Community Chat

[aroc3435]

Just as an interesting FYI for people participating in or still following this thread:  The Smithsonian has an ongoing vast online transcription project that began in 2013 that involves their staff and trained volunteers to convert documents to a format accessible to those that can't interpret old documents, some of which have very old fashioned handwriting as one of the elements.

So there is an acknowledgement that this project is necessary or historical information will be lost if it becomes unintelligible to everyone other than a small group of specialists in different disciplines.

I find the cursive writing situation analogous to the efforts various ethnic groups around the world are making to preserve their spoken and written languages before they die out.

Also, how do we know which children will grow up to be scholars that WILL consult original source documents by traveling to a university archive, or perhaps become city or town clerks that need to access old records, and be able to understand them, even if their municipality has been fortunate enough to have them digitized?

aroc3435

[blackhole99]

I think cursive is nice to know how to do, but in these very technical times one really does not need it. My millennial son learned cursive in school, his hand writing was atrocious so he is happy he does not need to use cursive with any regularity.

[occasionalrain]

Family letters sent in the past will be lost on the non cursive readers, but then, I doubt they'll care.

To me, personal notes and letters should be written, not printed or text. 

If a school day is too short to include the instruction needed to produce well educated adults, ones who know history, geography, and proper writing then the day and school year need to be extended.

[bathina]

@occasionalrain and who is going to pay for longer school days? Would you be willing to pay more in taxes so kids can learn cursive? They'll never need to use it, but hey, public schoils have loads of resources to teach things kids will never need- Latin, how to fix a wagon wheel, operating a steam train, how to build an outhouse. I could go on.

[sidsmom]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

Family letters sent in the past will be lost on the non cursive readers, but then, I doubt they'll care.

To me, personal notes and letters should be written, not printed or text. 

If a school day is too short to include the instruction needed to produce well educated adults, ones who know history, geography, and proper writing then the day and school year need to be extended.

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If writing cursive is so important to some,

maybe that would be a good parent-child activity.

Not everything has to be school driven.

[suzyQ3]

I'd vote to keep Latin before cursive. A grasp of Latin opens up a person's vocabulary since the majority of our words are derived from Latin (the rest mostly from Greek).

In fact, when I tought vocabulary, my favorite textbook was based on becoming familiar with the Latin prefixes, roots, and suffixes. Knowing them, one can figure out the meaning of so many words.

[stevieb]

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@bluetail fly wrote:

Maybe they will stop teaching math next.  All kids have tablets or phones with calculators.

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Now that would have been my dream come true... 

[stevieb]

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@Carmie wrote:

@EastCoastGal   I have three grandkids in two different school districts.  Their parents do not have to buy them computers.  They are supplied Ipads by the schools.  They are used in the class rooms and taken home to do homework.

I also volunteer in an elementary school in another school district.  They too, are given Ipads.  Almost all their lessons are on the tablets...and when they are absent from school, they don't miss out on the work.

Another thing I noticed...many, but not all of the free lunch kids have iPhones...not even androids.  I have a Tracfone and they make fun of it all of the time.

I have been a volunteer for 9 years now.  To say I was shocked at first is an understatement.  Things are not always what they seem to be.

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Our tax dollars at work... and on so many levels...

[songbird]

Why should anyone study something you were forced to learn?  Nobody uses the slide rule anymore.  It's obsolete. they are plenty of subjects and devises that are no longer needed..  I would include cursive.  Very happy this style of writing is no longer inflicted on everyone else.

[jonbon]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

Family letters sent in the past will be lost on the non cursive readers, but then, I doubt they'll care.

To me, personal notes and letters should be written, not printed or text. 

If a school day is too short to include the instruction needed to produce well educated adults, ones who know history, geography, and proper writing then the day and school year need to be extended.

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I'm not sure why non cursive readers would be less likely to care about old family letters than cursive readers. At least that's what you seem to be implying. Further, if people are interested in reading old letters,documents, etc. written in cursive, how difficult would it be to learn to read the cursive letters (that is, without caring about actually writing it)?

I truly don't "get" why it matters whether personal notes and letters are written in cursive or printing. My son expresses himself beautifully in his own personal printing style, and it doesn't make it any less meaningful because it's not done with cursive letters.