Cursive writing a DEAD SKILL???

[packman]

Last edited Mon Jun 1, 2015, 11:00 AM - Edit history (1)

Shocked to find out cursive writing was dropped from the national curricula. Back in my day, after walking 20 miles in the snow and fighting off the wolves, I settled down in my desk with the ink well (that part is true) and folded the yellow paper sheets into a fan so that there was columns to write the cursive letter for the day. The Palmer chart with its flourish and curves ringed the room and we filled out sheet after sheet with those beautiful letters. I remember we were showed colonial writing and were in awe of the dips and swirls of the lettering. "John Hancock"'s signature held us in thrall, the beauty-the grace.
Ahh, something lost again.... so sad.


"—Since the U.S. Department of Education dropped cursive writing from standard national curricula in 2011, the debate on the value of learning penmanship has raged.
—Some argue that the skill is obsolete, akin to learning how to use an abacus in the age of supercomputers. “[The] time kids spend learning to write curvy, connected words is time kids could be spending learning the basics of programming and any number of other technology skills they’ll need in our increasingly connected world,”

Author laments the passing of cursive writing and why

-"-For what must have been hundreds and hundreds of hours, we toiled and persevered—training our young hands to commit those letterforms to muscle memory. Rhythm, form, slant, space. Rhythm, form, slant, space, I would sometimes silently chant to coax my wild clumsy hand. These were the things I obsessed with at 7 years old.

Perfect penmanship was expected in all our classes. Our notebooks were even collected at the end of every semester and graded based on fidelity to this style and the neatness of our note-taking. We had to do this in proper sitting posture, too. It was about conformity, discipline, and deportment. It was religion. It was penitence. It was torture"

http://extragoodshit.phlap.net/index.php/why-cursive-mattered/

[treestar]

1. So I guess when they need to write, they just print?

There's still some times when you need to write a thing.

I used to carry a note pad around. But now the phone has a way to put in notes. So I can see it declining, but still, there are going to be forms you fill out and what not. I've gone to a dentist and two doctors recently, and they had me fill out forms. Maybe someday doctors will have a computer screen to fill out their forms on. Just off the top of my head.

[kentauros]

6. I'm 54 and have forgotten most cursive lettering, especially the capitals.

I print, and people compliment me on how neat it is (I used to do hand-drafting.) If you want pretty writing, learn calligraphy. At least it's artistic. I do not lament the loss of cursive writing.

Maybe you've seen modern versions of PDFs. You can fill in the blank spaces in forms without ever printing them out

[yeoman6987]

9. Way easier to forge printed letters then cursive

I think kids should at least be introduced to it and definitely learn to use cursive to sign your name at least for now.

[kentauros]

12. Let me put it this way:

I print non-legal stuff (notes to myself, and so forth.) I sign my name, but it's the only cursive I remember. These days, thumprints are replacing signatures. I sincerely hope those aren't forge-able

[yeoman6987]

18. Wow. I haven't used a thumb print except at Disney.

I guess everyone will deal with whatever comes our way.

[kentauros]

22. I've used them at banks,

even after "signing" my name on their pad. All too often, the sensing area of that signature pad is badly aligned, and you only get the top half of a signature, when you can write it at all on a badly designed pad (too thick, angled wrong, et cetera.) And yet, that's enough of a legal signature for the bank.

[treestar]

114. Good point

Though I think we may be signing by fingerprint soon. Bet they can get that technology together. ID fraud will be partly defeated.

[cherokeeprogressive]

37. Same age; same situation. Block caps always.

[Codeine]

55. Same here -- all caps, with smaller letters for "lower case".

I've been told my printing is quite pleasing to read.

My numbers are a disaster, however. I've had to redo whole Sudoku puzzles before because I cannot tell what numbers I wrote in entire sections -- all just random squiggles even to me.

[treestar]

112. Yes, there are a lot of forms you can do online now

In fact you can dictate and not have to type a lot of things too.

I'm 55 and still like to write sometimes. Taking notes in the office. I'm starting to do it on the laptop keyboard though.

[TheTimmer]

113. 52 here, and gave up cursive in high school

When I took my first programming class. Pre-desktop computing, we used a timeshare system with 3 nodes. You didn't have the luxury of composing at the keyboard, we wrote all our code on programming forms similar to this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_per_line#/media/File:FortranCodingForm.png

Cursive disappeared from my life upon my first look at this. When I got to college, all programming was done on punch cards, so neat printing was a requirement. Cursive was, at best, a luxury; at worst, a hindrance.

[Johonny]

15. I was watching my girlfriend text in pinyun and watching the machine translate it to characters

and it is easy to say that in the near future everyone will just use an e-signiture and if you need cursive the texting machine will just do it for you. Given voice recognition software... how soon before we stop "writing" altogether.

[Logical]

158. I have only printed for the last 30 years. nt

[Avalux]

2. They're stopped teaching it in school here.

I think eventually, they'll stop teaching writing altogether, and kids will be completely dependent on their touchpads, or even just their voice. It does not bode well for the future.

[Blue_Adept]

3. Why do you think it doesn't bode well?

[Avalux]

8. Because complete dependence on technology is folly. n/t

[cwydro]

17. Agree. nt

[AngryOldDem]

44. +1.

A lesson that will only be learned the hard way.

[Nay]

178. Yup. nt

[Adrahil]

48. So, should we all learn to cut quills...

And make ink from oak galls?

Don't get me wrong, i love the art of writing and am a calligrapher, and have a collection of fountain pens. But the times.... They move on.

[Avalux]

52. And in that moving on, we must not abandon teaching our kids to be self-sufficient.

It's so easy to have a gadget to do everything for us, they're shiny, pretty, fun and convenient. But I wonder, in about 20 years or so, if our gadgets stop working or get taken away, if young people will be able to function without them. I don't think so.

[Codeine]

65. Of course they'll be able to function without them.

They'll function unhappily, just like our generation would end up functioning without television, or our grandparents without electricity or clean running water.

There's no real reason to suppose they'll be forced to do so, however.

[Pooka Fey]

101. 100, 000 Detroit residents experienced water shut-offs in 2014

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/what-happens-when-detroit-shuts-off-the-water-of-100000-people/374548/

Natural disasters happen, such as Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, where electricity is shut off for weeks or months at a time.

Check out the movie Die-Hard 4, just for the thought experiment. There is a real reason to suppose that everything we take for granted might not work every day, all the time. It's plain common sense. Thus the need for low-tech, Green, no-energy input skills such as cursive writing, which is quicker than printing.

Many families will teach this skill to their kids ANYWAY, despite public schools cutting this component.

My concern was for the other kids, who will be penalized by the lowered quality of public education.

[Adrahil]

105. Learning an obsolete writing system is not "self-suffiecient"

I think learning how to properly type is a much more relevant skill today.

Honestly, the world today includes gadgets. Unless something drastic happens, that will not change. No reason to get all Luddite in my opinion.

[treestar]

115. You have a point but then

we have given over to other types of gadgets. I mean, we should also know then how to start a fire. Catch a fish. What would be a list of things we'd have to know if we were somehow not able to get to the gadgets we'd become dependent on. Just seems it would go beyond writing.

[Pooka Fey]

74. Very short sighted to abandon a "Green" no-energy input skill like cursive writing.

Enough already with the short-term thinking.

[Codeine]

82. Why?

What is so short-sighted about not hooking our letters together with curvy bits? What are we losing -- besides letters that are hooked up with curvy bits, obviously?

[Pooka Fey]

95. Oy vey.

Do you understand the concept of "Green" at least? You know, using LESS ENERGY so that we stop overheating the planet by burning fossil fuels to run our tablets/smartphones/computers?

[TheTimmer]

103. Oy gevalt

Is cursive somehow more green than just printing?

[Pooka Fey]

104. Did I write or communicate in the slightest way that it was? No.

Are you wasting my time? Yes!

[TheTimmer]

118. Yes

Your response to "not needing curvy bits" implied that cursive is more green than any other option.

I would suggest you dismount your high horse, but it appears that pedantry and condescension are preferred modes for you.

It appears that the only one wasting your time is you.

[Pooka Fey]

127. I'm sorry, who are you, exactly? Have we met?

[Codeine]

107. Yes, I know what "Green" means, oh Insufferable One.

And my imagination and reading comprehension are just fine, thanks. That said, you've not done a single thing to justify your argument that cursive writing is a special skill, the loss of which would be detrimental. You've made a flat statement, backed up by precisely nothing.

Is cursive "greener" than neat, legible printing?

[Pooka Fey]

111. Well, "She Who Knowest Not How to Conjugate a Compound Verb"

Last edited Sun May 31, 2015, 04:44 PM - Edit history (2)

Should I, or Should I Not, bother to answer your question?

Signed,
Your humble and ever obedient servant, The Insufferable One

[Codeine]

116. That would be ""He Who Knowest Not How to Conjugate a Compound Verb", actually.

Still curious why you believe there is some special significance to writing letters that are attached versus writing letters that aren't.

[jeff47]

131. You do realize that creating ink and paper burns a whole lot of energy, right?

And since it's mostly heat and gasoline-powered equipment for cutting down and moving the trees, it's not easily generated from renewable sources

In addition, you really can't go over about 30% recycled content and have paper that's still usable for writing. So figure that the vast majority of the paper you write on is thrown away. And ink isn't recyclable at all.

It's not quite as clear-cut as you seem to think.

[Adrahil]

106. What?

I can communicate just fine without cursive, if I need to. I just don't usually need to.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

10. I've lost track of the link, but there were one or more studies that showed that it helped the brain

develop more quickly and helped build fine motor skills. Unless they're replacing it with something that provides the same sorts of stimulation, then it's just another facet in the 'dumbing down' of American education.

[Avalux]

21. You said this much better than I did, thanks.

I'm an artist, so I'm aware the hand-eye thing is critical for right brain development, can't imagine that skill being lost. A lot of art is digitally produced these days too - and it's not the same skill set as doing it by hand.

[mopinko]

29. betty edwards- drawing on the right side of the brain.

this book came out about 30 years ago. it fascinated me at the time.
she has a chapter about penmanship as an art form. like any other art form, it grows a child's brain connections.

and just an aside, she posited that the pictorial languages result in a more connected brain than strictly letter form languages. pet scans back this up. one of those fascinating little factoids.

that said, i homeschooled for 8 years and found it impossible to get my kids to practice cursive like i did as a kid. to this day, even the 2 kids who went to school do not use it.
we did a lot of work on computers, and my kids type so fast sometimes i think their fingers are going to leave their hands.
tho i know that that means some parts of my brain are wired differently than their, i know the reverse is also true. kids have built in detectors for useless knowledge. that is why they so eagerly suck up the new.

[treestar]

120. That's a good point. Some things are worth learning

in order to learn how to learn, so to speak. It's why they did art and music at least in the good suburban schools.

[Exilednight]

121. Your brain uses two different parts when writing versus typing. Writing has shown a more

Creativity.

[jeff47]

136. Writing does not require cursive. (nt)

[Exilednight]

138. Cursive vs printing vs typing all use different parts of the brain.

Cursive shows a more creative side. Scientists attribute this to the strokes in cursive being a type of art.

Printing and typing use more of the left side of the brain.

All three should be taught in school.

[jeff47]

142. Creativity doesn't require cursive.

You know what else is creative? Art classes. And music classes. How 'bout we do those instead of an archaic method of writing designed for quill pens?

Cursive was developed so the writer did not have to remove their pen from the paper, which was quite important back when we used quills. It wasn't developed to be art class. Art class was, and will teach MUCH more creativity.

[Exilednight]

144. Here's the thing, the more computers are used, the more people

Are actually writing. Moleskine actually did a study to discover why sales are growing at record rates. They discovered that the closer their product was being sold near an Apple Store, the larger their sales growth of their journals.

I am with you on teaching art and music, but cursive is required to communicate. Especially in the science fields.

Notes and records are still originally transcribed by handwriting before being entered by computer.

I believe the reason we will never see another Mark Twain or Ernest Hemmingway, authors that hand wrote much of their work, is our reliance on technology.

[Codeine]

146. The genius of Hemingway or Twain wasn't in handwriting,

it was a deep, lyrical command of language and a profound level of insight into the human psyche.

This fellow here



is one of the great American writers of the last century. Never writes anything by hand, ever. All manuscript is typed directly onto the page with a manual typewriter. His creativity is legend, and seems not to have suffered because he didn't bother with scrawling things out in cursive first.

And I think you might be surprised by the number of scientists and researchers who don't write things out at all -- entering results into their laptops or portable devices as they go along.

[Exilednight]

150. I have no idea who that picture is of. The majority of scientist don't

Enter information or results on their laptops as they go, because they can't. There are no keyboards that allow for newly created complex formulas, or shorthand for medical abbreviations.

You can argue all you want about how "arcane" it is, but it's still a necessity in everyday life.

[Codeine]

151. Well of course that's written down, but it's also not cursive

which is the subject at hand.

Longhand, as it were.

[Exilednight]

153. Scientific equations are a combination, and the notes that go with them

As an explanation for us that are scientifically challenged accompany such equations.

Scientist don't typically use a printed x, but rather a cursive x. The symbol for infinity is closer to cursive than print.

[Codeine]

152. That's Harlan Ellison. He's a master.

He's America's magical realist.

[Exilednight]

156. I've never heard of him. I just looked him up on wiki and can honestly

Say that he sounds like a watered down version of Joss Whedon or Philip K Dick.

I wouldn't exactly call the guy who wrote Babylon 5 an excellent story teller when compared to a show like Firefly.

I always found the stories in the original Star Trek to be politically interesting, but like Star Wars, the writing was horrible.

[Codeine]

159. ". . . a watered down version of Joss Whedon".

Sigh.

He was a story and creative consultant with B5, not a writer (he may have done one episode, as I recall); any failures of that show - and they are legion - rest solely with Joe Straczynski.

He wrote "Jeffty is Five."

He wrote "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream."

He wrote "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman."

He also wrote 2,000 other works, among them some fabulous essays.

He has EIGHT Hugo Awards. EIGHT of them! Four Nebulas. Five Bram Stoker Awards. Two Edgars. Two World Fantasy Awards. Half a dozen different Lifetime Achievement awards. He's an SFWA Grand Master.

Simply put, the man is a giant. He pushed the boundaries of American speculative fiction in a way very, very few can lay claim to.

Joss Whedon is awesome, but he's not fit to wash Ellison's feet, and I'm certain he'd be the first to agree with that.

"Watered-down Joss Whedon." Oy.

[Exilednight]

161. Stephen King and Tom Clancy are best selling authors with tons of awards, but I

Wouldn't call them masters of anything.

[Codeine]

162. He's not on that plane.

Ellison is an altogether different sort.

[Exilednight]

164. Says you. Many will call King and Clancy masters at what

They do. Going through this guys bio, excerpts of work, and resume of shows I've seen; I just don't see it.


It's fine if you like him and think he's a master, but personally I don't find his prose - admittedly I have only read short bits over the past hour or so - to be on the same level as to those that I consider masters.

Would you really compare his prose to those of Arthur Miller, Ernest Hemmingway, Mark Twain, Bradbury, Orwell, Or Steinbeck?

Forget the subject matter, I'm talking about the way they write.

[Codeine]

165. I absolutely would.

And I'm an absolute Orwell fanatic (so far as I can tell I've read every word he had published except some of his critic work) and very fond of Twain and Hemingway. I honestly feel Ellison's work is on that level, prosewise. He makes his sentences sing, his words pop and spin and dance on the page. He's our Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

But it's clear neither of us will convince the other, so I wish you well and thank you for the discussion.

[Exilednight]

167. It was a pleasure.

[jeff47]

133. You do realize it's possible to write without using cursive, right? (nt)

[inanna]

163. I agree - and do not think it is a wise thing to do.

As a kid, I took such pride in my handwriting.

I still use cursive from time to time...

[NightWatcher]

4. Or teach them to print, just like they see on their computers, phones, tablets, signs, packaging...

Cursive looks fine but it's more artistic (see Calligraphy). If you want to write it in your journals or personal papers, go for it, but if people need to read it for directions or anything else that needs to be understood, stick with printing.

[jeff47]

134. You mean just like when they taught kids cursive?

At least with my education, they first taught us to print. Then they taught us cursive.

[NightWatcher]

139. You didn't read my post at all.

Teach only print because cursive is harder to read and each person's script looks different. Plus print is what is used on computers, signs, packages......

[jeff47]

141. I read it as implying they don't currently teach kids to print at all. (nt)

[Blue_Adept]

5. I grew up in the 70's with the heavy focus on it

And I certainly am not better for it in the end.

I never used it once outside of school. The only area where I had any use for it was with a signature, but even there because of the nature of my work in the late 80's and early 90's, I stopped because I was literally signing my name hundreds of times a day and came up with more of a scribble for a signature.

I couldn't write in cursive if my life depended on it now. But I don't write at all with pen/pencil and have avoided it since the 80's. Largely because of that early heavy focus on it that made my hands sore. I shifted to typing as early as I could. I was the dork that used a typewriter in the 70's as often as I could in order to not hand write.

[Populist_Prole]

89. Same here

Same era, and the same exact observations as you.

I plateaued early. Oh, I "learned" it, but never ever got good at it. Even my late high school era cursive made me look like a 2nd grader. From that point on, it was used for signatures only.

[HassleCat]

7. I hated it

Our teachers always, uniformly, praised the girls for their loopy, swirly cursive writing. It was proclaimed
"beautiful," even if you couldn't read it. The boys were criticized for their scrunched characters and inconsistent spacing. In fourth grade, I staged a one-person revolution and printed everything. When the teacher pointed out it wasn't cursive, which was called "longhand" then, I said it looked cursive to me, and it was readable. (My printing was, and still is, very neat.)

Well, they were having none of that. This was the early 1960s, when regimentation was paramount. Every student had to do the same thing, at the same time, in the same way. My parents were sternly reprimanded when my kindergarten teacher discovered I could read. So the cursive writing episode prompted another conference with my parents. This gave my dad a chance to be an asshole, something at which he excelled. He looked at the printed samples the teacher offered up as proof of my crimes, and said, "Can you read it? Yes? Then why did you call us in here?" Having an asshole dad is usually not much fun, but sometimes it works in your favor.

[X_Digger]

11. Fuck cursive.

The only 'F' I ever got in school was in penmanship. As a lefty, cursive is a bane.

I was printing as fast as others were writing in cursive by the time I was 13.

[packman]

20. Did that "F" bring down your Grade Point Average

and keep you out of Harvard If so, I can understand your anger.

[hollysmom]

83. I spent a lifetime being criticized for my penmanship, but printing in no better than script.

everyone says I hold the pen wrong, but my hand actually always cramped up if I held it the way they say to hold it, I can do it for about a minute, then the pain starts, so.. to the bast of my knowledge, scripts purpose was speed, but if people can't read it, that means they can't read old notes, et al. just odd to lose a skill. maybe it will be like hieroglyphics, where specialists can read it.

does this add or reduce the value of my portable typewriter that types in script?

ps, does anyone want to by a portable typewriter, I have like 4 of them in my attic.

[Mariana]

173. Anyone who wants to read or write cursive

can learn to do so at any time. There are excellent and very inexpensive books available. In my school we were taught cursive in 2nd grade. I expect that any adults who are interested in reading old documents and such can learn to do it easily in their spare time.

[catrose]

130. Me too.

And when I heard that they didn't grade penmanship in junior high, I sat down over the summer after 6th grade and invented my own cursive alphabet. Now people say it's so lovely and distinctive.

I don't see any point in teaching printing and then 2-3 grades later teaching cursive (and certainly no point in wrecking someone's grade average over it). One writing system should be plenty, but I hope people think there's some point in developing fine motor skills. Or do they do that with video games today?

[raccoon]

171. As another lefty, I wasn't graded on penmanship, but one of my teachers in particular got on my case

about my handwriting.

We used to exchange papers and check each other's spelling words. Stupid girl in my class crossed words wrong because
I made the "e's" taller than perfect. The word was still spelled right, but the teacher counted it wrong anyway.

However, I still write cursive now, most of the time. Sometimes I write shorthand, if I don't want anyone to know what I'm writing.

[RebelOne]

175. Another lefty here and I had a difficult time with penmanship in school.

Mainly, it was because as a child, my parents moved when I was in the first grade and was only printing. But at the new school, I was skipped into the 2nd grade because I had superior reading skills. But I was not superior in penmanship skills. It took me a long time to learn to write in longhand. To this day, my handwriting is difficult to read. Thank goodness for computers.

[Codeine]

13. My daughter is ten and she learned it.

I wish she hadn't; it's useless and results in a less-legible end product than neat printing produces. One in twenty people produce nice cursive lettering, and the rest make a hash out of it.

I went to school in the 70s-80s and just stopped writing in cursive in about the 7th grade. I steadfastly printed everything in neat, consistent fashion and nobody ever said a negative word. I print quickly, so cursive never really held any advantage for me that I could see.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

23. I have gorgeous, clearly legible cursive writing

Last edited Sun May 31, 2015, 12:51 PM - Edit history (1)

And it's faster than printing. Unless one's cursive style is very frilly, I don't understand how anyone can print faster than one can write in cursive.

One of my not-so-many talents.

[AngryOldDem]

45. You need to take your time with it.

My daughters both have beautiful cursive writing. My sons, who try to set land-speed records in getting schoolwork done, do not.

[Codeine]

53. I suppose that's true.

I'd rather get three things done quickly in workmanlike fashion than one thing done beautifully, and I was even worse in that regard as a little boy. There is certainly something to be said for the calmer approach, even though I'll never be anywhere near the sort of relaxed and patient person required to pull it off.

[KittyWampus]

14. Cursive is demonstrably easier to learn than printing. It should be taught first, not printing.

http://www.burford-pri.oxon.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/10BenefitsCursiveHandwriting.pdf

Ten Benefits of Teaching Cursive Handwriting

1. Relative ease in introducing cursive penmanship to pre-schoolers
Contrary to common beliefs, it is very easy to teach cursive handwriting. It only requires 3 movements: under curve, over curve and up and down. Print handwriting necessitates an even more complex stroke of straight lines and perfect circles.

2.Prevents reversals and confusion of letters
The letters "b and d", "f and t", "g, q and p" are confusing for young children. In cursive, writing the letter "b and d" require a huge difference in directionality.

3.Enhances spelling ability
In cursive, children learn to spell correctly since hand movements create some muscle memory that retains the spelling patterns.

4.Develops internal control systems that can be used as tool for learning
In a cursive writing, the incorporation of movement, pressure and visual processing is a bit multifaceted. This augments visual spacial and coordination skills. In writing lowercase letters in print, six strokes are required against three movements in cursive writing. Fluent movement is developed. With cursive writing practice, the neuron connections in the brain, responsible for organizing other kinds of information and skills, are greatly strengthened.

5.Potential for errors are diminished
Cursive handwriting reduces errors because of the continuous flow of writing. In print, the child picks up the pencil from the paper to start a new letter in a word, thus the potential for mistakes is higher.

6.Improved reading skills
The goal in reading is to read words instead of letters at a time. Cursive writing promotes reading words, instead of a distinct letter. After words, reading will move to sentences. Thus, remedial support for comprehension and reading of words are occurring less. The child reads what he or she writes as "whole words" rather than as individual letters.

7.Enforces the skills for patterns in reading and writing
Unlike print writing, lower case cursive writing starts from the same beginning point. In print, various letter start from the top, down, middle and many different positions. Letter inversions and reversals are eliminated.

8. Prevents erratic spaces between letters and words
In cursive, the flow of writing moves from left to right. It teaches spatial discipline. In print, the child's handwritings are difficult to discern. The spaces between words are so tight. It is hard to tell where the words begin and end.

9.Helps Left Handed Children
In print, the left-handed child proceeds to write printing from left to right but will cover what he has written with his arms. This is called the hook position. In cursive writing, the left-handed child learns to write from bottom up and turns the paper clockwise causing great comfort and legibility.

10.Use as a tool to put thoughts on paper quickly and easily
Mastery of cursive will be to the advantage of any student in the long-run. The child will be able to write faster. The student can get his or her ideas on paper quicker. It can also be advantageous in taking notes from lectures in secondary and further education.


…………………………………………………...


Typically, when first learning to write, children ‘print’ their letters. They then move on to ‘joined up’ writing at a later stage. For children with dyslexia, learning two styles of handwriting can add an extra layer of difficulty and cause confusion. It is, therefore, much more helpful if a young child can learn to use a single system of handwriting right from the start.

The most widely recommended handwriting style is called continuous cursive. Its most important feature is that each letter is formed without taking the pencil off the paper – and consequently, each word is formed in one, flowing movement.

The key advantages to this system are:

By making each letter in one movement, children’s hands develop a ‘physical memory’ of it, making it easier to produce the correct shape;

Because letters and words flow from left to right, children are less likely to reverse letters which are typically difficult (like b/d or p/q);

There is a clearer distinction between capital letters and lower case;

The continuous flow of writing ultimately improves speed and spelling.
http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/parent/help-with-handwriting

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

25. I definitely believe all of that is true

Cursive should not be considered some archaic skill pushed onto us by nuns with rulers and nasty little fundamentalists who refuse to modernize.

[Go Vols]

39. +1

[Maeve]

97. Easier for lefties??? Not in my experience

Never was told to turn the page (was told NOT to, in fact), Pencil or pen, my hand will show if I've been writing or printing...

When I write anything more than a shopping list, I do it at a keyboard. But I still do cursive most of the time and think the fine motor skill practice is good for kids.

[treestar]

119. Some good points too

thanks for finding that.

[1939]

16. 12 consecutive grading periods of Unsatisfactory in handwriting

In the 4th and 5th grades, we rotated teachers. We would spend half the day in one teacher's classroom and half the day in the other. One teacher taught reading and literature. The other taught arithmetic, spelling, and cursive handwriting. I was very good in arithmetic and won the school spelling bee, but that made no difference to the anal retentive old biddy of a spinster that taught the 4th and 5th grade class. I was an absolute failure at handwriting.

We were supposed to use the dip pens (desks still had inkwells then). You could use a fountain pen if the teacher inspected it first. Ball point pens were just becoming common, but were verboten contraband in the school system. Being left handed, I curled my hand around to see what I was writing which often smeared the wet ink forcing me to throw away the paper and start over making capital "I's". I was always slow in getting in the required iterations of each letter (usually twenty iterations of six leeters in a cursive "family&quot in the allotted time and my execution was poor. I had to array multiple blotters to keep going.

When I got to the 6th grade, my teacher (a matronly sort) was suitably impressed with my spelling and arithmetic skills and just said my handwriting wasn't very good but gave me a gentleman's S for Satisfactory in handwriting. In subsequent years before word processors, you wrote out everything long hand and gave it to the secretary to type. She always complained about being given "twelve pages of chicken scratches". After word processors, I could type something up and give it to the secretary to format and print on letterhead paper. Now I get writer's cramp if i have to write more than two sentences.

[tammywammy]

96. One reason I'm glad to be done with graduate school....

Hand written essay exams....

[1939]

109. The old "blue book" exams

I was an engineer, so fortunately most of my exams were quantitative and involved printing letters and numbers. The English, History, and Economics courses were all "blue book" four hour exams each semester written in cursive. We went into "exam week" at the end of each semester (1/3 of your grade) and the exams were from 9 to 1 every day.

I forget how many pages of lined paper there were to each "blue book". Always called a "blue book" but the covers of ours were yellow.

[49jim]

19. I taught third grade...

from 1971 to 1977. The three main curriculum items were reading, math and cursive writing. (the children would go home and tell their parents they were learning "cursing&quot I still use cursive all the time. The lady at my polling place recognizes me each year because of my signature! I had a college student in my class at the community college, where I teach part time, tell me she couldn't read the comments I wrote on her paper....because it was in cursive! My 6 year old granddaughter is in 1st grade and during my last visit I wrote out all the letters of the alphabet in cursive for her. (upper and lower case)...not bad for an old guy still teaching for 40+ years. It should still be used...there are studies that show a link between cursive writing and overall positive writing skills.....anyway my experiences with cursive writing.

[Panich52]

54. 3rd grade's where I learned cursive, back in dark ages. Led to earning money.

It was a big deal. We got to use pens instead of just pencils. Downside (always a downside) were those pages filled w/ portraits of slinky.

My signature is a scrawl, on purpose. And my writing's not always legible. But if I intend for someone else to read it, I try and nake it so.

Cursive is an art form. It should be appreciated. And, yes, learning & reading it aids mental development. Studies show that tangible printed text boosts learning more than reading from a screen. Not a push to think 'decoding' cursive further aids that.

Oh, and the money... I've been paid for my calligraphy. It just lends an importance to that certificate on the wall.

[fadedrose]

24. If cursive is dropped, how will people do signatures?

Lots of things need endorsing, and lots of people need to know how to read cursive...handwriting experts will need to learn and identify someone's print?

Learning cursive was torture. I could never position my hand and hold the pencil the way Palmer wanted me to.

They should stick to something really needed....like it being made okay to end a sentence with a preposition.

[phantom power]

35. handwriting experts already know how to identify print

[Codeine]

69. Ending a sentence in a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

[fadedrose]

86. It's legal to start a sentence with a gerund

but I would love to see how you would diagram your sentence...

[Brother Buzz]

26. To Hell with cursive, kids should be taught shorthand

It just might be the one skill that would really help in this "speed of light" electronic world.

[Scootaloo]

27. Were you as shocked when they stopped making phonograph cylinders?

Cursive was developed to go with dipped quills. It prevents ink drops, since the nib never leaves the paper. The moment pens were developed that did not have this problem, cursive became a dead practice.

Kids these days don't even know how to blow dust out of a nintendo cartridge! Or the best way to fiddle the tracking on a VCR! Or how to untangle a phone cord! What will they do next in their grand conspiracy to make your eternally-20-year-old self feel old?!

[Codeine]

72. I refuse to buy a car until Detroit makes the 8-track deck standard again. nt

[Scootaloo]

76. "Detroit makes..."? I don't understand that phrase n/t

[Codeine]

80. Archaicisms upon archaicisms.

I roll old-school. Now hand me my Walkman!

[Scootaloo]

81. Not until you give me back my betamax i let you borrow to record that special "Family Ties" episode

[HereSince1628]

28. That is SOooo COoool!!! I've acquired a secret form of writing!!!

When I was a kid I was sure adults used cursive in order to maintain parent-teacher communication secret from children.

I just love the idea that all us baby-boomers will be able to send secret messages that other adults won't be able to read...because those Scandinavian runes are getting hard to remember.

[SheilaT]

30. There are so many reasons to learn cursive

as others here have already noted.

One important thing is to be able to take notes by hand. People who do that retain far more information than those who use a keyboard. I'm not surprised.

Plus, if no one learns cursive, somewhere down the road all hand-written things will be totally unreadable, which is a scary thought. Or only ascended masters will learn to read cursive, and will then have enormous control over old knowledge. Not a good thing. We'll be back in the days when only a tiny fraction of the population could read and write. Yes, I get it that everyone will be able to read and type/text, but if a significant portion of what's out there cannot be read by them, it will be a type of illiteracy.

Oh, and learning the basics of programming is not a universally needed skill. Back when PCs were first coming out, it was assumed that everyone who got them was going to need to learn programming. The example most given was that you'd want to use your PC to keep your check book balanced, and you'd need to write the program for that. Instead we have Quicken, and Word, and Excel, and all sorts of programs. The vast majority of us will never have to program a computer.

[Igel]

31. Some districts teach it. Or, rather, have revived it.

Not just because of research, but also because not knowing cursive is like having a bunch of stuff on various media storage formats. It's great that you have them, but the information is useless.

In a very-short-term thinking society, perhaps that's okay. Many kids really have trouble believing anything that happened before they started paying attention must be useless. Technology dropped out of the sky. If the textbook or story's more than a few years old, it's irrelevant because it's not fashionable, trendy, or what the Really Important Ones are talking about.

But there's another reason cursive is important. I teach. Students are expected to write down things they don't know. Okay, this assumes they've been taught to distinguish between "stuff I'm looking at" and "stuff I know"--many don't see a distinction. "I can always find out how to do this." (Yeah, if you want to take that 30 minutes when your boss expects you to take 30 seconds, or you feel you'll have 40 minutes to reseach how to put out the greasefire you accidentally started in the kitchen.)

Still, most of the good students have cursive. This leverages their study skills because they can take notes. Screw penmanship--all they need is the ability to read their own handwriting. Those printing typically write so much slower that either you spend most of the time waiting for them to write down a few lines of text or they give up because they know it's dragging on forever and half of the class has been done for 3 or 4 minutes and is talking.

Typing is faster and the files easily shared, so kids love taking notes on computer. But typing, sadly, results in far lower retention of facts, and far, far lower retention of how the facts fit together to produce something like "understanding." Kids are short-term thinkers, by and large, and want to get to through stuff so they can focus on gossip (for girls, mostly social; for guys, mostly sports ... both, IMO, are simply gossip).

BTW, many of those who only know how to print have truly abysmal penmanship. Their English notes could be runes or Canaanite or even cuneiform.

Handwriting is one of those things that isn't on the test or in the standards that might be tested, so it must be unimportant. Once was talking to a chemistry teacher. She was complaining strenuously that she was just told she was wasting time. She was teaching about moles and Avogadro's number. However, nowhere in the formal standards that she was to be using were either mentioned. Granted, stoichiometry, gas laws, atomic and molecular masses (perhaps "molar masses&quot were there. But the mole itself was not tested, and she was told to stop and desist at once. It was one of those things that wasn't on the test or in the standards that might be tested, no matter how useful the idea was or even how necessary it was for domains that would be tested. (This will now lead to a rant about principals and evaluators that don't know squat about what they're evaluting, so I'll stop here.)

[PoliticAverse]

32. I blame DU, they won't let me post in cursive. n/t

[tritsofme]

33. I guess we're on our back to signing by "making our mark"

[Codeine]

71. I mushroom-stamped all my mortgage paperwork.

It's unique AND provides DNA proof.

[tammywammy]

98. oh codeine!

[sketchy]

34. The text of our country's original Constitution is in cursive!!

That alone should be a reason to continue to teach cursive,
in my opinion!!

>:|

[Adrahil]

50. Really!?

I bet ver, VERY few people can actually read the Constitution in manuscript form.

And what about Magna Carts? Do we all need to read that in manuscript form?

Silliest reason EVER.

[sketchy]

88. Yes REALLY

Another thing that seems to be going out of style is courtesy.

[Codeine]

58. I certainly hope that some distant day some enterprising individual

reprints the text of the Constitution in non-cursive form so it may be more easily deciphered by moderns.

[olddots]

36. lets all just become machines

[Codeine]

64. . . . he said on his machine, attached to other, distant machines by still further machines.

I fail to see how refusing to hook my letters together with extra loopy, swirly, decorative bits makes me any more or less machine-like.

[Cerridwen]

38. Thereby making most (all?) of the founding documents and much of US history

unavailable for the "average" person.

"Average" in this context is those who will not have the skills to read cursive writing and who are not scholars who study such; unless they plan to teach how to read that which they are not taught how to write.

Most of our early historical documents are hand-written and are difficult enough to read. Imagine not knowing handwriting and attempting to read them.

[Codeine]

57. You don't have to be taught to write cursive in order to read it.

And last time I checked, all those documents are easily found in standard fonts across the archives of the Electronic Arguing Machine.

[Cerridwen]

61. It helps; especially with some of the antiquated English and legal usage.

I didn't say impossible. I just said it's another obstacle for the "average" person.

Fortunately all the electronic records are available to everyone and are letter perfect. It shouldn't be a huge issue. The records will always be presented with the exact same accuracy as all the information from the "Electronic Arguing Machine."

[PufPuf23]

40. Fifteen minuters. Ode to Mr. Knight.

One of my favorite teachers ever was Mr. Knight, my sophomore English teacher.

He had us do 15 minuters every day to hand in at the beginning of class.

We could write about anything or just repeat the alphabet or our name or whatever.

Out of boredom one would write something, anything, especially as he would get pissed at anyone who dared to show up at class without multiple pages of words.

He thought that writing had an athletic component and one needed to build up hand as well as mental endurance and just write.

Mr. Knight made us read too. Good guy.

In my age have gravitated to a combo print-cursive that I can hardly read myself and alas never have learned to type properly.

[Aerows]

41. I know how to *write* in cursive

it's just so horrible that nobody knows how to *read* my cursive writing. I gave up on it when I got to college. I tried. My cursive handwriting absolutely sucks.

[aikoaiko]

42. My kid learned it in 3rd grade this past year. We'll be practicing all summer.

It doesn't help that he is lefty and has delayed myelination which affects coordination, but still he will practice and get better.

[AngryOldDem]

43. Yep. It's no longer needed, apparently. n/t

[Orrex]

46. Next we'll drop Cuneiform & Carolingian Minuscule, and where the hell will we be then?

Short of nostalgia and a vague air of provincial aesthetics, I can think of no reason why cursive should be taught at all, much less required.

Arguments about improved brain development and enhanced reading ability are debatable and anecdotal at best. Also, claims that kids won't be able to read historical documents are entirely bogus, because these hinge on the belief that cursive is some kind of arcane, magical writing that only the initiated can decipher. 100% nonsense. Anyone who's spent more than 30 seconds online has already encountered a wide range of fonts and typefaces and has likely managed to read these without suffering an aneurysm.

I don't buy the tales about cursive teaching the student to "write the whole word" better than manuscript, because that basically means that manuscript writers are writing letters at random with no idea of where they're heading. Baloney!

In addition, I'm not persuaded by claims that people "write cursive faster," because it's basically irrelevant. I guarantee that I type faster than they write in cursive, so claims of speed are nice for a party trick but not much else.

In my own experience, grading cursive writing was a perfect way to guarantee that a straight-A student could get a quarterly scolding because he "Needs Improvement."

Better to abandon cursive writing and instruct students in touch-typing from an early age. Hell, they're already thumb-texting, so why not? In my entire time since graduating from high school I have written fewer than 10 words in cursive, whereas I type for, on average, at least several hours each day.

Why teach an outmoded and obsolete craft rather than a modern and useful skill?

[MattBaggins]

73. If cursive is so much better for reading why is EVERYTHING in print?

[Orrex]

78. That's why prescriptions and emergency exits are labeled in cursive.

Oh, wait...

[Codeine]

84. I found hooking my letters up cursive-style so superior

that I started hooking the words and then entire sentences as well.

I write much faster without any spaces or paragraph breaks and I've learned to read entire pages instead of just words like some simpleton.

[Orrex]

87. Whoa.

You should write it all in palindromes, so that it can be read just as easily from either direction.


Work on it.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

47. cursive is not just a matter of handwriting

it is also fundamental to developing reading skills. writing in cursive teaches the brain to see the WHOLE WORD and not just a bunch of letters. stupid thing to drop. but then again, our schools have been more than screwed up for quite some time so dropping something so fundamental doesn't surprise me.

sP

[Codeine]

63. I'm amused by this notion,

considering that most of the hard-core readers I know, the folks with stacks of books and fully-loaded Kindles scattered across their homes, cars, and offices are also the people most likely to print when they write. As a child I was an advanced reader before I'd even encountered the concept of cursive instruction.

I think the idea that cursive is essential in learning to read properly is probably one of those "received wisdom" things that everybody knows is true but isn't borne out by any sort of rigorous study.

[MattBaggins]

75. How do all those people in other countries ever learn to read?

They must all be illiterate.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

100. cute...

i guess all those teachers that live it every day are just nuts... oh, well.

sP

[drthais]

49. well what about THIS?

Imagine a student who becomes enthralled with history (or, actually any research subject)
and cannot decode letters written by individuals in the past...or journals or even scientific notes
I would assume almost all of them to have been in cursive...

and that's just one thought about this;
it's a crippling deficit, in my opinion, not to have learned cursive writing

[lunamagica]

56. This. If teaching cursive dissapears, how long before old documents and manuscrips are

impossible to decipher?

Me, I can really only write in cursive. I find printing shows me down tremendously.

Let's also remember that (AFAIK), not teaching cursive is only happening in America. The rest of the world is still learning and using it!

[Codeine]

60. The ubiquity of computers will make cursive in any language archaic in short order. nt

[Adrahil]

108. Can you read medieval manuscripts?

No? Does that mean no one can?

It will be like any specialized knowledge. Specialists who need to know it will. The rest of us can get on with our lives.

[Codeine]

59. You can read it without writing it. nt

[Orrex]

62. That's simply not the case.

The mere fact that anyone can read anyone else's manuscript is all the proof we need that your objection is little cause for concern. We can process and read a great many fonts and typefaces; hell, my kids had an alphabet book that featured letters made from animals clinging to each other in different configurations. If they can interpret a formation of weasels as a letter W at the age of three, then they can figure out how to decipher cursive.

The idea that we can't read historcal cursive is baseless. For that matter, the cursive that was inflicted upon me bears very little resemblance to US Colonial script, yet somehow I was still able to work it out.

There's no reason to believe that it's a deficit at all, much less a crippling one.

[MattBaggins]

77. I can read things written in Old English and German

I can't write either one to save my life.

[Adrahil]

110. Nonsense.....

Most people who know cursive can't read documents even 150 years old. And Renaissance and Medieval documents? Forget about it.

But if they choose to pursue the study of those things, guess what they do? They learn the required skills.


Do me a favor.... go this the site below and tell me you can read it. It's a copy of the Magna Carta, one of the most important documents in Anglo-American history.

http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/magna_2.html

[jeff47]

137. You mean like having to learn Latin or Greek in order to decode historical documents?

Fucking ancient Greeks not writing everything in modern English.

[raccoon]

172. He could learn it. Same as if somebody wanted to read Chaucer in Middle English--learn it. nt

[Hoyt]

51. Luckily, I took typing about 50 years ago. I can type about as fast as talk and much faster than I

write, and it's legible. I usually print if I have to write. My signatures vary a bunch, and is illegible. I once had to sign a bunch of pages of contract I was against -- so I got satisfaction out of signing it, "F%$k You."

[Codeine]

67. My signature is goddamned joke.

It's fairly consistent day to day, but over any long-term period it's wildly variable; even my signatures from a year ago look a lot different from my current signature.

[hollysmom]

85. what does this do the the value of autographs collected?

[backscatter712]

66. They don't train kids to drive a cart with buggy-whips either.

Instead of teaching kids cursive, we teach them computer skills.

[Codeine]

70. These kids today don't even know the difference between "Gee!" and "Haw!"

When all the iPads stop working who will drive the forty-mule-train Borax loads?

[Cleita]

68. I still write in Palmer. It's faster than printing. However arthritic

hands are making it less and less legible.

[Loryn]

79. I print.

Arthritis has taken my ability to grasp a pen well. My signature is now a sad memory of its former self.

[Bosonic]

90. I am sure it will persist as an artform/hobby

Ogham also isn't widely taught anymore.

[csziggy]

91. So long as people can READ cursive to access old documents

I don't care. My cursive has always been poor but so is my printing. I learned to type to help my Mom transcribe old wills and deeds for her genealogical research, but I'm not a great typist. I got rid of my old manual typewriter as soon as I could afford a used electric one and dumped that within weeks of getting my first computer with a printer. I don't blame people for not wanting to use outdated technology and cursive writing is hard to do legibly.

But when researching through Ancestry and other resources that have used volunteers to transcribe and index old documents, I've found that many apparently are unable to read cursive especially archaic cursive. And not even very old stuff - even census from the 30s and 40s have some horrible transcription errors.

The total loss of the ability to read cursive would be akin to the loss of electronic data when operating systems and storage media are changed.

I suspect in the future (assuming we have one) the twentieth and twenty first centuries will be a period of "lost" information because of the rapid changes in methods of recording and storage.

[TexasBushwhacker]

117. It's a problem for modern documents too

Plenty of people still write in cursive. I think that not teaching it in elementary school will be a handicap for the students. Let's face it, just like music and art and PE, they're just cutting it so they can spend more time teaching for the standardized tests. That's what really bothers me.

[still_one]

92. Cursive writing, reading, math etc. quite sad

[Codeine]

94. I daresay the generation in elementary school now

will have more advanced math skills than most of those prior. I'm amazed with both of my kids' comfortable familiarity and facility with maths that have come from the new teaching/learning methods in use at their school.

[still_one]

157. not sure about that. I would say most people I encounter cannot even count change

[Codeine]

160. Few of those people are in elementary school, however.

Assuming your town doesn't have some truly odd child labor laws, that is.

[Greybnk48]

93. I had to learn the Palmer method back in the 50's,

up to the end of 6th grade in Pennsylvania. A man from the Palmer Institute in New Jersey came to our class once a week (or maybe once every two weeks) to check our progress. I still write that way with a few tweaks and I've always been proud of my writing. It's funny, I can't print very well, or I should say very fast.

[packman]

99. Hey, remember in the George Zimmerman trial

<iframe width="631" height="355" src="

" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The girl could not read cursive - I remember how the right-wing conservative crowd made much of this.

[Arugula Latte]

102. I find it useful (for writing notes, postcards, the few letters I do write) but my kids never use it

I think it's much easier than printing. It's just flow, flow, flow ...

But, I accept that it is a dying form. Times change. Whadareya gonna do.

[Blue_In_AK]

122. I totally disagree with doing away with cursive.

A person expresses so much through their handwriting, it's almost like artistry.

[Codeine]

125. My cursive was always a bunch of crabbed-up bullshit

that looked randomly dumped across the page. My writing did not become any less expressive and artistic when I finally decided that I would spend the rest of my life printing or typing rather than trying to write cursive. In fact, I became so much more comfortable that my writing improved dramatically, because I was no longer impeded by the physical task of trying to make a bunch of loopy, curvy, swoopy nonsense look tidy.

[Blue_In_AK]

168. I studied handwriting analysis briefly.

I'm sure your randomly dumped scribblings and loopy, curvy, swoopy nonsense said a lot about you. .

[Baitball Blogger]

123. Well the good news is that most of us oldies will have a lifetime career

as code breakers.

[Oneironaut]

124. Actually, I think it's important to balance hard knowledge with creativity and soft skills.

Cursive is not necessary anymore, but people have forgotten that it also teaches creativity and thinking outside the box. Even programmers and scientists need to be creative. I'm getting a little worried seeing the push to teach "technological skills" - this is all good, but we shouldn't only teach those skills. Knowing how to do certain things is really only 10% of actually being able to do them - 90% is understanding why you are doing those things and having the creativity to think outside of the box and solve problems.

Remember that school is really about learning to work with others and grow a mind of your own.

[Codeine]

126. How exactly does joining my letters together

make me more creative? People keep asserting this throughout the thread, but there seems to be little to back the notion up.

[Oneironaut]

143. Because it shows that there's more than one way to write something.

This is versus teaching that everything must be written the same way - cursive writing is a different style of writing.

[Xithras]

128. Cursive was taught because its use was expected in both business and social communication.

Cursive was never taught in schools because it was pretty.It was taught because it was a practical skill that was essential for most people to practice. 50 years ago, if you wanted a good job, you needed to be able to write clearly and legibly in cursive. It was one of the differentiating skillsets between the working class and the middle class, and because Americans still believed in upward mobility, we ensured that everyone learned it simply so that everyone could "have their shot" at a good job.

On top of that, people actually wrote letters to each other once upon a time, and cursive was considered to be the "proper" form of writing to include in social communications of any sort.

Nowadays, neither of those are true. Anyone attempting to draft business letters in cursive would be summarily fired nowadays. The expectation and the NORM is that business communications are drafted on computers. Similarly, it's fairly uncommon for people to even write social letters to each other anymore, and when it does happen, it's typically in the form of an email or a computer drafted and printed letter. I can't even remember the last time I received a hand-written letter from someone.

Cursive writing no longer serves any practical purpose other than as a graphical art. My kids all have art requirements in school, and our district offers a cursive/calligraphy course as one of the options. Two of my kids opted for photography, and the third will probably go with painting.

[Warpy]

129. Mine should be dead, it's atrocious

since it's a combination of arthritis and too many years working in hospitals.

[Pooka Fey]

132. Are essay tests also obsolete? An honest question...

When I was a student, we had essay tests - 6-10 pages of handwritten cursive text was normal production in a 50 minute test session in high school.

We were given blank "blue books" as a part of our test materials. These were timed tests, and handwriting is a faster writing method than printing. We all were taught handwriting, so we were all came to the test equally prepared. Someone who could only print would be at a disadvantage.

Does this not happen anymore in the USA?

I studied in a French University in 2011, and this is the system still in place. Blank "blue books" are required to take exams, but with the extra security measure of the blue books being sealed when purchased, and only broken at the exam, in the presence of the test monitor. Final exam sessions last 2-3 hours, and you are writing non-stop. One exam session for an EU recognized diploma was a 4 hour exam of non-stop handwriting- no computers, no cellphones in the room, one test monitor for every 5 test takers.

My exam for a USA teaching credential in 2004 required extemporaneous essay writing.

For all those arguing that handwriting is an obsolete skill, evidently educational institutions no longer require extemporaneous writing. That would be very sad, if true.

[jeff47]

140. It only works when the grader can read the essay.

My cursive was so abysmal that my teachers asked me to switch back to printing. You'd be surprised at how fast you can write legible printing when that's all you've been doing for many, many years.

[Mariana]

176. Yeah, the argument that cursive is faster is ridiculous.

It is faster for some people and not for others. If someone uses cursive all the time and rarely prints, their cursive will be faster than their printing. If someone prints all the time and never uses cursive, they will print faster than they can write in cursive.

[Codeine]

145. One can, with practice, print very rapidly.

I had awful cursive -- it bobbled about every which way, letters mashed together, loops became lines and lines became loops which in turn became wibbly-wobbly grungy-wungy stuff and it all lacked the sort of cohesive appearance that makes something clear, readable, and legible.

So I started printing. I printed in all-caps, everything one size. I quickly saw that was unreadable -- the eye doesn't process it right. So I went back to old-fashioned upper- and lower-case, but my lower case letters were far less legible than my upper case; that frankly would not fly. So I went with a hybrid of all-caps, with "lower-case" letters written as smaller capitals and upper-case larger. This fit the readability bill, was comfortable for my hands, and was very fast to write after a fairly short time.

I printed my essays that way all through the 80s. I scored well on all my writing, including my timed SAT essay. Had I attempted a cursive approach I daresay I would have scored poorly, through lack of legibility and because I would have spent much of my time fighting the physical obstacle that cursive presented (it shouldn't be difficult, it isn't difficult for most people, but perhaps my motor skills just aren't up to the task. It's nothing in which I take pride) that I would not have been able to focus on the expressive task at hand.

[Pooka Fey]

148. I hate to see public school students deprived of a choice in the matter

I personally find the 'stop and start' of printing much more physically tiring on my hands than cursive. My cursive is very legible, and I also find cursive writing to be a very fun and satisfying physical activity, and visually and artistically very interesting.

As adults, we can debate this, because we were taught both systems. I somehow suspect that kids educated in private schools will continue to learn cursive style handwriting.

[WinkyDink]

155. Were you my student? LOL! I used to buy exam Blue Books at the community college to use for my h.s.

final exams in English.

[Pooka Fey]

169. We can check a handwriting sample to find out...

[LynnTTT]

135. Writing is a tool

Writing in cursive is a tool and so is printing. Whether with a pen or pencil, it's simply a way to record knowledge. It isn't the knowledge itself. I'm sure scribes and monks were not happy when Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press and many seamstresses lost their livelihood when sewing machines were invented. With technology moving as fast as it is, do you think handwriting is going to last?

[Puglover]

147. It's good.

Because less knowledge is ALWAYS better then more.

A 16 or 17 year old to me while watching me sign a guest book at a funeral. "Oh, like you do that calligraphy stuff!!"

Yeah, it's a good thing.

[sub.theory]

149. Considering it's a worthless skill

It doesn't make sense to teach it when the time is better spent learning computer skills or other skills with actual relevance in today's world. I'm a professional in a highly technical field, and I write exceedingly little by hand. I'm far from alone in that. If you can print neatly, that's good enough.

[WinkyDink]

154. Gotta study for the NCLB tests!

[Chathamization]

166. It's obselete, like PE, learning history, state capitals, literature, and 95% of what's taught

Clearly K-12 education should just focus on career stuff - using spreadsheets, mixing various coffee drinks, electrical wiring, etc. Cut away all that useless stuff their teaching now.

Though I think when they said "time kids could be spending learning the basics of programming" they forgot to add that though they could, they probably won't. But maybe I'm wrong, does anyone know of a 3rd grade class where they replaced cursive writing with computer programming in the curriculum?

[Pooka Fey]

170. With the economic middle class gutted, no reason for middle class social skills

So much easier to rule when everyone knows their place.



in case my sarcasm is unclear: (sarcasm smiley)

[brooklynite]

174. Cuneiform writing a DEAD SKILL?

The times they are a'changin...

[Nay]

177. They've reinstated it here in the Chesterfield Co., VA, schools. My grandson is

learning it and loves it. Most of the kids (this is second grade) are learning it easily and like it. It's been shown that learning cursive is quite beneficial for the young brain, in the same way that art and music are good.

I believe it was reinstated here because there was quite a parent uproar when it was discontinued a year or so ago.

[Zorra]

179. I still use it. My penmanship is good, and cursive is way faster than printing. nt