I used to have the most terrible handwriting; when I say used to I mean still do. It's legible now but usually only when I handwrite in capital letters. Fortunately I don't often handwrite, just personal notes I scribble when on the phone at work.
When I was seven my mother authorised the headmaster of my primary school to review my handwriting each Friday. I was given an exercise book containing tasks I'd complete over the week and submit in person to the headmaster for evaluation and the resulting motivational inspiration should my handwriting not be acceptable. My mother had authorised the motivational prompt also.
I'd stand there whilst the headmaster perused my exercise work and, each and every Friday, my writing would come up short and the motivational prompt to do better was delivered there and then.
The headmaster, whose name I still recall but will omit, would collect the good-handwriting-motivational-device from his cupboard and administer a solidly motivational and incredibly inspirational prompt to do better next time. It involved me leaning over and placing my hands on his desk whilst he wacked me on my seven year old ass five times with a wooden beach bat. You know, one of those big paddle things one takes to the beach to hit tennis balls back and forth. It hurt like a mother fucker but I'd front up each Friday knowing I'd get whacked yet again due to my handwriting not being acceptable.
My writing never got much better over the twelve months this continued but I learned something nonetheless.
I learned that much of the time lessons don't always come directly and sometimes what is designed or purported to be a lesson is not the actual lesson at all.
I learned that I have the ability to accept adversity and deal with pain, physical and emotional. I learned that people who present themselves as responsible may not always be so...and I learned how to hate, although the relentless and brutal racial vilification I'd experienced for the preceding two years had already paved that path.
I learned that I'm responsible, about duty, fear and how hope doesn't always win the day; action does. I learned how to quell anger, to command myself that others were oblivious to my pain, suffering, thoughts or intentions and I learned that should I have the chance to bat that headmaster at some later date, I'd take it. That last, was the foundation of my ethos of protecting those who cannot do so for themselves, the old and infirm, women and children, the disabled.
Thinking back I know I could have rebelled and taken different paths. As it was, I lost any and all interest in school, but I was an intrinsically good person which endured. I looked inwardly, educated myself and despite my school teachers telling me I would never amount to anything and was a waste of time and effort, all the way until I left high school [early], I did a reasonable job in my estimation. I'm not nothing.
My life has moved in many directions but all the way through I've had a passion for reading and writing - those two things are pivotal to my life and two of the most constant things. I'm fortunate that headmaster didn't beat that out of me whilst trying to beat me into better handwriting. I'm also glad I never got the chance to return the beatings because I don't think I would have been able to stop myself, and would have done a splendid job at it. [I never said I'm a totally good man.]
I've read so many words over my life, have listened to many others directly and indirectly, and feel content with where I am now, who I am. I'm somewhat self-made I suppose although, thinking on it, maybe not as self made as I like to think...
All of my life-happenings, most of which I will never repeat here or even to my closest confidants, have impacted upon and shaped me, some painfully and some not, but it's all of those things which have brought me to this time and place; the man sitting in front of a computer writing these words. Fortunately I don't have to handwrite them though, no one would be able to decipher them.
I don't regret those life-things, none of them. They happened, some at my hand others by the hand of others, circumstance, fate, destiny or however one wants to put it. They don't define me though, how I took them and created my life because of them does.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
Any image(s) in this post are my own
That's ridiculous. We still had the cane when I was at school, but they'd never cane somebody for failing. It was saved for wanton misbehaviour.
I got it twice. At 8, then again at 14. Deserved the second one.
Lol, yeah not the best way to get the point across. Back then though, it was acceptable, or must have been for it to continue. I got the cane a few times at high school, a very respectable private school. I eventually told my pare they were wasting their money and went to a public school.
Motivational Inspiration. What a great term.
I really like the lesson of needing to move on. Sometimes things beyond our control happen; we can dwell on it and let it fester or we can attempt to fix it; in either case we'll need to move on. Each and every one of us are a product of our past; the goal is to make ourselves greater than the sum of those parts. It's easy to fall short. Let's try not to.
Personally, my handwriting sucks ass, too. Strangely, I enjoy handwriting, and prefer to take all my notes by hand. The trick afterward is trying to read them. OCR programs usually interpret my handscribbling as "Hell no, buddy."
Dwelling on those things won't change them or the future. Ownership, responsibility and action can change the future though, which is why I embrace all three. What happened in the past is history, who I am today is due to my own actions, not that history. I made choices.
You have trouble reading your own handwriting? Lol, me too. 😉
Mann my handwriting made me go through so much trouble. Starting with my father, he'd give me a lengthy list of tasks just to improve my handwriting at home. Then the teachers at school, talking shit like I'm some kind of an opponent or enemy in their life. Like c'mon bro, you really wanna have beef with a 10 year old? lol hahaha. 😂
...and years later no one needs to handwrite. Seems all those teachers were wrong after all. Neat handwriting isn't required!
Ain't that fact haha, gotta love it. I hated writing anyways. 🥃
I've always believed that people are born with good handwriting coz that's the only explanation I can give for having the kind of terrible writing I have.
I was never beaten for it though, I just learned on my own that when I write slower and am a bit more conscious, I tend to write better. My mind works fast and most times people who have horrible handwriting tend to have a lot of things on their minds while writing, that's probably why we're great with keyboards. Then again, I might be wrong.
I also have this belief that people are just born with certain personality traits. So while you and someone else were receiving such harsh treatment for the same misconduct, you could turn out better while the other person would turn out worse off, blaming their present problems on that particular situation. I don't know if that makes sense.
You were just born a little less sensitive to your past experiences.
Hmm, no I don't think so.
I learned not to attach stories to events from my past and use them as reasons for lack of success. Rather, I used those events to learn other things, find ownership and responsibility, learn right and wrong, good and bad and when to apply each of them.
I'm a very sensitive person, more than anyone on Hive (and most in real life) will ever know. I have a never quit attitude though, and a simple beating only makes me stronger, more resilient, determined and focused. I can't recall my last beating, so many years ago, but each of them, and the self-taught lessons I learned have made me the man I am today. A pretty good one, I think. Mostly.
I guess I didn't put that right. Your experiences make you better. I understand that.
Ah, ok I've misunderstood you. 😊
Omg I can't get past the fact he beat you. You are my age... I thought that shit was over by then.. My Dad used to tell a funny story about being whacked and dodging the stick and running round the room... Bloody hell.
I had an ex that wrote in capitals.. wierd as 😂
Yeah, it's probably not a good bedtime story for the kids I suppose, but it happened and helped me learn some things, (not good handwriting though.) I didn't mind, I built buns of steel that stayed with me to this very day thanks to all the beatings. 😊
Many people have the same experience as you. They try to be shaped according to the wishes of their parents and the pattern of the teachers in their schools. However, when they finally find their life, they fall far short of the desires or patterns that other people expect.
We grow and become what we want ourselves to be. Desires and patterns are only the initial patrons of what we will become.
Today's modern parenting and education patterns have further changed by giving encouragement to the strengths of a student. Education today is based on each child's interests and talents.
Luckily, I wasn't forced to write by hand. When I had the talent to tell stories in front of the class, the teacher led the applause for me.
We all also applaud those who have good handwriting, but they are never asked to tell stories in front of the class.
It seems you have vastly different experiences than I did. You're fortunate.
Art of legible writing was quite strict when we were schooled, fortunately by following through first three grades one was then left to develop ones own style.
No TV reading books (not comics) was normal, Secret Seven, Gerald Durrell or similar, perhaps times we grew up in our parent guided, and very glad they did.
Yeah, these days most kids don't know how to write as it's all digital so maybe even my bad handwriting is something to be proud of in comparison to the youth of today.
Not writing as much now squiggles only we can decipher, earlier years that was normally exclusively doctors who wrote out prescriptions.
Yes, we are alike in many ways. I still remember the Catholic nun from the 1st grade smacking my hands with a wooden ruler for my poor handwriting skills. It never improved. It did however turn my rebel self against the church making it so painful an experience for my mother to get me up, get me ready, and constantly dragging to make her late that she eventually gave up and I changed schools for the 2nd grade and we stopped going to church. I remember again in whatever grade that was when we started learning cursive. Similar experience, but no smacking, just forced repetition over and over and over. Of course in the same bad form. I suppose the teachers at that time were not informed that repetition of doing something in bad form just reinforces the muscle memory. lol. To this day I still scribble my name "like a doctor" some folks say. Anything else, I print. My printing isn't pretty, but it's fairly legible. If only we had computers back in my days of school.
It's funny how we've had similar experiences.
I can write reasonably well these days, not great, but I don't credit those beatings for it; I'm self-taught...in many aspects of life. I don't look back on those beatings, or any other, with anger though...I learned many things, just not what those doing the beating wished me to learn. The post says it all.
My handwriting has alway been terrible. It was the only thing I really got a bad grade in during the years it was graded. Even today when I write something by hand I print instead of writing in cursive. One of the most valuable classes I took in high school was a one semester long keyboarding class (typing but on a computer). Today I can type faster than most people I know and far faster than I can write by hand and it is all thanks to that class I took 25+ years ago.
Most kids these days don't know how to handwrite. I wonder if, in the future, people will lament the, almost, lost art of handwriting?
There was nothing motivational about the bat afterall. You're just a good person to turn out the way you did. Can't say the same for others.
Indeed, being beaten isn't much of a way to motivate me. I'm not sure if I'm a good person, I try to do good things though, and know that beating children is a heinous act perpetrated by garbage humans.
I love this story of a child learning to write, I think it is the story of many children @galenkp , when I was in school I suffered a lot for being left-handed to write and everything was designed for right-handed children, the desks everything and not for left-handed children, I still learned to do well and, it is not necessary to be perfect what is important is that it has no spelling errors and is readable .... thanks for sharing.
A hug from South America.
I think many kids have had learning difficulties and situations in which those around them weren't exactly helpful for the learning process. Thanks for sharing your own experiences.
I'm sorry you had to experience that as a child. I know that is not why you told it, for me to be sorry about it, but I still am. Thing is, you were mentally strong enough to eventually come through it and find a mental place to put it so that it did not ruin your entire life. Some would have not been strong enough to do that.
Even if in some twisted way, to begin it, it made sense to the adults, after a few times with no improvement, it seems like they should have seen that it was not helping and stopped and regrouped on what was needed for REAL help.
I have never had a neat writing. It is mostly readable.... mostly... ha ha.... Through the years I have written things in many notebooks or random papers. Sometimes just thoughts that I might want to come back to, contemplate and expand on. Later, some of it I cannot read myself ! Sometimes I figure it out taking it into context of what I have written before or after..... other times.... no idea !
I tend to write fast and mix cursive and print.... what ? That's how it flows out sometimes. I always think my writing messes up a nice greeting card. Now, if others will need to read it, I print in all caps myself. My older brother did the same.
I'm glad you survived it and carried on.
I do the mixed cursive and print thing, add in some capitals and yep, it's all messed up! I sometimes have trouble reading my own writing also. 🤪
I'm all good about the beatings. Wasn't the first or last and I figure life just had to move on and so I moved it on. I'm better for it I guess, the experience has been a teacher, unpleasant though it was. I've been through more unpleasant and difficult things in my life so that helps to put it into perspective. I turned out just as crazy as every other human being so...yep, I'm nothing and no one special.
Thanks for commenting, and yes I didn't write this post for pity or to make people sad. It was just something to say I guess. Maybe to demonstrate that good can come from bad.
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Another lesson you learned, @galenkp:
Was just thinking about you, good sir, and came to Hive just to say, "Allow, mate."
Hope you're doing well.
All good, just living life as best I can. Hope you're well also.
Awesome. I am very well indeed! :)
Thanks.