Kansas may halt cursive education

[Flames66]

Nobody (outside of England, apparently) uses Cursive handwriting anymore, and schools are only now catching onto the fact that people would rather be able to read something instead of just looking at the squiggles and going "yep, that's a report alright".

I don't know anyone within England who writes like that either apart from one of my college lecturers whose handwriting looked like his arm was attached to a heart monitor, and another whose writing was just a long, slightly squiggly line with occasional hills and valleys. We used to make a game out of trying to read a single word they had written.

^^ This is Cursive writing, and a relatively good sample too. Only took me 3 extra seconds to decipher it into English.

Can't read that. I can translate maybe three words.

 

[BNguyen]

While I don't necessarily think it would be a good thing to completely erase it from use as very few people actually can write anymore besides using awful computer text shorthand but right now, I barely use it for my own signature.
My family likes to use the whole ancestry.com thing and everyone back then used really hard to read cursive writing that can't hardly be read at all.

That, and if you aren't taught all of the letters in their cursive form you aren't going to be able to read it anyways.

 

[blackrave]

You seem to have missed the entire purpose and subject of the thread, my friend. Cursive is the method of writing in which you make a bunch of illegible squiggly lines on a piece of paper, whereas printing is the method of making letters that look like those on a computer screen or printed document.

Nobody (outside of England, apparently) uses Cursive handwriting anymore, and schools are only now catching onto the fact that people would rather be able to read something instead of just looking at the squiggles and going "yep, that's a report alright".


*The preceding may include some sarcasm and exaggeration.

^^ This is Cursive writing, and a relatively good sample too. Only took me 3 extra seconds to decipher it into English.

By "Nobody (outside of England, apparently) uses Cursive handwriting anymore" you mean that americans don't use it anymore, right?
Because most in places I have ever been and in all languages I know (with latin and cyrillic writing) this is called handwriting

So am I right to assume that american handwriting is simply drawing printed letters?
Man, you ARE degrading :/

Can't read that. I can translate maybe three words.

That's because it is only part of the text- if it would be full, then it would be much easier
(for example, first 3 symbols are end of some word "-ted". It is vertically chopped text that makes things really bad at reading)

 

[Gavmando]

Wow.

Just wow.

I'm amazed and appalled by this thread. Are you people serious? You still use printing to write? If you cant write in cursive in Australia by the age of 10, then the teachers start looking at you like there's something wrong with you.

I...
I just...

I cant type any more. I have to leave the computer. This is just so brain exploding.

I can tell you that you're straight up wrong.

As a pre-service teacher in Highschools (as in I've been working in highschools the past 2 years) I've seen cursive once.

It was a British kid who had recently moved to Australia.

I don't recall a single person using cursive at my schools in Queensland (I went to 3) and the majority of people I know who I went to school with in the Northern Territory didn't use cursive.

Queensland and NT. 20 and 30 years behind the rest of the country. Nuff said.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

proper handwritting is an art! Silly America

I'd rather they just focus on teaching everyone to have legible handwriting. If eliminating cursive means more people use printing I can read easily, that would be good enough for me. Anything in the realm of "art" can go straight to elective art classes, like where I learned calligraphy.

 

[Sidmen]

By "Nobody (outside of England, apparently) uses Cursive handwriting anymore" you mean that americans don't use it anymore, right?
Because most in places I have ever been and in all languages I know (with latin and cyrillic writing) this is called handwriting

So am I right to assume that american handwriting is simply drawing printed letters?
Man, you ARE degrading

The below is printed handwriting. And so far in this very thread we've heard from Germans, Australians, Irish, and Canadians that have confirmed that Cursive handwriting is all but gone from their areas too. Once people understood what the word cursive meant, they started confirming it.

Edit: and apparently an English fellow or two.

 

[StBishop]

Wow.

Just wow.

I'm amazed and appalled by this thread. Are you people serious? You still use printing to write? If you cant write in cursive in Australia by the age of 10, then the teachers start looking at you like there's something wrong with you.

I...
I just...

I cant type any more. I have to leave the computer. This is just so brain exploding.

I can tell you that you're straight up wrong.

As a pre-service teacher in Highschools (as in I've been working in highschools the past 2 years) I've seen cursive once.

It was a British kid who had recently moved to Australia.

I don't recall a single person using cursive at my schools in Queensland (I went to 3) and the majority of people I know who I went to school with in the Northern Territory didn't use cursive.

Queensland and NT. 20 and 30 years behind the rest of the country. Nuff said.

I'm teaching in WA.

The stupidest people I know are all from Melbourne without exception.

Also, your argument is flawed. You said "If you cant write in cursive in Australia by the age of 10", not "If you can't write cursive in NSW, Vic, ACT, Tas, and WA..."

 

[Locke_Cole]

By "Nobody (outside of England, apparently) uses Cursive handwriting anymore" you mean that americans don't use it anymore, right?
Because most in places I have ever been and in all languages I know (with latin and cyrillic writing) this is called handwriting

So am I right to assume that american handwriting is simply drawing printed letters?
Man, you ARE degrading :/

From this thread we've mainly only had people from England claiming it's prominence. There were some from Australia however there were multiple conflicting accounts of that as even a proposed teacher chiming in to say that he had never seen an Australian high school student provide work in cursive. A few Germans in the thread mentioned their country doesn't favour it and as a Canadian I know it is not widely used, if at all, here.

Here in Canada it is called handwriting, you are correct there, but just because the proper term isn't used (yes, cursive is in the dictionary) doesn't automatically mean that all writing by hand is cursive.

Cursive is a dying writing style.

 

[Locke_Cole]

Cursive does appear quite beautiful on the page however in most cases print is far easier and quicker to read and recognize. Likely why it is used with electronic devices and all over the web.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Well, I never knew that so many people give such a big damn about handwriting.
I mean I like good penmanship and I am quite good at calligraphy and I do only write with fountain pens, but in everyday life I simply use print, seeing as my cursive is completely unreadable.
I can't even decipher it myself in most cases, so printing it is.

 

[rosac]

I prefer physical stuff, and find that my thoughts tend to flow better when writing rather than typing, so I like cursive, although this may have to do with the fact I know no other way of writing.

I don't know. I think it should be taught briefly and let the students decide what to do. And I have to ask, what would people do in times where there are no electronic devices around them? I am wary that humanity keeps using technology as a crutch more and more. If something fucks them up, what'll happen?

 

[blackrave]

By "Nobody (outside of England, apparently) uses Cursive handwriting anymore" you mean that americans don't use it anymore, right?
Because most in places I have ever been and in all languages I know (with latin and cyrillic writing) this is called handwriting

So am I right to assume that american handwriting is simply drawing printed letters?
Man, you ARE degrading

The below is printed handwriting. And so far in this very thread we've heard from Germans, Australians, Irish, and Canadians that have confirmed that Cursive handwriting is all but gone from their areas too. Once people understood what the word cursive meant, they started confirming it.

Edit: and apparently an English fellow or two.

Printed handwriting is good for short notes, to make sure other understand you, yes
But "cursive" handwriting is much better for education (you mostly write down for yourself and you can understand your own "cursive" handwriting)
Because it is much faster- I wrote down as fast as teacher spoke during college
Good luck taking handprinted notes with such speed.

 

[Sidmen]

I prefer physical stuff, and find that my thoughts tend to flow better when writing rather than typing, so I like cursive, although this may have to do with the fact I know no other way of writing.

I don't know. I think it should be taught briefly and let the students decide what to do. And I have to ask, what would people do in times where there are no electronic devices around them? I am wary that humanity keeps using technology as a crutch more and more. If something fucks them up, what'll happen?

Wait... What would we do if there weren't any electronic devices around us?

We'd use print handwriting, which is what most people do anyway. We aren't even suggesting that writing with pens and paper would go away, this thread is all about one style of handwriting no longer being taught because nobody uses it outside of classes where they require it.

 

[Rainmaker77]

UK here.

Cursive or 'joined up writing' as we call it here is definitely the norm, so much so that I can't actually recall reading anything hand written recently that was not.

It's so engrained to me that I actually struggle printing my name on documents, I simply don't naturally write like that and it's an effort to do so.

As a side note, I don't really recall being forced and ruthlessly trained to do joint writing, it was just something you did in primary school and eventually became how you wrote.

I am actually quite surprised the rest of the world finds this a chore, as over here it's simply the norm.

 

[Sidmen]

Printed handwriting is good for short notes, to make sure other understand you, yes
But "cursive" handwriting is much better for education (you mostly write down for yourself and you can understand your own "cursive" handwriting)
Because it is much faster- I wrote down as fast as teacher spoke during college
Good luck taking handprinted notes with such speed.

Uhh, I constantly take multiple pages of notes with printed handwriting... It might take you longer to print - but that's because you've been writing with cursive your whole life while I've been printing my whole life.

If you would check out the rest of this thread you could find links to multiple studies that scientifically confirms that cursive and printing can be done at equivalent speeds.

So, from a school's point of view, you can teach people cursive - which will be harder for people to read and is no faster, or you can just stick with printing and waste no more time (since, if I understand correctly, is taught even to English schoolkids before cursive handwriting - even if it's not called by those names). I think the decision is obvious - waste no more time on something trivial and unimportant to anyone but nerds on the internet, like everyone in this thread.

 

[Alma Mare]

ITT: People are too lazy to learn how to write properly and educated adults merrily admit being incapable of reading a clear handwritten text. This is why we won't be getting nice things.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

While it's absolutely true that cursive is rarely needed for some folks, I do find uses for it.

When you have to take notes, it's so much faster than the comics sans emulation type most people seem to have going these days. No matter arguing - typing each and every letter is a lot like drawing, whereas cursive is probably best described as the effort to write down ideas, notes, letters or whole books with the pen leaving the paper for as little as absolutely necessary, which is mostly just between words or to put funny little dots or other funny symbols on top of some very select few individual characters.

I also believe that finding your own writing font is part of what makes you you, a unique individual - like everyone else. If you rely on things with buttons or touchy-feely screens to express yourself, well, just don't you dare expect me to take your handwritten application srsly, with it's MLP stickers and Hello Kitty glitter.

 

[blackrave]

Printed handwriting is good for short notes, to make sure other understand you, yes
But "cursive" handwriting is much better for education (you mostly write down for yourself and you can understand your own "cursive" handwriting)
Because it is much faster- I wrote down as fast as teacher spoke during college
Good luck taking handprinted notes with such speed.

Uhh, I constantly take multiple pages of notes with printed handwriting... It might take you longer to print - but that's because you've been writing with cursive your whole life while I've been printing my whole life.

If you would check out the rest of this thread you could find links to multiple studies that scientifically confirms that cursive and printing can be done at equivalent speeds.

So, from a school's point of view, you can teach people cursive - which will be harder for people to read and is no faster, or you can just stick with printing and waste no more time (since, if I understand correctly, is taught even to English schoolkids before cursive handwriting - even if it's not called by those names). I think the decision is obvious - waste no more time on something trivial and unimportant to anyone but nerds on the internet, like everyone in this thread.

Not in my experience, but maybe for some people that's easier
I guess it is "agree to disagree" situation :/

But occasionally you may need handwriting that others can't understand
I write in "cursive" clearly, but just a bit more loose hand and you won't even understand what language it is, while I will read it without any problems

Also children should know both so that they can choose on their own.
It would be just fair.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

ITT: People are too lazy to learn how to write properly and educated adults merrily admit being incapable of reading a clear handwritten text. This is why we won't be getting nice things.

Also in topic:
People being snobbish (not directed exclusively at you, but implying that cursive is "ZE ONLY KORREKT WAY" is a bit snobbish at least) about doing things "THE ONLY KORREKT WAY", telling everyone who does things differently why "THEY ARE FALSCH".

This is another reason for why we can't have nice things.

 

[Sidmen]

UK here.

Cursive or 'joined up writing' as we call it here is definitely the norm, so much so that I can't actually recall reading anything hand written recently that was not.

It's so engrained to me that I actually struggle printing my name on documents, I simply don't naturally write like that and it's an effort to do so.

As a side note, I don't really recall being forced and ruthlessly trained to do joint writing, it was just something you did in primary school and eventually became how you wrote.

I am actually quite surprised the rest of the world finds this a chore, as over here it's simply the norm.

It's probably a cultural thing, like how I never knew that tipping wasn't an internationally normal thing to do. In the USA if you don't tip your waitstaff 20% of the value of your bill (some say 14% or some hogwash that makes the math iffy) then you're practically punching the waitress in the face on your way out the door.

Whereas in Europe, I'm given to understand that tipping is seen as kinda rude. (Or maybe that was just France, everything seems to upset the French.)

Not in my experience, but maybe for some people that's easier
I guess it is "agree to disagree" situation :/

But occasionally you may need handwriting that others can't understand
I write in "cursive" clearly, but just a bit more loose hand and you won't even understand what language it is, while I will read it without any problems

Also children should know both so that they can choose on their own.
It would be just fair.

Yeah, there is a linguistic divide between the US and UK that is widening every day. From time to time I have to ask my English customers to repeat themselves (and ALWAYS ask Scottish and Irish), so maybe it simply is the way it is over there.

I've never needed handwriting that nobody can understand myself, but then I've never given a rat's tail about anyone finding out my pathetic secrets.

As for the chillens, I'm much more concerned about them learning... well, anything, than trying to teach them multiple optional styles of handwriting. If you haven't noticed, our educational system is failing hard and fast.