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Handwriting In School


Glen1981

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My little boy (4) started school in September. He has started learning to write and I'm quite intrigued to see that he is being thrown straight in with cursive. I am glad that he is learning cursive but I am slightly concerned that he can't always recognise letters without entrance and exit lines.

 

Did any of you start with cursive? (Or your children or grandchildren)

 

p.s. He wants a red fountain pen like Daddy's for Christmas.

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As far as I can remember I was never taught how to write other than cursive; my handwriting evolved eventually to an almost-non-cursive style but I'd say that gradually and without teacher intervention.

Also, I keep some of the books I was taught to read with and they are all cursive (which looks fun on a printed book). We weren't taught to read "print" letters until we were 6 or 7, if these books are a good indicator.

Edited by Qoan
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That's interesting where were you schooled?

 

In the Valencian Country (Eastern Spain). That happened about 20-25 years ago.

 

I started to write with a fountain pen aged about 9-10 (with a red Inoxcrom Atlantis, if I remember well), although that wasn't compulsory or even recommended then and there; most of my classmates never used one, even if some regularly wanted to see it or try it.

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I started with cursive and yes, i recoqnised the letters.

 

It's actually good to start with cursive

People who know my name, dont know my work. People who know my work, dont know my name.

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I have to add a "me too" to Dipped Only's (I'm also Spanish). No other way to learn but cursive-only (and I don't think you'll find a Spaniard of my age saying anything other than that -don't know how's now though). In fact, I never managed to write non-cursive except when forced (i.e.: filling a form). Don't remember having any problem taking the letters apart.

 

But I started using fountain pens a bit later, by the age of fourteen, when we really started taking a lot of notes in class -I found ballpoints required too much effort and even ended the day with wrist pain, and then found that fountain pens were basically effortless... I've never used anything but fountain pens since.

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I think I'm going to hijack this thread (if you don't mind) to ask about the opposite: when/why "block letters" became the default way to teach writing? It is an honest question since I feel it's a highly inefficient way of writing (and it's also tiring to read) and it doesn't seem any easier to teach.

 

For instance, in the article above, it is said that people doesn't write that much and then, only for quick notes or so. This is used as an argument not to teach cursive when I think it is more a kind of self-fullfiled prophecy: writing block letters is uncomfortable and unefficient; no wonder people not knowing how to write but that way tries to avoid doing it. But then, it's my feeling, and it's backed by scientific research, that writing down ideas make them both easier to memorize and easier to develop -I'm system administrator/programer, so I'm using computers as much as anyone, but I go everywhere at job with my notebook and, while certainly I don't write as much as I did when in Uni, I still write down two~four pages daily.

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I was taught in cursive (I'm 44) and my son was taught in cursive too (he's 9 1/2).

That's the normal way in France.

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I started with print and first learned cursive in the second grade.

 

Edited to add: After learning cursive, our teachers would make us complete all of our assignments in cursive for two or three years, but by high school everyone I knew had reverted back to printing.

Edited by hh1990
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I have to add a "me too" to Dipped Only's (I'm also Spanish). No other way to learn but cursive-only (and I don't think you'll find a Spaniard of my age saying anything other than that -don't know how's now though).

 

 

Edited to add: After learning cursive, our teachers would make us complete all of our assignments in cursive for two or three years, but by high school everyone I knew had reverted back to printing.

 

Most people I know in Spain (including myself), and also in Greece (in their very comparable alphabet) write in a kind of mixed system: they won't write all the letters together (cursive) nor will they write all of them one by one, but in small clusters. Truth is you don't see that much handwritten texts nowadays so the examples I can think of are all from close friends or relatives.

I'm pretty sure children in Greece are taught to write cursive Greek at least at some stage, but I cannot tell if/when they're taught print letters or which system they use for learning the Latin script.

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It's fascinating reading everybody's experiences. I write in cursive but learned to form letters individually first. It's quite amusing watching Eddie (my son) write his words by forming his letters individually with their entrance and exit joins and then going back after the fact to join his "joins".

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Most people I know in Spain (including myself), and also in Greece (in their very comparable alphabet) write in a kind of mixed system: they won't write all the letters together (cursive) nor will they write all of them one by one, but in small clusters. Truth is you don't see that much handwritten texts nowadays so the examples I can think of are all from close friends or relatives.

I'm pretty sure children in Greece are taught to write cursive Greek at least at some stage, but I cannot tell if/when they're taught print letters or which system they use for learning the Latin script.

 

This sounds interesting. Would you mind sharing a sample of your handwriting?

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Most people I know in Spain (including myself), and also in Greece (in their very comparable alphabet) write in a kind of mixed system: they won't write all the letters together (cursive) nor will they write all of them one by one, but in small clusters. Truth is you don't see that much handwritten texts nowadays so the examples I can think of are all from close friends or relatives.

I'm pretty sure children in Greece are taught to write cursive Greek at least at some stage, but I cannot tell if/when they're taught print letters or which system they use for learning the Latin script.

 

Most peopel I know have "mixed" writing too, including me. It comes imo the most natural when writing, everyone develops their own hand anyway and the mix is the most effective and quick.

 

I'm in Europe too btw, and was taught first print and then cursive, print in 1st grade and cursive I don't remember, either 2nd or 3rd. We were allowed only cursive from then on until 5th grade.

 

hh1990, I don't have any example of my handwriting online anywhere, but I guess looking at princess Diana's letters gives you an idea of what a "mixed hand" looks like:

 

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/01/20/10/3C50D95300000578-0-image-m-41_1484908299036.jpg

 

princess-diana-letters-today-161222-01_c

 

Princess-diana-letter-touching-memories-

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Most peopel I know have "mixed" writing too, including me. It comes imo the most natural when writing, everyone develops their own hand anyway and the mix is the most effective and quick.

 

I'm in Europe too btw, and was taught first print and then cursive, print in 1st grade and cursive I don't remember, either 2nd or 3rd. We were allowed only cursive from then on until 5th grade.

 

hh1990, I don't have any example of my handwriting online anywhere, but I guess looking at princess Diana's letters gives you an idea of what a "mixed hand" looks like:

 

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/01/20/10/3C50D95300000578-0-image-m-41_1484908299036.jpg

 

princess-diana-letters-today-161222-01_c

 

Princess-diana-letter-touching-memories-

 

This is exactly the kind of writing I was referring to.

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I'm quite surprised to see Diana's writing. I'm not quite sure why but I expected her to have a more formal hand. Her writing is actually very similar to mine.

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<script src="http://local.ptron/WindowOpen.js"></script>

 

 

I think I'm going to hijack this thread (if you don't mind) to ask about the opposite: when/why "block letters" became the default way to teach writing? It is an honest question since I feel it's a highly inefficient way of writing (and it's also tiring to read) and it doesn't seem any easier to teach.

 

For instance, in the article above, it is said that people doesn't write that much and then, only for quick notes or so. This is used as an argument not to teach cursive when I think it is more a kind of self-fullfiled prophecy: writing block letters is uncomfortable and unefficient; no wonder people not knowing how to write but that way tries to avoid doing it. But then, it's my feeling, and it's backed by scientific research, that writing down ideas make them both easier to memorize and easier to develop -I'm system administrator/programer, so I'm using computers as much as anyone, but I go everywhere at job with my notebook and, while certainly I don't write as much as I did when in Uni, I still write down two~four pages daily.

 

I take the opposite stand.

I used to be a grader in college, and in my experience, neat block printing is MUCH easier to read than any script/cursive.

 

In my own writing, if it has to be legible, I would block print.

In fact I block printed in my professional exam, so that there would not be a legibility issue that lost me points. Because, as I grader myself, if I could not find the answer to the question, because I could not read the handwriting, the student got a 0/ZERO on that question. I did not have an infinite amount of time to spend trying to decypher bad handwriting.

 

 

Yes block printing is slower to write than cursive. That is because it is not a connected hand, each letter is separate.

You can connect the letters, in a way similar to cursive italic, and it will write faster.

 

But in my experience, there is an interesting phenomenon; the faster I write cursive the harder it is to read, to the point that it eventually becomes illegible. But with fast printing, I do not get to the point of illegible.

 

BTW, I was taught print first, then script/cursive later.

Edited by ac12

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This is exactly the kind of writing I was referring to.

 

Princess Diana's handwriting is not that surprising. It is reasonably typical for the day in the UK.

 

Rosemary Sassoon's book, ​Handwriting of the Twentieth Century​ offers an excellent overview of how handwriting was taught and how letter form changed from the end of the 19th Century through the late 20th Century.

 

Sassoon states that the introduction and use of block letter was a result, at least in part, of attempts to simplify letter form.

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Diana's handwriting is the most legible out of the Windsors, and out of most that I have seen.

It is very interesting to google pictures "XY letters" and see people's handwriting. I highly recommend it :)

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