The lost art of handwriting...

[yennyfire]

I write in a "pigeon" blend of script and cursive. Our school is phasing out cursive and part of me has a problem with it and the other part of me says "who cares?".

However, I will admit, I was taken aback last May when I went to the high school graduation party of a neighbor's son and received a thank you note written in script that was barely legible. Now, I know I should have been grateful to receive a thank you note (and I was), but how strange is it that people won't have signatures anymore?? That's just odd to me.

I plan to teach my kids cursive at home, if only so they have their own distinct signature and so they can read items written in cursive.

Come to think about it, this could be the new pig latin!! Write in cursive and your kids won't be able to read it! Voila!! Secret parent communication is safe and sound!

 

[Laila619]

It's a very personal form of written communication, to me, and I take a lot of pride in my penmanship because I really practiced making it pretty and perfect when I was in grade school. My mother has exquisite penmanship whether she writes in cursive or print, and, growing up, I always wished my cursive was as lovely as hers. Mine is totally different, but you can see the influence of hers in mine if you compare samples. I've saved every single hand-written card or letter either of my parents ever wrote me before and after I moved away from home, because I always valued the time and care they took to do so, and because I knew if I ever had a family (how distant that dream seemed when I was in my twenties!) I would want my children and grandchildren to read what my parents had written to me.

I wrote my daughter a letter (to be opened on her 18th birthday) in cursive, and plan to write her one each year with that purpose in mind, a few weeks after she was born.

I'm 35. I still remember the texture of the lined paper on which I learned cursive in 2nd grade. In fact, I can actually smell that paper in my mind if I think about it hard enough. Greyish paper, medium blue, bold top and bottom lines, with red dashes in the middle for extra guidance. I'm pretty sure my mother has faded examples of my first attempts at penmanship tucked away in a box.

Oh my gosh, this is all so sweet! Awwww

 

[VRBeauty]

I learned cursive writing as a child, but unfortunately my handwriting never reached the level of anything approaching "art." It's still my go-to for handwriting though. I think anyone who can't read cursive - or at least be able to decipher most cursive - is going to be at a disadvantage for at least another few decades.

 

[MissStepcut]

I'm 28.

I learned cursive and penmanship in school, and I am glad I did, I suppose, but no, I never use it. Frankly, it only helped so much when I was standing in front of our founding documents. Those suckers are hard to read. And although I did need to reference them in law school, sure enough the "translations" suited me just fine.

I never handwrite anything. If I need to jot something down, I text or email it.

I don't think one particular style of penmanship is nearly so important to culture as art and music in schools. If my daughter's school skips teaching her cursive, I won't exactly be dialing up the principal.

 

[monarch64]

Thank you Laila, for the kind words. I am rather sentimental about some things...

I didn't actually answer your question in my previous post. I would be disappointed if my daughter wasn't taught cursive in school in a few years. Ksinger made some great points in her post. Sonnyjane, I'm not sure that I agree with your analogies of cavemen painting walls and Latin being basically useless...we've learned a great deal from both forms of ancient communication, and the medical and judicial professions (first two that popped into my head) employ Latin, right?

I guess my philosophical answer is this: humans seek meaning in life. We want to live on and to be understood by future generations for evolutionary and basic emotional reasons. The means we use to communicate with each other, including written and verbal communication, play a large role in that. Someone must have put a lot of time and effort into developing the form of written communication that we know as cursive handwriting, and to those who can read and understand it, it would be a great loss, meaning part of US is gone forever to the future generations we want to be remembered by. That's kind of a tough pill to swallow if you're a semi-romantic like me and care to be remembered or appreciated later. Any psych majors care to throw in how our egos play into this now? LOL

 

[AGBF]

I am over 50, so it may not appear surprising that I use cursive writing, but it should be. I always got failing grades in penmanship when I was younger. I was very, very messy when I was a child doing homework. I rushed through my work, my ideas mattering, not my penmanship. Later, in junior high, I saw the beautiful handwriting of another girl and tried on her style. I just used the latent skills I had and disciplined myself to slow down and make my papers "pretty". I found that I could make things that I wrote look nice...really nice. I had had no idea!

Now, like some of the other posters, I take pleasure in being able to write pretty thank you notes and being able to address letters in ways that look elegant. Yes, I often write in cursive writing. Everyone (who can read cursive) can read what I write. What shocked me was that that, about five years ago, when I taught middle school and wrote on the blackboard, some of my students claimed to be unable to read what I had written...because it was in cursive writing. I had no idea that writing in cursive was like writing in the Cyrillic alphabet nowadays.

I agree with ksinger (surprise! surprise! former history teacher writing here) that US citizens should be able to read the documents upon which this country was founded. I believe in a literate country, good grammar, good spelling, cursive writing, and all kinds of good English.

Deb/AGBF

 

[ksinger]

I am over 50, so it may not appear surprising that I use cursive writing, but it should be. I always got failing grades in penmanship when I was younger. I was very, very messy when I was a child doing homework. I rushed through my work, my ideas mattering, not my penmanship. Later, in junior high, I saw the beautiful handwriting of another girl and tried on her style. I just used the latent skills I had and disciplined myself to slow down and make my papers "pretty". I found that I could make things that I wrote look nice...really nice. I had had no idea!

Now, like some of the other posters, I take pleasure in being able to write pretty thank you notes and being able to address letters in ways that look elegant. Yes, I often write in cursive writing. Everyone (who can read cursive) can read what I write. What shocked me was that that, about five years ago, when I taught middle school and wrote on the blackboard, some of my students claimed to be unable to read what I had written...because it was in cursive writing. I had no idea that writing in cursive was like writing in the Cyrillic alphabet nowadays.

I agree with ksinger (surprise! surprise! former history teacher writing here) that US citizens should be able to read the documents upon which this country was founded. I believe in a literate country, good grammar, good spelling, cursive writing, and all kinds of good English.

Deb/AGBF

I see it as simply a sign of being well-educated. I'm not saying people have to like it, or even use it past a certain point, but to not ever have any schooling in it? To not even know how to read it? I don't see it as some desirable form of progress. Most of the arguments against are by people who didn't like it, and they sound suspiciously like the old standard arguments against any subject that kids don't like. For myself, well, I hated PE - I was not fast or athletic, and was the last one chosen for teams. I should not have had to do that, right? because I found it unpleasant and to this day I despise team sports. No amount of being forced to play them as a kid made me like them or continue them as an adult. Or, a bigger favorite, why should I have to learn quadratic equations, or understand logarithms? In fact, once I've learned the basic operators so that I can find them on a calculator, there is no reason I should have to actually understand the steps required to get to any mathematical answer, I mean, scientific level calculators are on even the most antiquated "devices" now, right? (For the record, I DID plough my way through differential equations, lest anyone think I couldn't do math. Not surprisingly, I don't use them today...like many things I had to learn in school)

I guarantee, I've had more reason to use and read cursive in a lifetime, than to play team sports or use logarithms. And I would bet a serious sum of money that private schools don't skip this for any reason. Maybe someone with more firsthand knowledge of privates can chime in, but I bet I'm right on this one.

Now, from a strictly practical standpoint, the public schools are beleaguered at present, since they are being systematically dismantled, with all the self-segregating (by income) to privates and the supposedly superior charters, leaving them saturated with almost all the students dealing with poverty issues. Teaching penmanship when 65% of your students are ESL and SE, can be one of those things that seems the straw that broke the camel's back. (And yes, for you teachers out there, at my husband's school right now, 65% of their student population is ESL and SE, with an even higher percentage as low-income. Contemplate that a bit. AND the SE classes go away next year and every last one of them comes into the regular classroom, because they can't keep SE teachers - can neither afford them, and the working conditions are execrable.) When I asked if his district teaches penmanship, he snorted and said, "Hell, we're just trying to get them able to READ, penmanship...uh no." Of course when I came back and pointed out that no one ever has penmanship in high school, therefore his assertion that they didn't teach it didn't mean much, he did admit he has little idea what they are teaching in the elementary schools.

 

[JewelFreak]

We should really only stop teaching cursive if we wish to no longer be able to read our own original founding documents. There are probably already a bunch of kids who visit DC and view The Constitution, and ask an adult, "What does it say, I can't read it!" Pretty pathetic.

The arguments against cursive are typically the same used for not funding anything like "art" or "music" as fluff and saying they are strictly unnecessary, and therefore a waste. And they ARE strictly unnecessary - I can go through my life without art, music, literature or any form of my own culture not related to strictly pragmatic concerns - like making money? - but it will be the path of least resistance, a diminished life, and much coarser than it must be. It also says something about how we view communications - they should be cheap and effortless. God forbid we have to do anything that isn't easy, can't make us money at the end of the day, and that and requires effort and application to do well. That path of least resistance again.

I'm a big fan of cursive. Mine used to be quite remarkable, and I even used to do calligraphy - italic, half-uncial, and blackletter. Alas, time has degraded my skill, and now it is an effort to simply write legibly. But I'm glad I know how, and can when necessary (with much attention and application of some old-fashioned effort), and glad I can read it.

+ a million, ksinger! I've read articles by historians who are really concerned -- how can we keep people valuing historical documents they can't read? If a choice has to be made, they should not teach printing, teach cursive writing instead -- kids can learn printing on their computers. Agree with you about the arts in total -- the lack of those things results in sad ignorance of wonders, and of human history & creativeness.

--- Laurie

 

[cm366]

The most reasonable justification I've ever encountered for subjecting kids to lots of subjects they may not like is to help them identify which subjects they do enjoy (or can tolerate!). I can see the argument for exposing everyone to math (not necessarily any specific form of math, but some higher-order mathematics) to provide a path for those who appreciate and are successful in mathematics to identify and pursue their goals. Similarly, I don't think most people get much out of seeing that a potato can power a lightbulb, or that plants grow from seeds, mature and drop seeds of their own - but the future engineers, chemists or biologists are taking notes. I guess I just don't see similar potential in handwriting unless you're hoping to identify a huge population of budding calligraphers.

As an art form, and a historic means of communication that provided the foundation to virtually all written knowledge - fantastic! If you wanted to teach it alongside finger painting or xylophone, sure, I guess there's an argument for handwriting as art. If you wanted to teach it as history, well, I guess it's no less valuable than dioramas. But as a sign of being well-educated, I'd say cursive penmanship is right up there with knowing how to change a typewriter ribbon or compete in dressage. It's a sign of good fine motor control, patient practice, and (these days) a taste for vintage.

 

[cm366]

As far as historical documents go - that's what history is! All the cursive knowledge in the world will be useless in the face of all but a handful of documents from the recent past, written in your own language. Somehow, The Prince, The Iliad and The Bible (to name but three) have made it into popular culture despite being originally penned in scripts and languages far more difficult to decipher than cursive. I'm more concerned with the vast numbers of graduates who can't function in modern printed English.

 

[AGBF]

Somehow, The Prince, The Iliad and The Bible (to name but three) have made it into popular culture despite being originally penned in scripts and languages far more difficult to decipher than cursive.

I'm more concerned with the vast numbers of graduates who can't function in modern printed English.

I'm not sure The Iliad was penned. Classical literature is not my field, but weren't The Odyssey and The Iliad oral literature? I also find it a bit jarring to read that The Prince and The Bible were written in languages more "difficult to decipher" than English written in cursive (I believe that is what you meant). The languages in which they were written may be difficult for 21 st century Americans to decipher, but were not difficult for the people of the era in which they were written and the places in which they were written to decipher! How can one complain that time passes and that people in a far away country like ours take an interest in ancient, foreign documents? All that ksinger wrote was that we should be able to read our own documents.

By the way, I agree with you that in the hierarchy of things about which to worry it is more worrisome that some people cannot read any printed English than that some cannot read cursive writing, but how does that affect whether educated people should be able to read and write in cursive script?

Deb/AGBF

 

[ChristineRose]

Cursive is not all that hard to learn to read. If you are bored one afternoon, try getting a copy of the Hebrew bible, or The Iliad and sit down with a letter chart. You'll be reading out loud in a few hours, all without having the slightest idea what the words mean. It is not necessary to practice writing the letter forms for hours in order to read them.

"Business cursive" or "Palmer business cursive" evolved as an alternative to the highly decorative Victorian scripts, which were considered too time consuming for working-class people to practice but an essential part of class and culture. Ball and stick printing emulates actual printing press fonts and was intended to be a starter script for children who weren't ready to practice the complicated letter forms necessary for decorative scripts.

Before the pen and ink technologies that allowed for decorative scripts, people wrote English in italics. Italics are easier to learn, easier to master, and easier to read. There are people who go around saving lives simply by giving doctors a short course in unlearning cursive and printing and learning italics. As an example, a little "b" in ball and stick printing needs a ball and a stick, and a little "b" in cursive needs a diagonal upstroke, a counterclockwise loop, a clockwise semicircle, a diagonal upstroke, and a little semicircle on the end. An italic "b" needs a downward stroke that runs into a counterclockwise circle.

The cursive I learned was not meant to be decorative or beautiful. It doesn't allow you to sign your name like John Hancock, and you can't write decorative scripts with a ball point pen anyhow. I vote for teaching the children neither printing nor cursive but italics and typing and encouraging people to write decorative scripts if they like them.

 

[Dancing Fire]

[quote="AGBF|1364389461
By the way, I agree with you that in the hierarchy of things about which to worry it is more worrisome that some people cannot read any printed English than that some cannot read cursive writing, but how does that affect whether educated people should be able to read and write in cursive script?

Deb/AGBF
[/quote]


Mother Teresa
yes,I can read cursive writing.. I better go parctice my cursive writing before you get piss off at me...

the computer eliminated the writing skills in all languages not just English.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Kids should be taught cursive...I do think it's important and my kids' school does teach it.

Case is: My two boys. One is 12 and one is 10. My 12 year old has better handwritting when he prints. My 10 year old's writing is really nice and neat when he writes in cursive and it's a *mess* when he prints, so it's good for kids to learn both so they can figure out what works best for them.

They both type out most assignments, but my younger son is often asked to write out final drafts by hand and he does them in cursive.

I do wish they taught typing to elementary kids...

 

[ksinger]

[quote="AGBF|1364389461
By the way, I agree with you that in the hierarchy of things about which to worry it is more worrisome that some people cannot read any printed English than that some cannot read cursive writing, but how does that affect whether educated people should be able to read and write in cursive script?

Deb/AGBF

Mother Teresa
yes,I can read cursive writing.. I better go parctice my cursive writing before you get piss off at me...

the computer eliminated the writing skills in all languages not just English.[/quote]


Snort. The computer has and is destroying a lot of skills. Srsly, everything has a price, because TNSTAAFL, U KWIM?

 

[rosetta]

I have clear, neat cursive handwriting. My husband tells me I'm not a real doctor because my penmanship is too good.

I used to do calligraphy in school. I should take that up again. I did address all my wedding invitations though, that took a very long time!

 

[AGBF]

Snort. The computer has and is destroying a lot of skills. Srsly, everything has a price, because TNSTAAFL, U KWIM?

I learned the "Kwim" word, but no one taught me the "Transvaal" word yet. What does that one stand for?

Deb

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I have clear, neat cursive handwriting. My husband tells me I'm not a real doctor because my penmanship is too good.

hahaha!

 

[cm366]

Hey AGBF!

TANSTAAFL stands for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch". You're right, the Iliad was originally an oral text, but (like the encroachment of typing on handwriting) written texts have largely supplanted oral traditions. I'd wager a small sum for your favorite charity that when the tale was first transcribed to a written medium the language in which it was set down was not English! I understand that the desire is to have American kids learn how to read American documents, but I suppose that I see the documents as historical artifacts and the ideas within them to hold their real value - value that's only enhanced, to my mind, by rendering them into modern (typed) form so that kids can reach the meaning and connect it to the history. I don't understand how teaching them that they have to learn a different style of language in order to even read the document helps them connect with it more deeply - leave that to those would-be historians who are dissatisfied with the printed version and wish to seek the nuance and richness of reading the text in its original form.

As far as whether cursive reading is a desirable skill - sure it is, because about half the population is old enough that they learned it in school and some of them still use it today. If your boss insists on scribbling notes to you instead of sending you an email or a text, you can either use your cursive reading skills to decipher it or find a way to tell her she's a poor communicator - one of these might be easier than the other! I loved ChristineRose's post - great background info! I'd still say, though, that the best lifesaving option is to get those docs to stop writing notes that have to be deciphered and buy a printer whose output any literate person can read. Well-educated is a phrase which I suspect has as many meanings as it does readers, but the original question was whether schools should be teaching cursive to all kids, presumably with the implication that time and effort could be spent on cursive or on some other subject. It's not a question of cursive or nothing, it's a question of cursive or more time spent learning English, cursive or a foreign language, cursive or art.

 

[ksinger]

Hey AGBF!

TANSTAAFL stands for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch". You're right, the Iliad was originally an oral text, but (like the encroachment of typing on handwriting) written texts have largely supplanted oral traditions. I'd wager a small sum for your favorite charity that when the tale was first transcribed to a written medium the language in which it was set down was not English! I understand that the desire is to have American kids learn how to read American documents, but I suppose that I see the documents as historical artifacts and the ideas within them to hold their real value - value that's only enhanced, to my mind, by rendering them into modern (typed) form so that kids can reach the meaning and connect it to the history. I don't understand how teaching them that they have to learn a different style of language in order to even read the document helps them connect with it more deeply - leave that to those would-be historians who are dissatisfied with the printed version and wish to seek the nuance and richness of reading the text in its original form.

As far as whether cursive reading is a desirable skill - sure it is, because about half the population is old enough that they learned it in school and some of them still use it today. If your boss insists on scribbling notes to you instead of sending you an email or a text, you can either use your cursive reading skills to decipher it or find a way to tell her she's a poor communicator - one of these might be easier than the other! I loved ChristineRose's post - great background info! I'd still say, though, that the best lifesaving option is to get those docs to stop writing notes that have to be deciphered and buy a printer whose output any literate person can read. Well-educated is a phrase which I suspect has as many meanings as it does readers, but the original question was whether schools should be teaching cursive to all kids, presumably with the implication that time and effort could be spent on cursive or on some other subject. It's not a question of cursive or nothing, it's a question of cursive or more time spent learning English, cursive or a foreign language, cursive or art.

Considering the increasing white/economic flight to privates and the supposedly superior charters (they aren't really, but that's another topic entirely. We're dismantling Plessy as I type.), I'd say that cursive is far from dead. I just asked a co-worker whose daughter has always been in private parochial school (where they teach both languages and reading) if they teach penmanship. She looked a bit surprised and said, "Well, of course." So it ain't dead yet, I'm thinking, and there is likely still a preponderance of supporters of cursive/penmanship among people who value a well-rounded education over a bare bones/expedient one. But then a good education is increasingly going back to the paradigm of only the rich being able to afford one. Those in the underfunded publics will continue to be forced to receive the industrial model of education, sadly.

 

[chrono]

Just as there is illegible script, there is also illegible cursive. I was taught cursive in primary school but advised to print VERY legibly for the nationwide assessment exams which practically dictates your future path in life because scrawly text means losing valuable points when the graders cannot read your answers. Hence my very typewriter looking print is super fast to this day. Cursive takes time for me. The school system in my state requires learning cursive in 4th grade.

 

[kenny]

I'm not opposed to change and don't want to cling to the past for romantic reasons.
Whatever schools decide is fine with me.

I rarely write cursive, or write anything except shopping lists.

 

[NOYFB]

My handwriting is a combination of cursive and printing. I've been writing that way for years.

Oddly enough, I work in a hospital where our medical records are electronically based, and there are some old school docs who absolutely refuse to document in the electronic chart and continue to document in the hard chart. Unfortunately, they all write in cursive and 99% of them are completely illegible. There's one doc in particular who, if I didn't know better, I would be convinced was writing in a language other than English. I get a headache just trying to decipher what he's written.

 

[marymm]

My handwriting is a combination of cursive and printing. I've been writing that way for years.

This is what I do too.

I also handwrite notes at work - I use a computer of course for work projects, but whenever anyone comes into my office with an assignment or verbal instructions, I jot down quick notes on my little notepad or on a post-it note.

And when I was finishing up my grad school degrees a few years ago, I also handwrote all my class notes. I find if I handwrite something, it sticks in my brain almost like a picture - when trying to remember something I wrote down (for a test for example), I bring to mind an image of the page of notes and try to close in on the exact space on the page where the pertinent info was written. This really works for me - even for shopping lists, when I've written out the list but left it at home.

As memorabilia, I treasure greeting cards my grandmother handwrote to me over the years - towards the end before she died all she could do was scrawl out her name crookedly, and it meant so much to me that she made that effort. I have similar letters and correspondence from my father from over the years, and as his dementia was progressing his letters got more and more postcard-ish, with phrases and shorthand-type notations taking the place of full-fledged sentences and paragraphs. Eventually he couldn't write at all, he only remembered that he used to know how. His writings are precious to me.

My husband's handwriting is terrible; but one anniversary he took the time to scrawl out a poem to me in pencil on white typing paper - it just wouldn't be the same if he'd done it on the computer and printed it out.

 

[AGBF]

Hey AGBF!

TANSTAAFL stands for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch". You're right, the Iliad was originally an oral text, but (like the encroachment of typing on handwriting) written texts have largely supplanted oral traditions. I'd wager a small sum for your favorite charity that when the tale was first transcribed to a written medium the language in which it was set down was not English! I understand that the desire is to have American kids learn how to read American documents, but I suppose that I see the documents as historical artifacts and the ideas within them to hold their real value - value that's only enhanced, to my mind, by rendering them into modern (typed) form so that kids can reach the meaning and connect it to the history. I don't understand how teaching them that they have to learn a different style of language in order to even read the document helps them connect with it more deeply - leave that to those would-be historians who are dissatisfied with the printed version and wish to seek the nuance and richness of reading the text in its original form.

As far as whether cursive reading is a desirable skill - sure it is, because about half the population is old enough that they learned it in school and some of them still use it today. If your boss insists on scribbling notes to you instead of sending you an email or a text, you can either use your cursive reading skills to decipher it or find a way to tell her she's a poor communicator - one of these might be easier than the other! I loved ChristineRose's post - great background info! I'd still say, though, that the best lifesaving option is to get those docs to stop writing notes that have to be deciphered and buy a printer whose output any literate person can read. Well-educated is a phrase which I suspect has as many meanings as it does readers, but the original question was whether schools should be teaching cursive to all kids, presumably with the implication that time and effort could be spent on cursive or on some other subject. It's not a question of cursive or nothing, it's a question of cursive or more time spent learning English, cursive or a foreign language, cursive or art.

Thanks cm366-

I like learning foreign languages (one of the options for which you say I will have more time if I don't have to study cursive writing in school), so I can learn more of those Transvaal words like the one you just taught me. The only problem is that I don't really believe that many school districts are going to put a single penny of the old cursive writing budget into the study of foreign languages. They have cut the study of Italian at universities and now at high schools in many places. French is becoming more rare. Try to get German at some colleges. In short, unless one wants to study Spanish or Chinese, he may not be able to study a foreign language at all. And did I mention that no one can study ancient Greek, while studying Latin is not common? But that is just one of my pet peeves.

Judging from the way adolescents speak, there isn't a lot of money going to grammar programs for English, either. Even my own daughter, who grew up speaking correctly, now says, "Me and Brian went to the store".

Oh! And I did drink the Kool Aid about the Iliad. I am sure that it was first set down in writing in ancient Greek by Homer. I wasn't trying to imply that it was first scribbled down in English!

Deb

 

[cm366]

Hey AGBF!
Well-educated is a phrase which I suspect has as many meanings as it does readers, but the original question was whether schools should be teaching cursive to all kids, presumably with the implication that time and effort could be spent on cursive or on some other subject. It's not a question of cursive or nothing, it's a question of cursive or more time spent learning English, cursive or a foreign language, cursive or art.

Considering the increasing white/economic flight to privates and the supposedly superior charters (they aren't really, but that's another topic entirely. We're dismantling Plessy as I type.), I'd say that cursive is far from dead. I just asked a co-worker whose daughter has always been in private parochial school (where they teach both languages and reading) if they teach penmanship. She looked a bit surprised and said, "Well, of course." So it ain't dead yet, I'm thinking, and there is likely still a preponderance of supporters of cursive/penmanship among people who value a well-rounded education over a bare bones/expedient one. But then a good education is increasingly going back to the paradigm of only the rich being able to afford one. Those in the underfunded publics will continue to be forced to receive the industrial model of education, sadly.

Not sure what the above is intended to prove - there will always be pricey privates that teach your preferred topic, whether it's penmanship, Bible studies or the study of woodwinds in 17th century Italian music. The idea is that by spending time on any topic, you're necessarily decreasing the focus on another - there's an opportunity cost. If you go to Juilliard, you'll learn more about music, drama and dance than in almost any other setting on earth. On the other hand, you'll also learn less about physics and mechanical engineering than the students at many of those "bare bones, underfunded publics struggling with their industrial model of education". If you've got time for cursive on top of all the subjects you need, fantastic. I'd still say you're better off spending that time on something more likely to be useful than practicing an outmoded form of communication.

 

[cm366]

Hey AGBF!

I like abbreviations and acronyms, but by the time we've reached TANSTAAFL we might be into one of those new languages I'd like more time to learn! I'd agree that school districts are more likely to cut outright than redirect the time and funding into something useful, but that's an administrative and cultural problem distinct from "Is what we're spending time and money on the best use of those resources?" (It might well be a larger problem!)

I went through secondary school around the millennium and grammar was not taught in any formal sense at all. We learned what a noun, a verb, and an adjective were in primary school, but most of my classmates first encountered "conjugation" and "participles" when learning foreign languages, not English. On the other hand, we spent a lot of time learning about geology and foreign languages, which was fairly uncommon when my parents were educated in the 60's. Ultimately, there's too much knowledge available to be universally exposed in K-12, and I'm very interested in the process of how topics are selected or discarded.....

Cheers for the discussion (And likewise to the OP)!

 

[pregcurious]

I think if kids want to learn it, they can, but if they're never going use it, they'll get out of practice and it will not end up looking good. While I like cursive, I would rather have my kids learn things they'll use.

 

[bluebirrrd]

I'm late to the thread but want to thank everyone else who has spoken up so thoughtfully about the value of penmanship.

As someone who works with youth from impoverished families I've observed that many people who have been gang involved (both males and females) have perfected very elaborate cursive and scripts, some which are quite beautiful. Some have practiced in juvenile hall where letter writing is still common. Others have just spent hours at home teaching themselves.

Communication for most of the rest of us has become so impersonal that even talking on the phone is going by the wayside. Case in point, the brave new world of dating in the texting age. I'm not averse to change, but it does appear that if the power ever goes out and we lose internet and cell service, there will be a vast population of people who won't be able to communicate at all!

 

[AGBF]

It's time to bump this thread. There is currently an article in the Science section of, "The New York Times" which has been e-mailed a great many times. Its thesis is that the act of writing affects the brain. There is a lot more to it, however!

Link to article...http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0

Deb/AGBF