Cursive handwriting going the way of the dodo?

[IDrinkaRum]

Curvsive handwriting being dropped for computer usage

More and more schools are dropping the need to teach cursive handwriting as kids nowadays are using computers/keyboards more and more instead of writing with actual pens/pencils and paper. Also, when assignments are supposed to be handwritten, the students are writing in block lettering instead of cursive.

Is this a good thing?

Should we all still be taught the "archaic" form of cursive handwriting? Last I remembered, computer typed characters can't be used as a legitimate signature. Will people be writing an "X" for their signatures once more?

[LexiaFira]

I wonder....I was taught cursive, and it was horrible but was expected to at least learn it and know how to sign my name in cursive... speaking of signatures and technology.
There are some technologies that allow cards to be scanned or scan in something paper, check or whatever, take the signature from said paper and copy and past to other legal documents before printing BUT only with proper authorization.

I saw the card scanner device that scans in business cards, and saw the program my mother uses for her job to use her bosses signature and put it to legal documents to sign after he has given his approval and he cannot make into the office however she is the only trusted employee to do this and the only one with the comp that has that program.
sorry if this is thread jacking please delete if necessary

[Ginger Tea]

When I was 11-12 my hand writing was so bad they put me in a special class on writing (about a dozzen of us were there) each doing lines after lines of c's etc, I even started using a caligraphy pen on these lessons (whilst everyone else was on form break before first class)
All well and good, in the class I took my time made it all neat and tidy, then my first lesson was science and that was always dictation, no way my trying to be neat handwriting would last that, that or it would be neat, but only 25% of what was on the black board let alone said.

When we moved my new school kinda didn't care but I did get marked down on some homework assignments due to legibility, but as they didn't care for class work, I got out of the habbit of taking a longer to write homework.
4th year we had options, picking which subjects we wanted to specify for the next (final) two years of school, I opted out of IT as then (89) we were still using BBC modle B's and businesses were not and classes were 3 to a beeb, so I chose type writing instead, manual clunky typewriters, jamming letters (which now end up as teh and the likes on word processors) one of only two boys in the class, they chose to sensibly put us at the front, I started typing my homework on a portable typewriter, then on an amstrad 9512, my penmanship died.

Now at work I just mark my picking tickets with a tick, occasionally write something that looks like shorthand to everyone else a note of who is missing what for my reference, then it takes me five minutes to write the same info down (with product codes) for the office files.

When I was semi writing my book away from a pc, I always used 5mm square paper and wrote in block capitals, sometimes I write one wide threee high (top two for h t etc bottom two for p q etc) if im trying for some resemblance to joined up hand writing, but I might as well hold a crayon in my fist and write that way, its neater.

Edit: even with block capitals and taking longer to write neater, its not quite as legible when its cold and or I need to wee, my T's look like 7's so I now mark my 7's with a line, my H's look like the cyrilic backwards N and although I write 4 and 6 differently and sometimes near each other, I sometimes get 6 lables for something I ordered 4.
Also ever since learning qwerty, I have forgotten my ABC's if they put the dictionarry in qwerty order I might find the word I want instead of trying to remember if F is before or after H, this on top of my poor math skills ever since my primary school math teacher gave us all calculators to use instead of making us work things out long or in our heads.

[HYHYBT]

Cursive is not the only form of handwriting. The way I, and probably most of us, were taught to write is pretty silly, when you think about it: teach one handwriting style ("printing," or some variation thereof), wait a couple years until the kids are doing that well without thought, and then, rather than moving on to other things, require them to completely re-learn handwriting in a different style (cursive.) It serves no function whatsoever. It's not even faster than printing, if you're used to doing both. And it's harder to read, assuming both are done equally well. The ONLY thing it does is to slow down the learning process by adding a redundant step. It's something that should have gone by the wayside long ago, perhaps offered as an elective course somewhere along the way, but nothing more than that.

And yes, handwriting of any kind, including "printing," is a perfectly valid signature.

[Eisa]

Now, I actually combine printing and cursive when I write.

I'm left-handed. My learning to write was awful, as they had no idea how to teach me [although thank Gawd they didn't try to make me write with my right hand My parents said that when I was really young, they half-heartedly tried moving stuff to my right hand a few times, but I switched it right back to my left, so they just left it ]. Cursive was HELL to learn. My cursive was almost completely illegible until 9th grade when...somehow, it got better lol. I have no idea how.

I think cursive writing is really pretty, though. So people should keep writing in cursive.

[Ladeeda]

Caligraphy is really pretty, too. For those who like it.

I say let cursive be an elective and fall into the category or Arts, since the only redeeming factor is aesthetics.

[Aethian]

I second that thought of there being a cursive class in the arts program. But again I remember taking a art class and learning five different forms of calligraphy...wish I could still do it.

[lordlundar]

It was funny. I was taught to use cursive handwriting since grade 3, and in grade 12, We were given the option to use a computer to write our essays. I was told to take that option. So it took 9 years to finally get a teacher that was honest enough to tell me that they couldn't understand what I wrote half the time.

[Rageaholic]

Cursive is not the only form of handwriting. The way I, and probably most of us, were taught to write is pretty silly, when you think about it: teach one handwriting style ("printing," or some variation thereof), wait a couple years until the kids are doing that well without thought, and then, rather than moving on to other things, require them to completely re-learn handwriting in a different style (cursive.) It serves no function whatsoever. It's not even faster than printing, if you're used to doing both. And it's harder to read, assuming both are done equally well. The ONLY thing it does is to slow down the learning process by adding a redundant step. It's something that should have gone by the wayside long ago, perhaps offered as an elective course somewhere along the way, but nothing more than that.

And yes, handwriting of any kind, including "printing," is a perfectly valid signature.

Exactly what I think.

I have terrible, almost unreadable handwritting. Writting in print is hard enough, but aside from signiture, I don't even bother with cursive. I think I did fine with it in 3rd grade when I started learning it, but the problem was that by 4th grade, it was required that everything be written in cursive and the print you spend the first several years learning is no longer needed.

WTF is that about? WHY even teach print if they're not going to use it? And why does it matter how we write? Signitures? That's just my name and I still don't see why we even do it like that. I can barely read cursive, let alone write it so aside from it looking classy, I fail to see why it's so important.

[Andara Bledin]

I have lovely penmanship, bot for print letters and for cursive.

But I'm with the rest of everybody in that cursive is at this point an archaic and outmoded form of communication, best relegated to the rest of the calligraphy class.

Fun fact: Your "signature" can really be anything you choose it to be. The standard is for it to be your legal name written in cursive font, but you could choose to use a pictograph, instead, as long as you were consistent and the mark wasn't too common. I still use my name in cursive for my signature on legal documents. But I do a small unicorn picture for personal items and my "kitty sig" for computer-based communications.

^-.-^

[protege]

I always hated writing in cursive. Mainly, because I got tired of certain teachers busting my balls about how certain letters didn't come out perfectly. Sorry bitches, it's not *my* fault my right hand got crushed in a door (in the fucking hinge, no less!) when I was in second grade. Half the time, I'm trying to get my notes down, simply so I'll have them. Yes, my handwriting is messy, but at least I can read it. Don't like that? Fine, I'll type it up for you. Until then, buzz off

[Mikkel]

I don't really care whether every child is taught to write cursive, but they should at least learn to read it. Otherwise they won't be able to read letters from older people without computers.

[Greenday]

Writing in cursive just doesn't make sense to me. It's a lot more illegible. I don't see the point anymore.

[Mytical]

Hmm I was taught cursive early. Of course I was forced to write it off hand because "Left handed people are the children of the Devil!!11!!!eleventy!!!"

The good thing that came from it is that I am mostly ambidextrous now, but my writing looks like somebody put ink on a chickens feet and let it run amok.

[McDreidel09]

I remember when we first started learning cursive, our teacher told us that we would be expected to know how to do this well, especially for high school. High school, she told us, was where we would have to write EVERYTHING in cursive.

HA! WRONG! The only time I ever used cursive in high school was my signature on forms and writing notes to people in between classes. Now, I only use it for my signature and I hardly write notes or letters because I can just walk over to their dorm or apartment (although, over break, I wrote Beloved Bullshit a lovely letter, written in cursive) or in the case of back home, just give them a call or shoot a text.

ETA: The only time my handwriting even looks "girly" is when I use cursive. Other girls have this tendency to write letters in a way that I don't even know where the hell they learned it.