Thread: Cursive

I heard a story on the NEWS today while traveling from job to job. the newsman was saying that the curriculum for grade schoolers no longer included cursive as mandatory study but was still encouraged as an extracurricular study.
This breaks my heart. Cursive is a beautiful, expressive way to write. email and computers have practically negated the necessity of writing. It is a rare person these days who bother with hand written letters. It seems to me though that there is a lot to be gained from the practice of writing cursive! Spacial awareness, hand eye coordination, and then there is the personal aspects to it such as a connection to the people you write to that just can't be expressed through an email, the individuality that one can see in hand written notes, and if you study the hand writing of others as I do, you can learn an awful lot about a person through their cursive.
I say cursive should remain a mandatory study!
What say you?

Absolutely! If you don't learn to write it, how are you going to read it? My eight year olds are doing cursive in school right now so at least it's still in this district.

Originally Posted by Quick

Absolutely! If you don't learn to write it, how are you going to read it? My eight year olds are doing cursive in school right now so at least it's still in this district.

They are still teaching regular printing, just not handwriting, or rather cursive.

I'm torn. On one hand, it's a little archaic- I haven't written anything in cursive (other than my name) in a couple of decades. On the other hand, the artist in me certainly agrees with the personal expression element and sees it as a thing of beauty.

I guess you could look at this as a straights vs disposable thing. I know where I and 99% of those who will read this fall on that one...

Oh yeah, and how are people going to sign their names if they don't know how to write in cursive?!!!

Originally Posted by kenneyty

Oh yeah, and how are people going to sign their names if they don't know how to write in cursive?!!!

X marks the spot!

I agree. It is very beautiful indeed, unless of course you are talking about my writing. That would be a different story all together!

My sons school is still teaching it BUT it is far from pushed on them. They actually skipped any teaching of it in 4th and 5th grade. Now in 6th grade they are using it some but not much. Most of his teachers want things typed. Not even printed by hand. As well when he has gotten outlines for reports they even go so far as to ask that he use spell check for errors ... lol Now that made me laugh and as well raised concern.

I feel that script will in the not to distant future be taught much like calligraphy and looked at in the same way.

I definatly feel they should still teach it and keep it as part of there learning. There is so much change and not for the better going on in schools in the last 10-20 years that it is disturbing. It's like they drop more and more of the basics so they can squeeze more time into preping the kids for state tests so the schools wont loose any of there funding.

What do you mean, cursive not mandatory?
How else are you going to write? In print?
Gods, whoever decides this really has no clue. what's next, dropping multiplication tables and division from the curriculum because calculators are cheap?

I think cursive should be mandatory as well. I know that keyboarding has largely replaced the need for one to be skilled in cursive, but I think it is still something that should be taught. I know that when I research primary source documents for my papers, much of it is in cursive.

The only time I do not write in cursive is when I am feverishly taking notes for class because I cannot legibly write cursive fast. During times such as these, I find that I use a hybrid handwriting style consisting of a mixture of print and cursive.

Wow, that is bewildering.

I was remarking on this recently, when I noticed how horribly a few people I know write. Even their own signatures look like the scrawl of a seven year-old who is just learning.

I really enjoy putting pen to paper. I taught myself caligraphy as a kid and I've always received compliments on my handwriting, which is neat and usually only in black ink (Pilot Hi-Tecpoint V7 Fine). I hate ballpoints... they smear their ink. I like mine to flow.

Imagine - generations of brats will sign their names in block letters or with an 'X.' Maybe they're betting on blackberries and Iphones being implanted in our forearms by that time?

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