Cursive Writing Is a Fading Skill — Does It Matter? 857
Posted
by
kdawson
from the something's-gained-and-something's-lost dept.
from the something's-gained-and-something's-lost dept.
antdude sends along an AP piece on the decline of the teaching of cursive writing in schools — ramifications of which we've discussed a few times before. "The decline of cursive is happening as students are doing more and more work on computers, including writing. In 2011, the writing test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress will require 8th and 11th graders to compose on computers, with 4th graders following in 2019. ... Handwriting is increasingly something people do only when they need to make a note to themselves rather than communicate with others, [an educator] said. Students accustomed to using computers to write at home have a hard time seeing the relevance of hours of practicing cursive handwriting. 'I am not sure students have a sense of any reason why they should vest their time and effort in writing a message out manually when it can be sent electronically in seconds.'"
Re:EMP? Impending poverty? (Score:3, Funny)
This is nonsense. Cursive writing is the essential underpinning of nothing more than fountain pens and hand fatigue.
Re:doesnt matter to me (Score:4, Funny)
I also don't care to read or write curseive writing. Yet, it shows up all the time on /. Just mention RIAA, patents, traffic shaping, Microsoft, etc. and you see all sorts of f-bombs and other forms of curseive writing in comment after comment. It makes me sad. I'm glad that you have gone for many years without resorting to such tired-out shock devices.
This will surely bring about the end of Evil. (Score:5, Funny)
With the knowledge of penmanship goes the ability to sign a pact with the Devil in one's own blood. I suppose a syringe and an empty ink cartridge would do the trick, but why bother? Whatever Life trouble you are trying to bypass with such a pact cannot seriously be as bad as the anxiety this will cause. Imagine the stress of not only owing your soul to Satan, but also to living your life in fear of litigation from Canon, Epson and the like for breaking the DMCA by refilling those cartridges.
No sir. I am glad to see the day of this cursed writing.
comic sans is my font (Score:1, Funny)
I installed the cursive font sometime around 2nd grade, but I haven't really used it much since then. Comic sans is what I currently use by default, and while font snobs may sneer, I think it works pretty well for legible handwriting.
Re:Font (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hrrmm... (Score:3, Funny)
Yep, another Slashdupe.
Re:Font (Score:5, Funny)
Ah yes the rule that dictates only one person on the slide at a time, this is definitely not to be forgoten.
Helvetica... (Score:2, Funny)
... is the only font I ever use, even when handwriting.
Re:doesnt matter to me (Score:5, Funny)
Cursive is fine, but it will never replace Insular Majiscule for grandeur, so important to getting one's point across (especially important if you're 1300 years old or so). I do enjoy the hip-hop trendiness of Carolingean Miniscule with it's clever serifs and ligatures, but nothing will replace Gothic Littera Bastarde for those elegant, impassioned invitations to the A-list on your parties (well, SCA events anyway). But don't skimp on the illumination, either, or valuable content may not be appropriately highlighted.
Apologies for the rubric.
Re:legal signature? or a computer generated sig.? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:legal signature? or a computer generated sig.? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It matters (Score:5, Funny)
2013, 4 months after the End of Civilization As We Know It:
0500: Nightwatch shift changes
0530: Wake-up & breakfast
0630: Roll call and PT
0730: Shelter maintenance and tool repair
0830: Defense meeting and duty assignment
0900: Weapons training
1000: Hunting & foraging
0200: Lunch if there's food
0230: Fend off scouts from rival group
0430: Tend to the wounded and bury the dead
0500: Penmanship and the art of fine letter writing
0600: Assist in food preparation and materiel crafting
0700: Dinner
0715: Regroup after sneak attack. Recover kidnapped villagers
Hmm.
Something seems amiss.
Re:doesnt matter to me (Score:3, Funny)
Or leave a note on someone's car when you scratch it
Now that's a good point for calligraphy. If you have to vandalize other people's cars, do it with style!
Re:Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)
Wut?
Re:Hrrmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:doesnt matter to me (Score:5, Funny)
Or leave a note on someone's car when you scratch it with a shopping cart.
An illegible cursive note on their windscreen, of course. If it's written using a diamond-tipped stylus, there's actually no need to scratch the car with a shopping cart.
Re:Jesus, cut the cord already (Score:1, Funny)
Next they'll have our students churning butter forging horseshoes.
I always wondered how they made butter....never realised it involved horses though.
Re:doesnt matter to me (Score:5, Funny)
While you call this important body of knowledge valueless, I do not and can do the things you describe. So therefor when and if the balloon goes up, my family will eat and be clothed while yours will starve and die naked in the cold. What a pitty.
You... hunt your own food... in Oakland. And tan your own leather? By the light of kerosene lamps. To wear on your horse while you ride to Burning Man. I think you'll be dead long before any of that is an issue. If it is an issue, I don't think you'll feed your family with cursive writing, man.
Re:doesnt matter to me (Score:5, Funny)
Easy solution: if you're left handed, write in an RTL language such as Hebrew, then you can use your fountain pen. Problem solved! ;)
Re:It matters (Score:5, Funny)
Something is amiss indeed. You left this out:
0800: Class on proper use of 24 hour clock
Unless after hunting and foraging at 10 AM you wait until 2 AM to have lunch.
Re:How is this news? (Score:0, Funny)
Re:Hrrmm... (Score:3, Funny)
Apparently your post is in cursive too.
Or maybe that's recursive...
Re:How is this news? (Score:3, Funny)
Especially on /.?
50 replies on how a paraplegic rat regained the function in its legs, and 250 replies on how cursive writing is a fading skill. Really -- slashdot?
Does that mean that a story about paraplegic rats' fading skill of cursive writing with their legs would evoke 12500 replies?
Can it be true? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:doesnt matter to me (Score:4, Funny)
trendiness of Carolingean Miniscule with it's clever serifs and ligatures
And five days of a scribe's time was wasted with the stray apostrophe or blot in the middle of the page.
Re:Hrrmm... (Score:2, Funny)
Does this mean that hand-writing passwords on the post-it attached to your monitor will soon become a secure method of encrypting them?
Assuming you still remember how to write, of course.
Re:legal signature? or a computer generated sig.? (Score:3, Funny)
I used to sign with an "X", but someone from Alabama accused me of forgery.
Uuiu uiuuouunu uiuu (Score:5, Funny)
No no no. If it was handwritten in cursive and his writing looks anything like mine, it'd look like:
Uuin uniuuwln wn, uiwum iu Ounu uwvunm oulnny.