I spent awhile looking into the claims about neurological benefits of writing in cursive. They’re not exactly Kirlian photography, but they’re pretty close: all the claims boil down to “look at how the ECG lights up all purty!”
Cursive, I believe, is an art form less lovely and less useful than calligraphy, but other than those two factors has the same place in modern culture. Nevertheless, my dear state requires me to spend many hours teaching cursive to my students.
There’s only one benefit I’ve ever found to the program: at the beginning of the year, when I ask students what they’re most excited about learning, cursive is the second-most mentioned topic (multiplication being the first). They’re so thrilled to learn it, it’s hard to maintain my cynicism.
Yes, I had to learn to write in cursive, and I still could (even z and capital j, g and s) but it’s dead. Much like receiving a full-page unpunctuated wall-o-text memo it says “I’m sure I could decipher this thing, but if the author didn’t care, why should I?”
My story could largely match most of yours. I learned it as a kid and then stopped when I could. I’ve found as an adult that my cursive is far more legible than my printing and I love it. I just recently discovered a new way of holding my hand that eliminates hand strain but it only works with cursive and it is great!
I’ve started writing in cursive again after not using it for over 30 years. The first couple
times I couldn’t remember how to make some of the letters but was able to find some
examples to follow online. Although it’s coming back to me rather quickly, I still print
most of the time.
Of course I can read and write cursive. No problem. But, then, I’m an old lady, educated in those ancient days when handwriting was important. Like most other people, though, I’ve become too dependent on technology, and my handwriting has suffered as a result. A while back, I was looking through some old papers I had written, and was amazed at how legible they were!
Speaking of old-fashioned things, I have a manual typewriter in a closet somewhere. Might come in handy some day.
I can write in cursive. And I can read it. It’s quick and fast and perfect for taking notes in meetings, lectures, etc. My colleagues who use computers aren’t nearly as fast as I am, when taking notes; and they have asked me before to review my handwritten notes so they can fill in the gaps they’ve missed.
That being said, I can also do calligraphy, using a dip pen and ink. Handwritten letterforms are important to me, so I take extra care, even when I go fast with a ballpoint.
I learned cursive in elementary school. I don’t recall that it was required after grade 2 or maybe 3, and that’s when I stopped using it. I’m sure I could still form the characters but it would take some thought as I did it. I certainly couldn’t write out a sentence easily, there are a number of special cases of connecting letter pairs. I still can visualize the big green cards over the blackboard with the letters shown in upper and lower case. No matter how well I can remember the characters my script will be awful, it was then and it certainly can’t have improved.
Some times this place makes me feel so old I was aware that many schools don’t teach cursive and we’ve discussed it here before but I had no idea that it had gotten to the point where people literally didn’t know how to write / read it. Test oneself to see if they can write the entire alphabet? Oy vey, where’s my walker and Metamucil :smack:
As I mentioned in another, unrelated thread, I have excellent handwriting and I very much enjoy using it. It never occurred to me that someone would not be able to read it. I can’t decide if it makes me feel obsolete or if I have a potential secret code writing ability.
I could read it just fine, but writing it is another story.
My handwriting is absolutely godawful and I abandoned cursing as soon as I could. Frankly, I’ve abandoned handwriting as much as I can. I can barely read my own notes to myself.
Although, ironically, I find that the cursive lower-case f is much easier to write when I’m jotting notes really quickly. So even when I’m printing 99% of my notes, my f’s tend to be cursive.
Yep, nearly all the time. Maybe not all of the “official” letterforms we were supposed to learn in school (the capital Q never made any sense to me whatsoever), but as people have pointed out, that’s only one kind of of cursive writing. I don’t like to print if I have to write more than a sentence or two at a time; it makes my hand hurt.
I’m a college professor, and I very occasionally get students who claim they can’t read my handwriting on their papers (and I will print my comments on their next paper if I remember), but it’s rare; I think the “OMG this new generation doesn’t know how to read cursive!” thing is way overstated. You don’t have to write a particular form of handwriting to be able to read it.
I write my parents once a week in cursive, and also use it in my diary. Otherwise I print. I was taught cursive, and did so badly I had remedial handwriting (shudder) in seventh grade. But my handwriting (including my signature) is now legible.
I remember asking my mother what a card I’d gotten with a cursive verse said. (This was before I’d started learning cursive.) “Why, you can read that!” she insisted, and stood there while I worked it out.
Like most others here, I was taught to write in cursive in elementary school. By around high school, I felt that it was too slow so I started mixing print letters in with my cursive letters (which annoyed the occasional teacher). By college, I couldn’t keep up with the lectures at all when taking notes in cursive, so I switched to all print (and lots of abbrevs).
And then I launched into my career as a computer programmer where I typed all day, every day and rarely hand-wrote anything beyond my name. So now I can barely write in print legibly, let alone cursive. IMO cursive is archaic and typing is the way of the future (until they perfect another, faster interface for computers).
I can read and write cursive. My daughter (13) was taught for a year in school and is able to read well-formed cursive (that is, she can read it if it resembles the perfect letter forms she was taught). She can write it well enough, though very slowly, and can sign her name in cursive. My son (12) was not taught at all in school and can neither read nor write cursive. His signature is in printing.
I understand that there’s no good reason to continue to teach cursive writing other than tradition, but schools should still teach children to read cursive. I don’t think it would take more than a few months when they’re young.
My signature is illegible and is more my mark than a proper signature of my name. I can read cursive, but other than the text on sappy valentine cards, it doesn’t come up. I was taught cursive, but mostly print. If I’m writing for someone else to read, it’s almost certainly typed, I probably haven’t written anything by hand longer than a grocery list in over 20 years.
Yes of course, even the Q that looks like a demented 2 and I can do it a hell of a lot faster than I can print. And if you come to a lecture I give, you had better be able to read it too. This is not a moral issue, but a problem for the transitional generation.
I was aware that many schools don’t teach cursive and we’ve discussed it here before but I had no idea that it had gotten to the point where people literally didn’t know how to write / read it. Test oneself to see if they can write the entire alphabet? Oy vey, where’s my walker and Metamucil :smack: