Kids no longer learn cursive

I always found cursive useful for unstudied English exams at university.

Write 500 words on this or that book and opinion.

OK we know that's about so many pages.

So write cursive and keep drawling out four words per line (when typed it should probably be eight).

Maybe you had a sore finger, or cramps from an earlier exam.

Fill 2 pages with little squiggles and corrections.
I always passed.

a reply to: halfoldman
Except for the German exam, that I liked to write in Fraktur, especially if the readings in the course reader were in Fraktur.
This impressed some Professors so much they'd pass you for the effort.

en.wikipedia.org...

It's still taught in our schools where I live. All four of my boys ages 22-14 know how to write and read cursive.

That is why they all have messed up signatures. These millenials

Education in general has gone crazy....the way they teach math today is truly horrible.

They make these kids perform a million steps to get what would be more straight forward 20 years ago

a reply to: schuyler

Yeah, I'm in my early 20s and I remember cursive being glossed over in like two or three days, if that, in the third grade. Just beware of sleeper agents like me who can read it and not write it..

cursive was all i ever knew from a young age, but it wasn't called 'cursive' it was just writing. i'm astonished that it is not so universally.

a reply to: schuyler

My kid curses plenty..... Thanks folks Ill be here all week.......

But seriously.......Yes my son is 17 now and I was gobsmacked when he was in elementary school they did not teach it anymore and we have one of the TOP rated public school systems in the US.

Common core may to be blame

a reply to: schuyler
Pitman shorthand should be like Morse code these days..lol. I remember learning that in the late 70's.

Kids haven't learnt anything useful in decades, no one has. As stupid as you think your grandchildren are, you are 100x as stupid to your observers.

originally posted by: schuyler
I was surprised to learn that my 21 year old grandson cannot read cursive script. My wife sent him a birthday card with a note (and a check) and he had to give it to his mother to read. Turns out none of my grandchildren (7 of them) have a clue about cursive. They no longer teach it. Color me astonished. And yes, I know why this has happened, but the implications may be more severe than you think. People who are illiterate in cursive have been cut off from a vast trove of knowledge that is now hidden from them. Everything that is not typeset is now a foreign language to them. This does have implications. As a real-world example, my daughter passed away in September. She wrote her will in longhand. The kids can't read it.

On the other hand, I now have a secret code I can use with other older people that the young folk can never understand.

It's very sad and is a further dumbing down of the youth and future generations. Imagine a young historian having to hire or request someone to translate cursive for him in the historian's own language!

a reply to: paraphi

True, that. Cursive is / was an an "American" thing, especially considering that the original US Constitution was written in cursive. But alas: now the young won't be able to read the originals. Bummer for them!

I learned cursive. In college writing by hand was no longer a skill needed and in the professional world writing by hand is never a skill utilized.

It is a little strange to have plain script and cursive text, im just fine with moving away from cursive.

a reply to: schuyler

originally posted by: Fowlerstoad
But alas: now the young won't be able to read the originals.

And neither can you. They're so faded and illegible that you need to get right on top if them to see parts of the writing clearly.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Hey now ... at least they are written on rugged and long-lasting hemp paper

Woah, mind blown! I went to a friend's baby shower recently where she had a eight year old daughter reading off the names of the gifts, amd wouldn't ya know it? She knew how to read cursive. M I N D