Cursive?

[Chad32]

I never use it, except to write my name. It's not like George RR Martin is writing books in cursive. I don't see much point, but whatever. I also didn't see much point in highschool, but that's mainly because I was never ambitious.

[Godscreated]

Cursive is a faster way of putting down thoughts and ideas and that can be important at times. When writing letters... well it's just faster than printing. lazy writers will make printing hard to read and the longer you use a pencil the more cramped your hands become. Cursive can be done well and quickly if one stays consistent and cares about the appearance of their written words. Is it important maybe...maybe not, I personally think it is and I know it's important when signing one's name. Good luck with what ever you decide.

GC

[ignoramus]

I'm just happy I don't have to use that fucking fountain pen and the stupid blotting paper they made me use in primary school!

Being a lefty, All I ever did is smudge the page as I'm writing and go home with blue ink on the side of my left hand ...

AHH, the good old days! ......................NOT!

[Alex K]

Are you guys serious? Of course one should learn cursive, block letters take too fucking long to write. My own handwriting ended up being a mixture of both. (I'm a leftie) If a child has serious trouble learning it, fine, drop the subject to spare needless frustration, but otherwise? Sure!

[Napoléon]

Yeah, lets force kids to learn a less practical and more difficult to read writing. Or just learn how to type.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cursive-wri...g-instead/

Personally, I thought it was a load of bollocks when I was forced to write that way in school, and I think it's a load of bollocks now.

[Exian]

I saw a blurb the other day that went something like "If we don't teach cursive, they won't be able to read historical documents.", but that's a pretty lame argument when you think about it (heiroglyphs, cuneiform, Latin). Sounds good though at first glance.

How many kids read anything today?  Any more than 140 characters and they lose interest.

I handed my 11yo niece The Catcher in the Rye last Friday and she finished by that night, but it doesn't count if they enjoy it, damn it! You're supposed to hate it but do it anyway, like I did. I might as well have handed her a videogame.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Being taught cursive writing fucked up my ability to write.

I used to write properly when I first went to school. It was neat and no one ever had a problem reading what I wrote.

I moved to another school at the age of 10 and they insisted on teaching cursive writing. My writing ended up a sprawl and my grades suffered. Within the space of a year I moved from the top of the class to the bottom.

I moved to another school and then to a secondary school. By the time I reached 15 I had been given 8 after school detentions just for bad hand writing. I have no idea why they thought making me stay an extra hour at school would improve my handwriting. But it also meant that I had an extra hour walking back from school because I missed my usual method of getting home.

Then finally the secondary school decided to employ a teacher specifically to teach people to write neatly and a small group of us were sent to extra lessons during the lunch hour. All the lessons did were to re-teach what I had originally been taught at the age of 5. It all quickly came back and my grades started to dramatically improve. If it wasn't for those special classes I would have probably been marked down in exams, which would have meant going to a crappier university, if at all and consequently poorer job prospects. I certainly wouldn't have gone on to do an MSc.

Examiners have to mark a whole stack of papers and if they can't see where to tick then you won't be rewarded with the extra points. The last thing they want to do is spend an extra 10 minutes deciphering handwritten text when they still have a hundred more papers to sort though.

The whole point of writing is to communicate. The more easily and efficiently you can communicate the less cognitive load is required in deciphering what is being written and the easier it is for the reader to think about what is being said. Flourishes and squiggles purely for the point of aesthetics is counter-productive because they make it less likely that the writing will be understood.

Cursive writing is evil and should be banned.

[Alex K]

@Ianm,

Sounds more like your school system was fucked up, not so much the cursive writing :/
Detention for hand writing, wtf!

[ignoramus]

Maybe she let the droids through?

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[Napoléon]

@Ianm,

Sounds more like your school system was fucked up, not so much the cursive writing :/
Detention for hand writing, wtf!

Not really, my English grades suffered in primary school not because of what I wrote, but because they forced me to do cursive handwriting and it was never something I was good at.