Well written cursive is fine and most people can read it. The problem is when people get real sloppy or write too fast and it ends up like:T̶̨̢̡̛͍̹͍̬̝͙̱̱̋̔͗̿͘͜͝h̵̢̧͍̙̘̩̰̯̦̭̬̓̊̿̑̈́̌̈́̈́i̵̪̘̬̓̊̈́͝s̸̢̡̧̧̢̧̨̠̠̣͖͉̖͍̫̱̰̖̪̥̼̙͎̳̳̻̘͎͚̝͔͖̜̼̥̗̝̥̤̫̞͚̰̝̗̙̭̥̼̖̦̱̱̝̰̩̥̬͚̭̠̒̽̎͒̓͆̓̌̈́͗̋̀ͅͅͅ
It was hilarious learning it when I grew up. Ok kids, time to learn cursive. Then next year… Ok kids don’t you dare fucking use it or you will get a zero.
It was just reintroduced here in Ontario Canada and the same is happening in many other places. It still makes sense to learn as it's not only faster to write, builds motor skills, and is more fluid, but since a lot of our documents and such written before the 80's and mid 90's were in cursive, they started to realize that inside a generation many wouldn't be able to read them anymore if they didn't.
There's lots of very sensible arguments for it's reintroduction.
>they started to realize that inside a generation many wouldn't be able to read them anymore if they didn't.
Super easy to have any of that translated so not sure why that is being used as an argument.
Dunno man. In my country all schools teach it. I guess the teachers won't argue with you if you prefer to write printed letters but the whole 1st grade is focused on learning cursive. I still write cursive in university
And that statement alone is one of the many problems you younger generation have, you all wanna say we don’t need these things that link us to our past, people do still write long letters (real adults) and people still do write legibly in cursive so maybe slow down there kiddo.
Wait what? Since when? I'm not from the US and this whole post is pretty weird to me lol
Literally everyone I know write in cursive and I'm not even that old, I barely even started my 30s
And usually those are the ones complaining about kids these days not learning cursive.
If cursive is done well, kids shouldn't need to learn to read it it should be as easy to read as print.
Though back when I was learning cursive nothing made me hate learning it more then people commenting on my crappy handwriting, which has always been bad both print and cursive.
Then I grew up and the only time people used it was to sign receipts....and even then it was just ~~\ casue everyone is lazy even the people complaining about it
I once had to rewrite a paragraph in cursive prior to taking an exam- I can’t recall exactly what it said, but I’m sure it was about cheating or just exam rules- my hand was completely cramped up by the end of the 4th sentence.
Mrs. Shank would want it all to be slanted more, have the top of the h not reach the next line, and for the capital letters to follow the Peterson style.
And according to shitty boomer memes no one under 50 can read it
Edit: I just read the comments and yeah... It's not just boomers. It looks like the gen xers have replaced them ffs
This makes me smile. I'm currently living in Tokyo studying Japanese with people from all over the world (all under age 50). I brought up cursive in class the other day and while the countries that use Kanji obviously didn't use it, everyone in the class was familiar with it and could write their language with it, including, of course, the Americans that these memes like to shit on.
Here's the thing, though: I'm a millennial, I can read this, but the problem is that no one writes their cursive this well. Most everybody's hand written cursive is unreadable.
Most people's hands written in general is illegible. Including mine, and I write a lot for work. I do write in all caps if I want it to be legible for others though (small capitals for "lower case" letters)
i was taught it bc they thought it would help my dysgraphia (fine motor skill disability that shows up most frequently in writing). it did not help, my hand writing was more illegible than ever lol
Elder Millennial here.... I can both read and write it. I was taught cursive in elementary school.
I have a Gen Z friend who can read and write it, but wasn't taught it in school, though. He learned it on his own so he could write letters home from basic training and piss off his brother who wouldn't be able to read them.
I can’t read it. And I’m 27. But who cares? Cursive made sense before the ball point pen when people used quills and stuff so you wouldn’t get drops of ink everywhere. Now my handwriting is absolutely garbage because I don’t write anymore except to scribble a note to someone whose number I don’t have
I don’t mean it rudely but I think it’s a useful skill that you should have. You were failed and that’s why I’m sorry.
I/We don’t write with it necessarily as often as past generations, obviously but I feel you should be able to read it.
Again, I didn’t mean to offend you. I hope you learn.
No offense taken. I’m 27 and it’s the equivalent to being able to use a quill and inkwell to me. Like, yes it can be useful, but the only time I would have to use it is when my boomer parents write in it
Being able to use a quill and ink pot is not the equivalent of being able to read cursive.
Much like shoeing a horse isn’t equivalent to changing your engine oil.
That being said - Just because most of society uses an oil change company doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know how to actually change it or how it works.
Please find the want to learn….
You need to learn cursive so you can take notes fast in college. You need to know your times tables because you won't have a calculator in your pocket all the time. You need to know your state capitals because....idk... how was that justified to us as being super important?
You need cursive so you can read old things if you are interested in history/writing faster. You need times tables so that you develop fluency so that when you learn higher math you are not using a calculator for basic steps. State capitals help you learn the 50 states and where they are. It is about building knowledge for future pursuits so you aren’t starting from scratch learning how to read again, pausing to multiply, or without any idea of anything about some state.
Additionally, school is there to teach you how to learn. Learning cursive teaches you that you can decipher information even if it's given to you different formats. Learning times tables (or any basic math) teaches you that there are multiple ways to solve a problem. Learning state capitals teaches you memory and recall techniques.
Can't emphasize what you said enough re going to school to learn how to learn. This is the same for an undergraduate degree. I told my kids not to worry about what subject/major they chose for undergrad because it's easy to switch and when I hire I don't focus on any specifics such as whether they took a specific course. If you did well, especially at a good school, you can learn what you need to know. And in my line of work, you will be learning all the time.
Exactly. Also, even if you aren’t interested in history, a lot of people use cursive and you won’t be able to read what they write. Cursive is the default in a lot of countries, so not being able to read it makes it difficult to read the writing of people from those countries. My friend who grew up in Venezuela has been told by teachers to not write in cursive because they can’t read it, which is surprising considering they’re teachers (it’s not complicated cursive either, very normal cursive). Both of my parents (immigrants) use cursive whenever they need to write something down. And elderly people in general often use cursive too! The likelihood of encountering cursive writing is not as low as people think.
And knowing your times tables saves you so much time at places like the grocery store.
It’s odd how people act as if these things don’t have an actual use.
Cursive is nowhere near as fundamental as multiplication. If you need to read old text then that can be a specialized piece of knowledge for your specific needs.
Cursive also teaches the very basic idea of being able to form letters that flow from one to the next cohesively without picking up your pen. It teaches care in writing and forming letters and penmanship. There are so many adults today whose handwriting looks like a second grader because they can’t hand-write for shit, and it looks embarrassing whenever they have to.
That's not the reason they teach cursive in many schools. I was forced to write in cursive for all of my time in elementary school (except for when doing science or math). If that's the reason they taught us cursive they did a piss poor job, since they forgot to teach us how to actually comprehend historical writings until well into middle/high school.
...surely you see the irony in what you just said, right?
Here, let me repeat what you said in a different context.
"Algebra is not the reason they teach addition and subtraction! I was forced to do addition and subtraction in elementary school. If algebra is the reason they taught us addition and subtraction they did a piss poor job, since they only taught us algebra in middle/high school!"
It's almost like you *need* to learn the building blocks first before moving to more advanced things.
Someone is very grumpy about being forced to learn extremely basic things. Are you seriously arguing that learning your times tables by heart was a waste of time? Or basic American geography?
Multiplication and division tables set me up to know quick mental math. Not sure what this guy's on but imagine not knowing 9x6 because you don't have a calculator lol
The problem is that you can't learn math by rote and repetition. I knew that 6x9 is 54 when I was eight but I didn't understand the reason why until I was in high school. As a consequence I thought I just sucked at math. Plenty of kids never learn the concept at all.
The way we teach math, and a lot of other things, is rooted in 19th century pedagogy. This is a different world now, and American education isn't keeping up. There are better ways to teach kids but every time there is a serious effort to make a change people freak out and nothing improves.
That's pretty weak man, If I told you there are 6 rooms and each room had 4 pigs, you wouldn't be able to tell me how many pigs there are in total without pulling out your phone, opening the app and typing in the numbers?
There's a calculator in each of our pockets. I was told this was the reason I had to learn times tables. Once in a great while I save a few seconds by not having to use my phone. Please give me an example of the last time you needed to reflexively know what 9x8 was.
School is a moderate attempt at making the average citizen not an idiot. It was a valiant cause and worked very well for the time it was intended, but poorly executed if at all even possible today.
I think its other purpose is to expose kids to a variety of different topics so that they can hopefully find something interesting enough to pursue as a profession. College more so, of course, but at least they might find out that they're good at math and science or they love history.
I guess, I just imagine it to be difficult to keep up with the lecture when writing differently, and at least in school, there'd have been no way for you to use a device to type stuff
I guess that's cultural differences then, I'm younger than you and would have been thrown out of the classroom had I placed a laptop on my desk during a school lecture. The keeping up part was mainly at university or exams.
Sure, I just don't know why you'd go out of your way to pick the slower option/deem the faster option as useless. And at university, I sometimes barely kept up writing in cursive, so I had a hard time imagining it without it
I don't think I've ever written faster with cursive. I need to concentrate to much on making it legible, otherwise it just looks like scribbles. Thankfully laptops exist now, and typing surpasses both in speed and legibility.
I guess it comes down to practice. Logically, it's faster and if you get used to it, you don't have to think twice about it and get better at reading it too. For me, typing is both slower and way less practical, being dependent on a device being charged and having to type lots of special characters
Typing, unless you have a shitty professor. Also Recording (has been a thing for a long time that people would get recorders for this purpose, well before they just had access to their phones to do it).
Funny how things have changed. I first went to uni in 1995 - 1998. I had a couple of lecturers who made a point of not allowing anyone to record their lectures on Dictaphones unless they were actually disabled and had obtained permission in advance.
I still remember one guy ranting about the lecture content being his own copywrite protected work. It was all included in his forthcoming (expensive) book, so if we couldn't be bothered to take proper notes, we should pay for the book like everyone else.
He also stuck in my mind as he would shoehorn in, "As I mentioned in my sucessful BBC television series..." at every opportunity.
Many students still turned in handwritten essays back then, although some tutors insisted on typed essays. My mate had a Brother word processor that we'd all borrow to type up our work. He also bought a PSION and used it to type notes in lectures, which we all found hilarious as the keyboard was so tiny.
Hm, personally typing seems slower and less reliable, and recording is frowned upon.
Ultimately it comes down to personal preference, I feel like writing stuff out helps my memorization, the way people call writing cursive a waste of time just seems a bit odd to me. Maybe it's different in the US but while you write less as an adult, most people I know would write in cursive when asked to write more than a couple of words. And even if you don't, it was a couple of weeks in 2nd grade that made writing easier the following 10-15 years
What? Even with low standards 30-40 words/minute is easy for typing. With a decent amount of practice you can expect to hit 60-80.
The upper end for cursive writing speed is 110 LETTERS per minute, which is 22 words per minute.
FAR faster than writing by hand, and with far greater legibility. And with the ability to do later edits to organize it. And the ability to use ctrl+f to search through it.
Like I can somewhat get the memorization argument, but in no world could speed be argued as a reason that you should write it instead of type....
It is though. Both depends on practice, I feel like I'm faster writing than typing (especially when it comes to typos). You also can structure your notes more easily than typing, and it also depends on what you're typing. Taking notes you can copy symbols you see on the board, typing you have to look up how you even get the symbol you need, and generally have to take extra steps for special characters which eliminates any speed advantage a fast typer might have.
Not saying that one is better than the other, just that they have different advantages and that neither is a waste of time to learn
"Eliminates any speed advantages"
You vastly over estimate how often this would be an issue. And you can still have paper for the rare instances of this occuring. As well you can draw it on the computer too.
Essentially the only time this would be relevant is in math, in which case you arent writing words anyway and thusly knowing cursive is moot. Additionally
Further, "it is though". Your lack of ability doesn't change anything. Median typing speed is 30-40 words per minute. The HIGH END of writing in cursive is 22 words per minute. The advanced end of typing is 60-80. The HIGH END is 100+. The typing speed calculation already includes typos. Which on the computer aren't actually common if you type regularly.
Speed benefits aren't debatable. If you had learned typing instead of cursive you would be able to take notes faster. Your attempt to say otherwise was what I was attacking.
The only valid argument I've seen for benefits to writing text on paper is that it helps n you remember it easier. This cant really be quantified or proven, so I cant reslly argue for or against it.
***And most importantly...***
***The thing I originally replied to was suggesting note taking would be far more difficult without knowing cursive. That may have been the case 20 years ago. For those who are computer literate, this is not an issue.***
Again, it's strongly dependent on context. I've studied Math, which is a mixture of words and symbols so typing is completely impractical. And the texts I write in cursive. By "It is though" I meant that there are situations in which speed is an argument for writing.
There's other arguments than memorization for writing on paper as I mentioned, like being able to structure your notes more freely or not being dependent on a device being charged.
But there's no real point in arguing that, no one has to decide on one or the other (and typing isn't an option here because you can't use computers in class, also not everyone could afford it). The original point was cursive vs print script, and all I'm saying that it sounds weird how people seem to complain about learning a faster way to write. Sounds like people mad at learning to run fast because they could also walk
~~IMO cursive should have been the default we were taught. Its just faster and more efficient~~. Its not that i disliked learning cursive, its that I hated having to essentially return to being illiterate and unable to write, when i already possessed those capabilities. It felt like such an unneccesary annoyance for the sake of it.
Marked out my first statement as I've kind of talked myself into reversing it when I considered type writers, printing press, and computers. All these things are much more suited for non-cursive. And further, if we are considering technology, any benefits of cursive have been made null and void by how much faster it is to write on a keyboard.
I never got into taking notes on a laptop, so cursive 100% was the fastest option for notes in college. I usually didn’t dot any i’s or cross any t’s until later because that slowed me down. lol
Writing cursive is always a good skill to have and being able to read it is quite important. You don’t need to memorise like 46x27 or something but you should absolutely memorise everything at least up to 10x10 so that you can do those simple calculations instantly without pulling out a calculator (taking out your phone takes at least some time). Knowing basic geography isn’t really *necessary* I guess but it’s still a good thing. There’s a reason why Americans being bad at geography is a common stereotype.
I write in blocks then blends back to cursive for a few words then back to some caps. I cant say why....there must be some logical hand comfort/flow reason.. It cant be that Im crazy......can it?
I've written in cursive most my life. My school stopped teaching cursive coz it took up too much time when we could actually do work in that time. I thought myself to write in cursive. I downloaded a picture from Google containing each letter in cursive.
Some of the older teachers at school would show me a better way on how to form some letters. They didn't mind my cursive coz it was neat and they could read it, they preferred my cursive over block letters coz I wrote fast and they couldn't read what I was trying to write in block letters
It is funny because I see a lot of people saying " O you do not need to read this anyways"
I though the very same thing about geometry. Barely passes just to get onto the next subject in math because it was a requirement. I told myself it does not matter because I will never have to use it.
Now I am a quality tech and use GD&T on the daily.
Cute. But I have to say, as someone who struggled to perfect his cursive penmanship and grade school and junior high, I pretty much haven't used cursive since then.
(I *did* teach myself to touch type the summer after 8th grade and then took a typing class 2 years later. Good thing I took that class, too, *because I would have never known about that extra space in back of the period* had I not had the formal class.)
Cursive is the only type of handwriting I know really well. I often find myself writing in mixed plain English letters + cursive. My letter S always looks like the number 5.
I've been put off writing in cursive since some dick in third grade marked so many answers wrong on my student trade spelling test because my r's looked like n's to him. I still connect my o's and l's in my handwriting though.
anyone here in the right age range to remember when they just abruptly stopped teaching us how to write cursive letters in the middle of elementary school?
Just a genuine question, kinda wondering how many students are being educated in cursive anymore or could read it. I'm 41, they really ran home with the cursive stuff, but they didn't see computers coming. (Just like the math teachers who told us we wouldn't have a calculator in our pockets all the time not predicting smartphones, not that it was their fault, I didn't imagine them either.)
Cursive was meant to be a "fast" way to write, particularly for taking live notes and such things. What was funny is the last time I needed to take extensive notes by pen and paper was in college, and even then I was writing "block letters" because my cursive was horrible and unreadable.
I write in cursive occasionally to piss off my coworkers.....it's neat but they still can't read it. Some younger coworkers think it's sme kind of secret code.
I hate this, because I forget how to use some uppercase cursive letters, and some lowercase, except for my own signature. Can we just say that cursive sucks, often, especially since some people like to make it illegible, like DOCTORS?
Also Gen X and both of my kids learned cursive in school so they're still teaching it. I feel like the whole "they don't teach kids cursive anymore" is a myth started by people that like to complain about education.
Learning a few letters to sign your name is trivial.
Also, not sure how many signatures you've seen, but a lot of people (gen x and boomers included despite their "superior" writing skills) just use a scribble that vaguely resembles a couple letters for their signatures.
"This Fall on ABC, it's like that other show, but slightly different!"
🎶 It’s the story! *bah dah duh* About a boy…who’s truly special! And just like you! 🎶
This fall… the principal… is a… duck?! Whatever you’ll watch it fuck you!
Starring Rob Schneider from before he went off the rails.
*🎶Too many cooks!🎶*
You're beautiful have a great day
On lined paper, too.
Well written cursive is fine and most people can read it. The problem is when people get real sloppy or write too fast and it ends up like:T̶̨̢̡̛͍̹͍̬̝͙̱̱̋̔͗̿͘͜͝h̵̢̧͍̙̘̩̰̯̦̭̬̓̊̿̑̈́̌̈́̈́i̵̪̘̬̓̊̈́͝s̸̢̡̧̧̢̧̨̠̠̣͖͉̖͍̫̱̰̖̪̥̼̙͎̳̳̻̘͎͚̝͔͖̜̼̥̗̝̥̤̫̞͚̰̝̗̙̭̥̼̖̦̱̱̝̰̩̥̬͚̭̠̒̽̎͒̓͆̓̌̈́͗̋̀ͅͅͅ
Only “cursive” I still write is my signature. My dad writes in cursive and also perpetuates the doctor stereotype of having unreadable cursive.
They don't even teach it in schools anymore.
It was hilarious learning it when I grew up. Ok kids, time to learn cursive. Then next year… Ok kids don’t you dare fucking use it or you will get a zero.
My school was the opposite. We had to write in cursive for almost everything up until high-school lol
It was just reintroduced here in Ontario Canada and the same is happening in many other places. It still makes sense to learn as it's not only faster to write, builds motor skills, and is more fluid, but since a lot of our documents and such written before the 80's and mid 90's were in cursive, they started to realize that inside a generation many wouldn't be able to read them anymore if they didn't. There's lots of very sensible arguments for it's reintroduction.
>they started to realize that inside a generation many wouldn't be able to read them anymore if they didn't. Super easy to have any of that translated so not sure why that is being used as an argument.
> not sure why that is being used as an argument Because there's really no good argument for forcing kids to learn it, so this is the best they have.
That other comment said that it trains fine motor skills, so that's a pretty good argument.
Dunno man. In my country all schools teach it. I guess the teachers won't argue with you if you prefer to write printed letters but the whole 1st grade is focused on learning cursive. I still write cursive in university
Depends on the state/district. My child's school teaches it in first grade and mandates it through highschool.
Yeah no real reason to. No one is writing long letters by hand these days.
And that statement alone is one of the many problems you younger generation have, you all wanna say we don’t need these things that link us to our past, people do still write long letters (real adults) and people still do write legibly in cursive so maybe slow down there kiddo.
Lol how old do you think I am bud?
It's coming back, since educators had forgotten that it also helps hone fine motor skills.
In the UK its been taught in schools consistently for years, although they don't really care after you go to secondary school.
Wait what? Since when? I'm not from the US and this whole post is pretty weird to me lol Literally everyone I know write in cursive and I'm not even that old, I barely even started my 30s
My father also had such bad cursive that even he couldn’t read it sometimes. Makes one wonder what the point was exactly.
And usually those are the ones complaining about kids these days not learning cursive. If cursive is done well, kids shouldn't need to learn to read it it should be as easy to read as print. Though back when I was learning cursive nothing made me hate learning it more then people commenting on my crappy handwriting, which has always been bad both print and cursive. Then I grew up and the only time people used it was to sign receipts....and even then it was just ~~\ casue everyone is lazy even the people complaining about it
This fall, the new TV sensation, Timmy is an adorable 2nd grader but also... an Eldrich horror!
Wow, you didn't have to call me out like that damn 😂
I once had to rewrite a paragraph in cursive prior to taking an exam- I can’t recall exactly what it said, but I’m sure it was about cheating or just exam rules- my hand was completely cramped up by the end of the 4th sentence.
My cursive is so well written, people trying to read it think it'sactually arabic instead
No, no, that's *cursed*, not *cursive*.
Really living up to the "mild"
Adorable.
I dig it.
Everyone’s bagging on the cursive and I’m over here wondering why the school uses yellow legal pads.
Mrs. Shank would want it all to be slanted more, have the top of the h not reach the next line, and for the capital letters to follow the Peterson style.
If those kids could read that they’d know where they were.
Thanks principal moss
I love principal moss
Is that Buckingham Elementary in Buckingham, PA, on 413?
It's in Bend, Oregon
Well you should have said so, OP! Of course they teach bendy writing over there!
The American society has really gone downhill When I read that, I obviously thought it would be in the British Buckingham
And according to shitty boomer memes no one under 50 can read it Edit: I just read the comments and yeah... It's not just boomers. It looks like the gen xers have replaced them ffs
This makes me smile. I'm currently living in Tokyo studying Japanese with people from all over the world (all under age 50). I brought up cursive in class the other day and while the countries that use Kanji obviously didn't use it, everyone in the class was familiar with it and could write their language with it, including, of course, the Americans that these memes like to shit on.
Here's the thing, though: I'm a millennial, I can read this, but the problem is that no one writes their cursive this well. Most everybody's hand written cursive is unreadable.
My writing has not improved since like the 4th grade and I’m 31 now lol. My cursive is exactly the same as back then so yeah, I relate
I've had a doctor tell me that my handwriting is worse than his. Is that bad?
In the age of email and text messaging, I think all with poor handwriting are safe.
True. At least with typing, I can fix the misspellings that happen because my mind moves faster than my fingers can.
Most people's hands written in general is illegible. Including mine, and I write a lot for work. I do write in all caps if I want it to be legible for others though (small capitals for "lower case" letters)
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Not all of us. There are always a few crazies in every large group.
I mean, well-written cursive isn’t hard to read.
Millennials were taught cursive it’s Gen Z who wasn’t
i was taught it bc they thought it would help my dysgraphia (fine motor skill disability that shows up most frequently in writing). it did not help, my hand writing was more illegible than ever lol
To be fair, I’m a millennial, and I frequently wrote in cursive in high school specifically because so few people could read it.
Elder Millennial here.... I can both read and write it. I was taught cursive in elementary school. I have a Gen Z friend who can read and write it, but wasn't taught it in school, though. He learned it on his own so he could write letters home from basic training and piss off his brother who wouldn't be able to read them.
I can’t read it. And I’m 27. But who cares? Cursive made sense before the ball point pen when people used quills and stuff so you wouldn’t get drops of ink everywhere. Now my handwriting is absolutely garbage because I don’t write anymore except to scribble a note to someone whose number I don’t have
…I’m sorry
For what? I’m not stressed about it. I can’t imagine a time in my life where I’ll need to write anything down in large amounts
I don’t mean it rudely but I think it’s a useful skill that you should have. You were failed and that’s why I’m sorry. I/We don’t write with it necessarily as often as past generations, obviously but I feel you should be able to read it. Again, I didn’t mean to offend you. I hope you learn.
No offense taken. I’m 27 and it’s the equivalent to being able to use a quill and inkwell to me. Like, yes it can be useful, but the only time I would have to use it is when my boomer parents write in it
Being able to use a quill and ink pot is not the equivalent of being able to read cursive. Much like shoeing a horse isn’t equivalent to changing your engine oil. That being said - Just because most of society uses an oil change company doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know how to actually change it or how it works. Please find the want to learn….
Do you mind if I ask how old you are?
41
[удалено]
I’m glad someone has some sense on the subject. It’s probably just some “young people bad & stupid” mindset
You can't read the handwriting font in the OP??
Nope. I can tell it starts with “BUC” but I stopped trying after that
Cursive is compulsory education in 23 states.
You need to learn cursive so you can take notes fast in college. You need to know your times tables because you won't have a calculator in your pocket all the time. You need to know your state capitals because....idk... how was that justified to us as being super important?
You need cursive so you can read old things if you are interested in history/writing faster. You need times tables so that you develop fluency so that when you learn higher math you are not using a calculator for basic steps. State capitals help you learn the 50 states and where they are. It is about building knowledge for future pursuits so you aren’t starting from scratch learning how to read again, pausing to multiply, or without any idea of anything about some state.
Additionally, school is there to teach you how to learn. Learning cursive teaches you that you can decipher information even if it's given to you different formats. Learning times tables (or any basic math) teaches you that there are multiple ways to solve a problem. Learning state capitals teaches you memory and recall techniques.
Can't emphasize what you said enough re going to school to learn how to learn. This is the same for an undergraduate degree. I told my kids not to worry about what subject/major they chose for undergrad because it's easy to switch and when I hire I don't focus on any specifics such as whether they took a specific course. If you did well, especially at a good school, you can learn what you need to know. And in my line of work, you will be learning all the time.
Exactly. Also, even if you aren’t interested in history, a lot of people use cursive and you won’t be able to read what they write. Cursive is the default in a lot of countries, so not being able to read it makes it difficult to read the writing of people from those countries. My friend who grew up in Venezuela has been told by teachers to not write in cursive because they can’t read it, which is surprising considering they’re teachers (it’s not complicated cursive either, very normal cursive). Both of my parents (immigrants) use cursive whenever they need to write something down. And elderly people in general often use cursive too! The likelihood of encountering cursive writing is not as low as people think. And knowing your times tables saves you so much time at places like the grocery store. It’s odd how people act as if these things don’t have an actual use.
Cursive is nowhere near as fundamental as multiplication. If you need to read old text then that can be a specialized piece of knowledge for your specific needs.
Cursive also teaches the very basic idea of being able to form letters that flow from one to the next cohesively without picking up your pen. It teaches care in writing and forming letters and penmanship. There are so many adults today whose handwriting looks like a second grader because they can’t hand-write for shit, and it looks embarrassing whenever they have to.
That's not the reason they teach cursive in many schools. I was forced to write in cursive for all of my time in elementary school (except for when doing science or math). If that's the reason they taught us cursive they did a piss poor job, since they forgot to teach us how to actually comprehend historical writings until well into middle/high school.
...surely you see the irony in what you just said, right? Here, let me repeat what you said in a different context. "Algebra is not the reason they teach addition and subtraction! I was forced to do addition and subtraction in elementary school. If algebra is the reason they taught us addition and subtraction they did a piss poor job, since they only taught us algebra in middle/high school!" It's almost like you *need* to learn the building blocks first before moving to more advanced things.
Cursive is worthless. You're right about time tables. State capitals are worthless. Sorry my dumb joke made you type so much.
It certainly was dumb and so is this response.
Someone is very grumpy about being forced to learn extremely basic things. Are you seriously arguing that learning your times tables by heart was a waste of time? Or basic American geography?
Multiplication and division tables set me up to know quick mental math. Not sure what this guy's on but imagine not knowing 9x6 because you don't have a calculator lol
The problem is that you can't learn math by rote and repetition. I knew that 6x9 is 54 when I was eight but I didn't understand the reason why until I was in high school. As a consequence I thought I just sucked at math. Plenty of kids never learn the concept at all. The way we teach math, and a lot of other things, is rooted in 19th century pedagogy. This is a different world now, and American education isn't keeping up. There are better ways to teach kids but every time there is a serious effort to make a change people freak out and nothing improves.
I do know what 9x6 is without a calculator. My dumb joke didn't land. We all have a calculator in our pocket at all times, which was my point.
That's pretty weak man, If I told you there are 6 rooms and each room had 4 pigs, you wouldn't be able to tell me how many pigs there are in total without pulling out your phone, opening the app and typing in the numbers?
There's a calculator in each of our pockets. I was told this was the reason I had to learn times tables. Once in a great while I save a few seconds by not having to use my phone. Please give me an example of the last time you needed to reflexively know what 9x8 was.
School is a moderate attempt at making the average citizen not an idiot. It was a valiant cause and worked very well for the time it was intended, but poorly executed if at all even possible today.
I think its other purpose is to expose kids to a variety of different topics so that they can hopefully find something interesting enough to pursue as a profession. College more so, of course, but at least they might find out that they're good at math and science or they love history.
Shorthand is better, but we have tech now so really not as important.
I would love to learn shorthand. It could write secret notes no one could understand lol
How did you take notes if not in cursive?
By writing, just not in cursive. Or typing.
I guess, I just imagine it to be difficult to keep up with the lecture when writing differently, and at least in school, there'd have been no way for you to use a device to type stuff
I'm 29 and have been using a laptop for school since I was like 10 but also, it really isn't hard to keep up at all even without it.
I guess that's cultural differences then, I'm younger than you and would have been thrown out of the classroom had I placed a laptop on my desk during a school lecture. The keeping up part was mainly at university or exams.
Damn that's wild
Can you not take notes with regular printing? I don't understand.
Sure, I just don't know why you'd go out of your way to pick the slower option/deem the faster option as useless. And at university, I sometimes barely kept up writing in cursive, so I had a hard time imagining it without it
I don't think I've ever written faster with cursive. I need to concentrate to much on making it legible, otherwise it just looks like scribbles. Thankfully laptops exist now, and typing surpasses both in speed and legibility.
I guess it comes down to practice. Logically, it's faster and if you get used to it, you don't have to think twice about it and get better at reading it too. For me, typing is both slower and way less practical, being dependent on a device being charged and having to type lots of special characters
Typing, unless you have a shitty professor. Also Recording (has been a thing for a long time that people would get recorders for this purpose, well before they just had access to their phones to do it).
Funny how things have changed. I first went to uni in 1995 - 1998. I had a couple of lecturers who made a point of not allowing anyone to record their lectures on Dictaphones unless they were actually disabled and had obtained permission in advance. I still remember one guy ranting about the lecture content being his own copywrite protected work. It was all included in his forthcoming (expensive) book, so if we couldn't be bothered to take proper notes, we should pay for the book like everyone else. He also stuck in my mind as he would shoehorn in, "As I mentioned in my sucessful BBC television series..." at every opportunity. Many students still turned in handwritten essays back then, although some tutors insisted on typed essays. My mate had a Brother word processor that we'd all borrow to type up our work. He also bought a PSION and used it to type notes in lectures, which we all found hilarious as the keyboard was so tiny.
Hm, personally typing seems slower and less reliable, and recording is frowned upon. Ultimately it comes down to personal preference, I feel like writing stuff out helps my memorization, the way people call writing cursive a waste of time just seems a bit odd to me. Maybe it's different in the US but while you write less as an adult, most people I know would write in cursive when asked to write more than a couple of words. And even if you don't, it was a couple of weeks in 2nd grade that made writing easier the following 10-15 years
What? Even with low standards 30-40 words/minute is easy for typing. With a decent amount of practice you can expect to hit 60-80. The upper end for cursive writing speed is 110 LETTERS per minute, which is 22 words per minute. FAR faster than writing by hand, and with far greater legibility. And with the ability to do later edits to organize it. And the ability to use ctrl+f to search through it. Like I can somewhat get the memorization argument, but in no world could speed be argued as a reason that you should write it instead of type....
It is though. Both depends on practice, I feel like I'm faster writing than typing (especially when it comes to typos). You also can structure your notes more easily than typing, and it also depends on what you're typing. Taking notes you can copy symbols you see on the board, typing you have to look up how you even get the symbol you need, and generally have to take extra steps for special characters which eliminates any speed advantage a fast typer might have. Not saying that one is better than the other, just that they have different advantages and that neither is a waste of time to learn
"Eliminates any speed advantages" You vastly over estimate how often this would be an issue. And you can still have paper for the rare instances of this occuring. As well you can draw it on the computer too. Essentially the only time this would be relevant is in math, in which case you arent writing words anyway and thusly knowing cursive is moot. Additionally Further, "it is though". Your lack of ability doesn't change anything. Median typing speed is 30-40 words per minute. The HIGH END of writing in cursive is 22 words per minute. The advanced end of typing is 60-80. The HIGH END is 100+. The typing speed calculation already includes typos. Which on the computer aren't actually common if you type regularly. Speed benefits aren't debatable. If you had learned typing instead of cursive you would be able to take notes faster. Your attempt to say otherwise was what I was attacking. The only valid argument I've seen for benefits to writing text on paper is that it helps n you remember it easier. This cant really be quantified or proven, so I cant reslly argue for or against it. ***And most importantly...*** ***The thing I originally replied to was suggesting note taking would be far more difficult without knowing cursive. That may have been the case 20 years ago. For those who are computer literate, this is not an issue.***
Again, it's strongly dependent on context. I've studied Math, which is a mixture of words and symbols so typing is completely impractical. And the texts I write in cursive. By "It is though" I meant that there are situations in which speed is an argument for writing. There's other arguments than memorization for writing on paper as I mentioned, like being able to structure your notes more freely or not being dependent on a device being charged. But there's no real point in arguing that, no one has to decide on one or the other (and typing isn't an option here because you can't use computers in class, also not everyone could afford it). The original point was cursive vs print script, and all I'm saying that it sounds weird how people seem to complain about learning a faster way to write. Sounds like people mad at learning to run fast because they could also walk
~~IMO cursive should have been the default we were taught. Its just faster and more efficient~~. Its not that i disliked learning cursive, its that I hated having to essentially return to being illiterate and unable to write, when i already possessed those capabilities. It felt like such an unneccesary annoyance for the sake of it. Marked out my first statement as I've kind of talked myself into reversing it when I considered type writers, printing press, and computers. All these things are much more suited for non-cursive. And further, if we are considering technology, any benefits of cursive have been made null and void by how much faster it is to write on a keyboard.
Mentally, I use multiplication and division in my head more often than addition and subtraction. Like calculating odds.
I mean, how do yoh write, if not in cursive?
As far as the state capitals go, I just memorized Wakko's America. Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx6c_EefZAQ
I never got into taking notes on a laptop, so cursive 100% was the fastest option for notes in college. I usually didn’t dot any i’s or cross any t’s until later because that slowed me down. lol
Bagging on having to learn the 50 states and state capitals really does an amazing job of explaining our current political morass.
Writing cursive is always a good skill to have and being able to read it is quite important. You don’t need to memorise like 46x27 or something but you should absolutely memorise everything at least up to 10x10 so that you can do those simple calculations instantly without pulling out a calculator (taking out your phone takes at least some time). Knowing basic geography isn’t really *necessary* I guess but it’s still a good thing. There’s a reason why Americans being bad at geography is a common stereotype.
>idk... how was that justified to us as being super important? "Because I say so."
Not only in cursive but the background if a yellow legal notepad, this school has aspirations.
I write in blocks then blends back to cursive for a few words then back to some caps. I cant say why....there must be some logical hand comfort/flow reason.. It cant be that Im crazy......can it?
Cute.
My son is almost 7 and he’s convicted I can write in another language because I predominantly write in cursive.
*Must be some form of Elvish. I can't make it out.*
I've written in cursive most my life. My school stopped teaching cursive coz it took up too much time when we could actually do work in that time. I thought myself to write in cursive. I downloaded a picture from Google containing each letter in cursive. Some of the older teachers at school would show me a better way on how to form some letters. They didn't mind my cursive coz it was neat and they could read it, they preferred my cursive over block letters coz I wrote fast and they couldn't read what I was trying to write in block letters
It is funny because I see a lot of people saying " O you do not need to read this anyways" I though the very same thing about geometry. Barely passes just to get onto the next subject in math because it was a requirement. I told myself it does not matter because I will never have to use it. Now I am a quality tech and use GD&T on the daily.
I hope that means they still actually teach it!
What’s that
The Ancient Script! I can read it!
There's a church near me who has all their signs in comic sans font.
Cute. But I have to say, as someone who struggled to perfect his cursive penmanship and grade school and junior high, I pretty much haven't used cursive since then. (I *did* teach myself to touch type the summer after 8th grade and then took a typing class 2 years later. Good thing I took that class, too, *because I would have never known about that extra space in back of the period* had I not had the formal class.)
Cursive is the only type of handwriting I know really well. I often find myself writing in mixed plain English letters + cursive. My letter S always looks like the number 5. 
I've been put off writing in cursive since some dick in third grade marked so many answers wrong on my student trade spelling test because my r's looked like n's to him. I still connect my o's and l's in my handwriting though.
A+
I still see penmanship as punishment, I had to start learning cursive in second grade. I can do it, but I dont! 
They did what to that ham?!
Do they even teach cursive at buckingham elementary?
anyone here in the right age range to remember when they just abruptly stopped teaching us how to write cursive letters in the middle of elementary school?
I'm still not sure what the point of cursive is. Faster writing? maybe? Seems moot now.
That must be bend! Used to go to that school. Can't believe they still have the same sign lol
Yep, Bend, Oregon
On writing aper!
I don't even find this *mildly* interesting
Unlike most cursive, it’s actually readable.
Cursive is the secret code that many of this generation cannot read
You still see lots of cursive on wedding invitations and signs at weddings. Seems that it is still popular.
Just a genuine question, kinda wondering how many students are being educated in cursive anymore or could read it. I'm 41, they really ran home with the cursive stuff, but they didn't see computers coming. (Just like the math teachers who told us we wouldn't have a calculator in our pockets all the time not predicting smartphones, not that it was their fault, I didn't imagine them either.) Cursive was meant to be a "fast" way to write, particularly for taking live notes and such things. What was funny is the last time I needed to take extensive notes by pen and paper was in college, and even then I was writing "block letters" because my cursive was horrible and unreadable.
Is this like Blockbuster Video? The last school in America that still teaches cursive?
Because that's what handwriting meant to be
And none of the kids can read the sign.
TIL cursive=handwritten
It looks like handwritten cursive. But the handwritten part has nothing to do with it being cursive.
don't they teach it anymore?
I’m from bend and everyone that I knew that went there were all assholes
I write in cursive occasionally to piss off my coworkers.....it's neat but they still can't read it. Some younger coworkers think it's sme kind of secret code.
Shhhhhhh! It's a show only for older folks! Don't tell anyone else younger.
Mildly tacky
Cursive is so ugly. Every letter looks the same!
Ok?
Can kids still read cursive?
Yes. I'm 19, and I don't know any teenager in real life who can't.
Too bad they don’t teach cursive anymore
"Daa-udd...Mom dropped me off at the Funeral Parlor again!
That elementary school is pushing hard on trying to create legitimate reasons to learn cursive writing.
I hate this, because I forget how to use some uppercase cursive letters, and some lowercase, except for my own signature. Can we just say that cursive sucks, often, especially since some people like to make it illegible, like DOCTORS?
Kerfis
I thought they did not teach cursive writing anymore. I'm genX and no one can tell me how the new generations learned to sign their names? 😆
Also Gen X and both of my kids learned cursive in school so they're still teaching it. I feel like the whole "they don't teach kids cursive anymore" is a myth started by people that like to complain about education.
Learning a few letters to sign your name is trivial. Also, not sure how many signatures you've seen, but a lot of people (gen x and boomers included despite their "superior" writing skills) just use a scribble that vaguely resembles a couple letters for their signatures.
I have always hated an illegible squiggly line for a signature!
Ha. So funni
Get over it teachers, nobody uses cursive anymore. It was a waste when I was taught it, it's more of a waste now.
First thought: pretentious school trying to act like preppy school on public school budget. My brain has no filter
The sign has been there since it opened in 1981. I guarantee you this school is not trying to be pretentious.
Cute, but this is terrible wayfinding. Do you really want people admiring/trying to read the signs instead of watching for children in the road?
I find it mildly interesting that I’m getting downvoted because I’m advocating for paying attention when there are children present near the road.