Cursive Writing

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It’s a shame they’ve dropped cursive from the curriculum. Traditional skills like writing, grammar, simple mathematics and spelling come in handy in life. Decent penmanship also gives you an excuse to use a nice fountain pen!

The Mrs. and I both saved old letters and cards that we received. Somehow, a text message that says “I luv/<heart> U” just isn’t the same as a hand written letter. :rolleyes:
 
P.S - As far as I know, even an “X” has always been legal.
Most people’s signatures are unreadable anyway. Mine has always been readable, even when I was a kid. I always believed if I needed to sign something, have enough pride in the thing so as to leave no doubt as to who was signing it.

When I was studying Wills and Estates the professor told how he would try to make sure an infirm client could make a mark on a a Last Will and Testament to create a valid will as provided for under PA law.

When I was working I signed hundreds and hundreds of commitments to insure, title insurance policies and deed certifications. Just like you said, I wanted to make sure there was no doubt that the document was signed by me.
 
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I can agree with your post if, and only if, the time saved is actually used for math or other academic purposes. Unfortunately, most public schools have abandoned such subjects also. There seems to be little time for anything other than proper socialization and self-esteem polishing.

Twenty years ago as an employer I learned that a high school diploma is not a guarantee of any level of proficiency in reading, writing, mathematics, or anything else. Reading and following simple written instructions is way too much to expect. Forget about addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, converting fractions to decimals, US or world history, basic civics, or any other fundamental knowledge.

Math, writing, reading, science, etc., are all still taught. I don't think they're taught particularly well, and the quality of teaching varies vastly state to state.

You'll hear no argument from me against the idea that many of our public schools are in a pretty bad way these days, but dumping something as time-intensive and as little-utilized as cursive seems to be a step in the right direction regardless. The kids will still be there the same amount of time and whatever teaching fills that time will almost certainly be more useful than teaching cursive.
 
My maternal grandmother had beautiful, cursive handwriting.

While my own handwriting has always been execrable, I admire those few whose handwriting is beautiful.

While I think it is no longer a practical, useful skill to have, I also think it something beautiful which is increasingly disappearing from our lives.
 
Taking Cursive Script to another level and writing in a Calligraphy style really brings the handwriting into an art form.
Most any font, letter style can be used but the script styles really shine.

Takes a lot of practice to learn the style(s) and be able to easily write them w/o even thinking about forming the letters. A step above standard script.

But the world seems to have settled for printing if handwritten at all.

Odd to me to see any document were it says 'Signiture........' then under it or next to it says 'Print name'.........
Both are the same printed 'signitures'.

When I worked as a Jail Dep booking prisoners, many teens and early 20's folks up from the South couldn't read or write. To sign the Booking form they simply placed an X,,and some had a hard time even holding a pen making that figure 'X' .

Many younger people these days can't even make out what many of the script letters are. Does it matter?
I really don't know.
I'd like to think it should. But getting them to be able to read and do simple math and even show up for school would be an even better start.
Make it an elective maybe.

Language & word usage & meaning changes over time,,so does writing habits as well.
 
I have a box of Peter's 38 S&W that was my grandfather's. On it is written : "$1.57 paid October 17th 1928 at Johnson's Hardware Store". This was written in beautiful flowing cursive, using a Fountain Pen! I know my kids and older grandkids can read it. It will be a shame when his descendants can no longer understand his writing on the box of ammo that saved his and my dad's life, thereby allowing them to exist!

Ivan
 
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My father and grandfather kept journals in their later years. Wish they had started sooner. Grandpa was born during the Grant administration and died during Truman's. Went from telegraph to television, steam locomotives to jet planes, Gatling guns to atom bombs. Only the last few years survived and that was after his stroke. Still perfectly legible cursive script. I spent many pleasant nights scanning Dad's notes on life after he passed - all in neat, clear cursive. When I was around 50 I started doing the same in cursive that looked amazingly like Dad's. A few years ago I realized that my sons might be able to decipher it, but theirs hadn't a prayer, so I switched to the block printing I used on carbon-copy triplicate police reports. After about two months I decided anybody who was interested enough in my thoughts to read them could learn cursive.
 
In 1968 when the teachers told me I could block print i said "Hurrah" and never looked back. I have few problems reading cursive other than my wifes, and she cannot read hers more than half the time. I think it's as necessary for most as a good mastodon gun.
 
The Hoover Dam was built by people with #2 pencils/note pads and slide rules.

And the Three Gorges dam was designed using engineering software. Technology improves, old practices fall behind.
 
Until recently I never remember hearing the term "cursive", why back when, when I was in grade school, it was either printing or handwriting.

So I learned cursive in grade school and by High School I had dropped it and was printing everything. This worked for years, but when I decided I needed a career change and went to law school, there was no way I could print fast enough for note taking in class, or for exams. So I resurrected my long dormant handwriting skills which significantly increased my writing speed. The only thing I print anymore are forms that require they be in block letters. If you write a lot with pen or pencil and paper, like I do in my job, it's so much faster and easier to use "cursive".

Best regards,
 
It really does kids a disservice teaching them skills that served their grandparents but have been replaced by newer more efficient methods. There are only so many hours in a school day and they have to prioritized. Yes we have kids who are illiterate and can’t do simple math.That’s a parenting and school failure. (On a side note,an old classmate of mine became very successful after his parents bankruptcy. He owns a huge historical hotel and an incredible house. He recently told me that his dyslexia (who knew?) is so bad that he has boxed and boxes of t shirts for his gift shops that are so misspelled he can’t sell them. He had no idea they were!) He’s a smart guy,but he can barely read
 
Not so much problem not writing cursive as much as not being able to spell multisyllablic words correctly. My signature is "somewhat" cursive, its' usefulness being my ability to identify if'n I wrote it or not. Joe
 
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