Community Chat

[Ms tyrion2]

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@CelticCrafter wrote:

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@debic wrote:

I’ve never understood how lefthanders have made a chore out of writing. Who the heck taught them to wrap their wrists around the paper? I’m pretty sure I’d dislocate my wrist trying to write like that.  I don’t turn the paper either. I write just like right hander, no back slants and fairly nice writing. 

On the other hand my husband has always printed all capital letters no less. 

The thing I had trouble with was my kid was not required to spell anything as long as the content was there. We went the rounds, I even went to the school and was shot down.  He told me I was right when he hit middle school and they expected him to be able to spell. 

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@debic - I think a lot of left handed kids were afraid to turn the paper once it was put down on the desk, especially if it were a nun that put the paper down.  I personally didn't care if I suffered her wrath, I turned the page so I didn't have to curl my wrist in to some unnatural position to be able to write.

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I agree @CelticCrafter.

We were forbidden to turn our papers. The nuns put my hand in a contraption made of a pen forced over my index and ring fingers with a rubber band so I couldn't bend my wrist. This was the Palmer Method to force all kids to write like a right hander. It hurt and i sweated over getting those circles to look like the book said it should.

The mere mechanic of writing is harder for a left hander. You are PUSHING your hand across the paper. A rightie is PULLING their hand-a less stressful move.

[BirkiLady]

@debic  Left-handers were taught to write with their hand "curled" when fountain pens were in use. It avoided having the hand smear the ink. We used cartridge ink pens in the 1960's and had to avoid smearing our perfect handwritten papers for classes.

Try holding a pen with your left hand. It's still an ackward and unnatural feeling. Scissors, too. Lefties face challenges! They do the best they can.  

[sunshine45]

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@Ms tyrion2 wrote:

I went to school in the 60s and 70s.

I was not taught to count change or how to tell time on an analog clock at school. I learned those skills at home. The only "life skills" taught at school were home economics and shop. 

Are people confusing life skills and education?  Parents have responsibility here.

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@Ms tyrion2

i was in school around the same time. home economics and shop. the girls were not allowed to take shop and the boys were not allowed to take home economics. when my kids went to middle school they could do both throughout the year. i would have rather have had to do a semester in shop than learn how to sew! lol....so darn frustrating.

we did learn how to tell time and make change in kindergarten and elementary school though. dont really remember how much of that i was familiar with before entering school. even during that period of time we had some digital clocks and clock radios in our home.

[debic]

We have a lot of lefties in the family. Sister, cousins, nieces, aunt, none of us are funny writers. LOL. All in different states. Nuns must be mean. 

[Oznell]

My son, age 18, (although thoroughly electronics-obsessed) was taught cursive in school, and, left-handed like me, produces his own scrawly but readable hand, so take heart, history-minded social observers!  At least some of generation Z will be "fluent" in both cursive and printing.

It's an asset for sure, especially to encourage those to familiarize themselves with the myriad documents of history rendered in cursive.

[debic]

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@BirkiLady wrote:

@debic  Left-handers were taught to write with their hand "curled" when fountain pens were in use. It avoided having the hand smear the ink. We used cartridge ink pens in the 1960's and had to avoid smearing our perfect handwritten papers for classes.

Try holding a pen with your left hand. It's still an ackward and unnatural feeling. Scissors, too. Lefties face challenges! They do the best they can.  

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The people I know were not born in that era. 

Trust me I’m terminally left handed. The most awkard thing I’ve ever tried was left handed scissors.  The only left handed thing I’ve loved is a knife. 

[software]

I can read & write in cursive but I would struggle with the Consitution.   It's a precious document and I believe firmly in the original.    

Don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to want to protect our Constitution in it's original form.

[Tique]

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@Daysdee wrote:

@Meowingkitty   In response to your post, I agree and I'll add that young people working in stores do not know how to make change unless the register shows the amount due to the customer.

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@Daysdee   don't even think of giving them change once they have already input the amount of money into the register. I stop at this Popcorn Shop almost every week before I go to see a movie. I order the same thing every week so I know how much it cost - $5.28. The lady who rang me up saw the $20 in my hand but she didn't see the .28. She had already put $20 in the register which showed her my change was $14.72. After she took the coins, she just stood there with the drawer open, not knowing what to do. I told her my change was $15. She thanked me profusely.

[software]

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@sidsmom wrote:

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@GingerPeach wrote:

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@sidsmom wrote:

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@GingerPeach wrote:

How interesting that so many seem to bring up the fact that it is OK because it doesn't "bother" them and that it's OK because it's a "sign of the times."

How is forgetting a useful skill good?

Too many forget the very important connection between hand and memory.  Memory doesn't connect nearly as well with tapping on key pads as it does with writing in cursive. 

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Ok. Let’s discuss.

How is cursive a useful skill?

Is there proof that non-cursive people have less memory?

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Not the point at all.

It has been shown that taking notes by writing in your own hand increases retention more than by taking notes by typing into an electronic device.

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I’ve seen articles referencing handwritten for retention BUT.....

this was many years ago when electronic devices were not available.

I would love to see studies/research comparing handwritten vs electronic 

for memory retention TODAY....broken down to gender & age range.

I would bet the generation of teens/20’s would should retention

is via electronic device since that’s all they know.  Does that mean

they have less memory than older adults? 

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I've seen the way students study/take notes on a device.

they can't concentrate on the subject matter, always flipping over to FB

[Enders]

I’ve given this post a lot of thought. There are a finite number of teachable hours in a classroom. Teaching cursive is not necessary anymore than shorthand or Morse code for now and in the future.  A legal signature does not have to be in cursive to be binding. 

I don’t understand the correlation of cursive to number of bathrooms.