> Palmer Penmanship Method Is the author at least 70 years old? Or was his parochial school behind the times? "By the mid-20th century, the Zaner-Bloser Metho

> Palmer Penmanship Method Is the author at least 70 years old? Or was his parochial school behind the times? "By the mid-20th century, the Zaner-Bloser Method was the most popular style of penmanship instruction in the US, while interest in the Palmer Method had been declining from the 1950s" says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaner-Bloser_(teaching_script) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaner-Bloser_(teaching_script) and "When the D'Nealian Method was introduced in 1978, it quickly became popular and led to a significant decline in the use of the previously leading Zaner-Bloser Method" says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Nealian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Nealian . The author was born in 1950 says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Queenan_(author) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Queenan_(author) so most likely just behind the times. > As for the stately, elegant penmanship of the kind I was taught in grade school, just forget it. Beautiful handwriting is a thing of the past. For elegant penmanship, see Spencerian script at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencerian_script https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencerian_script , where you'll also read "President James A. Garfield called the Spencerian script, "the pride of our country and the model of our schools."" Before then was English roundhand, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_hand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_hand . The Palmer Method is a less elegant script so people could write faster and compete with the typewriter.