A Look On The Lighter Side: Signatures now an endangered species

I certainly thought I’d written my last word about handwriting… at least for a while.
But then I came across a review in the New York Times, of a book called “The History and Un-certain Future of Handwriting,” by Anne Trubek, and I realized there is actually more to be said.
Trubek tells the history of handwriting from ancient Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics, through medieval scribes and Dickensian-era clerks, to the present day.
I remember when “handwriting” was one of the subjects on which you were graded in school, with a letter from A to E.
Teachers were not shy about what needed improvement:   “Messy!”  and “What is this letter?” made regular appearances in the margins of my homework, along with reminders to keep better margins in the first place.  
I also remember a lot of “See Me!” which usually meant the teacher wanted to ask, “What on earth did you write, here?”
I also remember the excitement of finally being allowed, in high school, to come up with my own version of a capital J for my signature, so it didn’t look like every other “J” name in the book.  
Writing “grown-up writing” was a big deal for my children, too.  
I clearly remember the timeline my older boy drew for a third-grade assignment:  after “I am born,” his life was apparently an empty, echoing void, with one little entry for “my brother is born” and a lot of white space…until “I learn cursive!”  
Now, alas, the Common Core seems to have eliminated script writing from the curriculum, altogether.  
This is probably because it would take too much classroom time away from learning the all-important skill of “bubbling in” — which, sadly, has nothing to do with blowing bubbles, but rather the joyless ability to color inside the ovals next to answers on a test sheet.
This change, in turn, was probably made because any two-bit computer can read those “bubbles” — but it takes a human, and a pretty dedicated one at that, to make sense out of most student handwriting.  Thus, we descend to the machine’s lowest abilities, rather than bring them up to ours.
But what, I ask you, could possibly improve on your mother’s handwriting on a card saying “Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!  Love, Mom”?  Compare that with “bubbling in” the proper marks for:
0 Dear Occupant:
0 To Whom It May Concern:
0 Happy
0 Sad
0 Question Mark
0 Redundant  
Greetings upon this anniversary/birth/generic recurring occasion!  
I have to say that even a post card, saying, “Judy, did you ever get those glasses fixed?” is better than that!
Whatever would Sherlock Holmes have done, if he couldn’t analyze a suspect’s handwriting?
“My dear sir,” cries Holmes, solving the case of “The Reigate Squires,” “There cannot be the least doubt in the world that (this document) has been written by two persons doing alternate words.  
When I draw your attention to the strong t’s of ‘at’ and ‘to’ and ask you to compare them with the weak ones of ‘quarter’ and ‘twelve,’ you will instantly recognise the fact.”
“Meanwhile, Judy, back in the real world …”
“You call a world without handwriting ‘real’?  What if today’s children never learn to read script at all?  
How will they know for sure what’s in our Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, if they can’t read it for themselves?”
“Even if they can, what are they going to make of those weird double S’s that look like one of them is an F? — ‘To secure the Blefsings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” — I always wondered what ‘blefsings’ were.”
On the other hand…if the next generation never learns to read script, we adults can leave notes to each other out in plain sight, and they may as well be in code!
“The keys are under the mat.”
“Remember, tomorrow is their surprise party.”
“The presents are in the hall closet.”  
No, in tomorrow’s world, everything will be texting, and emojis, and ROTFL, whatever that means.  
And when the handwriting for our civilization gets written on the wall, there will be no one left, not even a prophet, who will be able to read what it says:
“Confefs Your Sins — The End is Nigh”
“Hey, man, doesn’t that giant hand know how to spell-check? ‘Night” should totally have a ‘t’ at the end!”
“What does ‘confefs’ mean?”  
“No idea. Just keep Googling those cat videos.”