A person near and dear to my heart just told his mother that he couldn’t read cursive when asked who his birthday card was from. Was this a 6 year old? No. It was a 12 year old. Why can’t a 12 year old read cursive?
When I was little my parents used to speak French to each other when they didn’t want me to hear them. I stupidly took Spanish in school. But I digress…..
Can parents now just write something in cursive to be secretive around their kids? Why isn’t cursive being taught in school? I want to be old fashioned for just a minute. Texting is an invention of the Devil. It is making morons out of society. It has destroyed grammar and spelling even worse than CB radios. Perfectly educated people now write in ignorantese.
Learning to write cursive develops a child’s cognitive ability and helps him or her with spacial relationships. Expect more kids to fail geometry. That branch of mathematics definitely relies on finely tuned spacial relationships. Writing cursive also develops fine muscle control.
Reading and writing cursive is a skill. There are too many of us around who still communicate in cursive to let it go the way of the dodo bird. How will people sign their names? Will they print their name on a check? It’s one of those things people should be able to do just because….
Do local schools no longer teach cursive? Do teachers text their students? Keyboarding is not longer taught either. I think I see illiteracy coming…it is right around the corner. Schools! Rethink this one!
Signed, Moon-howler
My daughter was never taught cursive. My attempts failed.
The teachers don’t have time apparently.
It’s a nasty job but someone should do it! @Cargo.
Its a shame when all these other absurd things take over that which sort of separates us from machines.
So do they make an X when signing doscuments?
I guess that is what they will have to do. @Lyssa
They print.
Printing shouldnt count as a signature. Everyone should at least learn to sign their name.
I am mixed on this – is it really that important, or is cursive just the next buggy whip? Cursive is introduced in third grade, but is not focused on. Many teachers require printed text.
Since when? If that is the case, its only been for about 6-7 years. Where is this and why do they require printing?
Remember there was a serious offer for the child to be “homeschooled in Penmanship” on Lafayette. It’s one thing to use an X as a signature if one doesn’t read and/or right. It’s quite another in this day and age, when everyone is educated. However, a printed name, is not a signature. A signature is unique in cursive, imo. I made sure my daughter could write in cursive. She was taught the basics at “Sudley University”, but she really learned to write with the homeschooling of Penmanship.
Kids here age were taught penmanship though….my granddaughter has beautiful handwriting. Well, the oldest one does. I can’t say anything for the younger kids. How about if I send them around to you?
Corr: read and/or WRITE.
I might not have made that error, had I been writing in cursive. 🙂
Seriously, what will people do when they have to actually sign their name? Everyone should have to know how to do that to graduate from high school. That should be a minimal basic part of literacy.
When are we going to throw out reading or math?
What are other westernized countries doing about cursive? Please don’t tell me texting. I will scream. R U aw8k doesn’t mean **** to me.
They only worked on it for three weeks. I remember it perfectly and was very limited. They were not even taught the exercise basic part of penmanship. This is one reason why the penmanship taught in school is very basic and piss poor imo. You know I’m a stickler for penmanship.
” I think I see illiteracy coming…it is right around the corner.”
If you look at the facebook pages of teens and young adults, you may conclude as I have, that illiteracy isn’t coming…it’s all ready here. Since the schools are moving away from “pen and ink” and moving straight to keyboards, swipe, and touchscreens It won’t be long before these people make it out into the work force. With the proliferation of technology in the workplace, even those positions that don’t require a college education, do require the use of email, Instant messaging, and other written communications in order to do the job, and the lack of wirtten communications skills will become apparent. “Text speak” or electronic shorthand is creeping into everything.
They don’t have to learn cursive to sign their names.
With the way people do it, I would just have to sign C scribble scribble L dot L scribble.
If that is the standard, then I could revert back to my ink dipped paw-print!
woops, messed up my own signature by getting ahead of myself.
C scribble scribble S dot L scribble
I forgot my own rule “S before dot when after scribble otherwise L.”
Very good, Clinton but it is a signature, damn it!!!
@Lafayette
I thought Sudley University only taught course on lighting Cowboy Killers with the kitchen stove or opening 18 oz boomers with your eyesocket, snicker.
That one sure went over MY head.
My kids have been in montessori education from pre school to present. Cursive is taught to 3 and four year olds BEFORE print. Why? Because writing in cursvie requires fine motor skills, it requires being focused and attentive, it requires spatial understanding. It is left AND right brain work.
My daughter, who is 8, has beautiful cursive handwriting. When we tried public school last year (lasted 8 weeks), she was told by her teacher (week number 7) to stop writing in cursive, that she was only allowed to sign her name. That was the last straw for us. There were other issues within the classroom regarding my son too, and we were already entertaining going back to montessori, but that” stop writing in cursive” was the last straw.
Oh, and great thread Moon!
Thanks, Elena. I got tired of national news. I am taking a break for a day or two.
@Moon-howler
It’s how rednecks open bottles of beer when they don’t have a churchkey.
Cowboy killers???? Marlboros? Oh how I miss them.
Someone breath second hand smoke on me. I have lit many a marlboro on the kitchen stove. Probably a winston or two also. I have never opened a beer bottle with my teeth though. FYI, its more difficult to light a cig with electric burners than with gas burners but with strong will (addiction), all is possible.
Mr. Laf. opens them with a lighter. Meanwhile, back at the ranch this gal will fire that gas stove up in a heart beat to light the CK’s. I would probably pass out trying to light one on an electric stove.
@Lafayette
Relying on past life experiences in Hookville, I used to open them with the sharp edge of the windowsill until the she he must be obeyed discovered the gouges, now I just use the points on the children’s heads.
oops, she who must be obeyed
or you could join the modern world and just get twist off caps.
@Moon-howler
That’s like buying wine in a box.
A girl does what a girl has to do.
When I was an enlisted Marine, I spoke in cursive.
When my little bro was little, he came home and told my parents that he learned cursive. My mother was going to call the school before she realized he meant ‘script’ which is what it was called when she was growing up.
Steve. can you still speak it? 😈
@Steve Thomas
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
That’s true in the Navy too.
That was great.
@Steve Thomas
That’s what my husband said too. After becoming a non-military after WWII, he and, I’m sure, all his buddies, had to stop using the “f” word in front of every noun. There was many a slip-up causing adoring mothers to wring their hands (if not the guy’s neck).
That was a good one Steve!@Steve Thomas
I’ll never forget the first time I came home on leave, after being in the “Fleet Marine Force” for awhile. I was speaking with some family, and all of a sudden they had this look of shock on their faces. I had been cursing up a storm, and didn’t realize it. I had to consciously try to speak without cursing, for the duration of my visit. Fortunately, my language began to improve, once I had a child. It continued to improve when I transitioned from enlisted to commissioned, as it was “ungentlemanly” to curse. Now, I only speak cursive when I hit my thumb with a hammer.
@Steve Thomas
🙂 Thanks for the laugh.