Cursive writing rapidly becoming passé

Washington Post ^ | 10/11/06 | Margaret Webb Pressler

[Millee]

The computer keyboard helped kill shorthand, and now it's threatening to finish off longhand.

When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the class of 2006, just 15 percent of the almost 1.5 million students wrote their answers in cursive. The rest? They printed. Block letters.

And those college hopefuls are just the first edge of a wave of U.S. students who no longer get much handwriting instruction in the primary grades, frequently 10 minutes a day or less. As a result, more and more students struggle to read and write cursive.

Many educators shrug. Stacked up against teaching technology, foreign languages and the material on standardized tests, penmanship instruction seems a relic, teachers across the region say. But academics who specialize in writing acquisition argue that it's important cognitively, pointing to research that shows children without proficient handwriting skills produce simpler, shorter compositions, from the earliest grades.

Scholars who study original documents say the demise of handwriting will diminish the power and accuracy of future historical research. And others simply lament the loss of handwritten communication for its beauty, individualism and intimacy.

[theDentist]

No surprise.... my handwriting was horrible to begin with...

[wideawake]

Kids print on the SAT because they are deathly afraid that their cursive will be harder to read and they may lose points on the most important exam of their young lives.

[ahayes]

But academics who specialize in writing acquisition argue that it's important cognitively, pointing to research that shows children without proficient handwriting skills produce simpler, shorter compositions, from the earliest grades.

I'd theorize that is because children who write more develop compositional skills and penmanship simultaneously.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Wow. This surprises me not at all. My cursive is appalling. If I want something I am writing to be legible, I print it.

[proudofthesouth]

Once I completed my schooling I stopped writing cursive. My handwriting is a combination of printing and cursive. It must be genetic cause both my parents write the same way. My signature is the only time I write cursive.

[sarasota]

I've got a granddaughter in first grade whose teacher doesn't even teach the children how to print. Cursive only. I've forwarded the article to my daughter and await her comments. I fear it will impair a child's ability to read.

[SoCal Pubbie]

In other news, the printing press has limited the use of calligraphy to proclamations, official documents, and wedding invitations.

[dead]

Many educators shrug.

As they should.

Who cares if kids print instead of writing cursive?

[JamesP81]

My handwriting always has been horrible, but this isn't good. Being in the computer field, I kinda saw this coming long before anyone else did. They teach typing but people can't even write anymore. It's not a good situation.

[cripplecreek]

I write my signature but mostly print.

[ikka]

A customer of mine is truly a computer nerd. When I get a check from him it looks like it was written by a 2nd-grader.

[Doomonyou]

Ditto.

[retrokitten]

I do the same thing.

[knarf]

I think all males chicken scratch .. I know I do .. but after my Army training as a radio/teletype op. ... and learning to take Morse Code .. printing was SO much prettier and faster.

The only thing I sign is my name, and out of 13 letters ... ONE (I think) is maybe legible.

[mainepatsfan]

My grandmother has letters written by her great-great uncle from Virginia during the Civil War. Unbelievable penmanship.

[knarf]

"Who cares if kids print instead of writing cursive?"

I think it is on the same idea as velcro instead of laces and sneakers on a boy instead of dress shoes .. it's just another incremental bit taken from the byte.

Magazines galore flourish (for now) because of a nostalgiac desire for what was America ... it started, I think, with Reader's Digest.

[caver]

I print because I've been a draftsman for over 30 years. I only use cursive when signing my name.

I have noticed that plenty of young people in high school have terrible writing, print or cursive. There is obviously less time spent on penmanship.

[Covenantor]

An example similar to my handwriting. I was home taught cursive script similar to copper plate. Practice notebooks had light blue lines with slanted verticals at a fixed spacing and horizonal lines for ascenders and descenders. An excellent way to learn and hone fine motor skills and the necessary 'muscle memory' to make it an easy and fast writing method.

My handwriting (as sample above) evolved from the architectural drafting printing combined with the cursive to bring up speed, making my style faster than drafter pring or std. cursive. To my eye easier to read without the looping of ascenders and descenders.

[the OlLine Rebel]

That is the key reason for cursive, which seems lost on some people who "don't care".

It's faster. That's why it was created, to be faster than separate letters.