Die, Cursive, die
Cursive handwriting lessons in peril? I can only hope.
I entered the professional workforce during the computer age. That means that everything I’ve done at any workplace has been done mostly on computers. I still take handwritten notes at meetings, but those notes are for my purposes only. Everything else is done through Word documents, e-mail, Excel spreadsheets, Visio charts, or Powerpoint presentations. Actually, it’s kind of scary how much Microsoft has had to do with written communication in the modern world.
I never liked cursive, I never could quite master it. I can’t even write in cursive because I’ve spent the last seven years working entirely in an electronic format. Even before then, when I worked in law enforcement, we were encouraged to write our reports in block letters. Some people would even put the form in an old fashioned typewriter and type up their report rather than handwrite it. Although many of the officers I worked with had excellent penmanship, it is much harder to misconstrue what a letter is in simple block letters. It may not be as pretty or artistic, but the intent is communication after all, which is why I don’t understand the lamentation of cursive’s decline.
Cursive is an archiac form of communication that I always felt hindered effective communication unless you were one of the very few that could do it well. Even so, I often found people with good cursive handwriting were more difficult to read than people who simply printed block letters.
While it might actually be shame to lose this older form of handwriting, it serves no functional purpose in the modern world. You could argue that it is an “artform”, but there is other art I am far more interested in. There is no need for cursive beyond personal use anymore. The professional world certainly has passed it by altogether now.
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October 11th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Damn straight.
I learned cursive in Elementary school, and I still know how to write most of the alphabet in cursive. I find the skill absolutely useless, and I only use it whenever I sign a form using my signature (which is in cursive).
The only people I know of who actively use cursive writing are English teachers, which is funny because I can barely ever make out the comments they leave on my paper.
October 11th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Cursive and good penmanship was something I was taught in school (A Catholic school so triple the shame factor for doing it in a messy format)and despite my best efforts, I have become less that legible at times.
I agree its a thing rooted in the past, but I must disagree that is lacks a purpose today. Back in the day you had to write in a universally understood and clear manner because that was your primary form of written communication. The problem never was cursive, but the fact too few people actually cared enough to learn it or do it right in the end.
There is no standardized writing format and as time goes on I see people loosing the ability to even use their hand to make a note in a manner that can be understood by others.I’ve sat in Pharmacies while they called the doctors office for a translation and calling up sales reps because the contract they filled in with the client for a consulting job is a ghastly mess were just wastes of time.
My cousins for example write in block letters, but God forbid you actually take notes in a lecture or at work in this. Want a hand cramp? Use block letters. Their block letters are all but unreadable.
Cursive is a matter of speed really. My mother knows short-hand (the format on which court reporting is based) and THAT is a totally foreign concept to me.
I can write pretty well and I do it pretty fast, but my mother can write most people under the table and do so in a clear an concise manner using cursive. Most people now use some kind of strange hybrid of block letters and personal creations blended with cursive.
With cursive your pen doesn’t leave the paper. The more I’ve actually used my hand the more I find myself graduating back to cursive because its quick and universal in nature.
I bitched about having reports and tests rejected for my lack of clairty on cursive, but really its the professional standard and should remain so. We think it is outdated, but then again, how many universities and large companies are offering classes in penmanship now to people even in C-levels positions. I bet its not “print” but accepted legal handwriting.
Present company excluded, people have just gotten lazy and are all over the map. I’m rather tired of trying to discern “Bob scrawl” or whatever individual font people excuse for penmanship these days. Most companies have a default font style and text size but think nothing of expecting people to write something in a clear manner.
October 12th, 2006 at 7:45 am
Don’t write off cursive so easily! This appears to be yet another example of dumbing down America. I first encountered this when I tried to switch my kids from private school back to public. My kids had won awards for their handwriting - and were told NOT to write cursive. This is tough to explain to a 6 and 7 year old. I was taught cursive because back then it was the fastest way to create content. Now I realize there is much more going on. It creates your own identity and fosters better motor skills and confidence. No surprise that teachers can’t be bothered to educate pupils in cursive - that’s just the easy way out - and leaves those students stunted in their life with less ability to express themselves quickly and clearly. The fact that you were never taught effective cursive writing just bears that out.