Woman devoted to teaching and promoting readable handwriting

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Just think about the time it takes to write "tomato."

Kate Gladstone does. And she's happy to illustrate her point.

Stepping up to her chalkboard, she writes the word out in a loopy cursive, coming back to cross her T's. Then she does it a bit faster her way, with a loopless "italic" script that allows the T's to be crossed as she writes.

"Basically," she notes, chalk in hand, "what I'm doing is making a beeline from the end of one letter to the start of the next."

Say hello to the "Handwriting Repairwoman." The animated 40-year-old's mission is to stamp out the sort of chickenscratch found on hastily written prescription slips, office memos and school essays by simplifying it.

It's her business, and her passion. Aside from coaching better letters, Gladstone oversees an annual handwriting contest and is working on an instructional book. She signs off her e-mail "Yours for better letters" and rewrites lyrics to old rock songs to make them about handwriting. One of her greatest hits ponders how weird the cursive capital Q looks. It is sung to Queen's "We Will Rock You" and starts like this:

"Buddy, you sit and stare at a Q

And you wonder what makes it look like a 2"

A summation of Gladstone's philosophy on handwriting in her disheveled home office becomes a rapid-fire monologue with a digression on Renaissance manuscripts, an exegesis of the letter G and frequent trips to the chalkboard.

Gladstone's nemesis is the loopy, connected writing drilled into many students by what she calls the "committed conventional cursive commando corps." The style is exemplified by Palmer Method handwriting, which became popular in American schools in the 20th century.

The style has plenty of adherents, but Gladstone says it can become unintelligible in some hands when written quickly. The antidote, she says, is the italic style she teaches doctors, teachers, parents and children.

Proponents of italics ditch the fluid curlicues typical of Palmer and similar styles for something closer to regular print letters.

Does it work?

For evidence, she shows a before-and-after sample from an adult student whose seismograph-like cursive evolved into legible script. But her most compelling example might be her own story.

Gladstone says her handwriting was so atrocious it got her sent to the principal's office in grade school. As a young adult, she'd leave her electric typewriter running in her family's New York City apartment to make sure basic messages like "Aunt Shirley called" were legible.

Teachers thought she was lazy, stupid or stubborn. Gladstone was later diagnosed with neurological conditions like dysgraphia that make writing more difficult.

She gave the italic style a shot while she was earning her master's in library science, practicing in secret until her writing improved. She shared her find with her father -- "a Palmer Method washout" -- and it worked for him, too.

She thought: Why not help other people?

Gladstone solicited hospitals after moving up to Albany with her husband in the 1990s. It took a few years, but she eventually began holding seminars as a Handwriting Remediation Consultant for doctors from California to Massachusetts.

Marie Picon, editorial director of Pen World International magazine, estimates that Gladstone is now one of about 20 nationally known handwriting coaches.

Typically, a hospital will pay Gladstone to speak for a few hours to a roomful of doctors. She has them write imaginary letters in the air with their fingers before practicing on paper. She estimates 90 percent of her business is doctors.

The Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, N.Y., is typical -- they called her in recently to talk to 15 doctors.

Dr. Wouter Rietsema, the hospital's medical director who describes his own handwriting as fair, said he has tried to remember a couple of Gladstone's helpful hints, like crossing his T's as he writes them.

"When I'm thinking about it, I try to incorporate it and it does make a difference," Rietsema said. He conceded, though: "It's not yet part of my 'always' habit."

Prescription errors are blamed for 7,000 deaths a year in the United States, some caused by illegible handwriting.

Lessons also come in the form of one-on-one sessions, and Gladstone does a free yearly seminar in Boston at -- she relishes the irony -- the John Hancock Building.

She focuses on writing style, but touches on factors like grip and proper tools. Her personal model is a custom fountain pen cobbled together with a cap, ink barrel and nib from different models.

Gladstone says her works takes up 30 hours a week but she's never really off duty. When handed a phone number by a reporter, she remarked, "You could use some work on those numbers, buddy."

Gladstone also directs the annual World Handwriting Contest, sponsored by Pen World. And yes, some Palmer Method writers win.

With coaching gigs lined up through the fall, she scoffs at the notion that computers will kill handwriting. She illustrates her point not with a chalkboard but with her personal digital assistant.

Smiling, she moves the stylus over the tiny screen to show off her handwriting, digitally.

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On the Net:

Kate Gladstone's Handwriting Repair

http://www.global2000.net/handwritingrepair/