A Disappearing Art, Cursive Writing Is Part Of Florida's Script

[Mannenhitsu]

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- As a 10th-grade English teacher at St. Petersburg High, Tracey Keim grades dozens and dozens of essays. Lately she has spotted a trend among her students — many don't recognize her cursive editing marks when she hands back their papers.

 

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/a-disappearing-art-cursive-writing-is-part-of-floridas-script/1139656

[corniche]

Greetings Mannenhitsu,

 

I know, it's sad. When we get Christmas cards from the 16 year old boy who mows our lawn in the summer, (we send him one too), they are always printed. I can't help but feel sorry for the kid, because I don't think he was ever taught cursive writing. I've toyed with the idea of pulling him aside and asking if he wants to learn it- but I have my doubts if he would. Maybe I should ask anyway, it would be a commitment from both parties, but it would be worth it in the long run.

 

All the best,

 

Sean

[HDoug]

The letter forms in cursive (here referring to the Palmer-esque roundhand that many of us learned in the 50's and 60's) are very different from the letter forms used in print. You really have to have learned cursive to be able to read it easily. My friend's teenage son can't read his mom's beautiful textbook Palmer.

 

With all that kids have to learn nowadays and with less school time to learn it, I don't know what the answer is. I would think that some form of italic -- which is basically print script joined ad hoc -- would be a decent compromise. But I'm not an educator and don't really know. But really, it's a shame, isn't it?

 

Doug

[ArnimFritsch]

My wife's 16 year-old cousin can't read cursive. I know this is a function of her education, but I have little sympathy. My children will be able to read and write in cursive, so help me.

 

Perhaps, I will teach them to write using fountain pens

 

-Arnim

[Ghost Plane]

Most appear to be stuck immediately in front of keyboards. It amuses me to hear my friends' children correct me. It is not "typing" these days, it is "keying" or "keyboarding." Oh really????

[dannoffs]

I am one of the few, dare I say lucky, teenagers that was taught cursive in school. This is merely because I attented a private school. I personally write in cursive (unless the teacher asks for print) and I have friends who attended public elementary who cannot read my notes.

 

Most appear to be stuck immediately in front of keyboards. It amuses me to hear my friends' children correct me. It is not "typing" these days, it is "keying" or "keyboarding." Oh really????

Those people are full of themselves. I am what people would call a "computer geek" and I can state as a fact that you TYPE on a keyboard. It is only "keying" if you are copying data from paper records into a computer program.

[cocojj]

For me, it's okay to write in whatever form you're comfortable with as long as it's legible, but to be unable to read cursive--that's just sad.

[ckpj99]

I'm only 27 and despite being forced to use cursive until I was 12 and desperately wanting to have good handwriting, I just couldn't do it. My standard test-taking, essay writing script was HORRIBLE and basically illegible. My teachers told me to start printing again, and after many years I do have pretty steady, very legible printed handwriting.

 

I can read cursive, but at a certain point I think I lost the muscle memory because I can't write in it to save my life. Just recently in the past few weeks, I've tried out my cursive again. First, it looks exactly the same as it did... REALLY BAD, and I've forgotten how to make some of the letters, or at least forgotten how to make some of them automatically. I have have to stop and think about it. I always felt that Ms and Ns had an unnecessary extra hump, and I have to force my hand to make them. It's so unrewarding to even try because it just looks so sloppy and bad no matter how slowly I take it.

 

The funny thing is, I think my dip pen calligraphy work is pretty acceptable. I wonder if I just had a bad writing teacher. I know guys typically don't have as good of handwriting as girls, but I WANTED good handwriting. Just unlucky I guess.

[lws]

I would think that some form of italic -- which is basically print script joined ad hoc -- would be a decent compromise. But I'm not an educator and don't really know. But really, it's a shame, isn't it?

 

Doug

 

This is how it is done in my part of Australia. In primary school, we were taught Queensland Cursive;

 

http://www.drawyourworld.com/i_styles/qld.gifhttp://www.drawyourworld.com/i_styles/qldlink.gif

 

 

Basically a simple italic alphabet with joins whereever the letters bump into each other. It looks absolutely awful, and I hated it; I reverted to printing as soon as I could. I still think that having to learn this "cursive" damaged my handwriting forever.

 

Everyone my age either unlearned QLD cursive (and they have nice writing), or they kept using some form of it (and their handwriting is a spidery mess.) My 2c.

 

- Lewis.

Edited December 14, 2010 by lws

[beak]

Thia one's been simmering in the back of my head for a while - youngsters not being / never being able to read / write cursive. This is a bit of a disaster if for no other reason than cursive (what we used to call 'joined-up' writing) is the quickest to perform.

 

Not being able to read the handwriting of Chaucer is one thing, but not being able to read your parent's is appalling! This is day one stuff for teachers - what are they thinking! How do they defend this!

 

While I admire the parent who ensured that her child could do it, many children are not so fortunate in their choice of parents, and the responsibility must be the school's, ultimately. Yours in horror, beak.

[sumgaikid]

I'm only 27 and despite being forced to use cursive until I was 12 and desperately wanting to have good handwriting, I just couldn't do it. My standard test-taking, essay writing script was HORRIBLE and basically illegible. My teachers told me to start printing again, and after many years I do have pretty steady, very legible printed handwriting.

 

I can read cursive, but at a certain point I think I lost the muscle memory because I can't write in it to save my life. Just recently in the past few weeks, I've tried out my cursive again. First, it looks exactly the same as it did... REALLY BAD, and I've forgotten how to make some of the letters, or at least forgotten how to make some of them automatically. I have have to stop and think about it. I always felt that Ms and Ns had an unnecessary extra hump, and I have to force my hand to make them. It's so unrewarding to even try because it just looks so sloppy and bad no matter how slowly I take it.

 

The funny thing is, I think my dip pen calligraphy work is pretty acceptable. I wonder if I just had a bad writing teacher. I know guys typically don't have as good of handwriting as girls, but I WANTED good handwriting. Just unlucky I guess.

 

 

You can get at pendemonium.com handwriting templates(for lack of a better word) that

you can use to practice on and improve your handwriting. It may come down to how much

you want to improve your handwriting. Good handwriting takes time,but it can be done if

you're willing to put in the effort.

 

 

John

Edited December 14, 2010 by sumgaikid

[sumgaikid]

I would think that some form of italic -- which is basically print script joined ad hoc -- would be a decent compromise. But I'm not an educator and don't really know. But really, it's a shame, isn't it?

 

Doug

 

This is how it is done in my part of Australia. In primary school, we were taught Queensland Cursive;

 

http://www.drawyourworld.com/i_styles/qld.gifhttp://www.drawyourworld.com/i_styles/qldlink.gif

 

 

Basically a simple italic alphabet with joins whereever the letters bump into each other. It looks absolutely awful, and I hated it; I reverted to printing as soon as I could. I still think that having to learn this "cursive" damaged my handwriting forever.

 

Everyone my age either unlearned QLD cursive (and they have nice writing), or they kept using some form of it (and their handwriting is a spidery mess.) My 2c.

 

- Lewis.

 

 

I think that QLD cursive isn't unattractive at all. What's missing is the formation of

loops on the "tails" of some of the lowercase letters and some of the other letters

(like "l" for instance). By itself it looks stiff--it needs to flow. Good handwriting should

have a flow to it.

 

 

John

[HDoug]

Everyone my age either unlearned QLD cursive (and they have nice writing), or they kept using some form of it (and their handwriting is a spidery mess.) My 2c.

 

- Lewis.

 

Boy, it's a double tragedy if they have taken that quick and clear hand of Niccolo Niccoli and turned it into a "spidery mess."

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5048/5212907836_f61bf62e70_z.jpg

 

Doug

[lws]

I would think that some form of italic -- which is basically print script joined ad hoc -- would be a decent compromise. But I'm not an educator and don't really know. But really, it's a shame, isn't it?

 

Doug

 

This is how it is done in my part of Australia. In primary school, we were taught Queensland Cursive;

 

http://www.drawyourworld.com/i_styles/qld.gifhttp://www.drawyourworld.com/i_styles/qldlink.gif

 

 

Basically a simple italic alphabet with joins whereever the letters bump into each other. It looks absolutely awful, and I hated it; I reverted to printing as soon as I could. I still think that having to learn this "cursive" damaged my handwriting forever.

 

Everyone my age either unlearned QLD cursive (and they have nice writing), or they kept using some form of it (and their handwriting is a spidery mess.) My 2c.

 

- Lewis.

 

 

I think that QLD cursive isn't unattractive at all. What's missing is the formation of

loops on the "tails" of some of the lowercase letters and some of the other letters

(like "l" for instance). By itself it looks stiff--it needs to flow. Good handwriting should

have a flow to it.

 

 

John

 

 

Oh boy. Loops were a big no-no - I was told off for looping the descenders on my g's, h's and j's. I have no idea what their justification was, and I don't the teachers really knew why they were forcing us to learn that way either - I think the curriculum said "no loops", so that's what they had to force us to do.

 

It basically took five years of university maths to "fix" my handwriting - developing good handwriting is a must, otherwise you get all the symbols confused (is that a "w" or an omega? Is that a "t" or a tau?). The fact that all of my math lecturers are all 40-50 years old and learned Real Cursive of some kind also helped; I picked up a few letterforms from watching them write on the blackboard.

 

Interestingly enough, most/all of my engineering lecturers had terrible handwriting, including the old head of school (who wrote ENTIRELY IN CAPS, ALL THE TIME.)

Edited December 14, 2010 by lws

[lws]

Oops, double post.

Edited December 14, 2010 by lws

[blewis001]

I'm gonna jump in here, as a defender of not writing in cursive. I can certainly read cursive, my mother writes in lovely cursive and I can just follow right along with it. However, after I learned it from her, I was forced to « learn » it in school ... which consisted of repeating the same exercises that had taken me less time at home to learn the same thing. After that, I no longer wrote in cursive, and nobody's called me on it yet. I can write in cursive, and I've decided to return to that and give it the time it requires to actually get right, but my handwriting is noticeably mine, highly legible, and nearly as fast as cursive, so I see no reason to switch. Plus, I can clearly tell my « y » s from my « z » s, unlike when I'm looking at my Calculus professor's handwriting. ( A quote from class : « X ... Y ... and ... Y ? Wait, that's not right ... » )

[El Mocho]

I believe-- from reading Write Now, by Getty and Dubay-- that the Italic proponents mention loops take more time and decrease legibility. Then again, I only had only progressed to printed italic when someone swiped the book, so I'll have to get it again for the loopless linking exercises.

 

(I had cursive in the southwest U.S. about 1985-1986, and I think we had loops. It was probably D'Nealian?)

[lws]

I'm actually now in the process of scanning all my old notes (all the way from primary school to 5th year uni) - I'm moving 4000km cross-country and I cant take all that paper with me.

 

I might extract some samples to show how my handwriting has developed over time.

 

- Lewis.

[sumgaikid]

I'm gonna jump in here, as a defender of not writing in cursive. I can certainly read cursive, my mother writes in lovely cursive and I can just follow right along with it. However, after I learned it from her, I was forced to « learn » it in school ... which consisted of repeating the same exercises that had taken me less time at home to learn the same thing. After that, I no longer wrote in cursive, and nobody's called me on it yet. I can write in cursive, and I've decided to return to that and give it the time it requires to actually get right, but my handwriting is noticeably mine, highly legible, and nearly as fast as cursive, so I see no reason to switch. Plus, I can clearly tell my « y » s from my « z » s, unlike when I'm looking at my Calculus professor's handwriting. ( A quote from class : « X ... Y ... and ... Y ? Wait, that's not right ... » )

 

Writing in cursive is what I consider to be a personally,always evolving art form--i.e.,you can

pick up something in another person's style of handwriting and adapt that to your handwriting

style. Kudos to you for taking the time to re-learn cursive.

 

 

 

John

[wykeite]

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- As a 10th-grade English teacher at St. Petersburg High, Tracey Keim grades dozens and dozens of essays. Lately she has spotted a trend among her students — many don't recognize her cursive editing marks when she hands back their papers.

 

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/a-disappearing-art-cursive-writing-is-part-of-floridas-script/1139656

 

When are people in the education system going to realise that it's their fault. If you want to be able to read a student's submission then teach them how to communicate in the written word. Simply sending an essay back with the note 'redo'(sic) is unacceptable and an admission of failure. As I see it these days it's far easier to sit kids in front of computers and consider that 'education'.