Cursive: irrelevant or actually detrimental to society? (1 Viewer)

[jbutler]

It is well-known among non-idiots that cursive is useless and a blight on the educational process as well as society at large. To this day, I can't even picture a cursive capital "Q". Just this afternoon I literally spent 5 minutes practicing signing my name to get one legible cursive signature for our office holiday card sent to clients. This has to stop.

There was a thread on Big Blue to this effect, but I would be remiss not to also provide this board with a repository for our collective frustration. With this thread, we can stop killing shivving hobos in the early morning hours to rid ourselves of the pent up anger we have toward cursive. Simply post here and be relieved.

Some of you might have thought on first glance that the subject of this thread referred to the band Cursive. It does. They are also intolerable. So good job choosing your name, Cursive. At least you gave advance warning of your horrible music.

 

[abby99]

I can write legibly faster than I can print. It's easy, too -- I've been doing it since I was a child. Why wouldn't I write?

 

[links_slayer]

Anyone else print in all caps on the reg?

edit: aww man, y u no all caps?

 

[jbutler]

I can write legibly faster than I can print. It's easy, too -- I've been doing it since I was a child. Why wouldn't I write?

this is fair. i'll amend my position. those who do cursive may cursive, but those who have not yet cursived should never be cursed with cursiving.

Anyone else print in all caps on the reg?

edit: aww man, y u no all caps?

i go back and forth between all caps and including some lower case. i'm pretty much scribbling notes all day long for something or other so sometimes it comes down to how i want the note to appear for later formatting purposes when typed later.

you're right, though, OP should have been in all caps. all rants should be in all caps all the time. should be in the internet policy guide somewhere.

 

[Shaggy]

I scribble notes rather routinely. If the notes are intended to be read by another, everything is in caps... we former drafter engineer types refer to this as "lettering." If it is intended for me... it is a hodgepodge of cursivish lowercase.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Anyone else print in all caps on the reg?

edit: aww man, y u no all caps?

I WRITE IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME. CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL.

I scribble notes rather routinely. If the notes are intended to be read by another, everything is in caps... we former drafter engineer types refer to this as "lettering." If it is intended for me... it is a hodgepodge of cursivish lowercase.

Yeah, +1 on this for me.

 

[Mango]

I wondered this last year when I found out they still teach this stuff in schools but after thinking about it I wonder if it is actually not about cursive itself but more about increasing finger dexterity and fine motor skills.

Wax on, Wax off isnt about washing the car, its about learning martial arts

 

[Milo013]

Printing your name on a contract is not legal, at least so far as I know. That said, IANAL.

 

[abby99]

As I've been working this afternoon, scribbling notes on post-its and making comments on budget statements (paper, of course), I tried to imagine what my life would be like if I had never learned to write in cursive and had to rely on the more time-consuming lettering method of putting thoughts to paper. And although it's been a while since I've taken classes, I LOL at printing a two-hour essay exam.

Mango has a good point, and he may be on to something. We don't teach young children to handle blocks so that they can build complex structures from blocks when they're older. It's about developing manual dexterity and understanding spatial relationships, among other things. Kids learn more than just how to write when they learn to write. Sorry, but I think that not teaching kids cursive because they'll spend most of their adult life using keyboards is akin to not teaching them basic math because they'll always be able to use the calculator function on their smart phones. Don't even get me started on not teaching kids to spell. If they decide as adults not to write in cursive, fine, that's their prerogative, but give them the chance to learn this particular skill/art when they're developing.

 

[Payback]

Funny how this just came up as I was having this debate with a colleague yesterday. I fluctuate to both sides of this one depending on the day. There is little need nowadays to know how to write in cursive since a lot of stuff is electronic. However as previously mentioned there is a lot of fine motor skills used with the task and for students it also provides them with a second option on how to write. There is also a need for students to be able to read cursive since the previous generations still write with it. I know there have been times in some school, where handwriting was not taught, where I would write things son the board and students could not read it. Overall it is probably 60/40 in favor of being taught in the many schools I've been in. Personally, when I'm writing quickly I do a mixture of print and cursive, but when thinking about it I go all cursive. My father, and father in law who are both engineers are strictly upper case print.

 

[jbutler]

Printing your name on a contract is not legal, at least so far as I know. That said, IANAL.

Dunno about the great white north but in Murica you can sign with a doodle of a pentagram.

 

[gpc]

Dunno about the great white north but in Murica you can sign with a doodle of a pentagram.

I keep getting told to sign with a legible signature and it tilts me every time especially when I am told not to print. So can I have more than one legal signature?

 

[tigon]

It's time that could be better spent being taught other things. It's absolutely crazy that basic money management skills aren't required to graduate highschool yet kids are taught/drilled how to sign their lives away at age 8.

 

[rowlin]

Hilarious stuff. All caps FTW.

I still bear the scars of receiving my first sub "A" grade in school (for penmanship) the year we were taught to write in cursive.

My signature has since devolved to five legible letters of the fourteen that comprise my first name, middle initial, and last name.

 

[Mango]

Did any of you guys have 'running writing' at school?

I recall back in primary school we were taught cursive and then 1 year they said that cursive was out and that we were now taught running writing which was a bit of a hybrid of cursive and printing.

I think it only lasted a year or 2 and then it was ditched and we were back to cursive.

This would have been early 80's

 

[jbutler]

I keep getting told to sign with a legible signature and it tilts me every time especially when I am told not to print. So can I have more than one legal signature?

it sort of depends on what you mean. there are practical reasons you might not want to vary your signature among doodles of many different disney characters. you may be denied the privilege of using your credit card if it is signed with a drawing of jafar and you signed your receipt with a drawing of dumbo. or you may have difficulty proving to a judge or a jury's satisfaction that you executed a contract if you wrote "i love hot dogs" instead of your name on the signature line, but there is no law against it in this glorious country.

 

[bergs]

I was offered $100 by someone a couple years ago to write something in cursive and have it be legible. If I lost, I had to give him $5. I passed. I wanted to keep my $5.

The oppressive thumb of my hometown's schooling system forced me to write in cursive. I protested and was labeled "one of those unruly boys". In later years, my inefficiencies and sloppiness associated with cursive writing would sadly degrade my educational scores, which in turn forced me to seek higher education at an institution perhaps less prestigious than I aspired to. As a direct result of my limited choices for higher education, I wound up being a taxi driver in East Hartford, Connecticut where I was routinely mugged and had my life threatened. Luckily, I had developed remarkable hand/eye coordination via identifying my peers in grade school who would mock my arduous and unsuccessful attempts at cursive, and I'd bounce their heads repeatedly off the merry-go-round like a basketball. This enabled me to effectively fight off most of the would-be attackers during my phase as a taxi cab driver, which in turn preserved my life and permitted me the opportunity to buy hundreds of Dunes Paulson chips.

So, is my success and livelihood a result of cursive, or is it in spite of cursive? Perhaps we'll never know. Suffice to say, we should not subject our children to this kind of cruelty and punishment. Cursive is clearly a gateway to bullying, which we must stop in our schools. Act now and write your school board - "FUCK CURSIVE". Fight the power.

 

[Chicken Rob]

I take notes in a hybrid print/write style. It is what is fastest to me. In this age of computers, printing + typing should suffice. No need to teach kids cursive, except to be able to read it for researching historical texts. We need some scholars in the future.

What we really need is better text entry systems that let us type easily, fast, and not require a bog keyboard.

I am much faster on a full keyboard than my phone, but have my phone more than a full keyboard. where is my futuristic data entry tool to revolutionize everything. I'm thinking neural interface of some kind. I want my future now!

 

[Milo013]

I keep getting told to sign with a legible signature and it tilts me every time especially when I am told not to print. So can I have more than one legal signature?

I work in a warehouse shipping HAZMAT. The law requires that the paperwork be signed, but also PRINTED in order to easily determine who is responsible for "offering for transport" and "accepting for transport". Amazing the number of allegedly trained drivers who look at you cross-eyed when you tell them to PRINT their names on the shipping docs.

 

[texasrambler]

- - - - - - - - - Updated - - - - - - - - -

Did any of you guys have 'running writing' at school?

I recall back in primary school we were taught cursive and then 1 year they said that cursive was out and that we were now taught running writing which was a bit of a hybrid of cursive and printing.

I think it only lasted a year or 2 and then it was ditched and we were back to cursive.

This would have been early 80's

About the same time we had something they called "the new cursive" , see image. after a few years it was cancelled. I am one from this generation who did not learn cursive at the right time cause of this. Other than that I appreciate beautiful hand writing. It's a skill I wish I had.

 

[Bradcorn]

The band cursive is horrible!? No way in hell...

sure they peaked over a decade ago but "the ugly organ" is a masterpiece and Tim Kasher has been a hugely positive influence on music.

Domestica is very good as well. New albums I'm not in love with but "what have I done" is a great great song from mama I'm swollen

 

[Chicken Rob]

One of the worst covers in the series at AV club:

[video]http://www.avclub.com/video/cursive-covers-starship-38867[/video]

 

[jbutler]

I had the displeasure of seeing them live at least half a dozen times through unfortunate double bills or opening slots. The AV Club clip above is on par with the quality I saw when I saw them in the early to mid 2000s. Just terrible.

 

[Bradcorn]

Don't care much about a cover. Give "the ugly organ" a try. It's weird and beautiful and iconic


[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vBr6p9uy4Z4[/video]

 

[BGinGA]

Holy crap, TTIWWP. So thank you, texasrambler.

I'm more pissed that "Script" isn't a font option for posts than anything.

 

[Nickawompus]

I went to Catholic grammar school where the nuns taught me perfect cursive and a fear of all things black robed.
My signature has steadily degraded to barely recognizable. I mostly use swipe these days.

 

[Poker Zombie]

I am stunned by those that support cursive because of it's note taking abilities. When I was in school, I had to learn "shorthand". This primitive form of hieroglyphics was speedy for taking notes to be retyped later. Even though shorthand was taught the same, every user eventually developed their own style, because shorthand needs only be legible by one person.

Cursive is important for knowing the basic idea of how to sign your name, but it is really nothing more today than a more formalized form of shorthand. Someone reading my signature is really looking at little more than a few key letters and some squiggles that I assume to be the right number or length for the missing letters. Me signature on a digital credit card checkout thingy is even more of a joke. It is shorthand at it's best. something that I can say "yep, that was me".

Cursive needs to be taught, or bring shorthand back. After that, I've seen people type or even text way faster than I've ever seen anyone write. They don't need to spend insane amounts of time on it though when knowing your way around a keyboard is far more important than groovy penmanship, and typing was an elective class when I was growing up.

I'd rather have is a class in captcha instead.

 

[Shanghai Sparky]

I tend to use more printing since it can be read easier by others. I have to submit many requests at work and not all can by emailed. I can now print just about as quickly as cursive.
OTOH: my mother used to have the prettiest cursive I ever saw.

 

[tommythecat]

I'd rather have is a class in captcha instead.

No need for the captcha class...google will not be using it anymore so it will go the way of the dodo bird.

 

[Poker Zombie]

It's not usually Google's captcha that irks me. It's Ticketmaster. By the time I get the right code, I'm sitting so far back that I was actually closer while sitting in the parking lot.