Posted on 10/24/2001 6:11:49 AM PDT by Brookhaven
Mr. Nancetti, my third grade teacher, was wrong.
Mr. Nancetti claimed that script, or "cursive", handwriting was much easier and faster to write. He was wrong.
Writing in script is slower, messier, harder to read, and rare. What percent of the population writes in script? I doubt that it is very high. I can't remember the last note I received in "cursive" writing.
With typing now the norm rather than the exception, print handwriting will be forever dominant over script. Gone are the days when z's look like y's or when n's and m's are barely distinguishable.
I used to tease my mother that she did not know how to write in "cursive" -- she had never learnt it in school. But now I envy her for not spending time learning a soon-to-be defunct dialect of handwriting.
It could be that "graffiti," the handwriting style introduced by US Robotics' (now 3com) Pilot, will soon overtake script as the number 2 form of penmanship in the United States.
The biggest problem with teaching kids cursive writing is it takes the place of ensuring better penmanship. I can't tell you how many times I get notes from co-workers, colleagues, and friends that I can't read. Important messages are indecipherable and beautiful post-cards contain cryptic messages. If people would focus, just a little bit, on improving their handwriting rather than learning a new handwriting style, messages would be a little clearer.
So my suggestion is to scrap cursive writing altogether. Stop wasting third graders time when you could be teach more math, spelling, reading, government, or typing. Getting rid of cursive writing won't make the world a significantly better place or solve world hunger or create lasting peace, but it will ensure that written documents will be more legible. It will be a very tiny step toward a more productive society -- and we won't waste months of our children's life having to learn a handwriting style that is virtually useless.
Summation: stop teaching cursive writing in the classroom and stop encourage people to write neatly in print.
Agreed.
The goal is to equip the student to function well in all disciplines, including scribing free-hand. Typing is important; printing is important; quick, legable cursive is essential for note-taking. It's unlikely that any instructor could be heard in a lecture hall when thirty or more students are clupping away on their laptops. Not realistic.
I remember reading somewhere that development of a scripted writing is important in creating synapses that augment brain function. That aside, cursive is an essential, necessary tool for collecting data when there's no electricity or keyboards handy.
Along with the "ten minute pencil sketch", my students were required to render, in cursive, entire books (history, law, e.g.) in their cursive hand from my dictations. Skills developed were the ability to listen, cogitate, assemble then write the text legibly, quickly. Speed was increased over time. Spelling, syntax, and grammar were addressed as questions came up. They developed an organic sense of construction in addition to the cognitive.
I did not neglect typing, and block print and colligraphy was exercised.
The students, now in college, have a real leg-up because of the ability to take notes and sketch. Common sense.
That does not seem to have anything to do with the fact that almost nobody uses it, whether it is faster or not.
An employer watching someone filling out a job application under the duress of the above-described disability would certainly think twice about hiring. Maybe it's covered under the ADA?
The goal is to equip the student to function well in all disciplines, including scribing free-hand.
As a former teacher for 22 years I was tempted to comment on this thread, but it seems the both of you have stated exactly what I was going to say!
Thank you!
I never said that quality penmanship was not important. As for cursive, I have simply made the observation that nobody uses it once they leave seventh grade. You may want people to use it, but they don't.
An employer watching someone filling out a job application under the duress of the above-described disability would certainly think twice about hiring. Maybe it's covered under the ADA?
I have never seen a form that does not say "please print". Medical forms, school applications, job forms, etc.. they all say please print. I have never seen one that says "please use cursive".
Interesting. According to graphologists, connecting letters in cursive writing equates to the writer's ability / propensity to connect emotionally to other humans. A writer who prints is emotionally detached from others. Guess this is a difference between the sexes.
With all due resepct, I still see it plenty and use it myself plenty (especially if I want to jot notes down as fast as I can and not have to lug my laptop around). [And that's coming from a guy that's using a computer 95% of the work day.]
I'll agree that block writing has an advantage or two, it's certainly more readable and most everyone can make a font that looks the same that way. But it ain't worth the time (unless of course one's cursive is really poor).
In fact, I think we'd all agree.... this thread ain't worth the time either.
That's me to a T. My handwriting motto is, "use the minimum legibility to write as quickly as possible," except when addressing wedding invitations.
I have a long name, so my signature is indecipherable except for the initial letters. The thing is, it always looks the same, and I can write it (in "cursive" in this case because it's faster) in about a second. It would be very difficult to forge.
On the other hand, my wife writes her name very neatly in script (which would be easy to forge) which takes her about ten seconds, which seems like an eternity when I watch her sign a check.
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