(no subject)

[smg01]

Cursive writing becoming passe

This makes me a little sad. I remember how exciting it was to finally be in the grade where we were going to learn cursive writing. It was almost like a rite of passage. Or learning a code that used to be a mystery. Now there are adolescents who can barely read or write it.

I really am turning into an old fogey. I can't help but feel like we're losing something valuable. Also there are some interesting interesting studies referenced in the article that connect the physical act of writing longhand with cognitive thought processes.

Comments

[tourogal.livejournal.com]

i had a friend in high school who grandfather was a handwriting analyst. i thought then, and still think that that is the coolest thing in the world. knowing that someone could learn about me from the way i write a letter fascinates me. it is the reason i pay attention to how i form my letters and one of the reasons i use a fountain pen.

i disagree with that article. penmanship for my children is very important. their in class essays are handwritten and in hebrew classes, they must take notes. and if they can't read it, that becomes a problem. cursive might slip away from society in general, but in schools like the ones my kids go to, it can't wander too far.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

It think it's interesting too. There's a part of the self that's put into writing that doesn't go into typing. It's personal, even intimate. I hate to see it just dismissed.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

This troubles me deeply. It just hurts. This isn't just penmanship; this is cultural loss.

If society keeps moving toward keyboard and print, we are leavng a huge cultural segment behind and all the knowledge that goes with it. We lose individuality, creativity, and beauty. Cursive is our calligraphy.

I completely believ in the link to cognitive processes. I did far better on tests that are linked to the writing word vs the computer. My handwriting has suffered as things have become more computerized. I think better when I write. I perform better when I write. And curisve is so fluid that it allows you a grace, speed, and efficiency you can't find in print, whether it is print by hand or print by computer.

Sure, typing is fast. But look at spelling. Spelling knowledge has dropped. People are more willing to be careless when typing (myself included). it's causing the written word to diminish.

*hates it*

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

I agree. And the cursive allows personality to mix with knowledge. As I mention above there's an intimacy to it, a connectedness.

The keyboard encourages getting thoughts out as quickly as possible. In this internet-driven, speeded up world, it's coherence often takes a backseat to just getting something, anything typed up and turned over. Writing is a lot more conducive to reflection and care.

Not that I'm Luddite, or anti-computer, or anti-internet. It's just that we all seem to be rushing around in a bigger and bigger hurry, yet we don't really seem to be rushing to anything in particular.

Bah. I'm becoming old and cranky.

[rainbow.livejournal.com]

chris always wished schools in calif teached penmenship when the body was little, cuz she never had it and hated her writing. i am trying to make my writing prettier. i LIKE cursive.

i wonder what happens at schools where the district does not have moeny for so many computers and the kids at home dont have them to. do they just skip penmenship to even tho those kids have more need of it so they can write faster?

that is just very sad making that even teachers dont think its important. :(

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm glad to hear that this isn't just my kids. One of my failures as a homeschool mom was to teach my kids cursive. I bought the workbooks. I even did music therapy with them, but neither of them mastered writing in Cursive comfortably. For both of them, it was an extremely painful experience that made all of their schoolwork take 10 times as long and it was very labor-intensive. Printing was only slightly easier. I finally gave up and taught them both to type. My daughter learned to type properly, but my son resisted even that.

Once they could type, they could write. Their creativity flowed. They wrote stories, novels, poetry--and even schoolwork--with ease. *g* They both still love to write.

I never gave up completely. I was afraid they'd suffer for their lack of being able to write in cursive (and especially to read it) so when they were pre-teens/early teens, I got another set of workbooks for kids with writing difficulties and we worked through those. It really didn't help. As a last resort, I bought my daughter yet another third-grade cursive workbook when she was maybe 16 or 17, and she did work through this as well.

I decided it wasn't worth the hassle with my son. Neither of them can read cursive, though both can (finally) sign their names.

I also always hated writing in longhand. Except for schoolwork in the elementary grades, I rarely, if ever, chose to write in cursive on my own. For one thing, few people have legible cursive writing. To make it neat and legible (a must for me, since what's the purpose of writing, if nobody can read it?), you really have to slow down quite a bit.

We receive cards, letters, and other things written in cursive, and even *I* struggle to read them. I don't know why anyone bothers if they're going to write in cursive, honestly. *g*

I can read my own cursive writing, but anyone else's? Usually I struggle through it like it's a secret code. For one thing, my generation (1960s) was taught an entirely different cursive than my mother's generation 1930s & 40s), so anyone who was 20 years older or so wrote in a completely different way. Then they had a whole new series of cursive writing around the time my kids were learning.

There were actually about four different styles of cursive around when I was teaching my kids. When my daughter was at school, they didn't really do handwriting instruction, which was awful, because nobody taught her to form letters properly, so she made many letters from the wrong starting point (i.e. the letters looked right in the end, but were awkwardly "drawn" as though they were artwork, not a letter).

lyraeinne's teacher told me that her daughter was learning the D'Nealian (sp?) method, which was much harder. (It included different ways of forming the letters so that cursive would be easier--lots of curlicues and flourishes.) When I chose for my own kids, I bought the Italic Cursive series (a big mistake, but also supposed to be easier for kids with handwriting difficulties--it wasn't), and then later changed to more traditional workbooks--most specifically a very simple series that, again, was supposed to be for children with difficulties.

Even if they were comfortable with their workbooks, they couldn't read my cursive writing and especially not that of their grandparents.

I don't regret the passing of cursive. I'm just glad it's not just my kids. *g*