RIP Cursive Writing

[Kutnupe14]

Just this week, I observed my grandaughter working on her cursive skills. She's only 6 yrs. old, but wants very badly to be able to do it. I consider that a very good sign, and I believe this skill needs to be passed on.
But she needs someone else to help her. Ever since I was diagnosed with ET, My cursive has been painfully laborious in order to even be legible!(at times I need to brace with my other hand.) The day could come that our keyboards are rendered useless.

It's an excellent skill to pass on. If she stays with it, by the time she's an adult she'll probably be one of the few that can actually use it. I still use cursive, and can actually write faster than printing.

 

[Denny347]

I block print everything. It's been 25-30 years since I needed to write in cursive. I was always bad at cursive but years of mechanical engineering classes taught me to block print and I get compliments on how legible my handwriting is because of it.

 

[rambone]

I PRINT IN ALL CAPS WHEN I WRITE BY HAND.

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

any time i write by hand, i have to print. my cursive is terrible, i have had trouble deciphering it at times. i can write faster than i can print, but if someone else needs to read it, i print. honestly, my printing is pretty bad too.

 

[mikerccie]

I darn-near had to repeat the 3rd grade (around 1979) because my cursive was so horrible. Thank heaven I'm a technical guy and type 99% of my stuff and the remaining 1% is written in block-style capital letters.

 

[revsaxon]

I have handwriting even doctors can't decipher. When I try to do cursive its even worse.

Good riddance to something that went out of style before computers ever came around.

 

[henktermaat]

I stopped writing in cursive the minute after I graduated. I hated it.

 

[CTC B4Z]

if I even remotely start to write in cursive it goes to capslock print.... I dont even know how to make certain letters any more....

 

[Suprtek]

 

[Jack Ryan]

Yup, there is no reason for our children or grandchildren to learn how to read the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence for themselves, when they have plenty of volunteers who are willing, nay eager to interpret the writing on those important documents for them.

...or add subtract multipy or divide. McD has cash registers with pictures on it for all that now. No one needs cursive to print "want fries with that?"

Dumb and dumber wasn't a movie, it was a prophecy.

 

[The Bubba Effect]

I used to get all A's in elementary school except for "Handwriting" and "Attitude and Behavior".

I remember one parent teacher night about 1985/86ish when a teacher had my mother and I treed discussing my grades. He kept going on about how poor my handwriting was and that the teachers felt it was as a result of my "not caring enough about it to really try". When the teacher was finished, my mother looked at me asked what I had to say about myself.

I explained calmly and firmly that cursive writing was soon to be irrelevant as we would soon all be carrying small computers with us using keyboards for much of our communication and that critical thinking and computer skills were much more important for me and my classmates to be learning than wasting our time on fancy writing.

My mother laughed and told my teacher that she could not argue with me as I was likely correct. My teacher turned red and started in about my attitude and behavior.

I'm glad cursive is done. Maybe they can start teaching something practical in school instead, like rifle marksmanship.

 

[Suprtek]

Dumb and dumber wasn't a movie, it was a prophecy.

Damn, that's strong. Can I use that?

 

[indykid]

Why even go to school? The government will provide everything so there is no reason to learn anything.

 

[scottka]

I must be in the VAST minority... I'm only 24 and I never write in anything except for cursive. I'm much better at it, and it's more decipherable to me. I honestly think it originally stems from grade school when I had a tendency to make words look liketheyrantogether when I wrote, so I figured, "Hey, I'll use cursive, so that I have to put a break between words." Been doing it ever since.

 

[MrsXtremeVel]

I work in an elementary school and by the time they teach and test...and test...and test, there's not much time for anything else. We have reading blocks and math blocks. Each 90 mins. long uninterupted. Then you work in Social Studies, Science, Art, Music, Library, Lunch, and a 20 min. recess. These poor kids have no time to breathe. I learned cursive in the second grade. I work with second graders. I'm just trying to get them to print legibly. I think cursive is important because we all need to sign our signature at some point in our lives.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Damn, that's strong. Can I use that?

It's in the public domain now, feel free.

 

[Jack Ryan]

I work in an elementary school and by the time they teach and test...and test...and test, there's not much time for anything else. We have reading blocks and math blocks. Each 90 mins. long uninterupted. Then you work in Social Studies, Science, Art, Music, Library, Lunch, and a 20 min. recess. These poor kids have no time to breathe. I learned cursive in the second grade. I work with second graders. I'm just trying to get them to print legibly. I think cursive is important because we all need to sign our signature at some point in our lives.

I'll admit it's been a while but best as I recollect we only had 24 hours in the day even back when I was in grade school and I had the same comments on my report card as every other boy in school.

attitude - check
hand writing - check

I just don't buy all the bull about why they just don't have time for this or that. We had ALL summer out of school and we had time to learn to read, write, add, subtract, memorize multiplication and division table, the capitals of all the states...

But then we didn't all stay home because they were predicting it MIGHT snow or freeze. We WALKED to school.

 

[MrsXtremeVel]

I'll admit it's been a while but best as I recollect we only had 24 hours in the day even back when I was in grade school and I had the same comments on my report card as every other boy in school.

attitude - check
hand writing - check

I just don't buy all the bull about why they just don't have time for this or that. We had ALL summer out of school and we had time to learn to read, write, add, subtract, memorize multiplication and division table, the capitals of all the states...

But then we didn't all stay home because they were predicting it MIGHT snow or freeze. We WALKED to school.

While I agree with you, I'm just telling what I see going on at the school I'm at. The majority of our kids are at or below poverty level. Parent involvement is almost non-existant. I know this because I've been a PTA officer for 13 years. Trying to contact a parent about classwork or behavior issues and them not returning a call or an email is common. Sad... but common. Our district can't afford summer school anymore and that's too bad. Our kids could use it!

 

[UncleMike]

But then we didn't all stay home because they were predicting it MIGHT snow or freeze. We WALKED to school.

Uphill!!
Both ways!!!

Sorry Jack,
Couldn't resist that.

 

[pirate]

Probably already mentioned, but how are we going to sign our names now?