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Mourning the Death of Handwriting
Time ^ | 08/03/09 | Claire Suddath

Posted on 08/04/2009 3:17:55 PM PDT by Borges

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To: Borges
Handwriting is sooooooooooooo slow compared to typing.

I first realized this when I would go to the park and write in a notebook. My thoughts would come to me faster than my poor hands could keep up.

Keyboards, computers and typewriters have spoiled us...

Speaking of typewriters... no one uses those anymore either, eh? :)

We're living on the bit system. (Currency included)

41 posted on 08/04/2009 4:53:59 PM PDT by PureSolace (Trust in God)
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To: Borges

Bump for later.


42 posted on 08/04/2009 5:00:33 PM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: Borges
The next two generations of kids should be taught to READ cursive as a legacy skill to help them read their parents and grandparents scribble. Teaching anyone outside of art class to WRITE in cursive is as useless as teaching them to do math on an abacus.
43 posted on 08/04/2009 5:05:16 PM PDT by azcap (Who is John Galt ? www.conservativeshirts.com)
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To: PureSolace
" Speaking of typewriters... no one uses those anymore either, eh?"

Awhile back I was at work, walking down a hallway and heard a weird noise coming from an office. I took a look and asked what it was. The lady turned around with a puzzled look on her face and told me it was a typewriter. I'd never heard one used in person before.

44 posted on 08/04/2009 5:06:48 PM PDT by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: Borges

I am from the generation that was drilled in penmanship and spent hours in primary school doing writing exercises in the Palmer Method. Sadly I never write anything except on a computer and pay bills electronically so I seldom even sign my name on checks. In stores were I have to use a stylus for an electronic signature the result is often a jumble as the stylus cannot adequately mimic the actions of a pen.


45 posted on 08/04/2009 5:08:57 PM PDT by The Great RJ ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." M. Thatcher)
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To: ReignOfError
Remember his permanently inked-stained hand in Shakespeare In Love?
46 posted on 08/04/2009 5:09:23 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: willgolfforfood

Because ones handwriting reflects the architecture of the mind.

Aristotle


47 posted on 08/04/2009 5:09:32 PM PDT by SatinDoll (NO Foreign Nationals as our President!!)
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To: ReignOfError

Mine is NOT done well, and I think faster than I can write, so it is frustrating. Computers, spell check — aahh.


48 posted on 08/04/2009 5:28:56 PM PDT by bboop (Tar and feathers -- good back then, good now)
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To: Clara Lou

I use printed caps when I write cursive.


49 posted on 08/04/2009 5:29:46 PM PDT by bboop (Tar and feathers -- good back then, good now)
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To: discostu

And can’t you print Chinese on the computer, if you have your keyboard set up correctly?


50 posted on 08/04/2009 5:31:13 PM PDT by bboop (Tar and feathers -- good back then, good now)
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To: cripplecreek
I print...haven't done cursive since high skoo. My handwriting was always so sloppy, I'd get made fun of.

I could get away - sometimes - with telling the critic that I'd had polio as a kid.....it worked occasionally in shutting 'em up.

51 posted on 08/04/2009 5:37:37 PM PDT by ErnBatavia (Impeach now....not next month... now)
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To: Nashvegas
I gave up cursive right after high school. Only way I could keep up with taking notes in college was to print
Me too - I simply could not read my own notes. The only way I could think to continue studying was to switch to printing and hope I could keep up with the lecturer. It worked.

52 posted on 08/04/2009 6:30:31 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The conceit of journalistic objectivity is profoundly subversive of democratic principle.)
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To: Freedom_Fighter_2001

Ha! I’m just old, LOL. Plus, I spent first grade in a little farm town school where lst and 2nd grade were combined with one teacher. Those were the days.


53 posted on 08/04/2009 6:39:49 PM PDT by donna (Synonyms: Feminism, Communism, Fascism, Socialism)
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To: snarks_when_bored

It’s not supposed to be a simulation. Guitar Hero is a rhythm game, it’s Dance-Dance revolution without all the jumping around (it’s the exact same color bar waterfall). Then of course you have to plug the damn thing in first, if you’ve got the whole band setup that’s a lot of complicated plugging in.

And the texting isn’t just about the typing, first you’ve got to figure how to get to the texting app.

The fact is our kids learn some pretty darn complicated stuff just being alive today. They grow up on computers, know how to run DVDs, DVRs, and cellphones with more computing power than put men on the moon. Yeah maybe they aren’t learning how to write cursive, but that’s largely because nobody writes cursive anymore, pen to paper is a buggy whip concept.


54 posted on 08/04/2009 6:44:08 PM PDT by discostu (Somehow mister reliable was not where he was supposed to be)
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To: azcap
as useless as teaching them to do math on an abacus.

I'd LOVE to be able to use an abacus. I don't have one.

I once did a timed test with my old fashioned manual E6B flight calculator, doing time/speed/distant calculations against a guy with an electronic E6B. Difference in speed? About a second. Ain't nothing wrong with old calculators.

55 posted on 08/04/2009 6:45:49 PM PDT by Big Giant Head (Running my computer bare naked for over a year with no infections at all.)
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To: bboop

Yep, calligraphy over there must be going through basically the same transition as handwriting is over here. It’s at best a curiosity, a fun thing to be able to show off.


56 posted on 08/04/2009 6:46:20 PM PDT by discostu (Somehow mister reliable was not where he was supposed to be)
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To: Borges

I’m a lefty. With benign essential tremor. And I flunked handwriting all my life.

But I have a keyboard.

I win.


57 posted on 08/04/2009 6:47:47 PM PDT by Glenn (Free Venezuela!)
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To: Borges

In high school, in the 70s, I tended to use cursive or printing interchangeably.

Then I went to France for a year as an exchange student. Their form of cursive is quite different from ours; no one could read my handwriting (although I wrote fairly neatly). As a result, I printed everything. Now, I can barely write in cursive; I only use it to sign my name on checks.


58 posted on 08/04/2009 7:01:11 PM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: discostu
I don’t think most of the Japanese, Korean and Chinese kids are really spending a lot of time doing intricate calligraphy. They get computers too.

Maybe or maybe not... The Eastern cultures put MUCH more emphasis on "calligraphy" than we Westerners can imagine. It is a highly prized art there.

59 posted on 08/04/2009 7:12:57 PM PDT by sionnsar (IranAzadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5:SONY|Neda Agha-Soltan - one victim of murderous regime)
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To: sionnsar

Given how their languages get written it makes sense to put more emphasis on calligraphy. And it’s also an art, but technology should be having the same effect on general non-art writing there as here. People rarely need to put pen to paper anymore, which is making utilitarian writing go away. Artistic writing might be sticking around, but we have art classes too.


60 posted on 08/05/2009 8:43:07 AM PDT by discostu (Somehow mister reliable was not where he was supposed to be)
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