Community Chat

[sunshine45]

my adult children know how to write in cursive, but they all PRINT when they take notes or write. they dont feel the need to use cursive and their printing is MUCH more legible.

[bathina]

Well educated people understand obsolescence and scarcity of resources in schools.
Writing in cursive has nothing to do with making change from a cash register, nor does it make a person well educated. Printing is still acceptable if you need to actually write anything. Anyone who has been in the workforce lately would know that.

[sunshine 919]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

Well educated people have learned more than just how to get through their day and the basics to get a job.

Being dependant on a computer has left cashiers unable to make change when they go down. Power outages aren't uncommon and systems can be hacked. 

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I could not agree more.  I remember a few years ago I called to confirm an appointment and guess what, they could not tell me anything because the system was down.  My question was you do not have a hard copy?  Wow so power goes down or  system goes down everything stops.  I try to keep a hard copy of my contacts in my phone.  I use to be really good and remembering many phone numbers.  Now I don't have to.  Not sure if this is a good thing.  I remember Whoopi Goldberg said your medical records and other records were safe because they were kept in a locked desk at a business office.  .  

[homedecor1]

Still baffles me when I send a care to one of my closest younger relatives and she calls me to "thank me but I don't read cursive"...🤷‍♀️

she is a nurse anesthetist -- just was never taught in school. They printed (she can sign her name) or used computer for documents.

[Mersha]

Cursive writing in elementary school is definitely being phased out.

When I am addressing a package/envelope to be mailed I try to remember to print as the people handling might not be familiar with cursive these days.

I have worked with my older grandchildren on cursive writing.  My grandson wants to be a lawyer and granddaughter a lawyer/Senator so they MUST be able to read the Constitution.

[jellyBEAN]

I realize cursive writing is probably going the way of the old horse and buggy, but I always remember admiring other people's penmanship.  My Mom had very nice handwriting.  She was born in 1920 so I am guessing the teachers in the first half of the 20th century were pretty strict on penmanship.  School was all about Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.

Personally, I never cared for my handwriting.  I tend to both print and write cursive at the same time.  It's almost impossible for me to continually move my hand to connect all the letters so I print some and write some.  Always have.

John Hancock had beautiful penmanship.  How will the kids be able to read all our historical documents that were so important to our country's history?  Quite frankly, if one couldn't read cursive writing I'd think they were pretty dumb.  jmo

[ValuSkr]

My mother at 84 still has very good handwriting (cursive), despite arthritic hands.  My cursive has gotten worse, so I usually print.  I blame it on using keyboards all the time.

[Kalli]

This topic is recycled on a regular basis. I guess that means it’s never resolved. If you feel strongly about this issue, why not volunteer to teach cursive at a local elementary? In PA we’re heading into indoor recess season. Perfect time to offer short cursive lessons without cutting into an already packed instructional schedule. Best to make it voluntary and get permission forms signed as some parents will be upset if their child is forced to miss recess.

Anyway, The Constitution is available online in printed form.  

[shopperqvc]

They also cannot tell time on an analog clock. If you tell a kid today to meet you at a quarter to eleven, they haven't a clue what time that is. Tell them to place their hands on the steering wheel of a car at ten and two, or none and three, they don't know. Unless the clock is digital and tells them what the time is, they can't read it.

Give a kid in the drive thru at a fast food place your money for your meal, and your change back is "Here you go". They don't know how to count back change, either. The only ones I have found that even know how to count back to you is those that are tellers in a bank/credit union. 

I sent my niece a check for graduation, and when it came back to the bank her "signature" was a bunch of slanted up and down lines like when a kid draws grass in a picture. Not one alphabet letter in it.

I know a lot of people think these things are minor, but everything they do today has a computer in it somehow. A cell phone, a tablet, a laptop some sort of screen. Sometime they need to look at something that doesn't "think" for them. Can they even do simple arithmetic in their heads without keying it in?

[aroc3435]

@Mersha   @Sunshine45 

Even when I send a card or letter with the contents written in cursive I address the envelope printing it in BLOCK LETTERS and using the city and 2 letter state initials and the zip plus 4 digits as the last line.  And the street address MUST be on the line directly above that.  If you need to put an apartment or unit number or something else that won't fit on the street line, put it on its own line above the last two:  The Honeysuckle Lodge, Unit 4.

Decades back, friends that worked in the Post Office told me about a zip something machine that was automating the directing and sorting of mail.  I am sure by now it is even MORE automated.

For instance, if you take a solid (non window) business reply envelope from a company and put a plain label over it or scratch out the original address and write a new address for some other business it will still go to the ORIGINAL address because there is some sort of invisible (bar?) code that overides what you have written or typed.  

In my office job I had to resend mail and any enclosure, such as a check to pay a bill, to the intended recipient that wound up, instead, in my University office because the sender used our business reply envelope.  I probably averaged about seven to ten pieces of misdirected mail a week!  I also had to contact the sender to let him or her know what happened and why.

Formal invitation envelopes, such as for weddings, done in cursive or calligraphy often go astray.

There is a whole new tech world out there and unless the electric grid goes kaput (which I hope doesn't happen) I see no way of escaping computerization, automation, artificial intelligence, robots, etc.   Just have to keep up with it as best we can. 

They will probably have "apps" to read cursive, hieroglyphics, foreign languages, and whatever new version of a "Rosetta stone" turns up.  

Look at the machine used by the British to break the German codes in WW II as a precursor to where we are now and where we will be.

Many generations down the road I think governments across the globe will be paying people a guaranteed income of some sort since so few will be needed for "work" as we think of it and experience it today.

I'm wistful about the loss of cursive, because it uses a different part of the brain, much like drawing and painting do, and helps with fine motor skills, attention to detail and visual cues.

Very interesting topic, by the way.