I’m old enough to remember inkwells in student desks and nibbed pens in elementary school - no fountain pens since they thought that would make us lazy. We were given a liner to guide our writing on line free paper - you got one liner for the entire school year.

The big debate when I was in grade 6 was the introduction of ballpoint pens and lined paper in schools. They thought that would really make us lazy and detract from our work ethic as adults. I missed my chance at being ink monitor for my class because of ballpoint pens.

You could always tell who was left-handed by the ink smudges on their hands. The contortions they had to do to drag their pens across the page were painful to see.