CURSIVE WRITING

I remember the letters on the board. My penmanship was at best, uh, adequate.
University of Florida band does a script “G A T O R S” as a part of the pregame program. They do it towards the alumni side of the stadium. We joke that is because the students can’t read it.

Misunderstood "CURSIVE WRITING"

Misunderstood "CURSIVE WRITING"

First thought was of posting language that would get dings.

Bekeart

The Zanier-Blosser Institute on Front (or Park) Street in Columbus, Ohio, taught Calligraphy and also published the handwriting workbooks used in most Ohio schools until the late 70's. A recently passed Brother-in-Law was the last graduate of the institute. He was also a world expert in some type of calligraphy and taught all over the western world.

As a preteen I had the Speedball pen set an enjoyed the Old English letters. I envisioned myself growing up to be a cloistered monk doing penmanship...that is until I found out what that does not include!

Ivan

And then there is "Script Ohio." My father had beautiful flowing Spencerian handwriting. He said it was because that was how he was taught to write in school. Mine is nearly illegible, I can hardly read it myself unless I write it slowly and carefully, then it looks OK.

Ivan the Butcher said:

...As a preteen I had the Speedball pen set an enjoyed the Old English letters. I envisioned myself growing up to be a cloistered monk doing penmanship...that is until I found out what that does not include!

Ivan

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Ivan, that reminds me:

...A new monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned the task of helping the other monks in copying the old texts by hand. He notices, however, that they are copying copies, and not the original books.

So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this. He points out that if there was an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the other copies. The head monk says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."

So, he goes down into the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original. Hours later, nobody has seen him. So, one of the monks goes downstairs to look for him. He hears sobbing coming from the back of the cellar and finds the old monk leaning over one of the original books crying. He asks what's wrong.

"You idiots", he says, with anger and sadness in his eyes, "the word was celebrate!"....

I can still write in cursive, but no one else can read it.
It's getting to where even I can't read my own cursive.......

I remember those well, I think they were above every blackboard I can remember. Cursive is definitely a lost art these days.

My cursive skills have always been decent, not bad.

I had to have something notarized about 30+ years ago and there was an old car dealer called Bill's Auto here in town, as far back as I can remember. Anyway I remembered seeing a sign down there that said "Notary", good deal, I'll take it there.

Bill was well up in age, in his 90's (at least). I parked and came onto the lot and here he comes ready to sell a car. I told him I couldn't afford another car but I did need to get this document notarized if he could help, he said indeed Sir, come into my office.

When he filled out the written notary info above his seal I was amazed, this old dude could have been a writer on the Constitution itself, I had never seen anyone that had writing skills like that, I was impressed to say the least.

We talked about it for a bit before parting company, he did like to talk, nice old guy.

I went to business college in the early 60s and one of the classes was Zaner Bloser penmanship. We had to use ink pens and I passed the test on the first try. Now at 82 my writing looks like I never learned to write. Larry

I went to public schools, but due to catechism classes I too became well acquainted with the teaching style of the nuns. 2 precious weeks of summer vacation every year plus several hours a couple times a week during the school year. Besides my handwriting skills I also seemed to have several other shortcoming, asking to many questions among others. After striking back at one of the more dictatorial ones, my poor parents had several meetings with various black robes, male and female, before I was allowed (forced by threats of never being allowed to drive in reality) to continue on my way to being confirmed, which turned out to be quite unsuccessful. My cursive still sucks and I could still care less.

My cursive is very neat and legible (although the older I get the less neat it becomes). As far as signatures being legible, I always remember what Arnold Palmer said about why he took so much pride in his signature: "What's the point of signing something if the person can't read it or later can't even remember who it was".

Another product of a 1950's Catholic education still bearing the knuckle dents in my head to prove it.

The Palmer Method, complete with the above blackboard examples. Every grade had their own special paper. As you progressed through the grades the lines on the paper got closer ruled. The nuns ran their own bookstore where you had to buy supplies. Step up and ask for a pack of 6th grade paper and a uniform shirt with a clip on bow tie.

Just the other day I had a college kid, who we work with, kick back a work order with the comment "I don't do cursive". I thought he was being a wise guy until his partner leaned in and whispered to me "he can't tell time either."

As sad as this is....
When my youngest was in 3rd grade she was failing in reading. Very unusual because my other kids were all reading when they got out of Kindergarten or just into the 1st grade.

We are sitting at the kitchen table "helping" her do her reading homework and I'm telling her to "just sound it out" and she is looking at me like I'm from the moon. Tears streaming down her face and she looks up at me. God, my heart was breaking....Was there something wrong with her?

After a short parent/teacher conference I learned something that I still can't believe.....SIGHT READING. Those words she had been bringing home were NOT her spelling words. They were her SIGHT WORDS.

How long do you think it took me to buy a "Hooked On Phonics" program and begin to teach her how to read?

Their theory was that we only use about 250 words in the average adult vocabulary. They were teaching kids to recognize those words and forget the rest I guess. Recognize them by sight, not by the sounds of the letters.
It took all of the reserve I could muster to not get led out of that meeting in handcuffs.

I’m a 1980’s Catholic school kid. We started learning cursive, with the Palmer Method, in the second grade. The cards with the cursive letters were over the chalk board. In third grade our teacher, Sister Alice Regina IHM made sure everyone one of us earned a penmanship certificate. I’m not sure what would’ve happened to a kid who didn’t earn the certificate, but I knew I didn’t want to find out.

I still use cursive, and it’s actually pretty legible (thanks Sister Alice). When I’m on the phone I often do the Palmer method practice as a doodle. It’s a sad commentary that with as much time as kids spend (waste) in school they can’t learn to read and write. Never mind cursive, I’ve got people at work who can’t print legibly.

oldbrownhat said:

Fountain pens! Blast from the past! Our desks had inkwells, although I recall mostly using cartridges. I remember one fountain pen with a filler lever on the side, though. And more or less permanently ink-stained fingers.

Went to a private school, so shirts & ties and properly shined shoes were the order of the day.

I still have a Sheaffer cartridge pen but can't find cartridges for it, al least not in a store.

All these memories are making me feel rather old

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My school was built in 1889 and the desks also had inkwells, although we used bottles of ink in my era. The inkwells were probably for dipping pens, since the school pre-dated the fountain pen era. It's still in use as a public school (PS 11 in the Bronx), but I would hope they've updated the desks. The lever filler fountain pen you remember was probably an Esterbrook. They were standard-issue in my day at $1.00 each with interchangeable nibs. If you want to try using your old Sheaffer pen, try calling Fountain Pen Hospital in New York City. They have bottled ink and cartridges from all over the world. They will also give you a lecture on keeping your pen clean and running.

Ingramite said:

As sad as this is....
When my youngest was in 3rd grade she was failing in reading. Very unusual because my other kids were all reading when they got out of Kindergarten or just into the 1st grade.

We are sitting at the kitchen table "helping" her do her reading homework and I'm telling her to "just sound it out" and she is looking at me like I'm from the moon. Tears streaming down her face and she looks up at me. God, my heart was breaking....Was there something wrong with her?

After a short parent/teacher conference I learned something that I still can't believe.....SIGHT READING. Those words she had been bringing home were NOT her spelling words. They were her SIGHT WORDS.

How long do you think it took me to buy a "Hooked On Phonics" program and begin to teach her how to read?

Their theory was that we only use about 250 words in the average adult vocabulary. They were teaching kids to recognize those words and forget the rest I guess. Recognize them by sight, not by the sounds of the letters.
It took all of the reserve I could muster to not get led out of that meeting in handcuffs.

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My wife teaches and had mentioned "sight words" from time to time. I had no clue what she meant. As for the reduced vocabulary theory, somebody from France must have come up with that. The French language is notably short of words compared with English or even German. English is full of synonyms, but in France you have to use the exact word.

Yes, I remember the cursive alphabet above the chalkboard!

And we not only learned penmanship, we learned the correct way to hold a pen or pencil. The way I see people holding their writing utensil (especially younger folks) is just mind-boggling.

My grandmother (my mom's mom) left me her postcard collection, and one thing I don't recall seeing too much of is a printed message. Way back when everyone knew how to write, some quite beautifully. Quite ironically, this grandmother always typed her letters to me. My other grandma knew how to write very well, and her handwriting was as good as it gets.

LVSteve said:

My wife teaches and had mentioned "sight words" from time to time. I had no clue what she meant. As for the reduced vocabulary theory, somebody from France must have come up with that. The French language is notably short of words compared with English or even German. English is full of synonyms, but in France you have to use the exact word.

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I couldn't believe what I was hearing during that conference.
Almost like I'm expecting Allen Funt to pop in and yell Candid Camera.

Later on as my kids progressed through High School I became acquainted with course content modification. This process was started with a get together of some professionals from the school, counselors and some other window dressing. This meeting was called an ARD Meeting.

I took this to mean that if my son was having difficulty in a required course we could discuss ways, like tutoring etc to help. How naive was I? None of this was about getting my son help with his math. It was all about preserving their precious test scores for funding and ranking.

My son was given a nod and a wink on math. Instead of going to math class he got to learn how to run a zero radius lawn mower.....Nice trick huh? That's how I found out about it. My son came home bragging about mowing the football field while his classmates struggled and studied to pass math.

I went up to the school to complain and was shown the case they built to justify what they did. I went past the cafeteria where there were several more kids working....yep.

Any time a child's difficulty threatened the school's test scores they had a solution to remove the struggling student from the testing pool. An idea that sounds good on the surface but was abused in the application. So many parents were asleep at the switch and didn't catch it.

When I confronted school administrators about their abuse it was not a nice meeting. I must have been a communist or worse. Only after being threatened with exposure did my son get to go back into math class with an assigned tutor. Several other parents tried to coat tail our move but got stonewalling instead.

I'm not a professional educator and I'm also not a weatherman.....but I did recognize the wind being blown up my pant leg.

Maybe just old and set in my ways. My dad called it muley. Stubborn like a mule. Today the knowledge of the world is right here on the same phone that I'm pecking out this message on. Why go to school at all? All the time I wasted learning my times tables and decimal equivalents. Today I wish I had that time back.

I attended Catholic grade schools in the 50's. The nuns strenuously taught cursive handwriting which I had an unbroken stretch of D's. I think the could not bring themselves to give the F I deserved. My handwriting never improved and as age wears on me has gotten much worse.
As relates to surveyors. In the 80's while working as a biologist I had the pleasure to work with a surveyor of the highest skill. Mr. Jim Hammonds. He had retired from the Corps of Engineers and went to work for the agency I worked for. In the early days of my working with him before the electronic days arrived Jim used the old style plotting table where the surveyor mapped and made notes on paper. I was amazed that he could draw and write upside down and very legibly. He told me he developed those skills to save time from walking around the table so he did not have to leave his transit. He told me that in his early career surveying the dams on the White River in Arkansas he had to learn to work fast, accurate and smart to get the job done. He succeeded

I started 1st grade 57 so yeah, I also remember the cursive chart above the chalkboard. I don't actually remember inkwells at desks but I do remember fountain pens. I do remember the ones with the little lever to slurp up ink. But I mainly remember the cartridge pens. I also remember in High School when ball point pens became ubiquitous although the cartridge pens were still to be found. The ballpoints were around before that but not common. Of course the slide rules were still common at that time along with pocket savers.

My penmanship was always ugly, still is. But it's always been legible. My wife has prettier writing but I can't always read it and it's gotten worse.

I went through years of printing reports until computers. Spent many hours hand writing (printing) reports with a spotlight turned up pointing at a white paper rubber banned to the turned down visor. A real sitting duck doing that.

We actually used a word processor, (a electric typewriter with a little memory) at our sub-station, when we could, before computers became common. The word processor used a type ball that worked on carbon paper and later NCR paper forms. Then we went to a computer with Word Perfect, which I liked and a dot matrix printer. The dot matrix worked on our NCR paper forms. However, most reports were still hand printed in the car. Going into the office to do reports was a luxury usually not available.

Eventually mounted laptops showed up in all the cars and that improved legibility of reports. You're still a sitting duck while parked in shadows with your face stuck in a computer screen while typing.

I still wrote some simple reports out in cursive that obviously weren't going anywhere, other than perhaps insurance companies. At the time I was the one approving my reports so I could get away with it.

I'm involved in a prison ministry where we do a long weekend twice a year. We (volunteers) each hand write individual letters to all of the candidates (inmates), 42 this time. So no, the letters aren't real long. But it does keep me in cursive practice but my writing is still ugly, legible but ugly.

Very interesting reading. I learned to type because I wrote VERY badly. Ran across some of my old blue books and was surprised both how well I wrote and how erudite I was 50+ years ago. Both long gone....at least on the subject matter of my major.

Ink pens in schools?????? Not in my neck of the woods. Content/practices of current schools.....I'd get banned.

Post #46 reminds me of a tale from Religion class in college. It seems most of the folks who actually did the copying couldn't read. They just did their best to copy the forms of the original. Seems the output was greater when the copyists didn't get lost in the glories of Scripture.