MY STUDENTS CAN'T READ CURSIVE

[douglas9]

It was a good book, the student told the 14 others in the undergraduate seminar I was teaching, and it included a number of excellent illustrations, such as photographs of relevant Civil War manuscripts. But, he continued, those weren’t very helpful to him, because of course he couldn’t read cursive.

Had I heard him correctly? Who else can’t read cursive? I asked the class. The answer: about two-thirds. And who can’t write it? Even more. What did they do about signatures? They had invented them by combining vestiges of whatever cursive instruction they may have had with creative squiggles and flourishes. Amused by my astonishment, the students offered reflections about the place—or absence—of handwriting in their lives. Instead of the Civil War past, we found ourselves exploring a different set of historical changes. In my ignorance, I became their pupil as well as a kind of historical artifact, a Rip van Winkle confronting a transformed world.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/gen-z-handwriting-teaching-cursive-history/671246/?utm_source=feed

[betsuni]

1. This blows my mind, not being able to read cursive or analog clocks.

They must have a lot of trouble understanding old movies where clocks and cursive notes are part of the plot. Like, they can't understand the hand written note by the girlfriend and the big clock in "Back to the Future"? I never write in cursive, but it's not difficult to read.

[Kaleva]

2. My eldest stepson, a doctor, cannot write cursive.

My stepdaughter, who works in a medical lab, can't either.

[RobinA]

8. Doctors

have never been able to write cursive. They just make some squiggly lines and then expect everybody else to translate.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Doctors have been infamously unable to write legible cursive for decades

Legible to anyone outside the medical professions, anyway.

[GB_RN]

63. Hell, I'm A Nurse...

And even I can't read their chicken scratch, shit-excuse for handwriting. I can't imagine how it must have been for pharmacists who were left scratching their heads trying to figure out what the hell some doc wrote, and then had to call and ask about it. That must have been frustrating.

Electronic medical records (EMRs), prescriptions, etc., have prevented untold numbers of medication errors over the last 10-15 years: Physicians have to input the EXACT medication with the EXACT dosage, from a list. They can't even type in the med and mistype the dose anymore (in a properly implemented EMR, anyway).

[electric_blue68]

107. That's good to know. And TY for being a nurse! Tough times these past 2+ years

[tavernier]

155. Nurse here too.

Had a doctor once, the oldest and most prominent doctor on staff at the hospital where I worked, and he used to grade the handwriting of the other physicians. We nurses absolutely adored him.

[GB_RN]

159. Nice.

When I was a senior in HS, I took a drafting class, and had to learn how to print in drafting-quality, block lettering. I've written in block print ever since. No one can complain about not reading what I wrote, unless they don't speak English.

[LeftInTX]

172. It was always a psychic guess...LOL

Who knows the doctor best??? LOL


Hey I can read so and so's....

[GoneOffShore]

176. MD's handwriting would seem to be an international problem.

When I lived in the UK, anytime my doctor wrote a prescription, I would ask him what it was, and the dosage, so that I could decipher it if the pharmacy couldn't.
Same thing here in France.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. I'm a teacher. Not only can't student read cursive or write it, but

they also can't type on keyboards. They often use two index fingers.

I spent two semesters in high school in typing class, learning the keyboard, which finger went with which letters, until you didn't need to look at the keyboard.

And don't get me started on how these students can't draft a cogent, coherent paragraph.

[Mariana]

15. When I went to school, typing was an elective.

Most students didn't learn it. My daughters never learned it in school, either. It wasn't even available as an elective class for them, so I taught them at home.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

161. What level of school?

It was an elective for me through high school but I had to take a class or test out of it at about 35 WPM on a manual in college. (I did the latter-- and this was in my last year of undergrad. I'm not sure how they thought I was getting things done in earlier years.)

[musette_sf]

165. My HS did not offer typing class

I went to Elena Kagan’s high school. Typing class was seen as akin to steno class, and Hunter girls weren’t going to be secretaries.

[moonscape]

28. I never took,a typing class but

taught myself when I got my first job and needed to use a typewriter.

When I started using a computer in the 80’s I then got better and faster, but mostly loved the fact that now men were having to learn to type as well

[no_hypocrisy]

33. I taught myself how to type on my mother's old Royal machine from the 40's.

And her typing manual.

I took typing class for two semesters because it was a way to augment my grade point average with guaranteed A's.

And little did I predict how much the keyboard would control my destiny in the future.

[ProfessorGAC]

103. Related Story

My mom was a transcriptionist. As in, listen to recordings and transcribe them to paper.
She typed in the 130wpm range, error free, on a manual typewriter!
She did this (after going back to work when my sister was 13) until literally the day she died.
Anyway, she taught me to touch type as a young child. I knew how to type with all 10 fingers before I could write in cursive. (Ties into the OP.)
I went to a prep school for HS & everyone took typing sophomore year, first semester.
First day, I sat down, opened the textbook, put paper into the platen.
Teacher came in & thought I was screwing around as I was buzzing along at 70-75wpm.
He ripped the paper out of the platen, then looked at it. He turned the textbook around and compared them.
He looked at me and said "Why don't you go shoot hoops during this class." I never set foot in that room again.

[electric_blue68]

113. Aha! 😀👍

[Hermit-The-Prog]

122. 120 was my best on an IBM Selectric

Dropped to 80wpm or so on a manual. My first introduction to typing was a sophomore class in high school. Mrs. Bigelow did not count any word with a typo. That class was the reason I later got a part-time job in college, typing in the chemistry department office. Professors and chemistry graduate students, in general, write as poorly as the stereotypical doctor.

There was a cursive "ball" for the Selectric, but I don't think many people ever used it.

[ProfessorGAC]

151. Hey!

I was a graduate student in chemistry once and i taught advanced organicmechanisms, and my handwriting is just fine!
When I was in HS, my mom got a Smith-Corona that typed in script.
Lots of my college papers were typed on it.
The teacher I mentioned earlier scored assignments as WPM with 2 deducted for every error.
I was always pretty accurate, but as I mentioned, i never had to take those tests.
Since he gave an A for any score over 50, he just entered my scores as >60. Got an A, and attended 5 minutes of class all term! Improved my free throw percentage nearly 8% too!

[hunter]

162. My mom was a super-typist too.

She's primarily an artist, but typing lightning-fast and accurately frequently paid the bills. Typing was usually her day job.

I can't type much faster than I can think, which is slow, especially compared to my mom, on both counts.

My mom's a good copy copy editor too and was essentially the ghost writer of a few published books. I don't know how she did that. Mostly she was polishing turds. She'd sit at her desk fuming, viciously criticizing everything about the person she was writing for whenever my dad and my siblings were within earshot, and then she'd present the finished manuscript to the purported author all smiles and praise, and some of these guys ended up convinced they really had written a book themselves when all they'd given my mom to work with was a sordid rat's nest of random thoughts and self-aggrandizement.

My mom made me take typing in middle school. I was one of two boys in the class. The school bullies were already calling me "queerbait" and the fact that I was in the typing class was just another excuse for them to harass me. (My mom also made me take drama, on the theory it would improve my social skills... that was a disaster.)

Typing was a required class for all students when my kids were in middle school. It was called Computers and Word Processing or something, but the first half of the class was purely typing, the only difference from typing class as I remember it was that it was all on the computer.

[LeftInTX]

173. There is a subtle technique difference

[ToxMarz]

52. I taught myself in college

when papers had to be typewritten, and to pay someone to do it meant you had to finish much earlier so there was time. That didn't work with my inner procrastinator, so I had to do it myself.

[Mariana]

112. In the same way that you learned to type when you needed to type

people will learn to read cursive when they need to read cursive.

[Model35mech]

153. I never took a typing class... I learned to type on a teletype.

Being an army teletype repairman, teletype were available to me, and as most night shifts had only a hours worth of preventive maintenance to do, typing filled up the hours.

It all started with getting bored with ryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryry, which in 5 level ascii alternated tested the ability of the machines to use all the selector levers that moved the type box, but it did that in a way that created an alternating pattern of blanks and holes in teletype paper tape, which was a visible diagnostic tool of a process that happened to fast to really see. Back then I could do ry's so fast the machine couldn't keep up.

then I went to

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs back 1234567890. I could type that using just 2 fingers on each hand.

teletype went extinct before cursive.

[jmowreader]

31. For a very long time I was a two-finger typist

And…then I got assigned to Field Station Berlin and did a lot of reporting. Imagine: you’re sitting there with the screen on your terminal split, the report you’re writing in the bottom split, the thing you’re working from in the top split, your keyboard in your lap, two manuals on your desk, one on the space heater - they actually bought us a second space heater to heat the room because I was always using one of them as a book stand…I started touch typing without even realizing that I had.

[LisaM]

41. Now, see, I think there is a correlation there.

When we took typing, we didn't just learn how to type. We also learned how to craft a business letter, formulate addresses, and so forth.

I work at a law firm and I am horrified at the actual lack of writing skills seemingly intelligent young employees have. They can't put together a foreign address (needed to send original documents from time to time. They don't know how to start a letter (they'll say 'Dear Peter Brown' instead of 'Dear Mr. Brown'). They write in one sentence paragraphs, so there is no flow to the letter or email.

Occasionally we need to type something because other countries use A4 paper and one of my favorite anecdotes was when two very young employees were standing next to the typewriter completely befuddled, until an older paralegal walked by and switched it on.

Anyway, the larger point is that typing class wasn't just typing class.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

42. Salutations of letters: these days tis safer, more respectful not to guess gender, even for Peter.nt

[LisaM]

44. That's less true in foreign countries.

In many countries we receive correspondence where the writer identifies what they would like to be called at the end of their signature block. It will say something like Elaine Chao (Mrs,).

For most of the people we deal with, we are on a first name basis anyway, so we would generally say "Dear Peter". Putting "Dear First Name Last Name" makes it look as if it was plugged in from a computer. As a law firm, we are supposed to pay attention to detail.

I think it is -and should be- acceptable to use just an "M.", which I have done in the past.

However, I was also addressing basic writing skills. They've eroded. The draft correspondence I get handed sometimes could have been done by a fourth grader.

[Ligyron]

49. My 8th grade typing class I took also did some basic business instruction too.

This would be in 1968.

Just horizontal and vertical consolidation in markets, stuff like that.

The teacher was a complete stereotype, very thin, wore bizz dress outfits as no pants allowed for females in school back then, horn rim glasses ... gawd I can still see her even now.

Oh, and that voice, slight lisp...perfect.

Glad she taught me to type because as a male, I was a rarity and it took me places. That class was 90% female.

[JT45242]

61. Keyboarding is standard in most jh curriculum as part of a cycle

Especially in schools with universal Chromebook or other 1:1 initiative.

The cursive thing is largely a decision based on spending time devoted to reading and analysis rather than physically writing.

Another old people get off my lawn moment.
Most gen Xers (born approx 1964-85) don't write in cursive even if they know how (myself included)

You don't write like a pilgrim with wonky first letters or spell in old English.. communication evolves over time

[LisaM]

72. I don't use it much, but I can read it.

I think that was the point, they were studying Civil War documents but couldn't read them. Which shows that there is more to learning cursive than just writing it.

[sdfernando]

74. A lot of kids only know how to use two thumbs.

It is funny but one of the most useful classes I took in shool was typing/business machines. Server me so well in my IT career over the years.

[electric_blue68]

111. Typing class was 1/wk for a semester in HS...

We had to go to Midtown Manhattan from our 135ft St HS.

I had no interest in learning to type since I intended not to be doing any, or very little typing in the jobs I would get. I did partly learn the keyboard eventually, but never enough to be a real touch typist.

But I did love the IBM Selectric typewriter in Art College (not typing class, don't remember why we had one) bc it had changeable fonts! As an artist & learning Graphic Design that was fun.😀 👍

[LeftInTX]

134. They need to.learn keyboards

I waa horrible in typing class. I thought: I won't be a secretary. I will probably need to type a few papers in college. Surprise! Fortunately, I can touch type.

[tishaLA]

141. my students (college) look at me like I'm possessed

because they approach me while I'm typing, ask me a question, and I look them directly in the eye when I answer them while still typing. Weirdly I make fewer errors that way than when I think too much about it.

[Grins]

157. A lot of threat writers type with just two fingers..

And they can be lightning fast!

My godson and his gf, both using only their THUMBS on their cellphones - just WOW fast!!!

[panader0]

4. My parents and some of their contemporaries had what I call a "beautiful hand".

Their cursive was finely done. I am also amazed that kids are not taught cursive in today's world.
It's so much easier to write that way, easier than making block letters. Also, no one writes letters
anymore. Too bad.

[ProfessorGAC]

105. That's My Wife

Her handwriting is palmer perfect. Looks like those letter charts over the blackboard back in the day.

[electric_blue68]

117. 😄 Not if you're left-handed! I realized my half-hook for cursive was...

an unconscious way of trying to pull the pen instead of pushing the pen like we lefties often do.

[OAITW r.2.0]

5. Over time, my cursive writing has gotten pretty bad.

When I do write words, I often use block letters, mostly capitals.

Of course, I blame computers....i never hand write letters anymore, so I rarely need to use cursive.

[JHB]

6. Reminds me of my lessons in using a slide rule.

Lesson, rather, singular, since there was just one introductory lesson in grade school in the mid-1970s.

By the time I would have needed to learn to use one for real, electronic calculators had sent them the way of the buggy whip.

[Lochloosa]

11. Slide rules sent men to the moon. I still have my fathers that was used on the Apollo missions.

[DavidDvorkin]

18. We used computers

In all of my work on Apollo, I used computers, and so did everyone I worked with.

[Hortensis]

43. Yes, but many at least still had their well-used slide rules.

I was also one of those who learned to use a slide rule at that time in my teens even while it was both still much needed and becoming obsolete practically overnight. The hand calculator and personal computer were on the launch pad.

[DavidDvorkin]

69. The Soviets had excellent slide rules, excellent engineers, excellent mathematicians, and powerful

rockets. What they did not have was sufficiently advanced computers, which NASA did have. That's why the Soviets lost the moon race: They never actually competed because they knew their computers were inadequate.

The NACA, the predecessor agency to NASA, started pushing computer development in the US hard in the late 1940s. That made Apollo possible.

I still have my slide rule in my desk, but I haven't used it since before my NASA days.

[LeftInTX]

135. I know..lol!

No way could a slide rule do all of that!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

32. Slide rules fill gap between hand-waving and complete precise calculation

Useful for back of the envelope brainstorming, etc. You can get two to three digits out of them.

My slide rules are retired, not that ever used them much. In university I had an advanced pocket calculator.

These days I still do mental arithmetic rather than use a slide rule for two digits, but I use a computer calculator when precision is needed.

Unfortunately, the proportion of people capable of mental arithmetic is declining.

[burrowowl]

59. For a long time electronic calculators would give

e.g. 2 squared as 4 but the square root of 4 as 1.999999. HP were the first with decent calculating algorithms.

[NBachers]

36. March for Science in San Francisco a few years back: lots of creative scientific types

with well-developed scientific signage. But the best one was the guy carrying a slide rule around like a totem.

[electric_blue68]

120. My dad used one. I asked him to try and teach me bc it was a cool looking...

but I never got it right.


The only thing I learned using the circular Proportion Wheel for Graphic Design: increasing & decreasing results for measurements.

[4Q2u2]

10. Happened many years ago

My 24 yr old daughter can read and right cursive, but my sons 21 and younger cannot.
Schools just stopped teaching it. I even asked my sons how are you going to sign something? They were taught just their signatures and nothing else.

[Mariana]

20. It's not necessary to sign things in cursive.

You can draw a picture of a cat and call it your signature if you want to.

[Conjuay]

115. my one son's

signature looks like a second grader tried to write his own attendance note.

It’s a skill that seems to have been lost.

I remember hearing someone reading letters home from civil war soldiers. These ‘common’ soldiers had a much better command of the language than many with college degrees today.

[moonshinegnomie]

12. other than my signature i havent written cursive in decades

and for the most part my signature nowadays is just a scribble
in modern society i really dont see much use for cursive other than reading old documents

[indigovalley]

13. Does cursive have a modern purpose anymore?

This form of writing was good for back in the day when people wrote most correspondence by hand. Its easier than printing letter by letter for lengthy paragraphs. But nowadays we keyboard.

I am a high school teacher. I would rather time be spent in elementary school on keyboarding than teaching cursive as this skill is essential for most jobs and real world applications. However, I do think people still need to learn to write by hand (printing) as there is still need for that type of writing in daily life (application forms) and you need to be able to communicate emergency information via handwriting.

Just my thoughts...others may disagree....

[Mariana]

17. No, it really doesn't.

Cursive was invented to make it easier to write neatly with pens that had to be dipped in ink. Nowadays very few people use such pens.

People who want to read old letters, or who have a job that requires them to read old documents, or who have hobbies such as genealogy need to learn to read cursive. There's no reason for everyone to be forced to learn it.

[raccoon]

70. I totally agree. I'm a lefty who had to learn cursive in a right-handed

World that made no accommodations for lefties. (As I’m sure probably most of the world doesn’t now. )
I had to try to write in a right hand desk and one of my teachers particularly bitched at me about my handwriting.

People need keyboarding now, not cursive.

I still write cursive, except when I don’t want anybody to read what I wrote. Then I’ll write shorthand.

[Mariana]

84. I stopped using cursive as soon as they stopped forcing me to do it.

I letter much faster, and it's neater and easier to read anyway.

In my work I had to learn to read schematics and wiring diagrams and such things. In my hobbies I learned to read patterns for knitting, crochet, and sewing. I didn't learn any of that in school.

I think some people must have never learned how to do anything new after they graduated. Why else would they think it's such an impossible thing to do?

[electric_blue68]

126. Fellow lefty! I till write in cursive most of the time with my half hook. Of course I can print, too

You should look up the "little red book" (NOT Mao's!) -
The Left-handed Book if you don't know it. Cute, and informative to a young left-hander.

My folks gave it to me around 12-14 yrs old waaay back.👍

[reACTIONary]

29. +10 nt

[leftyladyfrommo]

85. I use it all the time. nt

[Amishman]

97. It doesn't and those teaching hours are better spent on other areas

Our world is too challenging to waste children's school hours on useless skills

[meadowlander]

130. I don't think lots of time should be spent on it but

I think it does help practice fine motor skills and it's beautiful. I think kids in art class should at least have a chance to try calligraphy. Some of them might pick it up as a hobby.

If kids are already being taught how to write by hand, it doesn't take that much time to learn cursive and a little shorthand. I do still have to take handwritten notes at work fairly regularly and being able to do that quickly and efficiently is a benefit. While I rarely refer to my notes, the act of writing them down helps me remember better and reduces my anxiety that I might forget what was said.

I remember when I was four or five I won some competition at kindergarten and got a book with all the cursive letters on the back. I spent about an afternoon copying them out and that's all it took for me to learn. So it's not like a whole other subject isn't being taught if kids are learning cursive as well.

[Mariana]

14. Just so you know, there's no requirement that signatures have to be in cursive.

Lettered signatures, with or without decorative squiggles, are just fine.

[indigovalley]

56. Yes I teach that to my students

I teach this in my Life Skills class. You can print your name on a check and the bank counts that as a legal signature

[electric_blue68]

128. Oh, I love that! Imagine having learn Calligraphy in Art College!...

I managed to do it pretty well, but -wow- it was difficult!

[Chainfire]

16. Although I grew up writing cursive I am unable to decipher family journals from the 1850s-90s.

The calligraphy is gorgeous, but I can't make out many words and sentences. It just as well be written in another language. It is my understanding that cursive is not taught in Florida's schools any more. That may be progress. The time spent learning cursive would be better spent teaching touch typing.

My cursive writing, though a lack of exercise, has become unreadable, even to me!

[Gore1FL]

19. We don't develop skills we rarely (or never) use. Some have trouble learning used skills.

I doubt many could drive a carriage or build a cooking fire despite those being typical skills of the past.

[ShazzieB]

26. Well...

I'm an old fossil, and I learned cursive in school like all the other old fossils. I can write it (badly), and I can also read it. BUT that Civil War Era stuff is a whole different ball of wax. Handwriting styles have changed a lot over the years, and a lot of the really old stuff is hard for anyone who decipher who is not an expert. The farther back you go, the worse it gets.

[Gore1FL]

34. I learned cursive in the 3rd grade.

I don't recall when I switched from cursive back to printing. I suspect it happened when I started to type everything.

But yeah, I would probably have trouble reading older styles even with my old skillset.

[hunter]

21. I'm an autistic spectrum mildly dyslexic klutz.

Teachers who insisted on "cursive" were just another reason I hated school, especially 5th-8th grade.

I learned to type in seventh grade but "penmanship" was still part of our grades in eighth, and most teachers did not accept typed papers.

In high school teachers accepted my chicken-scratch handwriting and typed papers, which reduced that particular stress.

Reading and writing cursive is a skill that was hammered into me. I'm not sure it did me any good. Its too slow!

It could have been worse. My grandmother was left-handed. She wasn't allowed to write with her left hand in school and was punished when she did. She could write with either hand. She'd use her right hand for writing checks and other "official" documents, her left hand for informal writing and drawing.

[Hortensis]

53. Horrible. We do advance, as we need to, in so many ways, but...too slow! :)

I'm a leftie. In the mid-20th in the western states no one ever bothered me about it, but that was left behind recently enough that the old notion hadn't completely died and stories of being forced to use the right were common.

[progree]

22. How do students take notes these days? Writing print letters is significantly slower than cursive

(the main speed difference is that with cursive, you don't lift and move and put down the pen with each letter -- you just flow from one letter to the next).

Or do they all type on laptops? That would work just as well or better IN SOME CASES (whatever it is, one has to write/type/diagram fast enough to keep up with the lecturer).

In engineering and computer science, we have to draw a lot of diagrams and equations, so no way would plain typing work. So do people use tablets? (For the text part, then what happens -- again printing is slower than cursive, ... is there an on-screen keyboard as well as space to write equations and diagrams?)

Dunno I took several computer science classes in 1993-1994 at the U. of Minnesota, and nobody used anything electronic to take notes. But IIRC laptops were not widespread then, and tablets unheard of.

As for typing - I was amused to read upstream that a lot of people type with 2 fingers, sigh. I suppose that is still faster than cursive.

[Amishman]

98. I was recording college lectures 20 years ago

And only taking additional notes when we hit something especially important.

With smart phones, it's far easier now

[progree]

119. So do you then listen to the recorder and transcribe (type) the recording?

With cursive (or print-writing), I'm done with quite readable notes when the lecture is over. I found that as a college student I had no spare time as it was to spend an hour transcribing each hour-long lecture.

[Amishman]

156. I'm listened to the lectures over as a form of studying

Detailed, comprehensive notes was not something that I found beneficial. When prepping for an exam, I might spend six hours with the textbook and listening to the tapes.

[progree]

164. The notes I took in class were not detailed or comprehensive, but rather the important points

I don't write fast enough to write a lecture word for word or anything near that, nor would that be of much value. That would be too voluminous.

I do love voice recorders though for reminders or ideas. Or if I'm jogging and listening to Thom Hartmann or Brad Friedman (Bradblog), and hear something really important that I want to remember and make a note of, then I speak my summary sentence(s) into the voice recorder, and transcribe them later.

I haven't found a voice recorder app that I like for the Samsung Galaxy S10e that I got in 2018. There was one that was acceptable featurewise, but Norton warned it was dangerous or somesuch. It would have been nice to have as a backup, but I have 3 voice recorders.

Here's an example of one that I like except that I wish the playback speaker was louder:

https://www.amazon.com/Solutions-Recorder-Automatic-Adjustment-V415121SU000/dp/B014658DS0


It's small, 4.4 x 0.71 x 1.5 inches. I have an even smaller one that I'm using a lot now, 4" X 3/8" X 1.5". If I drop it and break it, its $40 down the drain, unlike my cellphone ($850 IIRC).

[Mariana]

106. Lettering is slower if you're used to writing in cursive

because you've had more practice writing in cursive. For people like me who normally letter, lettering is faster.

[progree]

121. That was the point of cursive - to write faster. That's what they told us anyway in the 60's

Last edited Fri Sep 16, 2022, 07:14 PM - Edit history (1)

when I was in grade school learning it. Nobody said anything about fountain pens or whatever B.S. I'm reading upthread as the reason for cursive.

[moosewhisperer]

23. So?

Most people can’t speak Latin either. Who cares. It’s a dinosaur.

[Sympthsical]

24. That's ok

I can't read my own cursive either.

I'm too used to typing everything. I type at about 90 words per minute (it's probably why my posts are so long).

I had an in-person microbiology exam on Tuesday that had an essay question. I realized I hadn't written out anything that long in a very, very long time. When I handed it to the professor, I just said, "Good luck."

[DavidDvorkin]

25. What's even worse is that nowadays hardly anyone knows how to use an astrolabe!

[Celerity]

158. +1

[tinrobot]

27. Thanls to computers, I stopped writing cursive in the 70's and never looked back.

I was a programmer. Back then, you had to write code in block letters on special sheets so keypunch operators could type it in.

It was much easier for them (and others) to read. So, that became my default. I can still read cursive, but no way could I write it.

[barbtries]

30. A bad decision on the part of "educators"

to take cursive out of the curriculum.

[moonshinegnomie]

38. id rather the time be spend on things like math and science

for the most part cursive is obsolete. why teach it?
im 60 years old and other than my signature i cant remember the last time i wrote in cursive. probably at least 30 years

[barbtries]

54. I could not disagree more.

When my grandchildren go through the cedar chest, there will be letters. Letters going back generations. They should be able to read them. I still write in cursive on a regular basis as i'm an avid note taker. I don't believe it's obsolete. I do believe it should be taught to children in school.

It's also beneficial to cognitive development.

https://www.brainbalancecenters.com/blog/brain-benefits-write-in-cursive

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/opinion/guest_commentaries/teaching-cursive-writing-helps-improve-brain-development-should-be-required-in-schools/article_f7f99778-8dba-11eb-a293-33c101879bdd.html

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain

I'm thankful that my children were taught cursive. I believe all children should be.

[area51]

89. +1 n/t

[moonshinegnomie]

100. schools have limited time for instruction

id rather kids learn important life skills math science and history rather that leaning what is pretty much an obsolete style of writing. Just like slide rules,latin and a host of other things have been made obsolete. its fine to learn as an elective type of course but should not be mandatory

[electric_blue68]

129. Oooo, that was interesting stuff! Learned cursive back in the early '60s ...

Never stopped using it, though I sometimes scribble as a left-hander. I do print as well, at times. 👍

[JCMach1]

150. There are MANY things that are not obsolete that boost cognitive development

...cursive is dead

[USALiberal]

160. Not true

[Meowmee]

181. It's still being taught

in a lot of states, and is required in some. In NY from what I could find many still teach it because it is left up to each district and teacher to decide if they want to teach it.

And I agree it is beneficial for cd and for developing fine motor skills and other things I am sure.

For me, taking notes and studying them is the main way I retain knowledge for most exams. I had forgotten that when I recently had to take several exams and then remembered that that was the only way I was going to be able to cram all of that information rapidly into my brain and pass the exams. By doing that again I managed to score 100%.

[BannonsLiver]

66. I might have said the same thing in 1932.

But it has no real application to the modern world so there’s really no need to waste classroom time on it.

[barbtries]

68. see post 54

for my response to that. i disagree.

[plimsoll]

35. And why exactly would any modern teacher spend as much time teaching cursive?

My mom, and frankly all the women on her side of the family had cursive that looked exactly like the Palmer letters put up on the classroom walls. I had that grilled into me when I was in 4th grade, so when I take the time mine looks almost like the Palmer cards.

But a lot of stuff has changed since teachers spent hours working on penmanship in 3rd and 4th trade (think 1970's or earlier):

Teachers are evaluated on how their students do on "standard" examinations. Penmanship is not one of the skills they check on. So there is no advantage for a teacher to spend too much time on that. Keep in mind this isn't what the cranks mean when they say "teach to the test," they're complaining about the students, but the reality is the tests are used to punish teachers primarily.

Technology has changed, most information is typed now, it's the most efficient way to get into a digital system, and that's how it will be transmitted. But that ignores an even more basic technology change, it's called penmanship and it's not really meant to be used with pencils or even ballpoint pens. It's meant for a fountain pen. When's the last time you used one of those? I did all through college because the notes I created were more readable when I did them that way.

As lamentable as the abandonment of cursive may be it's another one of those technologies that will become a specialty item. Used by historians and lawyers primarily, and taught as a research topic.

[sinkingfeeling]

37. I find it sad that the younger generation can't read things from the past: their parents'

love letters, their grandfathers' letters from war zones, their great grandparents' journals, or the beautiful copperplate script of other ancestors.

[Mariana]

142. If they want to read those things, they'll learn to read cursive.

Or perhaps they'll hire someone to transcribe them. It really is that simple.

[TNNurse]

39. I have friends with grandchildren,

who have to remember to print on birthday cards or notes because the kids cannot read it.

I am just going to suggest...that it is a skill that is not that hard and there are plenty of historical documents (even family ones) that will be lost if they cannot be read.

[Mariana]

175. As you say, this is a skill that is not that hard.

People who didn't learn cursive in school, and who want to read old documents, can pick up a book or use the internet and learn to read cursive on their own.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

40. Mental arithmetic: loss of ability impacts critical thinking

If a person can't do basic mental arithmetic, which seems outside of the ken of many these days, it means they are handicapped when judging if something makes sense or not.

[llmart]

51. Intrinsic value

As another poster said, who needs Latin? No one speaks Latin these days. Well, no one may be speaking Latin these days, but I took two years of it in high school (very small classes because no one wanted to take on that challenge) and have found that it was one of the most helpful subjects I've ever learned. So many English words (and other languages such as Italian) are easy for me to figure out just because of my background in Latin. Fields such as botany, medicine, law have terminology that derives from Latin.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

71. Yup, typing and Latin for me too, two most useful classes outside of Mathematics. . . . . nt

[LeftInTX]

137. I have a degree in math. Sucked at mental arithmetic

Still do
Got horrible grades until algebra
I'm weird

[electric_blue68]

144. Wow.... Well I wasn't good at anything once we got beyond the major basics...

Hated algebra, trig etc barely got through!

Except I did get a B in Geometry. I'm an artist , and abstract assemblage sculptor perhaps those natural abilities unconsciously helped me. I was so glad I didn't have to take ?calculus etc.

I do find topology interesting..
And I also kind of liked learning the various Number Bases

When you say Mental Math - do you mean doing algebra etc in your head? Or the basics?
I assume you mean algebra, and higher math?

[relayerbob]

45. I always considered cursive top be a waste of time

I'm 64, and stopped using cursive in about 5th grade, if that late. Pointless scribbles, which almost no one can replicate legibly. Why bother? Some things are better left in the past.

[mcar]

46. Neither of my kids can write in cursive

They had about 3 weeks of education in it in elementary school.

[SYFROYH]

47. My son's school teaches curisve and that's how he writes.

Ready 1800s cursive is hard for most people, though. It takes a lot of practice.

[johnp3907]

48. Good for them!

Cursive sucks!

[Nittersing]

50. As an exercise, I just wrote a sentence.

It's a mix of print and cursive... "t" is just two perpendicular lines... but in the "th" combo, the "h" is cursive.

I guess it's devolving.

[C Moon]

55. I was taught cursive in elementary school, but never used it after that.

When I went to get a marriage license or something, they asked me to write my full name out in cursive. IT LOOKED HORRIBLE!

[Dysfunctional]

57. I only write in cursive from grocery lists to letters I write to companies and the government.

I have stopped using my fountain pen and ink well. I only learned how to print when I got a computer.

[kimbutgar]

58. I'm a substitute teacher and when I write a note to the teacher I write it in cursive so students

Last edited Fri Sep 16, 2022, 06:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Can’t read the note! It’s sad that few schools teach it nowadays as it helps children learn how to focus and concentrate on writing. Which later in their school years helps them open new neural pathways in their brains adding to their pre frontal cortex.

[ProfessorGAC]

108. Same Here

For me, cursive is quicker. My daily notes are always in cursive.

[childfreebychoice]

60. When I was a nurse, I hated deciphering doc's bad handwriting, so when

I went to med school, I always tried to have legible handwriting. Besides, I have been journaling since 1980, and I like going back to read old journals. None of my friends grandkids can read, or write cursive

[AverageOldGuy]

62. My two grandsons . . .

. . . ages 15 and 12 cannot read or write cursive. Their handwriting such as it is is atrocious. S a test a few weeks ago, I asked them to write their abc's -- lower and upper case -- five times. They pissed and moaned but did it. I noticed that in each of the five iterations, they wrote the same letter forward and backward -- that is, letters such as lower case "g" and "q" were written correctly or backwards, telling me they did not know or did not notice the difference in the way the tail of the lower case letter curls -- they also confused lower case b-d; s; s; h.

I asked -- they do not write material in class -- everyone has computer that prints to a central printer in the room. All written homework is typed and printed. They are lost without a computer and printer or a tablet or phone that links to a printer.

You can imagine the reaction of my wife -- their grandmother -- who taught high school English for 35 years. Their parents -- our son and D-I-L -- don't seem to give a shit.

[Rebl2]

64. From what

I understand there are schools who don’t teach cursive any longer. What I wonder is when it comes to signing legal documents, what’s going to happen. It’s just ridiculous that some schools no longer teach this.

[BarbD]

65. This 84 year old great grandmother just wrote a note to her 21 year old granddaughter.

I gave it to her along with a piece of jewelry I wanted her to have.

Guess she'll have to get her mother to translate it.

[kcr]

67. I'm an old who can read cursive, but

even I have trouble with some older documents. Not disagreeing because my kids have trouble with cursive, so I know that's a thing, but I would give them a break on that.

[cbabe]

73. Cursive is good for your brain.

https://www.waldorftoday.com › 2013 › 06 › what-learning-cursive-does-for-your-brain-cursive-writing-makes-kids-smarter

What Learning Cursive Does for Your Brain: Cursive Writing Makes Kids ...

Cursive writing helps train the brain to integrate visual, and tactile information, and fine motor dexterity. School systems, driven by ill-informed ideologues and federal mandate, are becoming obsessed with testing knowledge at the expense of training kids to develop better capacity for acquiring knowledge.

https://naturalsociety.com › how-cursive-writing-affects-brain-development

How Cursive Writing Uniquely Helps Brain Development - Natural Society

Citing the research of Toronto psychiatrist and neuroplasticity expert Dr. Norman Doidge, she says that cursive writing is unique in that, unlike with print handwriting and typing, each letter connects uniquely to the next. This is "more demanding on the part of the brain that converts symbol sequences into motor movements in the hand.".

https://www.psychologytoday.com › us › blog › the-athletes-way › 202010 › why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain

Why Cursive Handwriting Is Good for Your Brain - Psychology Today

Oct 2, 2020 Data analysis showed that cursive handwriting primed the brain for learning by synchronizing brain waves in the theta rhythm range (4-7 Hz) and stimulating more electrical activity in the brain's...

…

(So why has it been taken out of the curriculum?)

[deurbano]

80. My son has ADHD, and there was a theory that a certain kind of cursive writing (I

think the writing exercises were also set to music) could help with focus and regulation. We did try that approach briefly...and he did graduate from Oxford last year... but I don't know how much can be attributed to the writing exercises! As with many strategies to deal with ADHD, it's helpful if the "subject" is motivated... and since lack of motivation can be a hallmark of ADHD, those strategies can be very challenging to implement as directed!

My daughter is quadriplegic as a result of cerebral palsy, and also has serious perceptual issues (so qualifies as visually impaired), and learning to read was extremely challenging. At the same time her school OT felt she was incapable of writing. (My daughter just turned 49, so this was an old school OT, who mainly seemed to be training disabled elementary school students to work in sheltered workshops.) I thought learning to write would be helpful for her in learning to read (like another, tactile way of learning the letters and sounds for someone with compromised vision), but the OT wanted to focus on skills like taking off her sweater! I ended up teaching her to write myself, and that did end up helping her reading... and she re-entered Berkeley last spring, and graduated this summer. (I had also been told she was cognitively disabled, and would "never be able to do much of anything," which hasn't been remotely true, either.) My daughter didn't learn much cursive (except to read it fairly well, and do her signature), but it seems even printing by hand (at some point in development) can be helpful.

[meadowlander]

132. That makes sense

I'm autistic and I used handwriting notes during meetings at work as a subtle way to stim. If I'm not hearing anything I need to write down I just trace over what I've already written over and over again. It helps me concentrate. I don't think I've ever gone back and tried to read any of my notes but if I don't take them I don't remember anything. The act of physically writing something down helps to lodge it in your brain in a way that typing it out doesn't.

A lot of writers still like to handwrite first drafts as well or as a warm up exercise as a way of unlocking the creative process.

[deurbano]

168. A few years ago, I saw some research about the efficacy (in terms of retention) of taking notes by

hand, so I encouraged my kids to do that in high school and college. (Too late for me, since I can't write anymore... see post #75 on this thread!)

That's interesting that you trace over the words. Seems like good reinforcement for the connections you have already made in your brain.

[deurbano]

75. I went back to Berkeley at 67, and found I can no longer write by hand! (Not even printing!)

Last spring, I re-entered UCB after decades away. During my earlier attempt, I was a poor, working, commuting single mother (of a disabled daughter I'd given birth to as a teenager), and back then, Berkeley was not very accommodating of students in those situations (I couldn't take a reduced course load, for example), so I gave up in the end. When my son graduated from college in 2021, and my younger daughter started her junior year of college, my older daughter (48) and I decided we should (finally!) finish our degrees at Cal. It was challenging having to write a 20-page research proposal (for my mass incarceration class) after having taken the pre-requisite research class in the early 1980s (!)... but I actually earned A pluses in all in my classes, and the instructors said I was one of the top students, and contributed a lot to the discussions. (Of course, at my advanced age, I actually did the reading, which helped!) That was reassuring because I was pretty worried about how my fluid intelligence would hold up in comparison with the yoots. But the one thing I could not do anymore was take the midterm and final for my social theory class in a Blue Book! I have joked for years that I can't write anymore... and I even have family members fill out forms for me... and to be fair, even back in the day, my writing could be pretty illegible because my thoughts were going a lot faster than my ability to write them, and I was not patient with slowing down. At the same time, I always assumed if I really put my mind to it, I could still write by hand... but when I started practicing in a Blue Book, I just couldn't do it at all legibly in any kind of timely way. In fact, word processing seems to have profoundly affected how I produce the content of my sentences, and I could hardly "think" while trying to also write by hand. It was so frustrating and demoralizing to find I had lost that skill. At the 11th hour (1 am the day of the test!), I gave up and asked for an accommodation... which wasn't guaranteed, since i wasn't diagnosed with a disability... and thankfully, the instructor let me do the exam on my computer.

[Lucinda]

76. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[orleans]

77. voting

i went in to vote several years ago and my signature (cursive) was compared to the one they had in the book for me.

i believe on the mail in ballot envelope there is a place for both your printed name and signature.

can the signature just be the printed name all over again?

[Goodheart]

78. I see that as progress. It's really unnecessary to have two writing systems in these modern times.

Also, I wish you teachers would band together and insist on spelling reform.

[leftyladyfrommo]

82. I did shorthand abd cursive. Cursive is so much faster

than printing.

[wishstar]

79. Ability to read cursive/old fashioned writing helped me immensely in historical ancestry research

Without reading cursive, I never could have completed my ancestry research going back over 200 years of handwritten Italian vital records and 400 years of American handwritten historical records including deeds, wills, censuses and original Ellis Island ship manifestos.

Some of the American records, including censuses and Ellis Island ship manifestos have been converted for online digital access but the quality is too poor and inadequate for accuracy.

Although I later became good at writing and reading cursive, when I was a small child I couldn't read cursive and I was unhappy that there was a series of children's books entirely in cursive that I couldn't read when I had read all of the other books. I can't recall the name of the children's book series in cursive that came out prior to 1960.

[Mariana]

88. It's helped me a great deal, too.

If I wanted to read old documents, and I didn't know how to read cursive, I would go get a book (or use the internet) and learn how to read cursive.

[Act_of_Reparation]

81. Can you read insular minuscule?

Times change, folks.

[Act_of_Reparation]

95. It is exactly the same.

Insular minuscule and cursive are both scripts using the same alphabet. You don't need to understand Latin to be able to read and identify the letters.

If I gave you the same sentence in a cursive script you'd be able to identify the words even without understanding their meaning.

But if you want something in English, give this one a go:



This is littera bastarda, about 400-500 years younger than insular minuscule.

[electric_blue68]

131. Hmmmm. can read some of that. Took Calligraphy in Art College.

[bedazzled]

83. I write cursive a page a day ... it is much quicker than printing

Better for journaling. Stream of consciousness. I think it connects to my brain better somehow

[Johnny2X2X]

86. It blows my mind people don't know how to render fat into heating oil these days

Oh wait, no it doesn't as that skill is no longer useful or needed.

[moosewhisperer]

90. Exactly!

🙌🏻

[alphafemale]

146. Pretty much

Chop wood?

Make your own soap and candles?

Butcher a rabbit?

Make a brick?

[sakabatou]

87. I can read it, but it depends on the handwriting.

I only use cursive for my signature.

[Jspur]

91. I'm 39 and write in cursive but

the only reason I learned as a kid was because my dad bribed me by telling me when I was in the 5th grade that if I mastered writing in cursive, he would give me 50 dollars. Which was a lot back then for me. I learned how to do it just for the money. My dad's motivation was he felt if I could write in cursive that it would enable me to write faster in class and to take notes and a quicker rate.

[sky_masterson]

93. I prefer cursive because its faster

when one has to scribble down notes.

[Mariana]

139. It's faster if that's how you normally write.

I normally letter, so my lettering is much faster than my cursive.

[sky_masterson]

148. For me it's faster because the pen leaves the paper less

But I'm 56 and see cursive as an art,and a part of one personality.
My cursive is actually horrid. My mom had beautiful handwriting.

[Midwestern Democrat]

169. I write in cursive - it's faster and if you're writing a lot, your hand does not cramp as quickly.

The day after my father's funeral, I decided to write all the thank you cards to the people who gave memorials in one setting. It would have been much slower, and my hand would have cramped much quicker if I had tried to print all those thank you notes.

[Mariana]

178. I suppose it can be an art and a part of one's personality.

I have a stack of letters and other handwritten documents from a bunch of my relatives who all lived in the same town and went to the same public schools from about 1915 to 1935. Their handwriting is identical. Obviously, they were not allowed to express any "art" or "personality" in their penmanship classes.

That's how it was done when I learned cursive, too. You formed your letters exactly the way they were in the book, right down to the degree of slant, or you got red marks all over your papers.

[Ms. Toad]

94. I think about this a lot as I'm hand-writing GOTV postcards.

I have no idea of the age of the people I'm writing to. It takes me longer (and creates more hand-cramps) to print - BUT - I know that some who receive them won't be able to read the message if I write in cursive.

I try to print as many as I can - and then I switch to cursive for a while - sometimes adapting it to include printed letters for cursive letters which are harder to interpret. I also try to limit this to when I find names which seem to belong to older people.

[YourFriendlySnake]

99. I'd rather teaching time be spent learning Russian than something useless like cursive.

[LAS14]

101. Yeah, I bumped into this several years ago. So much for history and family treasures. nt

[Mariana]

104. Yes, no one would ever learn to read cursive on their own

so they could read historical documents and family letters.

Besides, pretty much all of the old wills and such that I've read from a few hundred years ago were written by someone other than the people who signed them. If they could hire someone to write their documents for them, why can't people today hire someone to read them?

[IcyPeas]

102. thing is, you only have to learn it once, maybe in 3rd grade, once you know it you can do it forever

we were even graded on our penmanship in elementary school. (catholic school)

In the 80s I took a few calligraphy classes. It can be very artistic. when you are learning it you really have to concentrate. same with learning cursive for kids, they have to concentrate on the letters and joining the next letter. learning to concentrate is a lesson in itself.

If any of you are on Reddit, they have a subs for Calligraphy, Handwriting, Penmanship Porn.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PenmanshipPorn/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Handwriting/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Calligraphy/

https://www.reddit.com/r/calligraffiti/

[LuckyCharms]

109. I can't write it anymore.

I've been told that I have beautiful printing, but my signature now looks like a scribble.

[WarGamer]

110. To this day I STILL remember the classroom that had the cursive alphabet on the walls

Each letter had it's Capital and lower case form so if you forgot how to write it, you just looked up for the reminder.

[LuckyCharms]

114. Yep. On green placards with white writing...

mounted above the blackboard.

[WarGamer]

154. Absolutely.

[KentuckyWoman]

116. People learn what they need to know.

I've taught myself to make calls on a cell phone because payphones are gone. I've never NEEDED to do anything other than calls. I also have a Windows something laptop for the internet. But I sit in front of the screen with pencil and paper to take notes. That's my comfort zone.

Some future generation I doubt will have to give a signature for anything. It will be biometrics. Typing is even going away. Just talk to the receiver and it listens and gets it for you. The Jetsons without the flying cars.


My father could blacksmith. He could make wooden wheels that held a lot of weight. He could fix almost anything. He handled a horse, a mule even oxen like it was nothing. He had to. Me? I'm OK around a horse but I'd rather have a car. That's my time period.

[Meowmee]

118. I am surprised as well...

Last edited Fri Sep 16, 2022, 06:22 PM - Edit history (4)

Many of my college level students can’t write coherent sentences or spell correctly. I have to wonder how they graduate from high school. I am surprised by the cursive as well. I don’t know if they can write and read cursive.

So apparently the extra time not teaching cursive is not helping in other areas. This has been true for 30 years though and it seems cursive was stopped in many schools in 2010 so maybe it has nothing to do with that. It is easier for most to learn cursive first then block because you don’t have to take the pen off the paper.

My handwriting was not beautiful and neat until I went to school in England for a year where they stressed the importance of beautiful handwriting. We always wrote in cursive there I think.

Years later I used to hand write letters to a friend in Taiwan who moved back for a while. I used to hand write her address in Mandarin by copying it which she said her husband said looked beautiful, lol.

* I just remembered that some do still write in cursive because on one exam which is handwritten some students have used cursive. But at some point I remember telling them to use block script on one or two occasions maybe, or at least to write as legibly as possible and larger so I could easily read it. So some are still learning cursive even now.

I still use cursive at times and I use block script frequently for writing notes- for journals I nearly always use cursive. It is physically harder for me now due to injuries, but so is typing on a device.

In addition- I just read an article that says although NY state dropped the cursive requirement in 2019, many elementary teachers still teach it from third grade on apparently.

[liberal_mama]

123. I never taught my homeschooled son cursive writing, but he can still read cursive

When I write something in cursive, he never has a problem reading it. I didn't realize that they still taught cursive in school. My younger son will be 29 years old next month, so this was 20 years ago now when I was homeschooling him in 3rd grade and not teaching him cursive. It seemed like a waste of time even back then. I remember 3rd grade was when my teacher started teaching me cursive.

My son's signature looks like it's in a form of cursive, or a funny combination of cursive/printing.

I have beautiful cursive writing, but the only real use for it now is when my mother and other family members ask me to write out and address their Christmas and greeting cards! So that's a disadvantage for me. My mother says, "You need to write out my 100 Christmas cards and address all the envelopes because you have the best handwriting in the family!"

[alphafemale]

124. Can you read Latin?

I can read average cursive written in most of even the last century.

Anything beyond that is way too vague.

Just too squished or smudged or swirly special.

Not to mention that spelling was not an exact thing.

[LiberalFighter]

125. I do genealogy research. How will future generations be able to do research?

[Mariana]

138. If they want to read old documents, they will learn to read cursive.

Why do so many people seem to think it's impossible to learn a new skill after leaving school?

[LiberalFighter]

180. It is not easy for those of us that grew up with it to read all cursive.

Especially from different time periods and different languages.

[Xolodno]

127. No need for it anymore.

I had to learn in elementary school, but seldom used it, I always resorted to print. In Junior High I took typing as an elective (best usable elective ever, next to wood shop) and my parents got me a type writer. Did all my essays from that. Got to college, everything was via computer and spitted out by printer.

Midterms and Finals were via blue book and I printed on those as well.

With that said, cursive is a skill you can research yourself and pick up (I know it in two languages). If you can read it or not depends on the penmanship of the writer. Again, I really don't see a need for it, there are other skills more important. Shoot, I have books that are written in Slavic....when I get stumped, I grab the Russian version for the modern translation, but I'm not going to waste my time learning Slavic.

[GoneOffShore]

177. Cursive is still taught in European schools. Except to doctors.

[Hekate]

133. My oldest grandson, 18, was explicitly not taught cursive

I was not pleased & am not pleased, but there's nothing I can do about it.

[Mariana]

136. There is something you can do about it, IF he's interested in learning it.

If he isn't interested, then of course you can't force him.

[Hekate]

140. You mean be his teacher? That does not work for everybody.

[Mariana]

143. You can buy him a book on cursive writing for adults.

This isn't some difficult skill that requires years of instruction. He can learn it on his own, IF he's interested.

[gldstwmn]

145. Have you tried teaching them Russian?

Oops, sorry wrong thread. 🤦

[Happy Hoosier]

147. I can't remember the last time I needed that skill.

It’s an archaic skill now, I think.

[JCMach1]

149. Obsolescence, it's a thing...

I took both Middle English and Old English, but I suspect the vast majority of DUers can't do that...

Doesn't make me special, just an English Ph.D. who was doing research.

Point being, if the skill is actually needed, someone will study it.

[Mariana]

179. Exactly. People who need that skill will learn it.

If they get a job in which they have to read documents written in cursive, they'll learn to read cursive. If they have a hobby like genealogy, they'll learn to read cursive. If they can't be bothered with that, they can hire someone to read it for them. There's no good reason for everyone to be forced to learn it in school.

[planetc]

152. I remember that when I was a Junior or Senior in college, I took notes in a history class, ...

in cursive on paper. This was 1964 or '65, so our technology was limited. Anyhow, our professor was a good, clear lecturer, and I took thorough notes. And then didn't look at them again until the morning before his final. Then I read through my notes, went in and took the exam, and I think got an A for the course. I still use cursive every day, for making notes when I'm on the phone with all sorts of people. My printing has come in handy, and improved, with my deep dive into crosswords. I believe that all technologies are good for something, and some are good for lots of things. Cursive is one that's handy for lots.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

163. Do other cultures such as Chinese or Japanese have two different ways of handwriting?

Something equivalent to print vs cursive?

[Meowmee]

166. Yes

[LeftInTX]

171. Arabic and Armenian do

Hindi does not

Arabic is almost always seen in cursive, however I see it in print here and there. (Food product labels, movie credits etc) I don't have much exposure to Arabic however.

I watch tons of Hindi movies. I have never seen anything that resembles cursive in Hindi.

Here is the Armenian alphabet...

ա բ գ դ ե զ է ը թ ժ իլ խ խ ծ կ հ ձ ղ ճ մ յ ն շ ո չ պ ջ ռ ս վ տ ր ց ւփ ք օ ֆ

Cursive:

[eppur_se_muova]

174. Japanese uses three writing systems -- katakana and hiragana (phonetic) and kanji (ideographic).

All three are used together in most written/printed sentences.

Russian (and I suppose other languages which use the Cyrillic alphabet) has a cursive version, which is similar to the printed form except for a few letters which are drastically different.

[JI7]

167. Maybe it can be made into an elective course. The thing with CUrsive is that even people that can

write it can have trouble reading other people's writings in cursive.

[GoodRaisin]

170. I was surprised to find out from my granddaughter that they don't teach it in our schools.

I don’t think I could have ever kept up with my note taking in college without it. It didn’t look so good but it was only necessary that I be able to read it. In this sense I found it to be most useful.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

182. Good information. Now I can use sloppy cursive as a code to irritate and confound

a certain segment of the population, should the need arise.

𝐹𝓊𝒸𝓀 𝒯𝓇𝓊𝓂𝓅 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒾𝒹𝒾𝑜�� 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑒𝑔𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓃𝑔 𝑅𝑒𝓅𝓊𝒷𝓁𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝒽𝒾𝓂.