Will Cursive Writing Survive?

[z06dustin]

i use cursive from time to time, typically when working on a car and busting a kuckle. just slips out.

 

[MechGuy]

On a serious note. Cursive writing is one of those things like art or literature. It's a classic that young developing minds should expereince. For grade school kids it demands a level of dexterity and requires use of the mind to try to make the best / neatest writing.
I don't use much of the poetry and classical literature that I was exposed to in school, either. Does that mean it should be dropped from the curriculum?

How about math multipication tables? Virtually every electronic gizmo available has a calculator function. Why bother memorizing the stupid tables?

My speed writing is a mix of printing and cursive. As a rule, I do not use all capitals.

I print in all caps myself too. I remember my dad writing that way when I was a kid, so I kind of picked it up from him.

I don't think you can compare learning cursive writing to learning about classical art or literature, or music for that matter. Learning and experiencing classical art and literature makes you a well-rounded, more educated person. Learning cursive does not. I don't think it would be missed if no one ever wrote in cursive again.

 

[TXCoogPE]

I have begun to wonder if cursive writing is going to go the way of calligraphy. I was assisting at a booth this weekend and one of the items we were showing was a calligraphy pen and some ink. I wasn't too surprised when kids didn't have a clue what they were, but even some of their parents seemed a bit lost until we reminded they what calligraphy looked like.

 

[FLBuff PE]

I thik it should be replaced with contemporary literature. That tired old crud really turns a lot of kids off from reading. I LOVE to read and I could barely slog thru Silly *** Mariner (Silas marner) and Great Expectorations.
There's a lot of cool books for kids out there. I'm with DV...save the artsy stuff for college if you decide to go that path.

I rather enjoyed The Sale of Two ******* by Darles Chickens, myself.

 

[MA_PE]

I print in all caps myself too. I remember my dad writing that way when I was a kid, so I kind of picked it up from him.
I don't think you can compare learning cursive writing to learning about classical art or literature, or music for that matter. Learning and experiencing classical art and literature makes you a well-rounded, more educated person. Learning cursive does not. I don't think it would be missed if no one ever wrote in cursive again.

Given time I don't think Shakespeare, Dante, Mozart, etc. would be missed either.

Have you ever watched Idiocracy?

Ow my balls!! now that's a cool show!

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Given time I don't think Shakespeare, Dante, Mozart, etc. would be missed either.

I don't miss Shakespeare, Dante, or Mozart now. Aside from Dante, I think they were highly over-rated (and he wasn't that great either).

 

[csb]

I write in legible cursive if I'm taking notes or writing for a long time. It's simply faster.

Interesting thought on if you never use it, do you need to learn it. We had this talk in college calculus. Now that I'm away from it, I'd state that people still need to learn how to do basic math in their heads or with pencil and paper, but I'm not so sure about the advanced stuff. I escaped ever really having to learn an integral table because I had a TI-89 and I'd be hard pressed to provide an example where I would need to use the tables. I chose civil engineering to avoid those kind of things.

 

[Supe]

All caps here. Been that way since I took my first engineering class, and a MUCH needed change since my handwriting had always been illegible otherwise. Personally, I'd also like to see hand-written lower case letters done away with outside of an equation, but not in the overall scheme of things. I COULDN'T BARE TO READ ALL CAPS ON THE INTERNET FOR THE REST OF MY DAYS. I COULDN'T TOLERATE THAT LEVEL OF SHOUTING ALL THE TIME.

 

[MA_PE]

By eliminating lower case letters you lose the ability to add that emotion to written statements. CAPS ADD EMPHASIS!

 

[Supe]

By eliminating lower case letters you lose the ability to add that emotion to written statements. CAPS ADD EMPHASIS!

I'M FAIRLY CERTAIN I CAN PURVEY THAT EMOTION IN [SIZE=36pt]SEVERAL OTHER WAYS.[/SIZE]

 

[MA_PE]

Emphasis does not necessarily have to be obnoxious.

 

[DVINNY]

Truthfully, there are many other stupid things about the English language that I think needs changed before cursive. I can see why cursive is around (faster handwriting) but with laptops, etc. most can type faster than they can write out long papers with a pen. JMO.

 

[Supe]

Truthfully, there are many other stupid things about the English language that I think needs changed before cursive. I can see why cursive is around (faster handwriting) but with laptops, etc. most can type faster than they can write out long papers with a pen. JMO.

Not to mention there are maybe a handful of teachers in the US who will even accept hand-written papers anymore.

 

[benbo]

Over time I've lost the ability to really write anything out by hand. My cursive is completely illegible - all the words turn into one letter followed by a stream of goop that turns into a line. My printed writing is not much better. I'm left handed, and I have a theory that it's harder for us to write. We always seems to curve our arms around and write from above the paper.

As far as Shakespeare, poetry, Mozart, or arithmetic - I still think there's value in those things, at least to a certain extent.

And Calculus, maybe I'm weird, but I remember there have been several times in various situations I have used the fact that calculating when the derivative is zero can give you a max or min. I can't remember exactly when I used it, but I have.

 

[Flyer_PE]

As far as arithmetic goes, if you can't do at least some of the math in your head, how do you know when the number either your calculator or your modeling software give you back is garbage?

 

[Dleg]

I'll depart from the rest of you and say that cursive should still be taught to school children. Everyone needs to learn how to write and everyone benefits from the discipline exercised in learning a motor-function skill like that. Think Bart Simpson at the blackboard. There's a reason teachers assign repetitive work like that. Just like there is a reason drill sergeants order multiple pushups every day. Practice builds ability. Besides, it is faster than print writing, and that comes in handy later when you're taking notes.

I personally cannot write in cursive anymore (I tried over the last few years while helping my daughter with her homework) but my note-taking print uses several techniques from cursive writing that makes it lightning-fast (and utterly illegible to anyone but me). I, too, write in all-caps when I am trying to communicate with someone, though.