Thread: Cursive

Thanks for that info Tom. I think I'll be taking a look at it for sure because I'd love to give handwritten notes to people, but I don't like my handwriting enough to do it. It's good for what it is and in most situations, but not for anything besides forms and the like.

A few years ago, I had to write a huge number of letters by hand for some time. I have always prided myself that my handwriting is legible & clear. What did surprise me was how much my script improved because I was using it so much. That & rediscovering how much I enjoy writing beautifully. I am an artist in training, so aesthetics are important to me. I do believe that good handwriting, like so many things, is a matter of practice. My grandfather wrote beautiful copperplate, something to which I still aspire.

Originally Posted by Quick

Ahh, but with a little practice you could write much faster (and with less effort) than you could ever print. Strictly due to the mechanics/ergonomics involved.

Wrong, I wrote in cursive for many years until I got heavily into design. Engineering drawings are always printed, never written in cursive, and I quickly learned how to write print precisely with as much spead as my best cursive, which while very readable, can never match the clarity of hand printing.

Originally Posted by fccexpert

Wrong, I wrote in cursive for many years until I got heavily into design. Engineering drawings are always printed, never written in cursive, and I quickly learned how to write print precisely with as much spead as my best cursive, which while very readable, can never match the clarity of hand printing.

+1. Print is just as fast and almost always more legible. I'd take engineering fonts over cursive any day.

In the schoo system nearest me they don't teach cursive, at least I used a cursive computer font to print a name tag for myself, and most of the kids 6th and up could not read it. SAD.

Somehow I think this goes along with the teachers not being required to even dress up to a business casual level any more. I remember when dressing well showed respect for your job and any person you dealt with. I wonder what todays dress code means.

Another symptom of the same disease is Pajama day at the schools. Thats right the kids through high school are allowed to wear pajamas to school about once every other week or so. Personally I think the system is disrespecting itself, how can you take seriously a place that encourages you to wear pajamas in public.

Damn but I hated learning cursive, but I still use it. If I am writing something that MUST be read I print but for informal communication, and especially notes to myself I write cursive. It is far to convenient and helpful for putting thoughts together. SOmething written properly still feels to me more ocmplete and permenant, even than typed.

I say let it die

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

It seems to me that people in general got a more comprehensive (read better) education in the 1920s and '30s then in the 1970s and onward. A steady decline IMO.

Not really. We just learn different stuff now. As far back as 2nd and 3rd grade for me, I had classes in keyboarding (a HUGELY vital skill in today's world), word processing and BASIC. (hey, it was the 80's, that's all we had...) That was one whole day every other week, or 10% of class time. And it was a good investment of time. Certainly wound up using those skills a lot more than cursive, when it comes to my daily life. Comprehensive in the 20's wouldn't be very comprehensive at all now. In shop class in high school I didn't just learn how to use a lathe, I also learned CAD/CAM control and how to use it in the real world.

All the basics were covered in my education, but the world is a lot more complicated than it was 80 years ago and so you have to know more to get by. Thus less time is spent learning each subject, so that more subjects can be taught. Ideally, I'd like my kids to someday learn cursive AND computers. But if there's only time for one, I'll have to admit that computers are more important.

I can't comment on U.S. education, but here in the UK we get record exam results year after year, despite more and more children leaving school unable to read and write properly. Schools are focusing on exam results, not real education. And you can't tell me the exams aren't getting easier to pass if results improve EVERY year for 20+ years. I saw the rot setting in back in the early 80s when CSEs were introduced. Sample CSE maths question from back then: You are shown a picture of a rectangle. You are asked what shape it is. Oh, it's a multiple-choice question - "Is it a circle, rectangle, square or triangle?" Tick the box you think is right. I'm sorry, but seeing that question made me want to puke.

It's now all about the illusion of being educated rather than knowing how to do things. A symptom of the style over substance society we live in today.

Meanwhile places like India have some very tightly focussed education, for example they have a huge number of brilliant people in the IT field. Many jobs are being lost to India. I suspect these two facts are connected.

If you want to know the reason Western economies are going down the toilet maybe you should look to the schools.

Originally Posted by Rajagra

Meanwhile places like India have some very tightly focussed education, for example they have a huge number of brilliant people in the IT field. Many jobs are being lost to India. I suspect these two facts are connected.

Yeah, it prolly has nothing to do with the fact that you can hire a dude in India for 50 bucks a week, and a salaried, insured, 401k'd IT employee runs you 50 grand or more. Definitely coincidental.

Originally Posted by jockeys

Yeah, it prolly has nothing to do with the fact that you can hire a dude in India for 50 bucks a week, and a salaried, insured, 401k'd IT employee runs you 50 grand or more. Definitely coincidental.

True, but if they couldn't do the job it wouldn't be an option, would it? Point is, India is churning out qualified, highly skilled people better than we are. God help us if (when?) the Chinese do the same.