I'm surprised that I didn't see hand fatigue mentioned, which is probably the number one reason cursive is actually useful, not that it is fast or "aided in cognitive development". Business scripts (like Spencerian in the early 20th c) were developed if you were Clerk or someone who had to scribe stuff out for hours on end, and it had to be legible and consistent. The mechanics of it are quite simple. If you hold a pen, pinch it, and write each letter by moving the your fingers in and out, you will tire quickly or get hand cramps. Cursive scripts on the other keep your fingers fixed, and you write by moving your whole arm, and bending your wrist back and forth, that's why letters come naturally at a fixed angle, because your wrist is going up and down as your arm moves across the page. It also makes writing legibly easier when you write large, your arm system is like one of those old line plotters doing big sweeping motions that you can easily control. Try writing large letters with finger movements while keeping your wrist and elbow mostly still and it's like chiselling them out. It's hard to maintain the right movements over large sweeps and make consistent letters. So this I feel is the number one reason to learn cursive, if you go to college and want to take notes for three hours a day while keeping your hand comfortable, it's natural to write through your whole arm, and the way to write naturally with your whole arm is to basically flick up and down while smoothly pushing your arm across the page: cursive scripts.
Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
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Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
#82I think my elementary school years (early/mid 2000s) were some of the last years that cursive was taught in NYC. It looks like they're bringing it back this year[1]. I hated it at the time and switched to block lettering as soon as I was allowed, but I've noticed that my style has become increasingly (and organically) cursive ever since I began college and really needed to take notes quickly. Cursive may still be slo…
I completely agree. I just transferred schools, and I use to type all of my notes, because I could. Now, I'm handwriting my notes, and I think that my comprehension is way up.
Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
#83Somewhat related but do you guys know good resources to relearn cursive handwriting? I remember having handwriting notebooks as a kid that came with figures and steps to do the letters but I don't know if there's a better way now, years later.
Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
#84Folks interested in the history should read Rosemary Sassoon’s book Handwriting of the Twentieth Century . It mainly focuses on England, but is quite comprehensive and America and other countries writing in Latin scripts are also discussed. (a) The particular “cursive” styles taught in American schools are often pretty crappy and overly ornate and slow/difficult to write, evolving out of writing which was intentional…
As a left-handed writer, I hated being forced to learn cursive and resented the teachers that forced me to use it, especially on timed writing, since I was always much slower at cursive than print writing. Although to be fair, none of my teachers had any specific advice for left-handed writers.
I think the overall difficulty and pain of left-handed writing was part of what pushed me to computers at an early age.
Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
#85Personally I (30 years old now) went to Catholic school (K-12) and learned cursive somewhere around 2nd or 3rd grade and was forced to write in cursive until I graduated 8th grade. Most of the time as a kid I hated it and wished I could write in block letters and once I hit freshman year of high school I never looked back. Fast forward through four years of high school and three gap years when as a freshman in colleg…
I write in block letters since the senior year of highschool. I need it to be able to understand my own writting. I didn't like it then, but now with my sons I see the use of it. It teaches them attention to detail, observation, patience, fine hand dexterity, spatial references. Even if they don't ever use it again I find is an extremely useful and powerful tool for a 5 year old.
Ever since I took a technical drawing course the sophmore year of high school, I haven't wanted to write in anything other than draftsman's block letters. I always had atrocious handwriting, cursive or otherwise, but at least now I and others can read what I write.
Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
#86There is probably some value in being able to read the original founding documents of your government. In the United States those are written in cursive.
I guess we should all start writing those s's that look like lowercase f's again then. Or people in the UK need to start getting fluent in Middle English to read the Magna Carta
Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
#87I'm surprised that I didn't see hand fatigue mentioned, which is probably the number one reason cursive is actually useful, not that it is fast or "aided in cognitive development". Business scripts (like Spencerian in the early 20th c) were developed if you were Clerk or someone who had to scribe stuff out for hours on end, and it had to be legible and consistent. The mechanics of it are quite simple. If you hold a p…
I know zero people who write in cursive.
I know very few people who even hand write anything.
Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
>"preventing identity theft" (via cursive signatures) lol. as if banks (and other institutions likely to get hit by fraud) do signature checks.
I had a check rejected at the bank. My signature didn't match the card on file closely enough, so they sort of put me through the ringer before they cashed it. Wasn't even a lot of money.
You got lucky.
Bank managers will have clerks randomly pick a stack of checks and reject them so their clients feel like there's some auditing going on.
Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
#89The funny thing is that the grey quotes in the article look very close to Cursive Italic, which is faster than American Cursive(what we all know as regular cursive) and Manuscript + it is just as easy to read as Manuscript(print). If we actually cared about efficiency and effectiveness in handwriting we would have switched to this a long time ago. I do calligraphy as a hobby. I'm going to time myself but I'm already…
I never knew that there were all these names for different types of handwriting. I'm trying to sort them out. What is the difference between Cursive Italic and American Cursive? And what is Manuscript, except something written by hand?
Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)
#90Reading these comments makes me wonder if there is something wrong with US cursive or the way it was taught. I learned cursive in first grade GDR and continued school in Austria where we had to (and enjoyed) writing copious essays weekly over and over again. It's actually amazing to watch the penmanship shift over those years and develop into a idiosyncratic style or to see the speed and form impacted by topic, time…
They simply do not teach cursive in LA Unified.