find myself starting my eighth summer season as a living history interpreter.

My path in life is not the same path as my classmates. That being said, it can be really difficult not to think the grass is greener on the other side when you hear about the accomplishments of so many. Some run their own businesses; others have earned doctorate degrees; while others yet have beautiful children of which they can be proud. Reunions can be fun to see where everyone has tread in life, but it can also certainly feed feelings of inadequacy for the things one still wants to accomplish in life. I have always been a late bloomer in life, though, so all in good time. Hopefully my husband was not completely bored out of his mind this weekend at our class gathering listening to me chat every now and then with people whom he does not know, but I am pleased that he got to see some of what shaped me into the person I was when he met me.

Rules for Spelling and the Use of Capitals

Another fun find from the 1880's business textbook in the one room schoolhouse at the museum! The transcribed  text is as follows:

Five Rules for Spelling

[There is a great variety of rules for spelling, but most of them have so many exceptions as to be a hindrance rather than a help. The following rules have few or no exceptions, and may therefore aid the learner.]

Rule I. Verbs of one syllable, ending with a single consonant, preceded by a single vowel, and verbs of two or more syllables, ending in the same manner, and having the accent on the last syllable, double the final consonant whenever another syllable is added; as, get, get' ting; o mit, o mit' ted.

Rule II. The plural of nouns ending in y, when y is preceded by a consonant, is formed by changing y into i and adding es; as, lil' y, lil' ies. When y final is preceded by a vowel the plural is formed by adding s; as, val' ley, val' leys.

Rule III. Nouns ending in o preceded by another vowel form their plurals regularly by adding s to the singular; as, cam' e o, cam' e os.

Rule IV. Words formed by prefixing one or more syllables to words ending in a double consonant retain both consonants; as, be fall', re buff'. The exceptions are, with al', an nul', dis til', in stil', ful fil', un til'.

Rule V. The word full, used an an affix, always drops one l; and its compounds, thus formed, make their plurals regularly by adding s to the singular; as, hand' ful, hand' fuls; spoon' ful, spoon' fuls.

__________

The Use of Capitals

1. Every entire sentence should begin with a capital.
2. Proper names, and adjectives derived from these, should begin with a capital.
3. All appellations of the Deity should begin with a capital.
4. Official and Honorary Titles begin with a capital.
5. Every line of poetry should begin with a capital.
6. Titles of books and the heads of their chapters and divisions are printed in capitals.
7. The pronoun, I, and the exclamation, O, are always capitals.
8. The days of the week, and the months of the year, begin with capitals.
9. Every quotation should begin with a capital letter.
10. Names of religious denominations should begin with a capital.
11. Any word of special importance may begin with a capital.

Sometimes I think the Victorians were far more intellectual than those of us in the 21st century. You would be hard pressed to find a majority of college students today that could comprehend this, much less follow these rules. Am I wrong to think that?

The Lost Art of Penmanship

There is a fabulous textbook, The Business Guide; or, Safe Methods of Business, published in 1886, in the one room schoolhouse which I have perused through from time to time. In the beginning part of the book, the topic of penmanship is discussed. For someone entering the fields of business during the 19th century, or education for that matter, neat, legible handwriting was of the utmost importance. If you had terrible penmanship, you might not be hired for a job, unlike this century. The English style of script taught in schools from the 1840's until near the end of the century was Spencerian script. While I have seen a few variations on some of the capital letters, there are quite a few differences compared to the Palmer method script, which was introduced to pupils in the 1890's and remained the predominant style of handwriting taught in schools until the mid-20th century. Because of the uniform methodology of the Palmer script, many teachers during this time forced left-handed pupils to write with their right hands. While still a rather decorative script compared to modern styles of handwriting, there was significantly less flourish in the Palmer method than in the Spencerian script.

Spencerian script alphabet, capital letters. While many of the letters are quite similar to modern styles, there are some unique differences. The lower case letters also have a few anomalies from modern script.

Spencerian script, ornamental writing. Many surviving documents from the 19th century are written in a style similar to what is seen here. The Victorians sure had a flair for the ornate!

Ornamental flourishes to penmanship were much more common in the 19th century. I think I could have had some fun with this if my 20th century teacher would have taught it.

Another example of ornamental penmanship, or calligraphic writing by modern standards.

Exercises in ornamental penmanship. There are many options to choose from when adding decoration to your penmanship. It is recommended to hold restraint when adding flourishes.

A less flourished version of Spencerian style script for business use. It would be important for a customer to be able to read any correspondence, and if your writing had a lot of flourish, chances are it would be difficult for a customer to decipher.

While business writing was tamed, a person's signature would never lose its flourish. Even if your penmanship was atrocious, your signature would not suffer the same fate. When writing your own signature, think of our 18th century founding father, John Hancock.

When shipping packages, many businesses used an alphabet similar to this style. I do believe we have a few artifacts at the museum which exemplify this style of script.

Contrary to popular belief, manuscript printing was a style of writing taught in the 19th century. While was is not as prevalent, there were occasions to print instead of write the alphabet.

German script in the 19th century was called Kurrentschrift or Alte Deutsche Schrift. It was based on a medieval Gothic script, and it was amended a bit in the early 20th century to the slightly simplified script of Sütterlin. This style of writing went out of fashion in the 1940s. This is my favorite script to use in my German Lutheran one room schoolhouse simply for the fact that few can read it, even if many recognize it from old family letters.

Later 20th century handwriting consisted of teaching pupils to write manuscript style, block printing, and then transition into cursive style. In a complete about face from the Palmer method's tendency to assimilate left-handed writers, modern handwriting books gave instruction for both the left-handed and right-handed child. (Phew, thank goodness for me since I am a lefty! I have heard many stories from my mother about her teacher forcing her to write with her right hand.) For those who began attending elementary school in the 1980's like me, one might be familiar with a third style of writing called D'Nealian. The script was meant to show the beginning of a curve in letters so as to make the transition to cursive easier. Some schools still use this style of instruction today.

The Palmer method replaced Spencerian style in the very late 19th century and dominated school classrooms until the mid-20th century. While still rather ornate, it is a much simpler form of writing than Spencerian script. It is during this period many teachers forced left-handed writers to switch hands.

Zaner-Bloser developed a block printing style to teach the youngest of students in the later 20th century. This is a style still used in many classrooms today in which students first trace the letters then write the letters independently. There are still proper strokes to be followed when writing.

The transition to cursive writing in the Zaner-Bloser method was meant for the third grade and utilizes the same technique as printing. The student first traces the letters then writes the letters independently. If you were in elementary school during the 1970's or later, chances are you learned this style of script.

The transitional method sometimes taught in the late 20th century was D'Nealian. Like Zaner-Bloser, many schools still use this style of script when teaching children how to write. Some have altogether replaced cursive writing with this technique.

Heading into the 21st century, I am astonished to hear how many schools have dropped handwriting from their curriculum. For some reason, many educators making these decisions consider penmanship to be obsolete in a world of technology and computers. I joke that one day the Declaration of Independence is going to look like hieroglyphics to future generations of Americans, but sadly, it could possibly become a reality. When I portray a 19th century schoolmistress, there are many visitors my age and younger who cannot read my handwriting on the blackboard. It should be noted, when writing in English, I use Spencerian script with as little flourish as possible while writing on the blackboards.

A little humor. Is penmanship really obsolete? Have computers really taken the place of handwriting? Or do some just consider it to be no longer necessary because of the patience good handwriting requires It is not something to be learned overnight but to be perfected with much practice over many years.

I do not mean to give teachers a bad reputation for decisions often made beyond their control. Many 21st century teachers continue to teach penmanship to their students. Handwriting Without Tears is a penmanship curriculum I frequently hear mentioned by today's teachers, and there is a variety of published curriculum available for use, thankfully. There are also parents of children who are taking the initiative to teach penmanship to their children after the schools their children attended remove it from the classroom. This exercise in fine motor skills is still relevant and important in 21st century education, and kudos should be given to those still trying to keep it alive. I have seen second grade boys rush through assignments and turn in papers with printed script written backwards yet cursive script written correctly. There is some logic in keeping penmanship in the classroom.

Printed manuscript for Handwriting Without Tears. It seems simple and straightforward. Added bonus: its name suggests a promise of zero crying children. ;)

Cursive script for Handwriting Without Tears. It uses a vertical letter instead of incorporating any slant. Personally, it is an ugly script, but if a child is learning cursive one should not complain.

So, the next time you sit down to hand write something, keep in mind the Victorian advice to scholars of business for practicing and perfecting the eloquent art of penmanship:

How to write.

A complete set of rule for position and practice.

1. Sit in an upright and easy position. It will add to the ease and beauty of your writing. Keep both feet on the floor.
2. Hold the pen firmly, but not so tightly as to cramp the fingers.
3. Place the hand on the paper so the top of the holder will always point over the right shoulder. This will cause the points of the [steel] pen to press equally on the paper.
4. Keep the wrist from touching the paper or desk, and keep the thumb from bending while writing. Avoid the finger movement. It's not practical.
5. Let every downward stroke of the pen be drawn towards the center of the body, and the writing will have the correct slant.
6. Never practice carelessly. Always practice with a free and quick stroke. Let the movement be bold, free, offhand, resting the pen so lightly that the arm, hand and fingers can move freely together.
7. In making the shades, press on the pen with a gentle, springing movement. It will avoid heavy and irregular strokes.
8. Heavy shading, or shading every downward stroke, never adds beauty nor grace to the writing.
9. The thoughtful student in penmanship, as in other studies, will win. Think and write. Practice with perseverance, and your success will be certain.
10. To make the greatest improvement in the shortest time, practice upon the letters separately until you can make them all correctly.
11. Flourishes, too heavy shading, too large or too small letters, should be carefully avoided.
12. Practice writing by copying business letters, notes, drafts, receipts, etc., and you will improve your knowledge of business as well as your penmanship.