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.
Why? Print writing is much easier to read. There's a reason why nobody uses cursive fonts on the internet...the only time I use cursive is to sign my name.
Learn to read cursive, definitely; learn to write, at least that much would be good in order to learn to read it one might imagine. Drill it and try to make cursive standardized in some way - what's the point in that if it's clearly never going to happen?
Typing and learning to read and write print is plenty essential, once we've mastered it; maybe re-introduce caligraphy or cursive in creative writing or art classes sometime later, like junior high, when the art aspect can be appreciated. I don't feel it should be pushed as much as it is on kids and I agree with that. My personal experience, I type all the time, I even write quite often, but tonight I'm attempting to write a cursive note, probably the first time in a decade and I realized I've forgotten any decent way to write a capital T (I've managed to create a dozen which would do the trick and believe I even have the right one, but it's ugly I feel, which led me here, perhaps a cursive T which is not so ugly?) so I go online and find this chatter. Very interesting but impossible to read everyone's comment after awhile.
That having been said, my point I have is this... to learn to read all script and write legibly is key, couple that with typing and a class of creative cursive/caligraphy/writing for flair and we should be good. There are many other much needed real-life lessons which could be taught, hopefully our wisdom with this will catch up with our relentingless to let go over pride and tradtion concerning our many misplaced priorities.
Okay, what is the html for cursive?
What is the html code for cursive?
i suppose my youngest son (kindergarten) will teach himself cursive if he wants to at some point...
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