More on writing, and pens

As a child I remember first having to write with a pencil. We were taught how to do cursive handwriting from Standard 2 (Second Grade) and we each had a handwriting exercise book with lots of special lines to delineate where to dot your i’s and cross your t’s. I remember being very upset when I couldn’t remember the variations of the letter ‘r’ that I was supposed to write as homework.

Beginning in Standard 3 we started to write with ink – yes, with fountain pens. My first fountain pen, as far as I remember, was a maroon Pilot school pen (or was it green?). It was light and easy to write with and took a fair amount of rough handling. I remember that one of the ‘rules’ was that you filled your pen every night before coming to school, because you weren’t meant to carry that glass Quink bottle of royal blue ink around in your bag. Of course I had to flout this rule by bringing my Quink to school one fateful day in Standard 4. I think I wanted to test the teacher’s claim that the bottle would break – I didn’t believe this was possible (without much force) because Quink bottles were (still are) so solid. Well, the bottle didn’t break, but its cap did – it cracked. All my books, my hands were stained blue. The teacher was not impressed!

We were only allowed to use ballpoint pens in Standard 6. I remember it seemed like such a big deal at the time.

I wonder if children in Australia even know what a fountain pen is these days. M, educated in the West Australian primary school system, was never taught how to use one, and nowadays when speed and convenience rules, I’m sure a fountain pen would be seen as an inconvenient, messy anachronism. And maybe learning how to use a keyboard would be more useful for kids anyway. I for one am glad I learnt how to write using a fountain pen, and will continue to use them with pleasure!

Categories: fountain pens, writing, handwriting