Politics Cursive writing

[Paul53]

Recently some school have stopped teaching cursive writing. The subject of this has popped up in several places.

 

Who can't see the liberal conspiracy here to make The Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights unreadable ??

[UHLAWPUP]

Paul, did you stay up all night thinking about this, or is this just a quickie "Hoo boy, I found a conspiracy!" thing?

[jmohme]

If not being able to read the Bill of Rights is their goal, they have failed.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Our-Constitution-The-Complete-United-States-Constitution-Audiobook/B008OXZWB2?ds_rl=1262685&ds_rl=1263561&source_code=GO1GB907OSH060513&gclid=Cj0KCQiA37HhBRC8ARIsAPWoO0wSChIAPb1s5bpkVuSX42mGGqJnbAgvc2voXDgbVuihxgEd_NlMRKAaAtZBEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

The sad reality is that the digital world has all be eliminated the need to put pen to paper. 

[Bish1309]

Heard a saying once....(recently)

 

Want to cripple the current young generation? Only write in cursive and install manual transmissions in vehicles.

[Huaco Kid]

Deer King Of Englund,

Yu suck. We quit. lol.

Signed,
Murica

[Maccabeus]

I'm not up on the very latest from state to state, but I believe some are moving back toward requiring it in recent years.  Didn't Georgia drop it some years ago only to reinstate it in their curricula?

I told my kids it's like a secret language that many people don't know.  That inspired them to learn. 

My first picked up a workbook and taught himself in a week.  #2 learned cursive, too, but wasn't quite as self-motivated.  I write notes to her occasionally and make sure to put some of it in cursive to keep her familiar with it, since they don't use it often in daily use. It's probably past time to get the next one learning it, too.

It is nice to be able to go to original source documents and read them.  We have a book about the Lewis & Clark exploration that includes facsimiles of many of their journey notes and correspondences, all, of course, written in script.  

[janice6]

Many say knowledge is not needed, on the basis of their experience.  The problem is that without knowledge, you never know what you missed out on.  You could have been "the one" to change the world for the better, but no one will ever know.

Edited January 2, 2019 by janice6

[Moshe]

We were taught that, from the perspective of being able to write checks.  It is more plastic these days, but not then.

[Dric902]

Makes you wonder what their signature will look like on their bond application

 

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[Moshe]

We also had shop class in seventh grade.  Not seeing this even at the High School level anymore, which sucks.  The best you can hope for is 4-5 and JROTC to try to learn a productive trade.  But, counselors have always been anti-trade based.  It is a diminishing skill set in the United States.  I had finished all my academic credits in High School, and wanted to go off site to work with the group building houses.  I was told that would bar me from going to College.  So, I missed out on that.  I had to teach myself to build, until I couldn't.

[tous]

Let's understand what problem cursive writing solves before we award the practice some nebulous political or cultural bit.

One can write faster in cursive than they can by printing.

In the days of quill pens and pots of ink, it was more efficient to keep pen on paper than lifting it for each letter if letters were printed.

Note well that newspapers and pamphlets of the same era were not set in cursive, but block characters, thus, I suggest that readability was not the primary argument for employing one over the other.

Practicality was.

 

[tous]

2 minutes ago, Moshe said:

We also had shop class in seventh grade

In my elementary school, well, one of them, in the mid 1950s, students took courses in fine art (drawing and painting,) industrial art (shop,) domestic art (sewing) and art appreciation and history.

All students, male and female took these classes, thus, boys learned to sew, girls learned to saw.

The planet continued to turn, dogs and cats weren't sleeping together, life as we knew it didn't end.

NB  I made a vest in sewing class, a cutting board shaped like a pig in shop.

[Paul53]

1 hour ago, UHLAWPUP said:

Paul, did you stay up all night thinking about this, or is this just a quickie "Hoo boy, I found a conspiracy!" thing?

Neither. I have a special interest in cursive writing. For 7 years I got thwacked by nuns trying to improve my handwriting. To this day I break out in a cold sweat at the sight of a yard stick. Post Thwack Stress Disorder!

 

Curiously, meter sticks don't bother me. Wish the country would convert to metric already!

[janice6]

In the late 40's my grade school class had electives.  I chose "shop" class over Latin.  I learned to shape Aluminum discs into bowls on a power lathe.  I learned to "chase" patterns into soft metal with an "embosser".  I passed a "Link Trainer" class on flying a Piper Cub. We had swimming and gym.  I learned to overhaul a Briggs and Stratton 5 hp engine.  Some kids learned how to tan hides.  Oh, I learned how to knit, and how to carve plastics into useful objects and make internal artistic designs.  This was up to the 6th grade.

All this was in addition to normal classes and academic requirements.  School taught me many things and most of all the value of a library for knowledge.  One of my more memorable field trips was a guided tour of the local prison.  School used to teach you many things to expose you to a variety of knowledge so you could make better choices for your future.

Edited January 3, 2019 by janice6

[tous]

The education that 6 of janice and I and those or our age experienced would have modern, socialist numpties claiming child abuse.

The most critical difference is that we were expected to perform to standards and penalized when we didn't.

Yes, we had homework.

We survived.

Edited January 2, 2019 by tous

[Mrs.Cicero]

I have recently developed the completely useless talent of being able to write in mirror image cursive, starting on the right hand side of the age and going left so when you hold it up to the mirror, it reads correctly, but it looks like some other alphabet and language when viewed straight on.  My family is making fun of me for this...

[GT4494]

I will say that all the security forms at work now must be signed with block letters.  Seems the after hours watch couldn't read the signed (cursive) initials.

Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been in the new " how to fill out the form" class with the head of security.

[Paul53]

One small town I worked, I had the distinction of being the only person who could read a certain doc's handwriting. The doc himself couldn't without reviewing the original chart to see what he likely ordered.

[minervadoe]

I was never a fan of cursive.  But, then again, that might be because mine is so bad.  Or, is mine so bad because I don't like cursive. 

My wife and one of her college buddies were just discussing how little time schools put into teaching cursive now.  They were bemoaning it.  I suggested that they reminded me of a couple of old guys I once heard decrying the loss of the skill of using a slide rule.  My wife's friend pointed out how some of her college students had not used the library and how she had to encourage them to familiarize themselves with it because they would find more reference articles there than they would online.

How the worm turns.

Is teaching cursive a form of  featherbedding? 

Edited January 3, 2019 by minervadoe

[janice6]

2 hours ago, Mrs.Cicero said:

I have recently developed the completely useless talent of being able to write in mirror image cursive, starting on the right hand side of the age and going left so when you hold it up to the mirror, it reads correctly, but it looks like some other alphabet and language when viewed straight on.  My family is making fun of me for this...

You learned something!  The people that make fun of someone else learning something, have more problems than the one they target.

 

At the very least, manual dexterity is gained, at the very least.

Edited January 3, 2019 by janice6

[Maccabeus]

40 minutes ago, GT4494 said:

I will say that all the security forms at work now must be signed with block letters.  Seems the after hours watch couldn't read the signed (cursive) initials.

Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been in the new " how to fill out the form" class with the head of security.

On the one hand, that's a sad state of affairs if it's just a lack of cursive knowledge.

On the other hand, signatures are a whole other world if trying to identify someone. My signature looks nothing like my name in cursive except the first letter of each name. If you know my signature, you'll know I signed in. If not, you won't have a clue who wrote it.

[tous]

47 minutes ago, minervadoe said:

I suggested that they reminded me of a couple of old guys I once heard decrying the loss of the skill of using a slide rule. 

[Citra47]

6 hours ago, tous said:

The education that 6 of janice and I and those or our age experienced would have modern, socialist numpties claiming child abuse.

The most critical difference is that we were expected to perform to standards and penalized when we didn't.

Yes, we had homework.

We survived.

I think many of the changes and course eliminations in our schools simply address the issue of "Dumbing down America". I don't know about the entire country but it is hard to find a high school graduate in the S.E. United States that knows cursive.  It is embarrassing to me that many American children can not even write their name in cursive.  Test our children against Japanese or Chinese children of the same age and overall we take a huge nosedive.  In recent years we have dropped necessary classroom courses and "required" attendance in Islamic study.  At the same time, Christian study and prayer are NOT allowed in American schools. The teachers of old must be rolling over in their graves.

[Citra47]

1 hour ago, Paul53 said:

One small town I worked, I had the distinction of being the only person who could read a certain doc's handwriting. The doc himself couldn't without reviewing the original chart to see what he likely ordered.

That could be true in the best of times. I always thought maybe medical schools gave courses in unreadable cursive.

[minervadoe]

36 minutes ago, tous said:

Let me dig out my abacus and I'll drive over in my Stanley Steamer and we'll have a nostalgia party under my Tiffany lamp.