Cursive writing

Most kids know how to write in some fashion, but I don't think school time should be used for cursive writing. Writing a letter in cursive takes much longer than keyboarding (an easy skill to get fast at) and editing a cursive letter is a real pain, it means re-writing the whole thing. If someone wants to learn it, it is easy to self teach from a book or online lessons. Lately, the only thing I write by hand is a grocery list or write in a journal, and although I'm fine re motor skills, my handwriting has deteriorated because I want to write too fast.
 

The script we learned in primary school was designed for nibs that were dipped in ink. It was like the cursive illustrated in the previous link on the second line. It was tedious to learn and master. The advent of ball point pens was lamented because you could no longer discern the down strokes.

Regarding shorthand - it was replaced by the dictaphone long ago.

One of my grandsons is training to be a court recorder and they use a specialised keyboard for certain sounds. It is hard to master but that is what has replaced shorthand today. Like it or not, the computer age has arrived and the quill and ink are banished to the fog of history.
 

I think these days the only place any kind of dicta machine is used is in a courtroom (court reporter's job, and courses here are extremely hard to find and expensive). The business dictaphone machine is gone the same way as shorthand. Most people who work in business keyboard their own correspondence. In one insurance office I worked the only people who couldn't type were the much older doctor/consultants hired to evaluate claims, they wrote out their report by hand and a clerk typed it (a time wasting process that was eventually scrapped).

One can certainly still learn to write nicely - if one wishes to teach the kids at home books are available from Amazon (MacMillan writing series).
 
I think it's important to be able to write cursive/script as well as read it. I know it's a world of texting now but what if great aunt Matilda writes you a note...on paper...in ink...sent through snail mail. She's putting you in her will, but you were Gen X and can't read script...well sucks to be you;)

Something amusing among our age groups. If you see someone's handwriting on paper you can tell if they went to Catholic school. Really, I pick it up every time. Catholic school in the 40's to the 60's...you had perfect penmanship or Sister would be waiting for you after class.
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Falcon said:
It's essential in signing your own name. Do you still write checks and/or sign receipts ?
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Few of today's generations write checks. My wife used to never leave the house without the checkbook. Now, we probably don't write a half dozen checks each year. The wife uses on-line bill payment. We use debit cards at stores/restaurants. (Most restaurants won't even take checks anymore.) Receipts are printed out and handed to you. Or, if on line, you do an electronic signature.

I, too, am distraught that cursive writing is going the way of black & white television, standard transmission autos, and leisure suits. No one today communicates by letter or written words. Everything is digital.

Part of the issue with schools no longer teaching cursive is that most teachers can't tell if words are spelled correctly without spell-check. They would rather have homework in digital form with misspelled words automatically underlined in red than have to look up how a hand-written word is spelled.
 
fureverywhere said:
I think it's important to be able to write cursive/script as well as read it. I know it's a world of texting now but what if great aunt Matilda writes you a note...on paper...in ink...sent through snail mail. She's putting you in her will, but you were Gen X and can't read script...well sucks to be you;)

Something amusing among our age groups. If you see someone's handwriting on paper you can tell if they went to Catholic school. Really, I pick it up every time. Catholic school in the 40's to the 60's...you had perfect penmanship or Sister would be waiting for you after class.
th
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Ah, yes, Sister Mary Calligraphy at Our Lady of the Inquisition. Then you had Sister Mary Aorta the biology teacher, Sister Mary Hygiene the gym teacher, and Sister Mary Hypotenuse the math teacher. Not to skip over Sister Mary Caesar Augustus the Latin teacher, Sister Mary Black&Decker who taught shop, Sister Mary Cacciatore the home ec teacher, and Sister Mary Ocarina the band director. And who could forget the principal, Mother Mary Attila the Nun?
 
Cookie said:
I think these days the only place any kind of dicta machine is used is in a courtroom (court reporter's job, and courses here are extremely hard to find and expensive). The business dictaphone machine is gone the same way as shorthand. Most people who work in business keyboard their own correspondence. In one insurance office I worked the only people who couldn't type were the much older doctor/consultants hired to evaluate claims, they wrote out their report by hand and a clerk typed it (a time wasting process that was eventually scrapped).

One can certainly still learn to write nicely - if one wishes to teach the kids at home books are available from Amazon (MacMillan writing series).
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When a form letter or template won't do, "the boss" talks to a hand-held recording device and then hands it off the the secretary/assistant, who types it up. Nobody even writes memos anymore. Those are emailed.
 
Grumpy Ol' Man said:
I, too, am distraught that cursive writing is going the way of black & white television, standard transmission autos, and leisure suits. No one today communicates by letter or written words. Everything is digital.
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Really? Leisure suits too?

True, I'm not exactly up with the times and still use email to send messages, but pay bills online. Sign the few cards I send out though.
There's a reason they call handwriting longhand -- it takes a long time. Pity us as poor kids who had to write their essays by hand - took forever.
 
Alice Munro (revered Canadian writer) still writes all her work by hand in a lined notebook. Not sure if she's now retired, or as she says, 'there are any stories left in her'.
 
When I was in school back in the 50's they called it penmanship. I loved all the circles and loops and always got a good grade. I thought of it as some type of art form I guess. Penmanship, art and science were the only subjects I liked in school anyway. I loved to write letters. I remember getting and giving beautiful paper for letter writing. Some had flowers all around and scented as well. I haven't looked but I bet it would be hard to find these days.
 

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