On the "should we stop teaching cursive" discussion . . .

[gratuitous]

There have been a few threads about the discussion whether to stop teaching cursive handwriting in schools. With the proliferation of keyboards, it seems kind of anachronistic to teach the kiddies to use a transcription technique that may no longer be functional. On the other hand, learning cursive teaches more than just how to write. It engages brain functions, brain/body integration, and fine motor skills, which are useful beyond simply learning the techniques.

I'm reminded of a Isaac Asimov short story set some time in the future. Hand-held calculators had long ago eliminated the need for pencil-and-paper figuring. One day, a bored worker gets tired of plugging numbers into his calculator, and starts working it out on paper for himself. After some trial and error, he rediscovers the principles of mathematics, and the joy of working out a problem.

He shows his discovery to his boss, who is initially skeptical that the worker could do something like that. But he checks the results against his own calculator and the guy is right! Word leaks out that you can do the same tasks done by a calculator by hand, and soon it becomes a fad. People host cocktail parties where complicated equations are worked out, and solutions are admired for their elegance. Yeah, it's a nerd's dream come true. I mentioned this was Asimov, right? Anyway, paper calculating becomes the reserve of the elite, and the hoi polloi are forbidden to work out equations on their own.

I guess that people who want to learn cursive will do so, and there may even be a certainly nerdly caste who will preserve and enhance the art of cursive handwriting, and it may become a kind of club in the way that people who know how to drive a standard transmission (stick shift) are a dwindling breed.

[KittyWampus]

1. There will always be those of us who love calligraphy and art in general.

[7wo7rees]

4. Cursive opened me up to calligraphy and then painting.

My artistic side bloomed after I mastered cursive. Not before.
My calligraphy in high school was good enough to redesign the newspaper masthead. Was voted most artistic.

Typography is still titillating to me. I think of Da Vinci's drawing with his notes all around in cursive (and Latin, and backwards, and done left-handed), and those notes blend with the drawing and it all melds into artistic expression. Letters are faces, words are bodies, sentences are parties.

You can't type this shit up. Your mind, your hand, your pen. I hope they keep teaching cursive.

[trackfan]

2. People could start posting like this:

and say all the bad things they wanted to about the non-cursives!

[struggle4progress]

3. I read a story like that -- the way I remember it, the generals decided they could save money

by replacing the computers, in military missile nose cones, with people

[pokerfan]

5. The Feeling of Power (1957)

http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories/feeling.htm

It's a classic.

[Rowdyboy]

6. I thought about that same story when I first heard of the proposal to end cursive writing....

How infinitely sad.

[HopeHoops]

7. As I posted in another thread, without learning cursive, old family letters will become unreadable.

They're difficult enough to read as it is, but if you don't know the basics of cursive then how could you even hope to decipher them?

[RedCloud]

8. Maybe if they wrote curse words in cursive enthusiasm would pick up.

[jmowreader]

9. I have something that will engage brain functions

and is infinitely more useful than learning cursive handwriting.

Teach the kiddies to SPELL!

Yes, I know cursive piques interest in the arts...but if you can't spell you look like an idiot, and your spelling checker won't save you--as all the people who've left the L out of "public" can attest.