CURSIVE WRITING

[Golddollar]

A month or so ago I was with a bunch of my surveyor friends and we were discussing education for the next generation of surveyors who would come up to replace those in the practice who have died or retired. The subject of cursive writing came up because so many of the older deeds predated typewriters and cursive handwriting is supposedly not being taught in school anymore. The old handwritten deeds would contain certain at least character not found in the modern alphabet. And of course, the handwriting would change with every scrivener in the Recorder of Deeds office.

Sometimes when I look at a problem I can't get an answer right away, but then after a while an answer comes to me. But the problem is that I can't remember if this is something I saw in real life or something I may have seen on television at an early age. What I'm talking about is the placard of the alphabet with upper case and lower case letters written in cursive and mounted above the blackboard around the room. Does anybody here remember such a thing? I would think that something like that could be printed up like a handbook, including any unique characters from the past, for study to help up and coming surveyors, title abstractors and such. Thanks for your help.

 

[Exaviator]

I remember it well, and once had a decent hand, but alas, years of using block hand writing and computer use has destroyed it. Today, I am back to practicing writing in curser form to try and recapture the hand memory skills.

 

[Mule Packer]

You bet I remember it! It was in every one of my elementary school classrooms. Also, if I remember correctly, we had a handwriting book that we kept in our desks. In fourth and fifth grades, there was time devoted to handwriting every other day or so.

I realize that I'm quickly falling out of the norm because I not only can write in cursive, I can also tell time with a watch that has hands.

 

[Chuck24]

I remember it but it was a looonnng time ago.

 

[swsig]

What I'm talking about is the placard of the alphabet with upper case and lower case letters written in cursive and mounted above the blackboard around the room. Does anybody here remember such a thing?

We had those when I was in elementary school. You can order something similar from Walmart.com:

Robot or human?

 

[rockquarry]

A month or so ago I was with a bunch of my surveyor friends and we were discussing education for the next generation of surveyors who would come up to replace those in the practice who have died or retired. The subject of cursive writing came up because so many of the older deeds predated typewriters and cursive handwriting is supposedly not being taught in school anymore. The old handwritten deeds would contain certain at least character not found in the modern alphabet. And of course, the handwriting would change with every scrivener in the Recorder of Deeds office.

Sometimes when I look at a problem I can't get an answer right away, but then after a while an answer comes to me. But the problem is that I can't remember if this is something I saw in real life or something I may have seen on television at an early age. What I'm talking about is the placard of the alphabet with upper case and lower case letters written in cursive and mounted above the blackboard around the room. Does anybody here remember such a thing? I would think that something like that could be printed up like a handbook, including any unique characters from the past, for study to help up and coming surveyors, title abstractors and such. Thanks for your help.

Cursive letters at the top of the blackboard was pretty standard classroom decor, but I can't remember it past grade school in the mid-to late '50s. Did it last longer than that?

 

[HKSmith]

I went to NYC public schools in the 1940's-1950's era. Not only did we have those wall charts above the blackboard, we had to learn cursive writing with a fountain pen (no ball points). I still use a fountain pen, but my grandson can't read my writing since they're no longer teaching cursive. He also can go to school in jeans and a T-shirt, whereas I had to wear a shirt and tie and a white shirt on assembly day.

 

[daveyc]

I went to elementary school in the 80's and the cursive alphabet was displayed above the blackboard then. we learned and practiced cursive and i still use it daily.

good luck finding a kid today who can read an analog clock.

 

[Golddollar]

We had those when I was in elementary school. You can order something similar from Walmart.com:

Robot or human?

I was thinking of something notebook sized but that is a good idea. Any additional characters from the old deeds probably could be added later.

 

[Rudi]

We all knew it, but I have not used it in a long time.

 

[oldbrownhat]

I don't particularly remember the script over the blackboard although I don't doubt it was there. I do remember our handwriting manuals, though, "The MacLean Method of Writing", which were in use here in BC from 1921-1965.

This sample from 1951 looks like the ones we had a dozen years later. (And I remember Bayview school although I didn't go there. The WWI-era building was just replaced by a new mass-timber building this spring.)

As I recall, my handwriting as a student was OK, and I later developed an interest in calligraphy. But when I worked in Phone Sales for a graphics supply company in the 80's and 90's, even I sometimes couldn't read my writing on the picking slips!

 

[arjay]

I do remember that. I also remember my first bad grade happened in third grade because of my poor cursive wring lol. It’s never really improved!

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

Ai will lead the way. The surveyors will be robots that survey with a glance and scan the few old documents not already in their data base to read them with their algorithms as if we were never here. The people will carry the oil can.

 

[oldbrownhat]

...we had to learn cursive writing with a fountain pen (no ball points). I still use a fountain pen, but my grandson can't read my writing since they're no longer teaching cursive. He also can go to school in jeans and a T-shirt, whereas I had to wear a shirt and tie and a white shirt on assembly day.

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

 

[CH4]

As a cop most of my writing was block printing before going to computers. It all but killed my cursive skills. I am slow and not fluid.

 

[DWalt]

I am almost certain that there is some AI routine now available to convert even scribbled cursive to type font. See Handwriting to Text: How to Convert Handwriting to Text?.

 

[oldbrownhat]

I am almost certain that there is some AI routine now available to convert even scribbled cursive to type font.

Bring it on!

 

[Onomea]

Penmanship.

It was called penmanship. As little dudes, we learned our letters, how to print single letters, small and caps, and somewhere around the second grade we got introduced to cursive. Still pencil, though.

And then in third grade or so, ink pens!

Wow! Writing cursive with pens felt so... so.. big boy! A rite of passage, it was.

(And the pens were leaking in our pockets, etc.)

Memories.

 

[robvious]

I had pretty nice cursive penmanship... then I went ti college and studied Architecture... guess what happened... yup, I had to go and learn all over again how to letter with an Ames lettering guide... then the computers took over the profession... oh well...

 

[Old 44 Guy]

Yes, I remember the chart. From 2nd to the 7th grade we had them. My 3rd grade desk had a ink well in it. It was never filled while I was there. This was in the 1930's so that dates me. That's OK, Like Old Elmer said I was there.