I don’t get this point about it being antiquated. I mean, it’s never been necessary. If you mean it’s antiquated because it’s being replaced by typing, that doesn’t make sense to me. Compared to hand printing something, typing is a less personalized way to communicate, and cursive handwriting is a more personalized way. The things I write in cursive (such as the thank-you notes and condolence notes I mentioned earlier), I would never type on a computer.
And in 15 years, the height of etiquette will probably be to text these things. In the meantime, Grandpa will be just as thrilled to get a printed thank you note from the kid.
Really, can’t you see the MPSIMS on the Dope 2022?: Ohmigod, you mean you’d let someone sit there a whole 4 days not knowing you got a gift? Why on earth didn’t you text him right away so he knew it wasn’t lost in the mail or something? That is SO inconsiderate!
If he wants to I would say go for it.
As for the argument that writing in cursive if quicker for taking notes in class and the like, shouldn’t you then just learn to type on a computer, the quickness of that easily trumps cursive writing. Better yet, take up stenography.
And my recollections of cursive writing point to this: http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~mineyev/class/07f/cursive.png
while actual in use cursive looks like this:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://elementaryteacher.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/typical-north-american-cursive-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://elementaryteacher.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/how-american-cursive-appears-to-the-british/&h=373&w=250&sz=31&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=c--jPN6lNaE61M:&tbnh=122&tbnw=82&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcursive%2Bwriting%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN (holy crap huge link)
AND just to add to the confusion between the American and vast foreign input to the thread appartently there is a LARGE difference between what Americans consider cursive writing and the British (not american) joined-together:
http://elementaryteacher.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/how-american-cursive-appears-to-the-british/
WhyNot: The SDMB of 2022 will have almost no vowels. and will be super shorthanded. Like OMG? Howd U mnge 2 ms tht? ROTFL. IDK my bff jill. 
I think we’re looking through a slightly warped pane of glass at each other, which makes us appear to be further apart than we are. Of course I don’t believe that people who can’t write in cursive are not well-rounded functional adults.
For one thing, my mother can’t.
I suppose the main thing is, “Can you communicate?” and if you can write legibly and read reasonably clear cursive, it doesn’t matter.
You have a good point, but I’m not so sure it’s going to play out that way. After all, it’s still considered nicer to send a note than call grandma on the phone to thank her, and phones have been around for 100 years.
And about which way the toilet paper should hang.
Granted, here he is copying a written statement and they will know that he means an “I” by that strange squiggle he used. But absent anything else, why wouldn’t you use what’s taught as a conventional “I” if you want the reader to understand it as an I ?
Yes, that’s similar to the cursive style that I was originally taught in the UK (some of the capitals are different, such as the “F”). I firmly remember my report card, from Year 5, in Primary School, commenting on the fact that I’d developed my own style of handwriting, though. We all started from the same base, but after Year 3, we were not marked down for not using the “correct” cursive style.
This is one of the strangest sentences I have ever read. Do you write in WingDings?
I’ve read several people here being shocked that ‘cursive is no longer taught in school’ or some such statement.
I will reiterate. In my case at least, cursive is ordinarily taught in the 3rd grade. It is a standard part of the cirriculum. My son just had a loser in 3rd grade that didn’t teach what she was supposed to.
I suspect that some of the people who are saying “I never write (in ‘cursive’); I only print” have some misconception regarding what “writing (in ‘cursive’)” and “printing” really are.
For example. If you make your minuscule a with a kind of round form ending in a straight form, then you’re using a script form of a, not print. A print a has two storeys.
If any of your letters join up at all, you’re essentially out of the realm of printing.
The single-story minuscule ‘a’ may be called “script a”, but it gets used in print; it hardly serves as evidence that one is using cursive. In fact, I see it in your post, and yet, I assume you will agree, that post is not being rendered in script…
At any rate, that sort of thing would be irrelevant to what the OP is asking about, which is the system of writing which we are all laboring under the misconception of referring to as “cursive”.
This is just not true. I teach in an urban high school where 65% of the kids are socioeconomically disadvantaged and 25% never hear English at home, and while the bottom of our graduating class may be pretty abysmal–and I agree that’s a problem throughout America and something that needs to be addressed–the top half is amazing. They are learning Chemistry, Physics, and Biology that didn’t even exist 40 years ago, and that was only learned by graduate students 20 years ago. They know how to use a computer as a tool in a variety of ways, they have all mastered pre-calculus and many have mastered calculus (over 120,000 kids passed the AP AB calculus exam in 2006: another 47,000 passed the BC exam). You’re right. Their mental math sucks, and we are losing another skill in cursive. But there is such a thing as opportunity cost, and teachers aren’t cutting these things out so that their can be more recess and sing-a-longs.
The world is full of handbasket-Cassandras, convinced, without evidence, that previous generations were smarter/kinder/more industrious/had better values/whatever. The most relevant current thread addressing such silliness is this one. Until cites are brought forth, one might as well ignore such assertions.
Good! Sometimes, when taking notes in a meeting, I start out printing. But I generally switch to mostly cursive because it is faster for me. (I also have ace keyboard skills.)
Autz is your son a lefty, by chance? Speaking from personal experience it’s much more difficult to master cursive writing left handed.
A lot of my staff are in their late teens and early twenties.
This is the generation that went from learning how to print and then directly to keyboarding. They can type real fast, but, their printing looks like it was done by a 3rd grader with eye hand coordination problems.
These “kids” saw me do a Calligraphic Poster for a staff meeting and as far as they were concerned it was “an incredible skill”! One even got me to write out a “love letter” to his girl friend. And, truth be known, I am not an expert calligrapher-I have average skills at best.
Most of them have a hard time reading an acual written note in a basic cursive style.
And many of them are in university or college.
I do see cursive writing as a dying art, sad to say. Should it be preserved? Certainly, but should it be taught in school? Well, should roman numerals be taught in school? They are on the same level of usefulness in the modern world…
Regards
FML
The difference is that Roman numerals take about three minutes to learn (even including the overbar notation nobody uses anymore) and you can decode all of the movie copyright dates you see thereafter, but cursive (aka joined-up writing, aka the D’Nealian hand*, aka the Palmer Method**) takes significant practice to do at all well.
*(An ugly hand, and not one worth preserving. Even the Spencerian script, uselessly loopy as it is, has redeeming features in comparison.)
**(Do not forget that the Palmer Method requires left-handed students to use their right hand. Many older lefties have rather grim memories of that to this day.)
If you’re in an urban setting then the drop out rate is substantial. Your percentage is more like 25% of the class. I hope you’re right but I’m not seeing the reasoning skills in kids that I saw in my parent’s generation. While my dad never took calculus he fully utilize the math he learned. The same kids who are taking HS calculus today can’t nail 2 pieces of wood together without video instructions and 4 people holding their hand.
Sorry, I was a little abrupt- I meant how to multiply , divide, subtract and add in Roman numerals. i was taught how to do those things in grade 3. completely needless in the modern world.
fml
I dispute your string of *a.k.a.*s. There is absolutely no reason to preserve D’Nealian or Palmer. However, the skill of writing by hand (“joined-up writing”) is not equivalent to either of these, and it’s worth teaching so long as anyone has any reason to communicate using a writing implement.