Demise of handwriting signals low for country

Here is an article from today's newspapers, it got me thinking. I didn't think much about it when I was learning Chinese way back when. We may have frowned upon this complex handwriting system that our ancestors had invented, developed at one time or another. Little did we realize, we were set out to learn one of the most difficult languages the day we were born. If anything, we have our ancestors to thank!

This article gives me the motivation to keep teaching my sons Chinese characters, even at one word a day. 

Demise of handwriting signals low for countryIt was some 35 years ago that I said to some folks that one day the Chinese will be quite formidable. No one answered me and thought that perhaps I was a bit daft.

If someone would have asked me why I thought that, I would have replied: their handwriting. It is beautiful, difficult to learn, and it has to be memorized -- and that makes the Chinese more intelligent, just as handwriting makes us. And what are we doing? We are being dumbed down by not memorizing multiplication tables, by not reading some of the classics and by not using our small muscles and eyes to coordinate writing skills.

Teaching has been dumbed down, and our children and our whole country will suffer for it.

source:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110720/OPINION01/107200312/Demise-handwriting-signals-low-country?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|s

Thank you mom!

Forty some years ago today, a baby boy was born. Through the years a special lady had stood by him.
"Things have a way of working themselves out.", she always says, in times when he is down.
"Treat others how you wish to be treated." has been her lifelong motto. Her wisdom, isn't bound by the education received in the classrooms, it's much, much more. Although they now live thousands of miles apart, she continues to stand by him to this day, in spirit.

When I light up the candles on my birthday cake, I think of you. I thank you for bringing me to this world, and I thank you for sharing your wisdom with me. Although it isn't Mother's Day, but on this day, it holds special meanings to me. Thank you mom!