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.

 

[coltle6920]

My signature defines me alone. There's nothing cursive about it. It's accepted by all financial institutions and that's all I care about.

 

[Bro. Dave]

I also remember the classroom charts vividly. That, along with the Big Chief Tablet with the dotted lines was standard fare.
If I recall, the successor to the Spencerian script was the Palmer Method of teaching handwriting. I still take personal notes in script as it is faster than printing for me.

 

[oldbrownhat]

My signature defines me alone. There's nothing cursive about it. It's accepted by all financial institutions and that's all I care about.

Mine is "John Hancock-ish". But my gf's is pretty much indistinguishable from the writing in the "Doctor's strike" poster above However, like yours, it's accepted where needed.

Some of today's "thumbs on phone" generation would probably call cursive writing "the curse of writing."

 

[Rustyt1953]

No one in my extended family, including mom, uses longhand. My officially recognized signature is a 40 Hz sine wave.

About everyone I know uses either a cellphone or smart watch to tell time. If we are hit by an EMP burst we won't much care what time it is.

 

[Krogen]

You bring back memories, Golddollar! Those cards were above the blackboard in my elementary school. One card for each letter, upper and lower case. They had horizontal lines on them as indicators for various features of each letter. I was never any good at cursive. Eventually I went to printing block letters. Part of that came from drafting classes. I was decent at printing, but I got sloppy. I'm still sloppy to this day. My writing looks like that of drunk drafter in a big hurry. I'm lucky to be able to read my own writing.

So I sympathize with the kid at hunter sight-in. We have a range rules sheet for guests to read and sign. Poor kid didn't know how to sign his name.

The world, she is a changin'

 

[LVSteve]

Oh yes, I remember being taught the US version of cursive writing in the late 60s. Then we returned to England and my handwriting was immediately treated with ill disguised vitriol by every teacher I came across. My attempts to mollify them resulted in handwriting that looks like the efforts of a crack addicted spider trying to build a web while in withdrawal. As a result I detested writing essays and history analysis reports, and was regularly censured for turning in stuff that was "too short".

Consequently, despite a command of the English language well in advance of my peers, I drifted towards science and engineering as I aged through what would be called middle school and high school in the US. No middle schools in my part of England back then. It was all "secondary school". With science, writing was kept to the minimum, and that suited me just fine, ta very much. When I chose my subjects at 14 for my exams at 16, my English teacher said he was "mortified" that I was leaving him and his English Literature class just to go and make stinks and bangs in chemistry. Hated to disappoint the bloke because he was a damned good teacher, but I was done writing. Even now with the advantages of desktop publishing software, my writing has been described by coworkers and bosses as "very to the point, almost terse". Well, I've never been paid by the column-inch, so why descend into prose when it adds nothing to the subject matter.

I have other stories of "forks in the road" when it comes to my education. For another time, perhaps.

 

[G-Mac]

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.

I went to NYC public school in the 60s. We didn't use fountain pens, but our old wooden desks still had a hole in the right hand corner, with a flip-up brass lid, where the ink well sat.

 

[Buford57]

Remember them fondly, with the ruled copy books. I still journal in cursive. A few years ago I started using block letters when I realized my descendants wouldn't be able to read it. That didn't last long.

At the risk of straying into politics my election judge bride just attended training on the new technology for checking in (I can't say verifying) voters. Instead of signing on paper to compare with the registration card a touchpad will be used. On my best day I can't produce anything that looks remotely like my signature on one of those and I don't known anyone who can.

 

[BigBoy99]

With all of the "Political Correctness" going around these days, I'm sure there is some "Anti Cursive Writing" group threatening lawsuits if the cursive character cards above the black boards are not removed!

 

[mtgianni]

My wife could do beautiful caligraphy at one time. The problem has always been that her regular handwriting is nearly illegible, even by her. That fact however, is no deterrent to her continual practice of it.

If I need a grocery list I have her text me.