Kids no longer learn cursive

a reply to: schuyler

I taught cursive to third graders in the mid 80's. By the time my own kids made it to 3rd grade in the mid 90's, cursive wasn't being taught anymore. They learned it at home by osmosis. I like writing in cursive, so they saw a fair amount of it.

It is weird tho, huh? From a conspiracy angle, printing (vs cursive) is easier for character recognition software to decipher, if a 3 letter agency wanted to capture your hand written documentation...

a reply to: 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.

Do they have "signatures"? Did they ever learn to sign their name, at least? Or are stylized scribbles now the norm for signatures?

I met a lady that always draws a stylized box house as her signature. She thinks no one can forge it! LOL But, I digress.

a reply to: missed_gear

Our education institutions no longer educate, simply process by the least common denominators, hence everyone gets a participation reward.

This is similar to the common premise, "I'll never use Algebra". Which is learning and learning logical approaches toward variable problem solving in life, not just 'math'.

There are many things in school that kids will never use and are pretty much obsolete (not necessarily saying algebra). While I understand your comment about learning, and learning logical approaches, we also have to remember that these things can be taught using things that are more relevant today.

I'm very old school with a lot of things, but as far as school/education goes, I think they should push the limits of technology.

I remember back in the day when we had a report to do, we would go to the library and look for books. If we were lucky we had a set of enclyclopedias at home as a small reference. Our teachers would write on the board with chalk (yes I'm that old!) I just think how very limited we were. It's not something to be nostalgic about. When you really think about it, we were ignorant. We were limited and didn't even know it. Although it is uncomfortable to let go of things that seemed so important to us growing up, we need to be realistic about how important/relevant they are today.

Is cursive really that important? We have to ask, have these documents already been converted? Are there ways to translate cursive to type that's available? Yes to both of these and I'm sure much more.

a reply to: schuyler

As aghast as I am at that, it doesn't trouble me as much as this completely unintuitive lunacy they're passing off as math instruction now. Have you tried to help a kid with math homework lately?

Or one of my favorite experiences, get change back at a place that doesn't automatically calculate it on the register. Thankfully, a rarity.

"That'll be $7.35".

"Here's a $20".

Hilarity ensues.

a reply to: yeahright

Or one of my favorite experiences, get change back at a place that doesn't automatically calculate it on the register. Thankfully, a rarity.

We laugh at this now, but believe it or not back in the day there were a lot of people that were just as bad at counting change. I actually think there are very few people that can really count change correctly in general for some reason. I was put on and worked a lot of registers when I was young because I was very accurate. I think a lot of people, even smart people have change dyslexia or something.

Why do you think Walmarts and other stores went to automatic change counters?

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Is cursive really that important? We have to ask, have these documents already been converted? Are there ways to translate cursive to type that's available? Yes to both of these and I'm sure much more.

This is what people don't like to mull over, because it makes them feel old or antiquated themselves. In the face of an evolving society, things WILL fall out of favor for improved/better approaches. I still teach my kids cursive, but it's squarely in the realm of art. My older kid is very artistic, and sees artistic value in cursive and calligraphy (hubby learned it in school, guess what's dead nowadays?)
I definitely do not see her getting out the calligraphy set to do something other than stylishly sign the back of her paintings or doodle a homemade birthday card with fancy letters once in a while. Day to day life says these are not useful or critical to accomplishing anything. They just make things a little prettier to look at/read now and then.

Can my kids write in cursive? Yes. Can they read in it? Yes. Does it give them any particular edge? Not really. It's just a script style that conveys the letters' meanings. And it's not in favor anymore for modern use. The same can be said for several styles of writing, how many of the very old Medieval scripts are actually still used for something other than decorative purposes anymore? Essentially none. Scripts used by current generations will undergo the same practical use evolution and die off accordingly.

a reply to: schuyler

Everything that is not typeset

well that's not a lot these days, so good luck with yelling at the clouds grandpa.

this is what happens when you just expect the state school system to do all the teaching (and raising) for you.

the biggest problem i have with many of the new changes being brought about in America due to the Internet and wireless everything, is that if say a solar flare or whatever hit earth and rendered all this technology useless, America would be screwed and have to start from scratch while many other nations still use older methods, tools, policies, etc.

we arent building with concern for disasters and are removing many redundancy's and older reliable systems we built for a nuclear apocalypse.

It will just give them reason to rewrite the Constitution someday because they can’t read the current one.

originally posted by: mtnshredder
It will just give them reason to rewrite the Constitution someday because they can’t read the current one.

lolz

They'll just have someone from "the government" translate it.

a reply to: schuyler

My sympathies for the loss of your daughter Schuyler.

I remember when I first heard that they stopped teaching cursive and I was like...what???

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: schuyler

On a serious note, kid won't need to know cursive, or another language soon.
Pretty soon there will be apps that translate almost everything, almost perfectly. Maybe even typing will become obsolete as an app will just read our thoughts....

They've already been around for at least 15 years now - I used to work for a blind law professor and assisted technology translated any documents from cursive to text and braille. It's called Optical Character Recognition, there's a few dozen free apps that do it converting handwriting to digital text/any file format you want.

I don't understand why a school wouldn't teach cursive over seperated written letters as it's far quicker and easier to write - though typing, coding and being up to date with new IT technology is far more important in the digital age.

originally posted by: bastion
I don't understand why a school wouldn't teach cursive over seperated written letters as it's far quicker and easier to write

I beg to very strongly differ on that claim -- I've never met anyone who takes less time to write in cursive, even older folks take a while. And the more ornate the script, the more time you spend making it consistently purdy.

It seems it takes longer to legibly write it. If you're just scribbling a long line with some peaks, loops and dips, maybe it's faster. It takes me almost twice as long to legibly write in cursive versus my much clearer "printsive" hybrid. It takes me about the same amount of time to do individual letters, maybe a touch longer than in "prinstive", but it is definitely faster than cursive is.

Supposedly, "printsive" is by far & wide the fastest script to pound out, and cursive being faster is just a pervasive myth.

originally posted by: fernalley
Don't we still need signatures for documents ect.?

Fingerprints....
It’s coming.

I was required to do all my homework in cursive from third grade through sixth grade. As soon as I got to seventh grade I switched back to print. I was instantly faster and more legible. Also, my grandmother writes notes in cursive and I can't read a damn word of it. Too much variance in styles from person to person.

a reply to: schuyler

I find it incredible that someone who is taught to print cannot read cursive. To me that indicates a fundamental lack of imagination and critical thinking skills.

The letters aren't that different. Anyone with half a brain would have no problem reading cursive.

Says a great deal about today's youth.

a reply to: schuyler

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

Yes! Just like when the kids have their high pitched noises for text message alerts on their phones.

I say we use that power and rule the world...

a reply to: DBCowboy

We won't be taught math in the future. We'll have technicians who work on the machines that do the math for us.

a reply to: schuyler

So....how do they sign checks and other legal documents.
Seems so much easier to forge.

And, yeah, I know a butt ton of docs are signed "electronically" nowadays.


Really sad....they don't teach penmanship...and probably other things we learned in grammar school....and they still don't learn as much as we did in school.
I don't get it...what DO they do in school these days???

originally posted by: yeahright
a reply to: schuyler

As aghast as I am at that, it doesn't trouble me as much as this completely unintuitive lunacy they're passing off as math instruction now. Have you tried to help a kid with math homework lately?

Or one of my favorite experiences, get change back at a place that doesn't automatically calculate it on the register. Thankfully, a rarity.

Yeah, they have no clue and the blank looks are priceless but a bit of a horror.

Kids can also not read clocks anymore.
The big hand and the small hand and WHA???????