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Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)

nautil.us

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Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)

#131

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

averagewall wrote: post #120
gozur88 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real reason: "I had to learn cursive, damnit, so you do too!"

Also the reason for eV and mole units, and Fortran. Not to mention the whole imperial unit system. Adults can't be bothered changing their ways and since they have the power, they make the next generation do the hard work of keeping up instead of correcting their own mistakes.

I don't remember eV, but moles are the obvious way of expressing what they are. Also Fortran is within rounding error of dead outside of a few niches, where it benefits from everything being done in it, which is similar but not the same as your premise.

Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)

#132

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

megaman22 wrote: post #85
omegant wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I do both: Cursive for my own notes, because it's faster and more comfortable, and block letters for stuff I need others to read.

Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)

#133

Post by cglace »

tootie wrote: post #130
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not know anyone who writes in non-cursive. I live in France where cursive is the norm. Everyone I know hand writes on a whiteboard of a piece of paper. Or when they make a note to the teacher. Or when they use a post-it.

In the US it's a dead art. I learned it as a kid and never use it. My kids are actually not learning it. It's been removed from the curriculum in New York and I'm pleased.

It's still very useful for taking notes. I find taking notes on a computer is not nearly as effective as taking notes with pen and paper.

Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)

#134

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

notl4wy3r wrote: post #6
vim_wannabe wrote: post #3

Does everything taught in schools need to have immediate applicability?

Of course not, but some non-zero eventual utility is a desirable trait. There are a variety of actually beneficial things children could spend their time doing, which are currently being displaced by being forced to learn a useless handwriting style.

You are assuming that cursive is "useless" and lacks "some non-zero eventual utility". Practicing fine motor control seems like an excellent use of time to me.

Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)

#136

Post by cordite »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #111
cordite wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about teaching it (EDIT: making a signature) as an art form, for the soul purpose of creating something unique? (EDIT: not necessarily cursive)

That seriously takes some control over one's own handwriting before it is really possible. Artful lettering has its own learning curve. Plus I'm not sure this is going to have benefits over any other sort of art training. Additionally, I think this bypasses the real goal of writing - you need writing to be both efficient and legible to others as a base function. This is why hand-written notes to myself often are slop…

I don’t see a reason for signatures to be legible, just identifiable.

Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)

#137

Post by mwcampbell »

Now that capacitive touchscreens are widely available, I think we should teach children how to quickly and accurately input text on a touchscreen tablet, using a Swipe-style keyboard or whatever current method gives the fastest and most accurate results. Note: We should teach them how to input eloectronic text (as in Unicode), that can then be read in whatever font and size is good for the reader, or through alternative methods such as text-to-speech and braille. Universal access! Of course, such text is also searchable, which is also something we can't practically get with handwriting.

In other words, let's teach kids how to input text in a way that's optimized for this century. And while we're at it, let's teach them to make their written output universally accessible by default. No more handwritten notes on whiteboards during meetings, excluding blind (or low-vision) participants. There should be a way to input electronic text that's just as convenient (or more) for a typical sighted person, but also accessible.

Death to handwriting as we know it!

Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)

#138

Post by craftyguy »

open_bear wrote: post #124
mattnewton wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keyboards eliminated the advantages cursive had for input speed in most cases, and I find block characters easier to read. Definitely don’t feel cursive has advantages when handwriting speed is less relevant.

It's not just raw input speed - writing on paper allows you to quickly jump around the text, making small corrections, adding notes/symbols/drawings, etc.

I can jump around and make corrections in vim far quicker than I can flipping a pencil, erasing, flipping it again, writing correction. And that's for a simple edit that doesn't require moving block of text. Hand writing it slow and inefficient.

Re: Cursive Handwriting and Other Education Myths (2016)

#139

Post by BrandoElFollito »

tootie wrote: post #130
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not know anyone who writes in non-cursive. I live in France where cursive is the norm. Everyone I know hand writes on a whiteboard of a piece of paper. Or when they make a note to the teacher. Or when they use a post-it.

In the US it's a dead art. I learned it as a kid and never use it. My kids are actually not learning it. It's been removed from the curriculum in New York and I'm pleased.

My reply was mostly for the "zero people" - contrasting it to "everyone" in other cultures.

I think that cursive is hardly readable (mine certainly, other too - and we almost see only cursive here in France).

Block letters (which I understand being separated letters, but still lower and upper case) is much better, but also much slower. Maybe that it is OK when someone is trained (where "OK" means " good enough for everyday handwriting, including taking notes").

A lot of discussions in this thread are probably due to the fact that we have, in France and most of Europe, either cursive, or capital block letters. We do not have the equivalent of typed text, where every letter is distinct (it is not that we cannot imagine how it looks like - it is just something we are not used to).

The recent US handwriting I saw was by Donald Trump - and is is all uppercase. I hope that this is not the non-cursive everyone discusses about but just his own style of "uppercase block letters".

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