4 ms·

Sure, but does the improved speed increase learning and retention speed? There's additional time spent to learn and master cursive. If that's the only purpose,

by pfranz 4y ago

Sure, but does the improved speed increase learning and retention speed? There's additional time spent to learn and master cursive. If that's the only purpose, would that time be better spent elsewhere? From the Boomers, Gen-X, and Millennials I know who were taught cursive in school very few use it for note-taking. It seems like a huge waste if the only reason for teaching it has failed multiple generations already.

tsimionescu 4y ago
I'm 30-ish and not from the USA, but all of my generation has been taught cursive and used it all the way through college - even though I went to a computer engineering college. Some people's handwriting was using some more print letters (for example, I mostly use print capitals, but cursive for the small letters, with some exceptions such as y or x).
- pfranz 4y ago
  From what I've seen, at least from 2000 forward in the US it was mostly expected that assignments would be typed and printed in high school/college. A lot of the length requirements specified it (times new roman, size 12, single space, one page). I imagine it was because of access (the colleges I know of had a computer lab), formality, and avoiding back-and-forth over legibility. After leaving college and not needing to write much after a decade or two, its jarring enough to get used to writing in block script.
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    I've expressed this in other places in this thread as well, but I just don't understand how you can turn in assignments in anything mathy (math, physics, chemistry) or diagram/table-heavy (biology, logic) in typed form. Even with tools like LaTeX or modern Word it takes so much longer than writing by hand... I can at least understand the idea of writing printed characters by hand - the difference between that and cursive isn't that large, and is non-existent for the above. But to forego handwriting entirely doesn't seem plausible to me, in these subjects at least.
    - pfranz 4y ago
      My school years are pretty far behind me. Sure, math classes would be handwritten, but in college that's not a large number of people or a large number of classes. It's also mostly numbers. So I'm not sure how it applies to cursive. The little bit of cursive needed for formulas could really be picked up on the fly. I don't think I've heard anyone advocate for getting rid of handwriting. All I'm saying is I got very out of practice after leaving school. In school handwriting was almost exclusively for personal use. I toyed with digital note-taking at the time and realized it was terrible. > the difference between that and cursive isn't that large :shrug: Like I said above, the three or so generations I've seen in the US got a couple years of cursive, never saw the value in maintaining it on their own and got very out of practice. The distinction is strong enough that decades old references stick around in my head [1]. A lot of people live with terrible block handwriting. I took an online class and started handwriting notices and realized how out of practice I was with block writing because of how illegible it was and how soon my hand started cramping. I never got comfortable enough with cursive to be faster and/or more legible than block handwriting. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wguuKpRJRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wguuKpRJRE
- zarzavat 4y ago
  I think this is a jam/jelly situation. American “cursive” is what is known in other countries as script. It’s the kind of thing you might learn on a calligraphy course. Although there is overlap, it’s not the same as e.g. what in the UK is known as “handwriting” which is writing with the letters joined together explicitly for the purpose of comfort and efficiency with zero aesthetic intent. At least for me, though I believe the majority of the UK would agree, handwriting (“cursive”) is what I use in daily life, e.g. writing a shopping list, and that print is reserved for whenever I want to be neat and formal and have others understand my handwriting - but it’s kind of a chore to write.
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    I believe that the handwriting I and my generation at least were taught in school is quite close to US cursive - we had special notebooks teaching us how to "properly" draw the letters, and had several classes where we were graded on our penmanship. The details of some letters will definitely differ, but the script was definitely far from print letters [0]. Now, in later classes, especially in middle and high-school, developing your own handwriting style was common and not problematic - and many, including myself, adopted some print letters while still using many cursive ones as well. [0] https://www.suntparinte.ro/uploads/resource/59/23/12//litere_de_mana.jpg https://www.suntparinte.ro/uploads/resource/59/23/12//litere...

by pfranz 4y ago

tsimionescu 4y ago

I'm 30-ish and not from the USA, but all of my generation has been taught cursive and used it all the way through college - even though I went to a computer engineering college. Some people's handwriting was using some more print letters (for example, I mostly use print capitals, but cursive for the small letters, with some exceptions such as y or x).

pfranz 4y ago
From what I've seen, at least from 2000 forward in the US it was mostly expected that assignments would be typed and printed in high school/college. A lot of the length requirements specified it (times new roman, size 12, single space, one page). I imagine it was because of access (the colleges I know of had a computer lab), formality, and avoiding back-and-forth over legibility. After leaving college and not needing to write much after a decade or two, its jarring enough to get used to writing in block script.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  I've expressed this in other places in this thread as well, but I just don't understand how you can turn in assignments in anything mathy (math, physics, chemistry) or diagram/table-heavy (biology, logic) in typed form. Even with tools like LaTeX or modern Word it takes so much longer than writing by hand... I can at least understand the idea of writing printed characters by hand - the difference between that and cursive isn't that large, and is non-existent for the above. But to forego handwriting entirely doesn't seem plausible to me, in these subjects at least.
  - pfranz 4y ago
    My school years are pretty far behind me. Sure, math classes would be handwritten, but in college that's not a large number of people or a large number of classes. It's also mostly numbers. So I'm not sure how it applies to cursive. The little bit of cursive needed for formulas could really be picked up on the fly. I don't think I've heard anyone advocate for getting rid of handwriting. All I'm saying is I got very out of practice after leaving school. In school handwriting was almost exclusively for personal use. I toyed with digital note-taking at the time and realized it was terrible. > the difference between that and cursive isn't that large :shrug: Like I said above, the three or so generations I've seen in the US got a couple years of cursive, never saw the value in maintaining it on their own and got very out of practice. The distinction is strong enough that decades old references stick around in my head [1]. A lot of people live with terrible block handwriting. I took an online class and started handwriting notices and realized how out of practice I was with block writing because of how illegible it was and how soon my hand started cramping. I never got comfortable enough with cursive to be faster and/or more legible than block handwriting. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wguuKpRJRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wguuKpRJRE
zarzavat 4y ago
I think this is a jam/jelly situation. American “cursive” is what is known in other countries as script. It’s the kind of thing you might learn on a calligraphy course. Although there is overlap, it’s not the same as e.g. what in the UK is known as “handwriting” which is writing with the letters joined together explicitly for the purpose of comfort and efficiency with zero aesthetic intent. At least for me, though I believe the majority of the UK would agree, handwriting (“cursive”) is what I use in daily life, e.g. writing a shopping list, and that print is reserved for whenever I want to be neat and formal and have others understand my handwriting - but it’s kind of a chore to write.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  I believe that the handwriting I and my generation at least were taught in school is quite close to US cursive - we had special notebooks teaching us how to "properly" draw the letters, and had several classes where we were graded on our penmanship. The details of some letters will definitely differ, but the script was definitely far from print letters [0]. Now, in later classes, especially in middle and high-school, developing your own handwriting style was common and not problematic - and many, including myself, adopted some print letters while still using many cursive ones as well. [0] https://www.suntparinte.ro/uploads/resource/59/23/12//litere_de_mana.jpg https://www.suntparinte.ro/uploads/resource/59/23/12//litere...