Stop teaching cursive writing in schools ?

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
I love cursive handwriting. Heres a sample of mine. Every little skull full of mush out there in 3rd grade needs to learn it so we can preserve our ability to express ourselves without electricity or in simple rudimentary block text.

Long live cursive handwriting! :beer:

You still print your capital letters, and some of your words aren't properly formed. I'm not sure if Perknose will allow you to enter his Church of Handwriting.

I have on occassion printed capital letters in my letter to Sean and some words arent properly formed. But I will put my hand written cursive up against yours any day of the week, pal. :laugh:

 

[Babbles]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca
Perhaps, if cursive is so important at teaching certain things (even if cursive itself isn't a useful skill later in life), they could change how cursive is taught. Right now, kids spend a few years writing in print and then are forced to switch to cursive for a couple years. They invariably hate it, and most will attempt to subvert it at every opportunity unless their teacher requires them to use it. Then as soon as they get into junior high and aren't required to use it, they switch back.

Instead, I'm thinking one of the following could be done:

- Teach it earlier. Use a simpler and more useful form like italic cursive and teach it to kindergartners and up. By 3rd or 4th grade, stop requiring cursive and allow anything. Especially if it's the less demanding italic cursive form, many of them will probably have better handwriting for it, and it has the same advantages of connected letters that traditional cursive has.
- Teach it later as part of a "study skills" class. Cursive is no longer used for formal communications - that's been printed letters for the past 20+ years. But cursive is still useful as a note-taking skill since it's (theoretically) faster than printing. Teach it in 5th or 6th grade as a secondary school prep.

I think the issue many people have with cursive is that they were basically lied to when they were young and told that cursive would be important later on. I know some people will make the math analogy ("algebra is useless to most people too!"), but at least math serves as a building block for higher forms of math for those who choose to pursue an education in math or science. Cursive, on the other hand, may build certain skills, but cursive itself is not an important life skill, nor does it serve as a building block for other skills. It is, at best, a vehicle for bringing a particular kind of teaching to students.

I would tend to agree with you about students being "lied to" regarding the usefulness of cursive. Even though I think it is a great skill set to learn at a young age, I never use cursive except for my signature and a few occasions when writing in a card.

I disagree with the portion that I highlighted, because I think you too are showing too strong of a bias for some sort of pro-math argument (which, as you noted, is sort of a bunk comparison). Cursive very well could be a fundamentally and massively important skill for those that want to go into art . . . as a skill to build upon clay modeling, painting, and so forth.
Additionally if one was to go into history being able to read various cursive styles could lend itself to historical (or anthropological) studies. In other words there are tons of old letters, books, journals, tablets and so forth written in cursive and having that skill set would be very fundamental to that career choice.

Unfortunately I think you are not thinking in a very broad scope about the ramifications of just getting rid of cursive. I would surely agree with you about de-emphasizing the importance of it as a method of communication, but to state that it does not serve as a building block may be woefully ill-informed and short-sighted.

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
I love cursive handwriting. Heres a sample of mine. Every little skull full of mush out there in 3rd grade needs to learn it so we can preserve our ability to express ourselves without electricity or in simple rudimentary block text.

Long live cursive handwriting! :beer:

You still print your capital letters, and some of your words aren't properly formed. I'm not sure if Perknose will allow you to enter his Church of Handwriting.

I have on occassion printed capital letters in my letter to Sean and some words arent properly formed. But I will put my hand written cursive up against yours any day of the week, pal. :laugh:

I don't write in cursive and haven't since I was a child, but if cursive makes your penis feel bigger don't let me stop you.

However, seeing as how this discussion is about the superiority of cursive to printing, then purity of writing style is a factor.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
Can you read this sample resignation letter I copied?

http://img17.imageshack.us/img.../sampleresignation.png


Did this in a minute on a plain white printer paper. Makes me feel good that I can do something (even as insignificant as this) that many people can't or have forgotten how to do.

I had no problems reading your handwriting. I haven't regularly written in cursive for probably 25 years.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: RedArmy
Why did we ever string letters together in the first place? Honestly, who sat in their room going "I wonder how I can put my ideas onto paper in such a way that no one will be able to interpret them without inducing a headache". I blame Shakespeare and his cronies.

When were ballpoint pens invented, and what did people write with before then?

 

[AUMM]

Originally posted by: FleshLight
Cursive is used extensively in the engineering field. Our entire senior project (design a water reservoir) has to be written in cursive.

lol umm no it's not, its not used at all. I've never seen any sort of report/design over 1 page that was hand written....

 

[nutxo]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: RedArmy
Why did we ever string letters together in the first place? Honestly, who sat in their room going "I wonder how I can put my ideas onto paper in such a way that no one will be able to interpret them without inducing a headache". I blame Shakespeare and his cronies.

When were ballpoint pens invented, and what did people write with before then?

Text

 

[BrokenVisage]

WTF? Why so much fucking hatred toward a form of writing that can be picked up in no more than 2 weeks? I write in cursive when jotting down notes and other miscellaneous crap that doesn't need to "look neat", would not think of printing ANYTHING in certain situations. I actually remember being excited to learn it in school too, so what's the big deal?

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
WTF? Why so much fucking hatred toward a form of writing that can be picked up in no more than 2 weeks? I write in cursive when jotting down notes and other miscellaneous crap that doesn't need to "look neat", would not think of printing ANYTHING in certain situations. I actually remember being excited to learn it in school too, so what's the big deal?

I think the "big deal" is the fact that schools were still telling kids throughout the 90s that cursive was going to be an essential life skill for formal writing, when in fact its greatest utility is in note-taking, where it can be faster if you're well-practiced.

I don't know why they implied that cursive was going to be important later in life when home computers were already a reality and it was only a matter of time before everyone had one. I happened to be one of the first kids in my class to have one (I was turning in typed papers by 4th grade in 1993-94), but computers have made cursive obsolete at least as far as formal writing is concerned.