# Not teaching cursive **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071 "2016-03-25T00:08:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071/81 "2016-03-26T23:53:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by carnivorousplant View Post > If students are no longer taught cursive, how do they sign their names? > The same way I do: With print letters (and some squiggles representing strings of illegible print letters). illegible scrawl. How often do you sign your name anyway? I can’t remember the last time I had to. I don’t handwrite anything and consider the time spent in school on cursive to have been a huge waste of time. I never used it except in cursive class. Everybody types everything these days-notes, letters, everything. Even my grocery shopping list is typed. People can type far faster than they can write in cursive and everyone can read it. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071/82 "2016-03-26T23:55:28Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > illegible scrawl. How often do you sign your name anyway? I can’t remember the last time I had to. Really? I signed twice today, signing credit card machines on trips to two different stores. Credit card signatures are a fact of modern life, and I probably sign about one a day on average. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071/83 "2016-03-27T00:27:47Z")
> [@](#): > > Really? I signed twice today, signing credit card machines on trips to two different stores. Credit card signatures are a fact of modern life, and I probably sign about one a day on average. I only use debit cards in actual stores (pin number). Credit cards online where you don’t have to sign. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071/84 "2016-03-27T10:05:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And is that Psychology Today article seriously claiming that cursive letters are more distinct from each other and thus easier to read? If that were so, then why are all books, web pages, and other mass-produced textual matter in block print? Because historically, making lead slugs where the lines joined up was too expensive and difficult. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071/85 "2016-03-27T16:39:47Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > If they don’t, future generations will never know the year in which certain motion pictures were copyrighted! And if they don’t teach cursive then kids will have [trouble keeping up at their new school](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wguuKpRJRE) when their parents move so their dad can take a new job “upstate somewhere.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071/86 "2016-03-27T23:30:28Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Because historically, making lead slugs where the lines joined up was too expensive and difficult. Although non-roman scripts whose cursive nature is considered more important to their appearance (and for which moveable-type printing developed somewhat later) do use such typefaces for printing. It is still relatively expensive and difficult compared to block-letter scripts, though. [Problems of Arabic Typefaces](http://www.arabictype.com/blog/articles/problems-of-arabic-typefaces/) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071/87 "2016-03-28T01:31:20Z")
OK, getting the lines to join up is harder, but if the shape of the individual letters are more distinct, you could still make movable type for those shapes, and just accept that they won’t connect. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071/88 "2016-03-28T02:46:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, getting the lines to join up is harder, but if the shape of the individual letters are more distinct, you could still make movable type for those shapes, and just accept that they won’t connect. Indeed, there have been many cursive typefaces even in the pre-digital era of cast type where the letters join up pretty smoothly, such as Morris Benton’s Commercial Script. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-teaching-cursive/750071.md?page=4)