Cursive Writing

[kozmic]

For me cursive requires a certain amount of muscle memory, dexterity, coordination, forethought and even head scratching at times. Printing only requires paper and a pencil.

I've been enginerding wayyy too long.

 

[Huskerguy]

The point of cursive is being missed. Think about what it takes - you have to see the letter with your eyes, visualize the strokes, then make the strokes over and over. It teaches much more than just making a letter, it is working a part of the brain that doesn't get used much. It is very good for fine motor skills.

The Christian schools I just retired from all taught it and it is done well. It is a lot like music and math that all use a part of the brain.

My wife works with sped kids at a local high school and one kid missed a class she was in. The kid asked her what he missed and she said to go ask another student for their notes. A little while later this kid comes back to her with this puzzled look. A, Mrs. Smith can you help with this. She says sure what do you have. Well, he said, it is in that cursive writing and I have no idea what this is saying. Poor kid was lost, couldn't read notes. Just think we could write letters about this kids and they would never know what we are saying.

At the last school I helped start from scratch we taught 1st grade math in Kindergarten. Our first graders can tell you the subject noun, verb, and prepositional phrase of a sentence plus more. The thing is young kids can do so much more than the system allows. The goal, whether stated of not in most schools is to keep people together and slowing things down a bit is the only way that works.

Someone said their kid had both Algebra I and II done by middle school which I assume is 8th grade. We had Al I done by 8th grade, getting II done is unique.

Everyone is correct, the educational system is extremely broken. I got out of the public sector 5 years ago and the private sector in June. There is a world of difference between the two. Give me private any day - no money but the families and kids are awesome.

 

[DWalt]

The kids can`t even hold a writing implement correctly anymore.
Regards , Pete

At least in my area, teaching cursive is like teaching ancient Assyrian cuneiform - it doesn't happen. My grandchildren have no idea how to read or write cursive. And when they print, they grasp a pencil or pen strangely, sort of like a left-handed person does when they write.

 

[two-bit cowboy]

I cannot recall the last time I read a novel, text book, Word doc, owners manual or bar tab written in cursive.

I cracked up at this, Rusty. I write customers' bar tabs in cursive!

Barbara has written two novels -- not a word of either in cursive.

Several years ago Barbara challenged me to join her in the annual, November, novel writing exercise known as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I accepted the challenge, went out and bought five top-spiral notebooks, and wrote the requisite 50,000-word novel in one month -- all in cursive. That's an average of a bit more than 1,666 words a day for 30 days.

Like shooting, I enjoy staying in practice with cursive.

 

[sasu]

I have manners, I do not cursive.

 

[Cardboard_killer]

They can not even read what our Forefathers wrote?

To be fair, even though I learned as you did, I've always had a hard time reading some of the old writings, especially with the letter and spelling changes--the s looks like f--since the 1700s.

 

[brigeton]

I too loose it because I don't use it. I write a few checks each year to businesses that don't do debit cards and have to stop and think about what I am writing, it doesn't come naturally like it used to. It's kind of the opposite of typing. I went to school in the 60's and took 1 semester of typing cause it was an easy class and mostly girls. I figured what do I need typing for? I'm not going to be a secretary. Now all these years later with computers I'm still trying to teach myself how to type with all my fingers.

 

[Maddog 521]

My cursive writing all runs together.

 

[steveno]

I was in a drafting/engineering department for 21 years and all information on the drawing was printed in ink. after that I could barely write my name on a piece of paper. I worked with a book perfect binder for 7 years and I can't recognize my own writing on checks and no two of them are even close to the same

 

[Double-O-Dave]

I'm a left hander that the schools, with my mom's permission, "converted" to a right hander. As a result, my cursive writing was absolutely horrible. I could block print faster, and with greater clarity than use cursive writing, and over the years, the public school teachers I had learned to accommodate me. Fast forward to 1989 and I hade to pass the GRE test to enter graduate school. One of the requirements of the test was an essay that had to be handwritten in cursive writing. No exceptions. So I wrote my essay out in block print, and then went back and linked each letter in each word to each other with pen strokes. It looked horrible, but it must have worked as I was accepted into graduate school, and completed my Master's degree after 2 years.

By the way, I still block print to this day. Some habits die hard.

Regards,

Dave

 

[pawngal]

When I started reading this thread I had to go and look, Do I write or print?
Yes, I still write in cursive. Got me thinking about filling in forms that say
"Please print" Don't know how many times I started in cursive and had to go back and re-do. Guess cursive is firmly ingrained in my brain despite years of computer use.

My granddaughters ages 6 & 8 attend private school, the 8 yr old will be learning cursive this year.

 

[g8rb8]

You want cursive?
I'll show ya cursive!
#$&!, *(@#, +)##, and "{5@.
Proper punctuation too.

 

[LMWIS]

I had about 20 officers on my platoon who ran between their early 20's to late 40's.

I gave them each a piece of paper and asked them to write - not print - a sentence that I read from the morning report. None of the younger officers could do it, and most of the older officers cursive writing skills had deteriorated to the point of illegibility.

There were still a couple who could write legibly, but in our computer driven age it's a skill that has little day to day use. If it's not computer generated, it's printed. (Press firmly, you're making 5 copies.)

 

[Krell1]

I was taught cursive and wrote in that style for years. I have now been printing so long, I have lost the ability to write in cursive.
If you don't use it, you DO lose it!

I'm an old codger and learned what we called "handwriting" or "penmanship" in school. We were taught what is called "The Palmer Method". It was drilled into us and every kid in class mastered it. My mother was taught the same way. When you see our handwriting you can tell the way we all learned.

Since then, I started work as a draftsman and did a lot of "lettering". I called it printing when I started classes in high school and was told that printing was done on a printing press. What we did was lettering. I still call it printing. Anyway, I agree that doing so for a lot of years caused me to lose the ability to use "cursive". My handwriting now is pathetic.

 

[Aden67]

My kids are in a small Christian school and they started cursive in the 3rd grade. They still used that old lined paper that I remember from the 70's. Not sure what they do in the local schools.

 

[FlyFish]

I was taught cursive early on and wrote that way all through high school. When I started in college as a science major one of the first things they did was get us printing so our lab notebooks would be more legible, and I've been a printer ever since (50 years and counting). Printing is better.

 

[franzas]

At work I have never heard the words "this [document] needs to be written in cursive." Learning cursive is a waste of time.

However, everyone will print differently. Cursive is a more or less uniform, convenient way to teach writing.

 

[Cardboard_killer]

Learning cursive is a waste of time.

Pretty much, this is it. I sign in cursive, but almost nothing else I do is in cursive. My penmanship was always very poor anyway, so even back in the day I typed things that most people would have written. Considering the effort put into it, I think kids would be better off learning arithmetic better.

BTW, one reason to write in cursive was to make it easier on the reader. Cursive is easier on the eyes than printed letters. At least that is what I was taught.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

I use cursive for stuff like birthday/Christmas cards and other more intimate personal writing that printing doesn't well serve. I really have to work when using cursive because I have lost the natural flow.

Is teaching cursive in school worthwhile today? As a purely practical matter probably not. But as an art form that flows from the person onto paper to others, it is perhaps more valuable than many understand.

 

[the ringo kid]

I'm amazed, that they no longer teach cursive writing in school any more. We started when I started the first day of 3rd grade. My grandson is now in the 9th grade (first year of high school) and has no clue what cursive writing is. Are they supposed to hand print contracts? They can not even read what our Forefathers wrote? How do they take notes in a class in a speedy fashion? How are they going to sign checks, someday? I know checks are going to be obsolete soon? But they can't sign their names! They print it!

I had a hardware store list for tomorrow. He picked it up awhile ago and looked at me all silly. And asked me what it said. I told him to hand it to my wife and she read it perfectly.

This year he is in a very High Tech High School. And has no books! Everything is done on a small laptop, even brings it home for his homework. And what class work I've seen, is pre printed off material, with one or two sentence answers?

I understand the world is changing? But come on!

Im not surprised at all they do not teach alot of things we were. No pledge of Allegience, no prayer, no real history-nada.