Community Chat

[just bee]

I work as an RN in a hospital and interact with a variety of people – both staff and patients. I’ve noticed that there is an uncomfortable hesitation before a patient puts his/her signature on a form. It’s not because the person is confused about what is being signed; instead, the person is unable to produce a name in cursive. And there are more and more individuals who struggle with printing. Penmanship is a lost art. Some may scoff because it seems like an unnecessary skill. Who needs a pen when we have phones and tablets and personal computers?

But what happens when we lose access to those tools? If you can write, you can always use a stick or a finger to scratch a message in the dirt.

[Venezia]

@just bee - The thought crossed my mind, while reading through this whole thread, what would happen to some of these people, if they ever got stranded somewhere in the wilderness or a deserted island with no technology.  Would they even be able to write "HELP"?

I always remember the old adage "use it or lose it".  I don't want to lose any skills!

[Still Raining]

Somehow I missed cursive back in the 1950s when I changed between school systems.  It has never been a problem.  Made it through an advanced degree and a very nice career allowing me to take early retirement.  Vastly overrated and IMO non-essential especially in today's world.

[ROMARY]

NewJerseyGirl:  Yes!!  A secret, Morse Code:  'Cursive Code'.   

[Noel7]

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@just bee wrote:

I work as an RN in a hospital and interact with a variety of people – both staff and patients. I’ve noticed that there is an uncomfortable hesitation before a patient puts his/her signature on a form. It’s not because the person is confused about what is being signed; instead, the person is unable to produce a name in cursive. And there are more and more individuals who struggle with printing. Penmanship is a lost art. Some may scoff because it seems like an unnecessary skill. Who needs a pen when we have phones and tablets and personal computers?

But what happens when we lose access to those tools? If you can write, you can always use a stick or a finger to scratch a message in the dirt.

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@just bee

The other day I saw a news story about someone whose small plane had gone down near a beach.

They printed out HELP in large letters using large green palm leaves.  Pretty clever and brighter bigger than rocks.

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[Ms X]

With the amount of money we spend on education, there's no excuse to have to ditch cursive.

[Mrsq2022]

I don't really care that cursive isn't being taught in school any longer.  I cant think of any  career that require someone to write in cursive.  I don't hand write much in my work or personal life other than maybe a note to myself or a post-it note stuck onto something.  I think that children are taught to write their signatures in school.  And that is probably all of the cursive that is necessary in their lives.

Of course kids are taught to write in school though.  It is silly to infer that just because cursive isn't taught, there is no writing being taught.  It's just handwritten in print as opposed to cursive.  Ive never heard of anyone unable to read cursive.  Im certain that anyone can figure it out if they want to take the time to read it.  

[Spurt]

Then they shouldn't be allowed to graduate high school if they can't read cursive or tell time.....

On one of the ESPN Sports Shows, Mike and Mike, one of the hosts told how he went to a fast food chain for lunch, and for some reason the computers stopped working, so he handed the guy behind the counter a $10 paper bill and the young kid behind the counter couldn't do the math to figure out how much change to give back.....so the show host calculated it in his head and told him, I should get back $2.56.......So some can't even do simple math either!.....The show host was appalled the kid couldn't do simple math that he learned in elementary school!

What the heck are these kids going to do if the power or electronic grid goes down temporarily due to storms, hackers etc....they won't be able to function and do things manually for a while without their electronics---PRETTY SAD!

[Venezia]

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@Mrsq2022 wrote:

I don't really care that cursive isn't being taught in school any longer.  I cant think of any  career that require someone to write in cursive.  I don't hand write much in my work or personal life other than maybe a note to myself or a post-it note stuck onto something.  I think that children are taught to write their signatures in school.  And that is probably all of the cursive that is necessary in their lives.

Of course kids are taught to write in school though.  It is silly to infer that just because cursive isn't taught, there is no writing being taught.  It's just handwritten in print as opposed to cursive.  Ive never heard of anyone unable to read cursive.  Im certain that anyone can figure it out if they want to take the time to read it.  

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Then you haven't listened to or read the news in recent years.

[Venezia]

@Spurt - Absolutely true.  Years ago, when I lived in England, I worked for a bank for several years.  Originally, deposits, withdrawals, interest were all entered into a customer's passbook by hand.  You did the math manually.

You kept every transaction on a log sheet which was entered into the only computer at the end of the day by the operator.

Along came the "new age" and we were all getting terminals at our stations.  I'm sure I don't have to tell you how that went!  After working just fine for a month or two (during which time new cashiers were hired), CRASH!

The whole system was down and was going to be down for three weeks.  The new cashiers panicked and said "We won't be able to do any work!  We'll have to close the office."

When it was pointed out to them that, no, we would not be closing the office for three weeks, they said "But how are we going to keep track of what we do?  We don't have a computer!"

The head cashier brought out the paper log sheets, handed each of them a pen and said "By hand and in your head!"  They were horrified and we had to show them, step by step.  (And you wouldn't believe how many math errors we had to correct because they didn't have calculators.  My job was to audit the passbooks.)

TRUE STORY.