Cursive writing, which stopped being taught to kids, is making a comeback

[kenny]

Experts say it's good for the brain development of kids.
California stopped teaching it in 2010, but brought back the requirement this year.
24 states now require it.

The pros and cons are controversial in the US, and around the world.

Details ...

California signs cursive writing into law – what are the brain benefits?

A new law requiring cursive to be taught in California schools went into effect at the start of this year. But does this style of handwriting have long to live on a global scale?

www.bbc.com

 

[YadaYadaYada]

My older son who is 16 can barely sign his name, he attended public and magnet schools here in CT. Our younger son (9) can write in cursive pretty well considering he is left-handed, he learned this in private school. IMO all kids should be taught this, it is not outdated, it’s a necessary skill.

It also makes it a lot easier to write on a birthday cake if you know cursive

 

[tyty333]

@YadaYadaYada Both my young adult kids sign their names in script. I'm like...that's not a signature! For some reason, in
my mind it has to be in cursive to be an "official" signature .

I wish it was taught just because it seems like a dying art. It does make writing faster (at least for me it does). If it has additional
brain benefits then that's even more reason!

 

[jaysonsmom]

Both my kids went to preschool at a Montessori and were taught to write in cursive before they were taught to print letters. The reason being that it is more natural for young kids to draw curves than straight lines. My kids are 21 and 19 now, but though they rarely write in cursive, they can read the cursive notes I leave them. They just text me

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

i never knew it was called cursive, we just called it writing (as opposed to printing)
mine is terrible, always was, i have no idea if its still taught here,
to be honest i have trouble reading it if something is written that way

 

[Amber St. Clare]

My husband was surprised that when he asked a recent hire to sign something and she printed it. He said, no you have to sign it. She said I don't know how.
I remember teaching in the 4th grade and having the kids do an alphabet paper each week. But that was back in the stone age.

 

[Ally T]

When I was at school it was called ‘joined up writing’ but it went to cursive by the time my children started school. We have always been taught how to ‘join up’ in the UK - i think we’re a bit old fashioned like that in some ways!

 

[dk168]

Can't remember many cursive writing workbooks I had to complete when I was a child, however, they did not do me any good!

There were times when I could not read my own handwriting and I take notices using capital letters to slow me down!

DK

 

[lovedogs]

I hate cursive so much! I can't read it, can't write it, and hated learning it (although it was called "italics" haha)

 

[stracci2000]

I never thought I'd see the day when cursive writing is out of style!

I usually write in cursive, but I print sometimes, too. It depends on the circumstance.

 

[jeaniefish]

During the Middle Ages, when I was in elementary school, I loved learning cursive writing. It was like being taught this secret code that the “little kids” wouldn’t be able to read when my friends and I wrote notes to each other. Sad to think that many kids have been denied that write-of-passage ( pun intended) due to time constraints and budget cuts or what ever reasons were given for dropping cursive writing from elementary school curriculum.

 

[jaysonsmom]

Funny story, I always write in cursive. I see youngsters trying to copy my notes during a church service (where we have fill in the blank sermon notes) and these youngsters sigh in frustration because they have no idea what I wrote in the blank and have to turn to other people who fill in their notes in print. It seriously gives my age away!

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I hate cursive so much! I can't read it, can't write it, and hated learning it (although it was called "italics" haha)

i find the prettier it is the harder it is to read
Bruce Springsteen has very nice writting, he had 1950's style nun school teachers
but i cant read it
i worked with a lovely old maori gentleman at my last work
he had beautiful writting
i did comment to him how pretty it was
he did say at school in those days it was beaten into them and if you got a bad report card then your dad beat you when you got home, sometimes mum would beat you too
1970's NZ education cant have been that bad, because i would have come home black and blue every day with my spelling and writting
i still did get in a load of trouble though, both at primary school and at home because of it

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

who remembers between printing and writing when you learnt to slope and we had a card that went under our page with dark black slopping guide lines
now im trying to remember when we went from a pencil to a pen ? now that was excitting

 

[LilAlex]

Interesting. The brain benefit piece sounds a little sus. That would be a tough RCT to conduct.

I'm too impatient to sign anything legibly so that motivation is out the window -- signed too many stacks of things over the years. Now I have to Adobe-sign everything that takes at least 10X longer and I am afraid to even add up the wasted hours. When I'm asked what I do for a living, I'm always tempted to say "Mostly sign stuff. And write emails." Not what I thought I'd be doing at this (or any) age.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Interesting. The brain benefit piece sounds a little sus. That would be a tough RCT to conduct.

I'm too impatient to sign anything legibly so that motivation is out the window -- signed too many stacks of things over the years. Now I have to Adobe-sign everything that takes at least 10X longer and I am afraid to even add up the wasted hours. When I'm asked what I do for a living, I'm always tempted to say "Mostly sign stuff. And write emails." Not what I thought I'd be doing at this (or any) age.

i have written very little since i left my old job 5 years ago, my handwritting (printing) has got so bad, i only have to write the odd note (grocery order) to the boss with our order if im on a close, he can read it but hardly any one else can, even Hilltop (the name of our branch) someone else couldnt read

i have always had an ugly signiture as my initals are N M W and the last name is all up-down letters M's, I's, L,s , it just looks like squiggle

 

[Mreader]

Hopefully they will add reading a clock to the curriculum too. Haha.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Hopefully they will add reading a clock to the curriculum too. Haha.

OMG Yes! I homeschooled our youngest for about 6 months of second grade and I had to teach him how to read a clock. He also didn’t know all the months of the year. It had me wondering what they were doing with these kids from 8:30-3:30

 

[Ally T]

Cursive in action! A section of the deeds to our house, beautifully hand written in 1865. There is so much teeny writing on so many pages that it’s impossible to read in places!

 

[Garnetgirl]

Cursive in action! A section of the deeds to our house, beautifully hand written in 1865. There is so much teeny writing on so many pages that it’s impossible to read in places!

I’ve been told by many people that I have nice handwriting, but wow, this is beautiful!
And unlike some documents from the 19 th century, which look nice but are difficult to read, this sample is very legible.

 

[Garnetgirl]

When I was at school it was called ‘joined up writing’ but it went to cursive by the time my children started school. We have always been taught how to ‘join up’ in the UK - i think we’re a bit old fashioned like that in some ways!

When I was young we called it “real writing”, as opposed to printing, which was for little kids. We looked forward to learning it when we were all grown up in grade 2 !

 

[Matata]

If any of us old geezers make it through whatever extinction events mother nature has planned for us this next decade, we will rule the world because we'll have a form of communication few others will be able to read. While they are chipping symbols on rocks with tools they probably won't know how to make, we can mock them and they won't have a clue bwabwaaaBWAHAHAAAAAA

 

[stracci2000]

I vow to write in cursive from now on just to confound the youngsters

With as many upper case Qs and Zs as I can squeeze in!

 

[Ally T]

I vow to write in cursive from now on just to confound the youngsters

With as many upper case Qs and Zs as I can squeeze in!

That Q & Z don’t look like ANYTHING!!

 

[stracci2000]

That Q & Z don’t look like ANYTHING!!

It's all so fancy, I kinda love it!

 

[Matata]

When I was learning how to write, the teacher would have us make animals out of the capital letters. All I remember is that capital A was some kind of bird. My artistic skills are no better today than when I was a kid.

 

[jeaniefish]

Hopefully they will add reading a clock to the curriculum too. Haha.

If not, those kids will be in big trouble when they are old Medicare age.. That part of the yearly Medicare check that requires you to draw a clock face is not to be taken lightly! I left a number off of my clock face and my doctor made me do it over again! Apparently, somewhere in the Medicare system, there is an official CLOCk FACE CHECKER person who takes the job very seriously. All you kids have been warned….. learn how to tell time w/o your digital gizmos before it’s too late! Apparently, your Medicare benefits will depend on it…. or perhaps there won’t be any Medicare benefits by then , so never mind!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Does anyone else write in a combination of print and cursive? I Never realized I do this until I started writing on cakes. For example if I’m writing “about” I will print the a, b and o but write the u and t in cursive and connected.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Hopefully they will add reading a clock to the curriculum too. Haha.

i want to laugh but thinking about it im afraid that kids today cant read clocks (something i hadnt thought about till now)

we do need a refresher course on Roman numerals, i remember in 5th form english doing film studies and the teacher taught us to quickly date a film by just looking at the last few (im not sure what to call them?) X's and V's etc
i see so many people getting George V and George Vi mixed up, Edward Vii and Edward viii, im sure the confussion is much wider than commentary of the royal families

im actually not even sure the correct way to write Roman numerlas on a key board,
always wanted a watch with Roman numerals

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Does anyone else write in a combination of print and cursive? I Never realized I do this until I started writing on cakes. For example if I’m writing “about” I will print the a, b and o but write the u and t in cursive and connected.

that sounds like you might have to lick a lot of icing off

not that you (or I) would do that a work