I thought this was an interesting article although I doubt the argument. >My experience with fountain pens suggests a new answer. Perhaps it’s not digital tech

I thought this was an interesting article although I doubt the argument. >My experience with fountain pens suggests a new answer. Perhaps it’s not digital technology that hindered my handwriting, but the technology that I was holding as I put pen to paper. Fountain pens want to connect letters. Ballpoint pens need to be convinced to write, need to be pushed into the paper rather than merely touch it. >Sassoon’s analysis of how we’re taught to hold pens makes a much stronger case for the role of the ballpoint in the decline of cursive. She explains that the type of pen grip taught in contemporary grade school is the same grip that’s been used for generations, long before everyone wrote with ballpoints. However, writing with ballpoints and other modern pens requires that they be placed at a greater, more upright angle to the paper—a position that’s generally uncomfortable with a traditional pen hold. That is an interesting observation, but then I grew up learning traditional cursive with ball-point pens, and it wasn't really a big deal. Really all I remember as a downside is that the school-issued ballpoints would still have ink problems where a few of them would be leaky or broken and then you got ink over everything anyway. I really think it just became seen as not such an important skill, when you have so many other things that are pretty important to learn. Remember penmanship was one of those things that continued into the upper grades, and advanced skill. Typing became more important. Although the typewriter had been around forever, they were becoming cheaper and easier, because they were becoming electric. More schools taught typing. More people had a typewriter and more students knew how to type, and submitted papers typed. Previously if you didn't type (which was usual) you would need to submit a paper in pen, in cursive. Now that vanished.