Cursive: A Beautiful Diversity

[Lucille]

Cursive: A Beautiful Diversity
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/cursive-a-beautiful-diversity/

Is cursive an outdated and unnecessary facet of American education? Once again, Common Core is causing an academic stir—this time surrounding its exemption of cursive from required curricula. Instead, the computer keyboard is becoming school’s chosen writing methodology, according to a Tuesday article in The Atlantic:

Opponents of script argue that needing to read and write in cursive is no longer relevant in an increasingly digital society. Some believe that cursive is essentially archaic, the importance of which is relegated only to checks, signatures, and the occasional love letter. They believe instructional time is better devoted to other classroom subjects that are included on standardized tests, and cursive is not necessary for academic achievement. After all, they say, we have computers and speech dictation machines.

The Washington Post heralded the imminent demise of longhand in 2006, after only 15 percent of 1.5 million SAT test-takers used cursive. The rest printed in block letters. While some experts were unconcerned by the trend, others warned that the demise of handwriting could have unexpected consequences:

…Academics who specialize in writing acquisition argue that it’s important cognitively, pointing to research that shows children without proficient handwriting skills produce simpler, shorter compositions, from the earliest grades. Scholars who study original documents say the demise of handwriting will diminish the power and accuracy of future historical research. And others simply lament the loss of handwritten communication for its beauty, individualism and intimacy.

There are numerous practical skills, like those mentioned above, associated with cursive. After the Los Angeles Times printed an article on the archaic nature of cursive, teachers responded with various defenses—arguing that it improved coordination, focus, even mathematical skills. Steve Jobs, famous former Apple CEO, studied calligraphy at Reed College and found inspiration in its beauty. He told Stanford graduates in 2005, “I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture.” He added, “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.” Ironically, Microsoft mastermind Bill Gates is a significant financial sponsor of the Common Core curriculum.

Beyond all the cognitive, academic, intellectual, and aesthetic benefits of cursive, there is perhaps one more. Cursive, despite its loopy letters and structured theory, truly develops with the individual hand. Thus, every person’s handwriting will be unique and personal. In an age of computers, where professors mandate essays in Times New Roman 12 pt, and a swath of fonts are available via Dafont, cursive preserves artistic diversity. And it is comforting to know that we few cursive users still have a unique print in the world. The Atlantic article sums it up nicely: “In a very meaningful way, the debate between cursive and print, or keyboards and handwriting, is entirely up to us: what type of mark do we want to leave?”

 

[shane77m]

Mine looks like chicken scratch.

 

[fr33]

Mine looks like chicken scratch.

Mine looks like drunken chicken scratch.

 

[donnay]

Technology is great, but it is certainly making people much more dumbed down and depriving them of true creativity IMHO.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Mine looks like drunken chicken scratch.

Mine looks like drunken-chicken-wihose-head-has-just-been-cut-off scratch.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

I can write/read English and Cyrillic cursive. My writing looks fine unless I'm in a hurry. I prefer cursive. So there.

 

[donnay]

Cursive is much easier. It just flows...I do not understand why so many people print?

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Cursive is much easier. It just flows...I do not understand why so many people print?

+1 Especially when taking notes at a lecture or something.

 

[BuddyRey]

You wanna know what I think was the beginning of the end for cursive, and proper penmanship in general? The advent and proliferation of ballpoint pens. How can any student be expected to write expressively, and more importantly, have fun doing so, when you equip him/her with writing implements that have all the tactile responsiveness and sensitivity of a rusty nail?

When I was in grade school and we were learning cursive, I absolutely hated it. My handwriting was the joke of the classroom, ridiculed by teachers and students alike. After leaving school, I never used cursive again, to the point where I literally forgot it (or blocked it out). Then, in my 20's, something life-changing happened. I discovered fountain pens! Suddenly, I didn't have to maintain a punishing Herculean grip on my pen and several pounds of pressure to bear down on the page for my writing to look decent. I started practicing obsessively with fountain pens, and I found that, not only were they an absolute joy to use, but they helped me completely re-teach myself cursive in my own style that was both distinct and legible.

There can and should absolutely be a Renaissance for penmanship. But a pen is a tool, and just as in any other skill or pursuit, having the right tool for the job is crucial. My fear is that we've robbed a couple generations of the love of writing because we traded in the right tools for cheap and convenient tools, and most of us have no idea what we're missing.

 

[Lucille]

I prefer cursive too, and have beautiful handwriting ::curtsy:: but not lately. My carpal tunnel is killing me! I have got to get back to the Myofascial Release Center in Sedona. My first and only treatment lasted about 10 years.

My kids learned cursive before block!

It's being attacked as "calligraphy." I took calligraphy, and standard cursive is a lot easier. This lady teaches cursive without the flourishes:

Others claim cursive is important because it's faster and more efficient than printed writing.

"It's not calligraphy. It's functional," Suzanne Asherson of Handwriting Without Tears, a handwriting program for teachers, told the Los Angeles Times. "When a child knows the mechanics of forming letters in cursive, they can better focus on their content."

Handwriting Without Tears advocates a simpler method of cursive writing, minus all the curls, loops and other decorative flourishes.

Tears? Who cries over cursive writing? It's not hard! Oh wait...

You wanna know what I think was the beginning of the end for cursive, and proper penmanship in general? The advent and proliferation of ballpoint pens. How can any student be expected to write expressively, and more importantly, have fun doing so, when you equip him/her with writing implements that have all the tactile responsiveness and sensitivity of a rusty nail?

When I was in grade school and we were learning cursive, I absolutely hated it. My handwriting was the joke of the classroom, ridiculed by teachers and students alike. After leaving school, I never used cursive again, to the point where I literally forgot it (or blocked it out). Then, in my 20's, something life-changing happened. I discovered fountain pens! Suddenly, I didn't have to maintain a punishing Herculean grip on my pen and several pounds of pressure to bear down on the page for my writing to look decent. I started practicing obsessively with fountain pens, and I found that, not only were they an absolute joy to use, but they helped me completely re-teach myself cursive in my own style that was both distinct and legible.

There can and should absolutely be a Renaissance for penmanship. But a pen is a tool, and just as in any other skill or pursuit, having the right tool for the job is crucial. My fear is that we've robbed a couple generations of the love of writing because we traded in the right tools for cheap and convenient tools, and most of us have no idea what we're missing.

That's great insight, thanks!

Nice how you were ridiculed by everyone over your penmanship. It's for the children!

 

[catfeathers]

I found an italic cursive font that I taught my left handed son who was having trouble with the cursive he had been taught in school. He's the only male on my side of the family that has legible handwriting. My dad, brother, and oldest son have such bad chicken scratch writing that sometimes they can't even read their own writing.

 

[VIDEODROME]

I think I learned more about Cursing from learning Cursive.

 

[mad cow]

Fountain pens don't work for left handers,you drag your hand over the still-wet ink and smear it.

I am another chicken-scratcher,nothing pretty at all about my penmanship and I can't keep a sentence level even on lined paper.
Un-lined paper?Forget it.

 

[Rothbardian Girl]

I still use it at 20 years old, mainly because a) I think my own handwriting is beautiful , and b) it's a much quicker method of writing down information during lectures, as HB mentioned. I know it's certainly not common among my age group, but it isn't completely dead yet. I have noticed that my older professors seem to be the only ones who can read my handwriting sufficiently. I got in trouble with that already this semester when I had to come to my German professor's office hours and dictate my written test to her, because she couldn't read the cursive.

Despite my own nostalgic attachment, I'm not particularly "angry" about the fact that it is dying out. Most people's handwriting that I've noticed tends to be a weird combination of both print and cursive anyway. Even when I wasn't writing in true cursive for my high school years, most of the time it was a sloppy mix of both.

 

[Lucille]

Fountain pens don't work for left handers,you drag your hand over the still-wet ink and smear it.

I am another chicken-scratcher,nothing pretty at all about my penmanship and I can't keep a sentence level even on lined paper.
Un-lined paper?Forget it.

There have been lefties since the beginning of time! When they weren't being "corrected," somehow they managed. I have one brother who's a southpaw and one who's ambidextrous.

Check it out!

http://www.nibs.com/PENnant-Article-Left-handed.htm

While just over ten percent of Americans are left handed, they represent a disproportionate number of fountain pen users (at least from the perspective of The Nib Works.) This may at first glance seem strange, given the difficulty that they have using fountain pens. But, on further thought, this may not be so strange. Faced with a difficult situation, left-handers seem to push ahead and embrace the challenges that are thrown their way.
[...]
Historically, left-handers have come in for a lot of trouble. Gauche and sinister are synonymous with being left-handed. Many school children were severely "corrected" from this defect. Three hundred years ago, questions of witchcraft lurked in the minds of the pious. Suspicion and prejudice of lefties was very common. (No pope would be chosen from their ranks.)

http://www.nibs.com/Left-hand writers.htm

While there is a common perception that fountain pens are problematic for left-handers, the truth is that lefties love fountain pens. In fact, left-handers tend to own fountain pens at a higher rate than their percentage of the population might otherwise indicate.

The perception that fountain pens are problematic for left-handers probably dates from the era when many fountain pens were equipped with flexible or semi-flexible nibs, which can pose challenges for some (but not all) lefties. Most modern fountain pens, however, ship with rigid nibs that are both smoother-writing on the page and also easier for writers of all kinds, including lefties, to use.

I still use it at 20 years old, mainly because a) I think my own handwriting is beautiful , and b) it's a much quicker method of writing down information during lectures, as HB mentioned. I know it's certainly not common among my age group, but it isn't completely dead yet. I have noticed that my older professors seem to be the only ones who can read my handwriting sufficiently. I got in trouble with that already this semester when I had to come to my German professor's office hours and dictate my written test to her, because she couldn't read the cursive.

Despite my own nostalgic attachment, I'm not particularly "angry" about the fact that it is dying out. Most people's handwriting that I've noticed tends to be a weird combination of both print and cursive anyway. Even when I wasn't writing in true cursive for my high school years, most of the time it was a sloppy mix of both.

I wondered in another thread if future generations would need a translator. And there is my answer. People need them already.

 

[Danke]

Mine looks like drunken-chicken-wihose-head-has-just-been-cut-off scratch.

Mine looks like drunken-chicken-whose-head-has-just-been-cut-off-with-Parkinson's-disease scratch.

 

[amy31416]

I can understand not teaching it anymore, but what sort of nitwit can't read it? It's a loopy version of lower-case for the most part.

 

[Tod]

Cursive is much easier. It just flows...I do not understand why so many people print?

Sure, brag about how coordinated you are. See if I care.

 

[Tod]

I can understand not teaching it anymore, but what sort of nitwit can't read it? It's a loopy version of lower-case for the most part.

Try reading my cursive and then ask yourself if "nitwit" was the appropriate adjective.

 

[amy31416]

Try reading my cursive and then ask yourself if "nitwit" was the appropriate adjective.

It occurred to me after posting that that I should have qualified that as "neat" cursive.