would you like to try the word "buzz"?

this is how i felt today, except i was in billy madison's place and my students were in his teacher's place.  they were not exacting their revenge on me, as billy's teacher was.  they were simply calling out random words for me to write in cursive during our daily 15-minute lesson.  for most adults, 3rd grade teachers, in particular, cursive is no big deal.  for me, however, it is a chore, an inconvenience, and a torturous task.

from 1st grade until the end of 5th grade, i looked forward to the day when i could "test out" of handwriting class and be allowed to write in print if i so desired.  thinking back, that was the silliest thing i've ever heard of. why would someone spend almost five years of their life learning cursive, only to cast it aside, never to be picked up again?  though i loved to look at the elegant arches and loops of my grandmother's writing, cast it aside, i did.  cursive was a hassle, because there was a perfect slant one had to attain, and print was not really an option, because it was so boring.  i had an important decision to make.  i soon settled into a wonderful conglomeration i call "pseudo-cursive".  it's quick and easy to accomplish and keeps your readers ever-guessing if you wrote  'r' or 'v' or 'e' or 'l'.

when i decided to become a teacher, pseudo-cursive stayed with me until i reached that class where we all had to complete a zaner bloser correspondence penmanship course.  it was several weeks long and was not what a 21year old girl wanted to be doing at night.  i survived without having to resubmit my work because it was "too sloppy".  i took pride in that, especially when i saw the cattiest girl in the program check her mail and gasp when she realized she had not done her best work and would subsequently be a week behind.

soon afterward, cursive became something i did only when instructing my students in this dying art.  that leads us back to today...

like billy madison, Zs get me.  Fs and Ts do too.  i don't have the patience.  for some strange reason, one of the kids asked me to write the name zane on the board during cursive time.  it was all i could do to keep it together to scribe that four-letter word.  i did it, nonetheless, but in my mind, i was thinking, "i hate cursive and i hate all of you!  i'm never coming back to school!  NEVER!"

once the lesson came to a close, i was back to my normal, pseudo-cursive-writing self and will be until 10:00 tomorrow morning.