Question about cursive writing (aka "real writing.")

[raccoon]

I was thinking yesterday about people who don't know cursive. I wonder if a person who didn't know cursive, saw some cursive writing that was in a fairly good handwriting, could they figure out what it said? My guess is that they could. But since I'm a geezerette who learned cursive, I'm not sure.

Any teachers, young people, or all other categories of people had experience in this area?

[CurtEastPoint]

1. 'real writing' I remember we called it that and looked up to 'older' children who learned it!

I think 3rd grade was cursive year, wasn't it? Maybe 2nd. Nowadays the young ones seem to just print.

[RobinA]

11. In My School

circa mid '60's it was 3rd. I was antsy to write cursive in 2nd and did a spelling test in "cursive," only to be given an F by the teacher. It was the second planting of the seeds of skepticism about authority figures (the first came in 1st grade when the teacher used to hit me best friend over the head with a reading book for not paying attention), because it was quite clear not only what I had written, but what I was trying to accomplish. All I did was connect printed letters. It was the first of many run-ins with that teacher, who seemed to go out of her way to prove that I was smarter than she was. Never a good idea with a 6 year old.

[rickford66]

2. There's a bit of cursive in advertisements.

Not always correct either, but the kids must get the message or it wouldn't be used. We called it long hand when I was a kid.

[janterry]

3. My daughter can't read cursive

She can't get through a full sentence - perhaps a few words, but not much.
She's a teenager, btw.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. that depends I guess?

Some of the letterforms can be non-intuitive (look at a cursive capital G and look at a block-printed G, for instance).

[CurtEastPoint]

32. My favorite oddball is the capital "Q"

I always thought it was a fancy '2'

[Adrahil]

5. Can you read medieval bastarde writing?

It was the beginning of cursive writing. Times change. We no longer use quills, nibs, or fountain pens on a regular basis.

[obamanut2012]

7. 100% this

[RobinA]

12. I Agree

to a point, but knowing more rather than less is usually not a bad idea.

[obamanut2012]

6. There is zero reason to learn cursive, unless it's as an art

It was created for quills. We don't use quills. Or fountain pens. Kids need to learn to print neatly and fast and to type. I know people will be telling me why I;m wrong in this thread but no, you are wrong. It isn't needed, and is a waste of class time.

Teaching fine motor skills this way? Lots of other ways to do that. LOTS.

Need to read for classwork? I think reading it could be very easily taught as a unit in lit or history classes -- a short, fun unit.

IT ISN'T NEEDED ANYMORE -- LET IT GO!!!!!!

I could never make that stupid Q or Z correctly, and had to rewrite it hundreds of times in 2nd grade.

Want your kid to learn it? Lots of books that can do that -- make it a fun summertime project.

And no, you don't need it for a "legal signature."

I can just barely remember Watergate, so am a semi old, and had a huge callus on my finger from writing cursive all those years. It's gone now. I print quickly and well, more neatly than I ever wrote cursive. Probably the ONLY thing I still use cursive for is my signature, and that is just from habit.

I work with college kids all day, and they and young staff members are intelligent, and do great with just printing and typing.

[Oneironaut]

15. I disagree - There are a couple reasons.

- Your signature. Of course, you can just write your name, but that is less formal. I still sign cover letters with a cursive signature. I know you don't need it for an official signature, but a cursive signature commands respect. This is especially important when conducting business.

- It's a creative way to write. Schools should also be a place to build logic and creativity. Creative intelligence is often highly discounted and overlooked.

- Historical documents are in cursive. If the art is lost, we will lose the ability to read them.

- Cursive is a formal way of writing. There are still some niche situations where it would be more appropriate to use.

I still use it on and off. I'm glad I know it. I was shocked to learn that cursive is being phased out now. I think it would be a shame.

[Orrex]

24. Regarding historical documents -- nonsense.

In an average day, a kid sees dozens and dozens of widely varied fonts online and can readily interpret them. Cursive--even hoity-toity cursive that we've put on a romanticized pedestal--is simply another font easily parsed. Even "formal" cursive is vanishingly rare: everyone I know who claims to write in cursive is actually using a personalized variant--yet somehow I can still read it.

As for "formal way of writing," that simply makes it a niche skill. It's hardly a justification to waste classroom time on it.

Other than my signature, I have had absolutely ZERO reason or occasion to use cursive since I graduated from high school. And I could have been taught how to write my signature in under an hour, rather than wasting weeks of classroom time on an archaic and obsolete skill.


Some people enjoy writing in cursive, and more power to them. If I could retroactively opt out of having endured it, I certainly would do so, and I'd be no poorer for it.

[raccoon]

34. My OP didn't say young people should learn to write cursive.

Nowhere did I say that, though you and some others seem to have read that into it.



As a matter of fact, I've gone on record here before saying I don't think it's necessary any more.

Unless maybe a young person is working with geezers a lot.

[leftyladyfrommo]

8. I yse cursive all the time. It is faster than printing.

I also know shorthand .

[raccoon]

21. I do too, Gregg shorthand, Diamond Jubilee edition. nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

9. These days, anyone can have perfect handwriting.

Just make sure to use the correct font that's installed for whatever word processing software being used.

Which, when you think about it, is kinda strange.

[angstlessk]

10. It's considered 'Penmanship' not writing...one can 'write' a book and never pick

up a pen or pencil.

[RobinA]

13. Correct, But

standing in any field trying to take notes on whatever you happen to be interested in at the moment is just a pain in the ass on any electronic device. It took me standing in a cemetery trying to take notes on names and dates on old family gravestones to figure this out once and for all. As I struggled to see my iPhone in the sun and keyboard something i would be able to make head or tail of later, I asked myself, "Why am I making life difficult for myself when I could just be WRITING THIS DOWN in paper?" Lesson learned.

[JoeStuckInOH]

30. If you had an iphone in a cemetary, why not just snap a quick pic of the interesting info?

Quicker & easier than writing... and you can sit down and transcribe the information of a warm cocoa or latte.

[csziggy]

33. It's harder than you might think to take a legible photo of a tombstone

Depending on the age, type of stone, depth of inscription, and lighting it can be very hard to get a good, readable photo. Just take a look at examples of good and bad on FindAGrave.com.

From early childhood on, I spent many summers in the cemeteries of Perry County, Alabama, as my mother traced her ancestry. Since Mom wasn't confident with a camera, one of us kids (most often my older sisters) took the pictures for her. We were never sure if we got good photos - Mom always took notes just in case, but needed those pictures as documentation to provide to organizations.

Sometimes the pictures were not clear so the next summer vacation we'd have to return to the same cemeteries to get better photos.

Many people like to do rubbings - but those can wear on the stones and if the inscription is in poor condition they may not be clear.

Even with modern monuments, lighting is important - a little over a week ago my mother and father in law were interred (she passed away in January and they had to move his ashes so they could be interred together). The photos taken at the time of ceremony were not clear since they were taken around noon and the lighting was bad. The next morning my husband and I returned to the cemetery and took additional photos to clearly show the inscriptions.

[apcalc]

14. Cursive will go the way of the phone book.

People will stop using it, , except perhaps, to sign their name.

[treestar]

16. I saw a post on FB today

Wondering if older people will be able to use it as a secret code!

[Javaman]

17. I'm an oldster and I haven't used or needed to use cursive in years.

my cursive was always horrible no matter how often I practiced.

I always printed to save the reader of my various composed letters the pains of trying to decipher my scratch.

[crazycatlady]

18. I learned it in school (class of 1998)

We were required to use it from 3rd to 5th grade. Once we got into middle school, the teachers didn't care if we used print or script (as we called it).

Today my handwriting is mostly print. My signature is cursive though.

[Madam45for2923]

19. Wow! So I can hide in the open what I want to say?

Cursive is now a secret code of sorts?

[JimGinPA]

20. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[MedusaX]

22. D'nealian is a hybrid of print/cursive...Taught it to ease Transition from print to cursive

And also taught it as part of an early elementary dyslexia program...

In reality, the D'nealian is the perfect method...
Those who learn to use D'nealian can easily "decipher" the ancient ( teehee) form of writing commonly known as cursive...

[Baconator]

23. I don't know about that...

... But my everyday writing, notes etc..., is a mix of print and cursive.

I wonder if anyone else could read it

[snooper2]

25. This looked familiar, you thought about this eight years ago LOL

https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6560853

[raccoon]

35. You expect me to remember that? LOL. nt

[WinkyDink]

26. I maintain that cursive writing is adult, and that printing is puerile--exactly the order in which

each used to be taught.

Perhaps we will "progress" to hieroglyphics with the Tri-Centennial Generation.

[mainstreetonce]

27. Yes

I think if you were not taught cursive,it is easy enough to decipher.
Most lower case letters are similar to print .

[MineralMan]

28. I don't know. However, I'm trying to remember the

last thing I read that was hand-written in cursive style. I think it was a birthday card from my 92-year-old mother. I've also tried to remember the last thing I wrote by hand. It was a grocery shopping list and it was printed, not in cursive.

It may just be that cursive is dying because people are pretty much not using handwriting to convey information much these days. We seem to be using devices for communication almost all of the time these days. That trend is not going to diminish, I'm sure.

Is that a bad thing? I don't know. It is the reality, though.

[aikoaiko]

29. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[seaglass]

31. I am interested in genealogy and if I didn't know cursive it would be even more difficult trying to

decipher old handwritten records.