Teaching cursive handwriting

[d0gbreath]

We lived in town in Fairbanks Alaska when I was in the third grade. The last thing my teacher said to us before we moved into base housing was "Tomorrow class, we will start learning cursive writing."

Got on base, JFK was assassinated, which closed the school for three days. My first day was a Friday, where they were taking a quiz on what they had learned about cursive writing. Panicking, I told my new teacher that I hadn't learned any of that yet. She excused me from the quiz.

When I got home I told my Mom what had happened. With her help, I learned everything there is to know about cursive writing over the weekend.
Thanks Mom!

 

[beerftw]

Lol.

Wow that was weird.

Did I say written languages were obsolete?

Nope. Not even close. What I did say was that writing in cursive is obsolete in an age of digital communication.

We still use written language, there is just no value in writing it in cursive.

Try writing in print then try writing in cursive, cursive is much faster. Now look at writing in history, in america it has often been cursive, in other nations other forms of script, they embody the civilization and the nation.

Cursive is just american and other english speaking nations form of script writing, it is not even the only as there were many other forms going back before modern english was a thing and we had only early english which sounds nothing like modern english, it was not until middle english that english sounded like english.

 

[NolanVoyd]

Try writing in print then try writing in cursive, cursive is much faster. Now look at writing in history, in america it has often been cursive, in other nations other forms of script, they embody the civilization and the nation.

Cursive is just american and other english speaking nations form of script writing, it is not even the only as there were many other forms going back before modern english was a thing and we had only early english which sounds nothing like modern english, it was not until middle english that english sounded like english.

The point is, it is a digital age, the vast majority of writing is done on a keyboard. The only time anyone writes with a pen anymore is filling out forms (like at the doctor's office) and they ask you to print (except for your signature.

If people want to learn cursive as an elective, (like learning calligraphy) fine......but it isn't important enough in this day and age to waste time on.

 

[Josie]

Try writing in print then try writing in cursive, cursive is much faster. Now look at writing in history, in america it has often been cursive, in other nations other forms of script, they embody the civilization and the nation.

Cursive is just american and other english speaking nations form of script writing, it is not even the only as there were many other forms going back before modern english was a thing and we had only early english which sounds nothing like modern english, it was not until middle english that english sounded like english.

Faster doesn't necessarily mean the most effective way to communicate. Some people's handwriting is hard to read, especially when it's in cursive.

 

[Patriotic Voter]

Should kids still be taught to write using cursive handwriting? Please vote in the poll and leave your comment as well!

I was shocked when my mom told me my sister's kids did not learn cursive. How can teachers expect them to sign forms, letters, debit/credit card receipts, and legal documents?

 

[beerftw]

The point is, it is a digital age, the vast majority of writing is done on a keyboard. The only time anyone writes with a pen anymore is filling out forms (like at the doctor's office) and they ask you to print (except for your signature.

If people want to learn cursive as an elective, (like learning calligraphy) fine......but it isn't important enough in this day and age to waste time on.

I write daily in my job, on paper, carryibng around a laptop and staying within wifi range is extremely unproductive, the only way writing would be considered bad is if you assumed all jobs sat at a desk typing and ignored all field and labor jobs where typing on a keyboard is not effective.

 

[beerftw]

Faster doesn't necessarily mean the most effective way to communicate. Some people's handwriting is hard to read, especially when it's in cursive.

Only if cursive is not learned, my co worker can barely write in print he only writes in cursive, too many customers wanted things printed out because they thought cursive was some chinese language and they could not read it.

For me it is too easy to read, and if cursive is unreadable by a person their print is likely as well.

 

[Josie]

Only if cursive is not learned, my co worker can barely write in print he only writes in cursive, too many customers wanted things printed out because they thought cursive was some chinese language and they could not read it.

For me it is too easy to read, and if cursive is unreadable by a person their print is likely as well.

Not true. Almost every adult 40+ had cursive handwriting. Being taught it doesn't mean you're good at it. I disagree that if their cursive is unreadable then so is their print. That's just untrue.

 

[beerftw]

Not true. Almost every adult 40+ had cursive handwriting. Being taught it doesn't mean you're good at it. I disagree that if their cursive is unreadable then so is their print. That's just untrue.

If someone could not properly write cursive their print is unreadable as well. That simply means their entire handwriting is garbage. My handwriting is terrible but I can still read my own, I can read other peoples cursive, but one old woman who is an assistant has such bad handwriting her print can not be read, and it is bad because her cursive is more readable, it is obvious her handwriting has gotten worse every year, likely from neurological problems.

 

[Josie]

If someone could not properly write cursive their print is unreadable as well. That simply means their entire handwriting is garbage. My handwriting is terrible but I can still read my own, I can read other peoples cursive, but one old woman who is an assistant has such bad handwriting her print can not be read, and it is bad because her cursive is more readable, it is obvious her handwriting has gotten worse every year, likely from neurological problems.

That's just not true. If you have horrible and unreadable cursive handwriting, that doesn't automatically mean your print handwriting is also horrible and unreadable.

 

[Argent]

One day when a solar flare takes out electrical systems across the globe, those of us who can read and write cursive will take over the world. We'll also hoard all the hand operated can openers. Bwa bwaaa bwaahaaaahaaaaaa

 

[beerftw]

That's just not true. If you have horrible and unreadable cursive handwriting, that doesn't automatically mean your print handwriting is also horrible and unreadable.

If you can not handwrite you can not handwrite, cursive is literally print with freakin lines drawn between letters to look fancy and save time when writing, if you could not write that you could not write print either.

The only instance I can think of where someone can write print fine but not cursive is if they were only taught print and not cursive.

 

[Josie]

If you can not handwrite you can not handwrite, cursive is literally print with freakin lines drawn between letters to look fancy and save time when writing, if you could not write that you could not write print either.

The only instance I can think of where someone can write print fine but not cursive is if they were only taught print and not cursive.

Again, you're wrong. Those of us 40+ had print handwriting lessons kinder, first, second and then moved into cursive around third. When you learn to print, you learn to use your fine motor skills and muscles in one way (depending on the type of printing you were taught). When you switch over to cursive, that's a different muscle movement where you have to learn to connect the letters with very fluid strokes. You can be okay or good with printing and not great with the fluid movements of cursive handwriting. My college professors, by and large, had awful cursive handwriting. They would print everything (a lot of times in all caps) on the board for lessons. Sloppy, unreadable cursive handwriting does not mean they were never taught it nor does it mean they will also have sloppy, unreadable print.

 

[NolanVoyd]

I write daily in my job, on paper, carryibng around a laptop and staying within wifi range is extremely unproductive, the only way writing would be considered bad is if you assumed all jobs sat at a desk typing and ignored all field and labor jobs where typing on a keyboard is not effective.

Who said writing would be considered bad?

And you realize that you are the exception right?

That the vast majority of people don't do much writing with a pen?

It is simply a fact.

 

[beerftw]

Who said writing would be considered bad?

And you realize that you are the exception right?

That the vast majority of people don't do much writing with a pen?

It is simply a fact.

To not have to write with a pen means being relegated to a desk, or to a job with simplistic writing. For example touch screen tablets are horribly innefective and slow for typing, carrying a field computer can be a hassle for many field jobs, and touch typing often loses its luster in field conditions.

Not everyone sits behind a desk, what do oil field workers do, mechanics do, appliance repair people do etc etc? Problem is everyone assumes the most basic functions of society are beneath them, and that someone else should do the dirty work, this falls under the fall of rome syndrome, a society that throws out what made it a society and assumes migrants should do those same tasks are doomed to fail, they become reliant on technology and money, while ignoring the fact those basics are what allowed the tech to exist in the first place, and also what brought in the money.

I can only imagine if such knowledge is thrown out we may end up eventually like rome, a grand infrastructure and a economy that collapses with no one remember how it was made or how to keep it going because such stuff was beneath them, and with the knowledge lost the peoples occupying the area went about destroying aqueducts sewers libraries etc just to scrap materials to build simple houses, the knowledge was lost after the fall of rome, but history hints it was lost well before the fall of rome, the it was beneath me mentality likely hurt them plenty.


Now imagine this, today we have the why do we need cursive, why do we need to understand parts of an animal for slaughter and why do we need to know how to preserve foods, because the supermarket does that, or why should I need to understand how plants grow or how to trim bushes or cut trees down the local mexican guy does that. To put it simply it is hitting a point where americans and many western nations are so incompetent at basic tasks of society they need to import foreigners to do such tasks, ie they refuse to learn it because they believe it is useless or even beneath them.

 

[beerftw]

Again, you're wrong. Those of us 40+ had print handwriting lessons kinder, first, second and then moved into cursive around third. When you learn to print, you learn to use your fine motor skills and muscles in one way (depending on the type of printing you were taught). When you switch over to cursive, that's a different muscle movement where you have to learn to connect the letters with very fluid strokes. You can be okay or good with printing and not great with the fluid movements of cursive handwriting. My college professors, by and large, had awful cursive handwriting. They would print everything (a lot of times in all caps) on the board for lessons. Sloppy, unreadable cursive handwriting does not mean they were never taught it nor does it mean they will also have sloppy, unreadable print.

If your college professors wrote everything in print and often in all caps, I hate to say this you might have gotten a better education from the garbage man, as from what you say it sounds like those professors could not pass an english class to save their lives.

 

[Josie]

If your college professors wrote everything in print and often in all caps, I hate to say this you might have gotten a better education from the garbage man, as from what you say it sounds like those professors could not pass an english class to save their lives.

Handwriting has next-to-nothing to do with English class, dude.

 

[beerftw]

Handwriting has next-to-nothing to do with English class, dude.

English class teaches basics of grammar and writing structure, if they are writing in all caps they clearly did not pay attention to their own education and have no business teaching others.

Also I do remember cursive being a heavy part of english class, If I did not know cursive I would have been sent back a grade, as both cursive and grammar by the fourth grade were mandatory to continue. I get lazy on grammar but come one writing print in all caps even a first grader knows not to do that.

 

[Josie]

English class teaches basics of grammar and writing structure, if they are writing in all caps they clearly did not pay attention to their own education and have no business teaching others.

Also I do remember cursive being a heavy part of english class, If I did not know cursive I would have been sent back a grade, as both cursive and grammar by the fourth grade were mandatory to continue. I get lazy on grammar but come one writing print in all caps even a first grader knows not to do that.

Just because they write in all caps now doesn't mean they wrote like that -- or didn't write in cursive -- in their elementary years. English class is about grammar, sentence structure, syntax and synthesizing information. It has very little to do with handwriting. And your handwriting has very little to do with your intelligence.

 

[NolanVoyd]

To not have to write with a pen means being relegated to a desk, or to a job with simplistic writing. For example touch screen tablets are horribly innefective and slow for typing, carrying a field computer can be a hassle for many field jobs, and touch typing often loses its luster in field conditions.

Not everyone sits behind a desk, what do oil field workers do, mechanics do, appliance repair people do etc etc? Problem is everyone assumes the most basic functions of society are beneath them, and that someone else should do the dirty work, this falls under the fall of rome syndrome, a society that throws out what made it a society and assumes migrants should do those same tasks are doomed to fail, they become reliant on technology and money, while ignoring the fact those basics are what allowed the tech to exist in the first place, and also what brought in the money.

I can only imagine if such knowledge is thrown out we may end up eventually like rome, a grand infrastructure and a economy that collapses with no one remember how it was made or how to keep it going because such stuff was beneath them, and with the knowledge lost the peoples occupying the area went about destroying aqueducts sewers libraries etc just to scrap materials to build simple houses, the knowledge was lost after the fall of rome, but history hints it was lost well before the fall of rome, the it was beneath me mentality likely hurt them plenty.


Now imagine this, today we have the why do we need cursive, why do we need to understand parts of an animal for slaughter and why do we need to know how to preserve foods, because the supermarket does that, or why should I need to understand how plants grow or how to trim bushes or cut trees down the local mexican guy does that. To put it simply it is hitting a point where americans and many western nations are so incompetent at basic tasks of society they need to import foreigners to do such tasks, ie they refuse to learn it because they believe it is useless or even beneath them.

Lol.

You can still write with a pen. You can still learn cursive and write in cursive if you want to.

No one is taking anything away from you.

I learned cursive in school......lots of hours in class over months and years.

I grew up in the pre-digital era.

Now days cursive is rarely used. Teachers have more things to teach then time in the days.

Why on earth would they waste time with cursive?

English class teaches basics of grammar and writing structure, if they are writing in all caps they clearly did not pay attention to their own education and have no business teaching others.

Also I do remember cursive being a heavy part of english class, If I did not know cursive I would have been sent back a grade, as both cursive and grammar by the fourth grade were mandatory to continue. I get lazy on grammar but come one writing print in all caps even a first grader knows not to do that.

She was talking about college professors not elementary school teachers.

College English professors don't have much to do with teaching "the basics of grammar and writing structure".......also she was talking about writing on the board......printing is preferable for that.....all caps for emphasis.

 

[beerftw]

Just because they write in all caps now doesn't mean they wrote like that -- or didn't write in cursive -- in their elementary years. English class is about grammar, sentence structure, syntax and synthesizing information. It has very little to do with handwriting. And your handwriting has very little to do with your intelligence.

Handwriting has very much to do with intelligence, the quality of the writing means little, but the structure and grammar can mean quite a lot.

I spent many years writing by hand, in the us army up until I left in 2015 when my ets date came most things were still written by hand, then transferred to computer because the army and the military in general had redundancy in mind ie if all the servers failed they had paper backups, or if the paper files burned down they had digital copies, essentially not keeping all of the eggs in one basket.

Either way someone writing in all caps on paper is someone I would reject for any job above janitor, someone who becomes a teacher at a university who can not grasp that level of basic grammar even a first grader should well know already does not give two craps about education and has zero business teaching anyone, if anything that would just be proof the teachers unions are protecting the worst of the worst teachers.


I bet even grounds keeper willy from the simpsons can do better than that and he is a scot living in a shed.

 

[NolanVoyd]

Handwriting has very much to do with intelligence, the quality of the writing means little, but the structure and grammar can mean quite a lot.

I spent many years writing by hand, in the us army up until I left in 2015 when my ets date came most things were still written by hand, then transferred to computer because the army and the military in general had redundancy in mind ie if all the servers failed they had paper backups, or if the paper files burned down they had digital copies, essentially not keeping all of the eggs in one basket.

Either way someone writing in all caps on paper is someone I would reject for any job above janitor, someone who becomes a teacher at a university who can not grasp that level of basic grammar even a first grader should well know already does not give two craps about education and has zero business teaching anyone, if anything that would just be proof the teachers unions are protecting the worst of the worst teachers.


I bet even grounds keeper willy from the simpsons can do better than that and he is a scot living in a shed.

Wild guess.

You never went to college?

 

[beerftw]

Lol.

You can still write with a pen. You can still learn cursive and write in cursive if you want to.

No one is taking anything away from you.

I learned cursive in school......lots of hours in class over months and years.

I grew up in the pre-digital era.

Now days cursive is rarely used. Teachers have more things to teach then time in the days.

Why on earth would they waste time with cursive?



She was talking about college professors not elementary school teachers.

College English professors don't have much to do with teaching "the basics of grammar and writing structure".......also she was talking about writing on the board......printing is preferable for that.....all caps for emphasis.

What is to be taught more than what already was though? From all I could find the ending of cursive had to do with common core standards which flopped, ie only teaching what could usefull for a test.

Texas dropped cursive then brought it back, my coworkers son though has a hard time doing the math he was taught in school which was by common core standard, but he is autistic and feels that is what the book says that is what he must do. That all started with him teaching his son how to do math the way he was taught in the 1970's in which he picked up quick, but the school wanted to flunk him because they cared less about how correct the answer was and more about the method he used.

But if you have not noticed common core has been dropped near everywhere, it was a worthless standard that drug students down across all subjects, elimination of cursive was part of common core as it was not part of standardized testing pushed under the obama admin. I will however admit this is not obamas fault, common core was an idea pushed by bill gates heavily, and standardized tests have been common for decades, with teachers having to choose between teaching to pass the test or actually educating the students, and with low scores meaning budget cuts and layoffs often teaching to pass a preset exam was the focus over actually teaching critical skills.

 

[Josie]

Handwriting has very much to do with intelligence, the quality of the writing means little, but the structure and grammar can mean quite a lot.

I spent many years writing by hand, in the us army up until I left in 2015 when my ets date came most things were still written by hand, then transferred to computer because the army and the military in general had redundancy in mind ie if all the servers failed they had paper backups, or if the paper files burned down they had digital copies, essentially not keeping all of the eggs in one basket.

Either way someone writing in all caps on paper is someone I would reject for any job above janitor, someone who becomes a teacher at a university who can not grasp that level of basic grammar even a first grader should well know already does not give two craps about education and has zero business teaching anyone, if anything that would just be proof the teachers unions are protecting the worst of the worst teachers.


I bet even grounds keeper willy from the simpsons can do better than that and he is a scot living in a shed.

No, dude. Handwriting doesn't have much to do with intelligence. The quality of the writing (there's a difference between writing and penmanship) - the ideas, structure of the sentences, grammar, etc. is what says something about a person's intelligence. There are incredibly intelligent people on this earth who have bad handwriting. There are also people with beautiful handwriting who are dumb as a box of hair.

Go ahead and take the last word.

 

[vesper]

A couple of years ago I learned my grandkids are now learning cursive. I was so thrilled. You see if I wrote in cursive in a card or letter, they could not read it. I had to print. In historical documents they were not able to read the original writings for themselves. They couldn't even read love letters, between their parents and grandparents, family recipes, or family documents such as marriage documents, baptisms, or any writings from their ancestors. They could not even sign their name creating a proper signature.

It is not the most important skill to be learned, but nevertheless, it is important in my opinion. But hey these days teachers unions appear not to be behind any essentials these days because the U.S. would not be listed almost 40th in the world at this time because our public schools are spending more time on bullshit and not teaching the essentials. It is a travesty.