Is learning cursive writing still important?

cincybearcat

Cursive sucks and should be abolished.

justam

Last year I was giving a piano lesson to a middle schooler. She commented on my handwriting as I was writing in her notebook. And as we started talking about handwriting , she told me that the public schools in Florida only teach them to print.

I was surprised and a bit sad about that piece of news.

BinauralJam

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i still print every day at work. i sometimes use cursive, though it is a bastardized form of cursive, as i have made my own changes/improvements on the accepted traditional cursive script...

:geek:

me too

josevolution

This reminds me of my childhood days with my mother everynight she would help me with cursive writting i wish i could have those moments back , anybody wan't to start a letter writting club i haven't written a letter in decades ....

brianlux

It is, and I don't say that just because I'm "old school" in many ways but because I believe it is important to keep all basic skills alive- writing and printing by hand, sewing, cooking, using hand tools, reading books from cover to cover, gardening, caring for animals, etc., because these are some of the things that make us human. I also believe doing things by hand help keep us more balanced mentally and psychologically. Getting lost in the machine is bad for the head- at least that's what I believe.

g under p

brianlux wrote:

It is, and I don't say that just because I'm "old school" in many ways but because I believe it is important to keep all basic skills alive- writing and printing by hand, sewing, cooking, using hand tools, reading books from cover to cover, gardening, caring for animals, etc., because these are some of the things that make us human. I also believe doing things by hand help keep us more balanced mentally and psychologically. Getting lost in the machine is bad for the head- at least that's what I believe.

I'm old school too....and I agree that our domestic basic home skills are still needed today. I believe in the future they come a time where those skills will be a necessity due an apocalytic end of the world event. Where those in the know of these skills will have a better chance of survival. When the digital technology is down we should have basic skills to fall back unto to carry on.

I teach my kids simple day to day skills from sewing, ironing to how to properly hold and eat with a knife and fork. The two older teens can write in cursive and youngest has no clue. So I just took out a pad just to see if I still could write in cursive and I can very well. As I look at it it's a very sexy way of writing and on my next romantic card ill write it in cursive. When I write in cursive I take my time to properly form the letters and its beautiful. Thanks bringing me back to my distant past of such a cool writing school.

Peace

Guitar92player

I never became great at cursive writing. At the moment I can't remember how each letter should look like in cursive.

chadwick

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i still print every day at work. i sometimes use cursive, though it is a bastardized form of cursive, as i have made my own changes/improvements on the accepted traditional cursive script...

:geek:

chadwick

brianlux wrote:

It is, and I don't say that just because I'm "old school" in many ways but because I believe it is important to keep all basic skills alive- writing and printing by hand, sewing, cooking, using hand tools, reading books from cover to cover, gardening, caring for animals, etc., because these are some of the things that make us human. I also believe doing things by hand help keep us more balanced mentally and psychologically. Getting lost in the machine is bad for the head- at least that's what I believe.

thank you

brianlux

It would be interesting to see how many of us here remember these and as kids used them in class:



Once in a while I'll come across an old book that is either inscribed or has the former owners name written in it and quite often, the older the book, the more beautiful the cursive writing.

mysticweed

hedonist wrote:

I fear it will go the way of "proper" English and language in general.

Penmanship (ie, writing by hand but not necessarily cursive) is still important as not everything is digitized. As much as I work on the computer, I still do some writing by hand in my little mix of printing and cursive (plus, what about cards, letters, etc.? Does no one send actual physical cards for birthdays and the like anymore?).

One thing I have noticed though, is that my writing hand gets tired much quicker than it used to.

once someone told me that if you mix cursive and printing that you are more intelligent than most
so you use whichever is more convenient at the time which makes you more intelligent than most
so . . .

g under p

brianlux wrote:

It would be interesting to see how many of us here remember these and as kids used them in class:



Once in a while I'll come across an old book that is either inscribed or has the former owners name written in it and quite often, the older the book, the more beautiful the cursive writing.

I think it's a beautiful form of writing.

Peace

hedonist

mysticweed wrote:

once someone told me that if you mix cursive and printing that you are more intelligent than most
so you use whichever is more convenient at the time which makes you more intelligent than most
so . . .

And here I do it without even realizing it :P

Brian, yeah - definitely remember those! There's a weird comfort every time I see that chart...nostalgia, I guess.

This thread made me think about when I first got my driver's license, and how meticulous my signature was on it - actually readable. Now (and most of it is due to having a long name and signing it a lot), a virtual scribble - though I hope not easily forgable!

hedonist

g under p wrote:

I think it's a beautiful form of writing.

Peace

I agree.

And to take it further, the care in the act of writing the words (specially in the quill & ink days) seems to have been tantamount to the care given to the words themselves.

Eloquence, maybe.

Jeanwah

brianlux wrote:

It is, and I don't say that just because I'm "old school" in many ways but because I believe it is important to keep all basic skills alive- writing and printing by hand, sewing, cooking, using hand tools, reading books from cover to cover, gardening, caring for animals, etc., because these are some of the things that make us human. I also believe doing things by hand help keep us more balanced mentally and psychologically. Getting lost in the machine is bad for the head- at least that's what I believe.

I'm old school too, and still do a lot of things the old way "just because". (clothes lines!) I agree with everything you say here, especially the last sentence. Of course getting lost in the machine is bad for the head; we used to remember things, phone numbers, addresses, birthdays, history, etc. having the convenience of computers takes away the need to think!

Jeanwah

hedonist wrote:

g under p wrote:

I think it's a beautiful form of writing.

Peace

I agree.

And to take it further, the care in the act of writing the words (specially in the quill & ink days) seems to have been tantamount to the care given to the words themselves.

Eloquence, maybe.

Nicely said, and I agree that it's beautiful. It's why I learned how to do Calligraphy.

Jeanwah

I remember when I was young, I used to practice writing my name with my non-dominant hand "if anything ever happened to my good hand". So shortly after my car accident in the ICU when doctors were about to send me into surgery for increasing nerve damage to my good hand due to compartment syndrome, they had me sign a liability form that amputation was very likely if they couldn't save my hand in time. I had to sign with my bad hand, and they actually commented how good it was for my non-dominant hand. Turns out I had to learn to write completely with that hand for 8 months until I could do it again with the nerve damage. Knowing cursive writing actually made it easier to do (although illegible), due to not having to lift the pencil from the paper. It doesn't sound like it would make a difference, but it does.

hedonist

Aw, Jean...what an experience for you, all around. I have times when my dominant hand (lefty here) rebels for whatever reason and I curse (cursive? :P ) it.

Good lesson here in humility from you.

Thanks

mikalina

brianlux wrote:

It would be interesting to see how many of us here remember these and as kids used them in class:



Once in a while I'll come across an old book that is either inscribed or has the former owners name written in it and quite often, the older the book, the more beautiful the cursive writing.

My kids still used the above back in class - unfortunately, the teachers are now spending much less time on cursive writing. They seem to practice the basics and move on....

mikalina

I personally enjoy cursive writing, it flows better and if you have a good quality pen the writing is so much faster too....

As a young teenager my friends and I would sit around and practice our cursive and see who could write the most fanciest way. My best friend had us all beat with the most beautiful cursive writting I've ever seen.

Sad now with all the texting and computers that most kids know nothing of good cursive writing. Its all about printing and abbreviations.

My 11 yr old son has bascially forgotten most of his cursive letters " already" since the schools do not enforce cursive writing at all. Just print your homeword or use the computer - thats about it.