Do You Write Cursive Anymore?
Childhood, Fun September 30th, 2009Is cursive handwriting dead?
Ah, I remember fondly learning how to write cursive in grade school. My teacher used a funky metal contraption that held three pieces of chalk in alignment and then she dragged it across the blackboard to prepare for our lessons.
The first step produced this:
The second step was to go back and erase part of the middle line to form dashes. This way, you learned where your lower and upper case cursive writing went in relation to the dotted line.
I barely write in cursive anymore, mostly because most everything I write, save grocery lists, is on a PC.
When I do, something strange happens. I tend to mix printed letters with cursive ones. Why? No idea.
Here’s an example:
I don’t know if schools even teach cursive writing anymore. If you have kids in grade school, do they come home with practice lessons in handwriting? Someone please tell me it’s not dead yet.
So, other than signing your name on paperwork, do you write cursive anymore?
Stumble it!
September 30th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Cursive is dying, but it’s not dead yet. My daughter studied cursive in elementary school, but once they move to middle school they no longer have time for it. I think it is one of the first things to go when schools are tight on time.
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September 30th, 2009 at 7:11 am
My seven year old grandson does write in cursive. When his 42 year old Mom started writing in cursive, I’d not heard of it. We called it ‘writing’ way back in the dark ages.
It went with ‘reading’ and ‘arithmetic’.
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September 30th, 2009 at 7:30 am
I use a combination of manuscript & cursive, like you. The days of the carefully penned personal note are sadly numbered. Computers have seen to that. I’m still impressed by an elegant script, though.
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September 30th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I do, because I keep a journal, a real journal in one of those two dollar pebble-grain composition books. I also have a fountain pen and a couple of regular pen pals that I write actual letters to.
I find it sad that they aren’t teaching it anymore; when we stopped forming letters with care, we stopped forming words with care. And sentences. Now everyone writes like a brain-damaged serial texter.
And that makes me crabby.
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September 30th, 2009 at 7:46 am
I do still write cursive though not very often. I write notes in cards using cursive. If I’m jotting a note (looking around my desk) to myself I use cursive. Kids still have to learn it in school so they haven’t lost that knowledge…yet!
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September 30th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Finally! A chance to tell the worlds I won a penmanship contest in 5th grade!
But these days, it’s a different story. I try to avoid writing by hand completely, but when I must, it’s a weird hybrid of print, cursive, and Arabic. I can usually decipher it, but no one else can. Which makes me some kind of awesome top-secret code writer!
Where’s my award?!
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September 30th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Like you, I mix cursive and print, but I lean toward the print side of things. It’s actually a shorthand version of calligraphy lettering I learned in high school. My husband, who’s dyslexic and cannot read cursive, can read it so that’s a good thing. Printing is par for the course in my work environment (engineering) because cursive is impractical.
I sign my name in cursive and that’s about the extent I use it. They still taught my daughter, now fifteen, cursive when she was in gradeschool. I have yet to see if the same will go for the younger two.
I don’t miss cursive.
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September 30th, 2009 at 7:53 am
It’s dead, and it’s my fault. If you ever saw my cursive, you would know that I killed it years ago.
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September 30th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Cursive writing may very well be dying, especially if you had to interpret the cursive notes doctors and dentists write in patient charts and other general writings I’m more inclined to call chicken scratch.
Even though my kids learned how to write in cursive in school and have beautiful penmanship, they write in much the same way as you do, a mixture of cursive and printed letters.
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September 30th, 2009 at 8:23 am
My handwriting has morphed into a weird combo of print and cursive, too. I used to take such care with it, and try to make it look nice, but now it’s just dreadful. It takes me ages to write anything so that someone else can actually read it.
Learning cursive was a nightmare for me–for some reason, I could only write the capital letter “S” backwards. And my first name starts with “S”, so I got a LOT of bad grades in handwriting. It left me with a lifelong hatred of that brown paper with the wide blue lines that we used to practice our cursive.
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September 30th, 2009 at 8:29 am
I don’t think it’s dying. I can remember this being said back when I was in elementary learning cursive. For as long as I can remember, most teens to adults wrote in some hybrid of cursive and print. Which is what I do now as well. I think it’s still important to teach the kids to write in cursive. They learn how to do it properly and then as they get older, their handwriting style develops into their own but it’s still important to have the basics.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Cursive is not dead, at least not in Catholic schools. My sons both learned Palmer Method handwriting from the fine IHM sisters at school and they had a handwriting workbook that was graded monthly. I still remember the special chalk holder you wrote about — it held up to 5 pieces of chalk, so the Music teacher could use it to draw measures.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:16 am
I don’t write cursive… I tried to write it several times before but I was not comfortable with it.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Connor and I just discussed this not too long ago. Evidently, they teach ‘em cursive in elementary and give up on it by middle school. What you see is what you get. Most ppl I know have their own unique combo of cursive, print and chickenscratch.
More days than not, my hand simply won’t respond properly…so it’s more of the chickenscratch.
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September 30th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I guess it’s kind of official, we now tend to write in a combination of cursive and print. My handwriting used to be very nice, even got compliments on it, but now, all these years of typing, I usually write so fast that it is illegible. Another bit of elegance and gentility down the tubes.
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September 30th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I have the worst handwriting in the history of the written word. It is, yes, a mix of cursive and print because I have had to take notes quickly and there’s no time for quality control.
As a result, I have written notes that I myself cannot read.
I have actually had to go to one of my coworkers, who had eerily similar bad handwriting and ask, “So, if you had written this, what would you think this said?”
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September 30th, 2009 at 9:45 am
My daughter is in first grade so still working on printing but they still have the chalk contraption. I know my son can write in cursive but he does everything on a PC so never uses it. His handwriting is atrocious. My cursive writing is also a hybrid of printing and cursive letters, it all depends on where the next letter starts and where the last one stopped. If I try really hard it is legible. Interestingly when I changed my name back to my maiden name after my divorce, both times, my signature remains the same. My last name is nothing like my ex husbands nor is their last name anything alike, but yet my signature looks the same. It’s illegible but does that really matter?
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September 30th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I usually print. My third-grader is learning cursive. It’s the bane of his existence.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I do write cursive when I get the chance. I love to use a pencil when writing for some reason.
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September 30th, 2009 at 10:12 am
OMG, we had the same things on the board that you did Kathy. It must have been a Catholic school, Palmer method thing.Those nuns drilled it in to us. I remember practicing the circles and lines with my grandfather who had the most beautiful handwriting.
Now, once in a while, I do write in cursive, but it is infrequent, when I do thank you notes or other personal notes.
And they do teach cursive in Catholic school now anyway, but it isn’t Palmer method and, based on the handwriting of my two kids, it doesn’t work. AT ALL.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Our school teaches the basics in 3rd grade, but parents are told that practice must take place at home because they don’t have time in school.
By 4th grade it’s assumed that they have magically learned cursive because it’s required for certain assignments.
By 5th grade most of those assignments are done on computer. (probably because no one could read the 4th grade ones!)
September 30th, 2009 at 10:26 am
My grandchildren were taught cursive in elementary. But, they are both in middle school now. There are a lot of memories in those images.
I too also combine printing with cursive. Once, my hand writing was quite neat, legible and yes even a little pretty.
Then college hit, with a ton of notes, scratched down as fast as possible and now my writing is terrible.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I used to have the nicest cursive handwriting. But now my handwriting looks like chicken scratch because I’m on the computer all the time. It’s kind of sad.
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September 30th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I’m not really ‘in touch’ with what goes on at schools anymore but I know that my 17 year old *whispers* great niece has good handwriting. She wrote a story a couple of years ago and it was all written on paper, with a real pen. As to my handwriting being cursive, I doubt it. We were taught ‘handwriting’ when I was at school. I do use print (we call ‘capitals’) for capital letters though.
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September 30th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Oh yes, the three-pieces-of-chalk device…like the chalk compass for circles, the fresh smell of “copies” from our youth, and the taste of Elmer’s glue. Ahhh, memories…
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September 30th, 2009 at 10:59 am
My 9 year old nephew writes cursive. His mother The Hag makes him practice it every night or no riding his bike.
I also used a mimeograph with stencils and had blue fingers, if you must know. And my shorthand speed was second to none in my class. And I remember when a fax machine was a Facsimile Machine with a big old noisy cylinder. I used that, too.
:sigh:
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September 30th, 2009 at 11:05 am
When my Mommeh tries to write something in cursive, it looks like a 3rd grader wrote it! Oh, and she is left-handed so most of her writing ends up all smeary anyway.
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September 30th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I do write cursive but I think the quality is degrading – like you I mix the two styles. I remember my grandmother’s beautiful handwriting and see how different mine is. I noticed the lovely, flowery writing of the French when we visited France also.
September 30th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
It’s interesting, they had an editorial in the NY Times about this a few weeks ago.
I really happen to effectively write the italics they’re talking about here.
Wikipedia also had an interesting article on cursive indicating it went back to before the Norman Conquest. Slick.
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September 30th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
It seems everyone now mixes the printed with the cursive, but they are still teaching it to our grandkids.
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September 30th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Another interesting link from the bottom of the Wikipedia article.
.-= Stephanie Barr´s last blog ..So, Where’s the Line? =-.
September 30th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I went to Catholic School. In the mid 60ies. Need more be said? My rebellion was my handwriting. It is NOT Palmer Perfect.
I do still write cursive. With a fountain pen. I guess I am old school. But then again, I am an old goat.
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September 30th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I also mix cursive and print now, and I write quickly. But yes – oh, yes, they taught cursive back when I was in grade school. And my first grade teacher HATED me using my left hand to write. My mother had to go have a special meeting with her to convince the teacher to just let me be a lefty already!
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September 30th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I’ll be honest enough to admit that my own cursive is so out of practice and horribly malformed that I only ever use cursive writing for my signature, which is all but unintelligible. I print everything.
However, I’m determined that I’m going to do my best to relearn when my son gets to that point in school, provided that they haven’t phased out handwriting altogether.
Whether cursive or not, I’m convinced that handwriting is a vital skill that must not be cast aside in our mad dash towards all things digital. Note-taking by hand is a cognitive experience that note-taking on a keyboard can’t touch. Certainly, I value keyboarding as a skill, but not at the expense of handwriting.
I’m holding out hope that the rumored Apple tablet PC may yet be handwriting’s saving grace.
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September 30th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Not usually. I find printing faster.
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September 30th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I used to get really good marks in penmanship. Now, I am in such a hurry when taking notes at meetings, I use a combo of abbreviated words and shorthand – that only I can understand but it has a 4 hour shelf life. So, I type it up in a hurry so that I don’t forget what I wrote. Only 5 yrs, 1 month and 10 days til retirement and I won’t have to worry about this stuff anymore – sheesh !
September 30th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
I had to write in cursive when I was in 4th grade. I either learned in 3rd or 4th grade.
But we don’t have to anymore unless we want to. Which I don’t.
September 30th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
I, like you, have reverted to a half print/half cursive ‘personal style’ of writing. But I distinctly remember the three chalk holder and having my second grade teacher climb up my hind end like a parasite until I got all my letters super-neat and properly formed both in shape and size. As far as I know, my daughter, who is now in 6th grade, learned cursive, but there was no real emphasis on it like we went through.
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September 30th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
It’s only marginally taught in schools because of the focus on accountability in language arts and math. It’s dying.
Funny, like you, I also write in sort of a hybrid cursive/printing style. Go figure.
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September 30th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I can’t even write with a pen anymore. My hand cramps up and my results are a strange scribbley mess that looks like I was having an epileptic seizure while writing with my left hand. I’m pretty sure it was the hand-written thank-you notes that cost me my last job opportunity.
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September 30th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I only write cursive when I’m writing an excuse note for my sons’ school. What am I thinking? That parents get a grade for penmanship?!? Or that they’ll send the note back with mistakes circled with red pen?
It’s true, though. Those excuse notes have me writing perfect cursive… (I’m so neurotic.)
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September 30th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
We all see 100% perfect cursive often…….in …….Fonts only though …..like “Lucida handwriting” etc.
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September 30th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
EVERYONE: Thanks for all your responses! It’s interesting to me that most of us really don’t write cursive anymore, more like a combination of printing and “the Palmer method.” All except for Shieldmaiden, who’s clearly in love with her writing implements. Kudos!
September 30th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Hi Kathy,
Penmanship was my favorite class in grade school. To this day I still enjoy writing cursive, but also combine it with printing. Because I keep journals and love to take notes for my blogs, I use it quite regularly.
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September 30th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Yes, they still teach cursive writing. My 8 year old is as proud as a peacock that he’s learning how to right like a “grown up”. Little does he realize that by the time he’s an adult…he won’t care. I write just like you mentioned…print mixed with cursive..mixed with a lot of chicken scratch.
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September 30th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I write cursive in my journal. How do you do an uppercase “Q” again?
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September 30th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Although I’m on the computer daily, I also write cursive every day too. My son will be learning it next year in school although we’ve taught him a few things already. My husband also write cursive on a daily basis.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Oh, I love cursive writing–but then again, I like hand-written letters too. I think they they still teach cursive, but it doesn’t seem to be as intensive as it was when we were kids. Gees, I loved all those loops on the chalkboard. And my teacher had a metal chalk holder so her fingers didn’t get all chalky–I thought that was cool. Ok, so I’m easily impressed.
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September 30th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Like you, I tend to do a mix of cursive and printing. I can still use formal cursive writing when I need to, it just takes more time and effort.
Sadly (and much to my surprise), my 13-year-old nephew was never taught in school how to write or read cursive. I weep for the future.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Very ironic I just read this article. I started studying for a certification and taking notes. I can’t read my handwriting at all. Plus, I do this thing where I print half my words and use cursive on the other half. I did some research and like 80% of adults do this so that made me feel a tad better. After 4 weeks of studying my handwriting is getting legible. BUT – it will never be as nice as 5rd grade. I checked out my 5th grade handwriting – clear as day and a solid A.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Cursive Writing is alive and well. I have my suspicions about “Reading” and “‘Rithmetic,” however, especially judging by the content rolling out of those brick-laid prison camps every graduation season…
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September 30th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
I do the same thing as you, write a weird hybrid of cursive and printing. And I totally remember the three chalk piece contraption that drew 3 lines. Also? My band teacher had one that held FIVE chalk sticks to write music notes.
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September 30th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
My did you bring back memories for me! But I do believe it is dying, but it is not as important since in 21sst century it is all about the the tech.
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September 30th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
If it’s not dead it’s getting there. My husband and I were just talking about this the other day. Our experiences with third grade teachers scaring the crap out of us by telling the entire class that if we didn’t learn perfect penmanship we could not survive in the “real world.” lol
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September 30th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Well, it’s not dying here in Vietnam. They just died!
The truth is, Children are permit to chose between cursive and computer. The result? I don’t need to tell you anymore.
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September 30th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
You were suppose to learn cursive in the 1st grade.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I wrote a paper in sixth grade and my teacher wrote, “Chris, thank you for typing this!” Yes, that’s how bad my penmanship is/was.
I have noticed that my mom, aunts, Grandmother, all pretty much have the same writing. Maybe the nuns in school forced them to, or maybe girls weren’t allowed to take shop class like I was and had more time on their hands to perfect having identical penmanship to one another? Oh yes, they seem to write with supreme knowledge of the invisible lines.
For myself, I too write with a print/cursive combo. My parents thought I missed my calling as a doctor.
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September 30th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Most people I know use the manuscript/cursive combination to write, including myself. Grandma, however, is real old school and writes in precise and meticulous cursive.
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October 1st, 2009 at 12:32 am
I wish I can write like that, my penmanship is not was it used to back in high school were we always write and take down notes, while today I can only manage to write some simply list notes and reminders. Always typing and using the keyboard.
October 1st, 2009 at 12:59 am
Back in my early twenties I was taking some intense Architecture classes when one day I realized I had totally LOST all my cursives… Everything I could lay my hands on was in Block Caps, irritatingly legible but with nary a dashed-line required anywhere. Of course I immediately over-compensated, by throwing a couple of long tailed swhooshes and a slashing cross bar or two into my signature — but gleeful writhing (heh) has no longer been part of my repertoire… And nowadays, most people seem to start to cramp up if they write more than a sentence or two — those keyboards just don’t use the same muscles. Ah, well.
October 1st, 2009 at 2:04 am
My 10 year old is learning it in 5th grade (instead of the 3rd like I did), and THANK GOD. Kid has some really atrocious writing skillz. I taught basics to him last year, but they’re “formally” spending a whole semester on it.
Of course, I have bigger issues to fry there…mainly it’s 2009 and his teachers STILL try and want to make him right handed.
I write in an annoyingly, non-gender specific, cursive myself. I am a freelance writer (yay to quitting telemarketing!) and I write maybe 20% of everything long hand. The fact that you can read it clearly is neither here nor there, I hold my paper at a 90 degree angle to write, and modern technology has rendered my whole name (of which I write Elaina Quackenbush on teeny tiny little lines really well)practically looking like “~~~{}~~” (Eh it’s a squiggle with a deformed Q) because the stupid machines don’t move.
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October 1st, 2009 at 3:58 am
Damnation Kathy! This is the perfect post for my place. (bows and twirls hand in a circle) Kudos to you, fine lady, for exhibiting superior creative ideas.
Yeah, my kids are learning cursive.
At our school they learn D’nealian handwriting which is printing that is slanted to the right and has tails on the end of letters like i, a, l, h, etc. the curl up to the right. You can Google it to see what I’m talkin’ ’bout.
The idea is that it sort of introduces the kids, while they’re learning to print, to the idea of cursive. With those tails they will later learn how to connect the letters without lifting the pencil. Does that make sense?
So my first grader is printing in that way and my fourth grader is writing in cursive but still prints using the D’nealian method.
Gah, who knew how complicated writing could become? I have a hybrid of writing and printing. It’s sort of stilted with lots of breaks between letters and then a string of letters that are cursive.
It’s my standard.
Oh yeah, they actually have a course of study in school called Handwriting, just like they have Math and Science.
Lastly I almost got whiplash when I was swooshed back to the past with that metal contraption that held the chalk. My teacher had only two spots for chalk and then filled in the dotted line by hand.
No eraser for Miss Allen (learned cursive in second grade by an old lady with a cane and pumps. Way to go Miss Allen for wearing the stylish pumps while trottin’ about with a cane.)
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October 1st, 2009 at 8:48 am
My son’s being taught cursive in 2nd grade, and a lot of the parents are upset because they think it’s a waste of time. Personally, I always write cursive. It’s faster.
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October 1st, 2009 at 11:22 am
I also found myself mixing printed and cursive. I’m only responding because just the other day my fingers seemed not to remember how to write neatly. Agreeably, the chicken scratch used for list and whatnot are becoming harder and harder to read. Lol
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October 1st, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I write in print, except for when they MAKE me write in cursive at work.
Actually, like you, I tend to mix print and cursive letters together when I write.
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October 1st, 2009 at 1:26 pm
hi Kathy,
I remember that funky metal thing that held three pieces of chalk… ah, the memories…
I’m going to guess that kids these days don’t learn cursive because they are too busy learning how to set up individual ring tones and songs on their cell phones for each of their friends’ phone numbers.
Oops, am I being a bit crotchety?
~ Steve, the crotchety trade show guru
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October 1st, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I don’t write in cursive anymore, but I talk in cursive all the time. Gets me in a lot of trouble at churches and restaurants, but seems to be acceptable at the hockey rink.
October 1st, 2009 at 2:08 pm
My kids learned cursive. Grade Three, I think. As far as I know, it’s very alive. Not sure where I’ve heard about it dying, but I have, but I don’t know where that’s happening.
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October 1st, 2009 at 2:46 pm
They just talked about this on NPR. Evidently it is being introduced but not propagated beyond the grade it is initially taught. The reason? Individuals today communicate to others by digital means. Handwriting is seen as something that one does for one’s self (notes/journals/etc.)and not shared.
October 1st, 2009 at 2:49 pm
My handwriting is a total travesty.
-It’s so bad and I was so self-conscious, I never even wrote a letter until I got my first PC (with spellcheck).
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October 1st, 2009 at 3:47 pm
The Woman never had pretty cursive but it has really gotten much much worse. If she has to take a pen in hand, she prints. That’s what she calls it anyway. Great question and she will be thrilled to know it isn’t just another of her own quirks.
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October 1st, 2009 at 3:54 pm
The last time I wrote in cursive writing was as a law clerk, and I only did that because my boss would go to bat to get the solicitors laptops, even though they never wrote a darn thing, but he wouldn’t do the same for me, and that’s all I did. I’d start out each motion hearing with pretty cursive writing, but by the end of each hearing it would turn into this part cursive, part print, part alien scribble that I couldn’t even read weeks later when I went back to the type the order on the motion. I think that job ruined my handwriting forever.
Otherwise, I’m like you. Except for grocery lists and the one check I write every month (everything else is bill pay), I type everything I write.
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October 1st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Believe it or not my boys had to learn cursive in elementary school although on a much smaller scale than I did. They attend a charter school, and the teachers and administrators are more traditionalists than anything else so that might have something to do with it. They have homework everyday, tests every week and must follow strict rules of conduct while in school…they are being educated! Thank God for tradition…I have seen the alternative..and I don’t like it.
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October 1st, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I mix printing and cursive, too!
So it must be a sign of intelligence, huh?
; )
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October 2nd, 2009 at 3:29 am
I was taught to write cursive, but I don’t think we called it that at the time .. can’t remember what we did call it though. We didn’t have to make our own lines, we had little books with ready made practice lines in them, and examples of script. We had practice patterns too, which I loved.
Nowadays the children over here aren’t taught cursive. It’s considered restrictive and inhibiting, but I’m not sure I agree. We weren’t forced into moulds as such, just taught to write legibly and nicely. My handwriting has deteriorated badly, but I can still write cursive if I take the trouble. Otherwise, yes, a mix of print, cursive and just plain scrawl!
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:04 am
EVERYONE: Hey, thanks for all your comments! I had no idea this post would generate so many memories of learning how to write, nor did I think so many of us had less than stellar handwriting. As the nuns used to always say, “It’s atrocious!”
Not sure I’ll have a post up today or tomorrow. Headed out today for a roadtrip with my sister to upstate New York. Will I get a post out of it? Only if we get lost. But we have our trusty GPS, so what could happen?
Have a great weekend, everyone!
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 am
I think i’ve never used the cursive in handwriting.Not even in school.
Well, nowadays I write mostly in PCs, so sometimes I use the cursive in a word or a sentence.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:10 am
Not much, anymore. And the first thing I thought of when I saw your blog title was, “I mix print and cursive.” Although my handwriting in whatever form is quite awful. Yours is very nice!
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October 2nd, 2009 at 7:20 am
Very interesting post. I don’t write much by hand at all these days, everything is typed. Even grocery lists are typed. When I do write, it is a mix of cursive and regular print. I tend to write th together in cursive and the letter e and a. The rest are usually in regular print. I wouldn’t know if they teach it in schools anymore, though. I’d be interested to know!
.-= Sara Bonds @ Ordinary and Awesome´s last blog ..Friday’s Freewrite =-.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:38 am
American kids better still be learning cursive — My 4th grade Thai students in Bangkok are learning it in the English as a Foreign Language class I teach here.
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October 2nd, 2009 at 7:54 am
I almost never use cursive. I have the worst handwriting, that I need to hand print anything I write. If I can I always use the computer and then print out anything that need to be read. Because, I have a hard time reading my own hand writing.
When I went to school we called it script. I remember coming home and telling my parents that I was learning script and they had no idea what I was talking about. Because they call it cursive.
.-= Staci´s last blog ..Patterns For Sale =-.
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:49 am
I do not think cursive writing is dead. I think eventually, cursive writing will become the anti-establishment of the writing world.
Not long ago, I had an interesting debate with a poet friend of mine: she insisted that I should write my stories in pen; I disagreed, noting that it is generally easier for me to quickly get my ideas/thoughts out by typing by virtue of the fact I type very quickly. But my poet friend thinks that writing by hand – cursive or block lettering – lends itself to better writing.
But then again, she is a poet and I am not. And frankly, I get hand cramps after signing my name to a contract, for example.
Someday, cursive writing will make a big return, albeit online.
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October 2nd, 2009 at 10:33 am
I remember my 4th grade meanest teacher ever had one of those chalk holding things too. It was pretty cool, I thought. She was so critical when it came to handwriting and no matter how hard I tried to do it write, she’d give me a “D” or an “F.” (She just didn’t ever like me because our move got held up and we started in her class mid-year, and in her mind, were so far behind.) Anyhow, today I write very small and sloppy because of her. She’d say once you get out of my class, then you can write any way you want, so I have!
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October 2nd, 2009 at 10:54 am
My hands are cramped, useless things and when I do have to write it hurts. I am embarrassed whenever I have to send a note into my kid’s school but then I figure well maybe they’ll write his bad handwriting off as a genetic condition.
I write a mixture of cursive and print and randomly skip some letters and start one word before finishing the other.
I also have this weird thing where I hook my hand and hold my pencil the same way lefties do, but I’m a righty. I’ve been told that means I am right brain dominant in language even though I am right handed (and am worse than useless with my left hand). This might explain why my composition is of the unusual grammar and I like funky chickens butter steam train.
I think they teach cursive in 3rd grade around here.
And not really trying to pimp my own blog, but my post of the comment luv has an example of my handwriting.
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October 2nd, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I remember that contraption. Yes, they still teach cursive writing in schools, but not like they used to. Now it’s taught in third grade. I think I remember learning it in 5th or 6th.
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October 2nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I cant read my own handwriting anymore, so I usually type everything. My son on the other hand – has FABULOUS penmanship and his cursive is perfect!
.-= meleah rebeccah´s last blog ..Just Because… =-.
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Not only do I know how to write in cursive, it is all I ever write in. I’m 16. Most students at my school cannot write cursive, let alone read it. When I was in 2nd grade they did teach us cursive, and I know my younger siblings have learned it.
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Our Mom learned cursive in Catholic school. They drummed penmanship into her. When she went back to work a couple of years ago, her handwriting was awful because she had gotten out of the habit of using cursive. She’s better now (but not by much!).
Sniffie and the Florida Furkids
.-= Sniffie and the Florida Furkids´s last blog ..Friends on Friday – Ellie likes Tula =-.
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:28 pm
I have thought about this lately. When I do write it’s usually a hybrid of cursive and printing. If I write for very long my wrist get tired. It would be a shame if we did, ever, lose this skill. My writing is also much less readable then it use to be.
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October 3rd, 2009 at 2:39 am
I write in cursive all the time…only it’s only legible to my accustom eyes. I’ve written entire novels in longhand cursive, then transferred them into a word doc…and then edited them again using cursive…and so on and so forth…
peace,
mike
livelife365
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October 3rd, 2009 at 10:03 am
If what you want to call my chicken scratch cursive, sure, I still use it. Not well, mind you, but I use it.
.-= unfinishedrambler´s last blog ..Down the rabbit hole =-.
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:43 pm
When I do have to write it’s cursive. It’s almost as unreadable as my printing. My husband tops that though, he was once asked if he wrote a paper for class with a fork.
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October 3rd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I do still write cursive, when I do pick up a pen. Most of my writing is done with my fingertips as I type, though.
October 4th, 2009 at 12:13 am
I do the exact same thing!
One day I was teaching my boys how to write in English and they said- “Mom you’re doing it wrongly. You’re mixing the letters up.” LOL
But since most of the time I’m typing I can get by…. hee hee.
All the best,
Eren
.-= Eren Mckay´s last blog ..Ways to get closer to God meditate on Who He is =-.
October 4th, 2009 at 6:00 am
I have not written in cursive other than my signature since I entered the 10th grade. All of my friends printed in capital letters.
I came to find out that the reason they did this was when the teacher would collect our in class tests, she would then pass them back to us randomly to grade. Not that I followed that line of thinking but once I got into the habit I found it easier to keep it.
If one of them got the others paper, they would change the answer…
To this day, I still only write in capital letters…
- Joby
October 4th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
My 13 year old studied cursive for a while in school. However, he writes like me all the time —-> everything in capital letters. He is in 8th grade and the teachers accept it. However, if you saw his cursive, you would also decide that his capital letter printing is at least legible!
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October 4th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I use cursive ususally to sign my name. Other than that, it is printing/cursive mixture….
October 4th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I love writing in cursive but where I grew up they didn’t call it cursive, it was just writing. There was printing and writing. When we moved and I first heard it called “cursive” it sounded to much like “curse word” and I was embarrassed to say it.
.-= Elizabeth´s last blog .. =-.
October 4th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Nope. I dictate everything or type it. My handwriting sucks.
October 4th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
My son is learning how to write in cursive at school now and I am like “why bother?” – it’s not only hard to read, but anymore most of the writing people do is filling out forms where your print. Maybe I am a little too dependent on my laptop, but these days I type more than I write if at all. If I do write, it is barely legible. Me writing my husband a grocery list to the grocery store can sometimes be disastrous, lol.
.-= Chelle´s last blog ..The Meaning of Living Simply =-.
October 4th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I do the same thing with the cursive-mix-printing thing. I don’t know why either. They don’t actually work that hard on the cursive thing in school. Either way, my son’s penmanship is CRAP and needs some work all the way around. UGH!! It will be a lost art, I fear, but one that is already not appreciated.
.-= Grandy´s last blog ..Belated Blogversary Post =-.
October 4th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I almost never write in cursive anymore. Pretty much just my signature. My handwriting is so terrible now and it actually feels awkward to write with pen(cil) and paper. This really only happens when I’m taking notes in a meeting and it usually ends up sort of like a mix, like yours.
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October 5th, 2009 at 6:22 am
I write cursive for:
1) thank you notes to my customers
2) greeting cards
Everything else is printing!
.-= Shelley´s last blog ..Quotable Sunday – Teenagers! =-.
October 5th, 2009 at 10:15 am
OMG I use to get my knuckles wrapped by a ruler with the metal edge from a small elderly Polish nun when my loops didn’t touch the line, too funny. Although you would never know I went to Catholic school now a days if you same my cursive, lol.
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October 5th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I was a tutor for a fourth grader and he was still learning cursive and actually having a hard time with it. I myself do the adaption of both cursive and print. That is if I’m printing something and not using a computer or my phone!!
October 5th, 2009 at 10:43 am
This very interesting, my daughter and I were just talking about this. She home schools and was wondering the importance of teaching cursive. I can’t think of anyone close to me that uses it much anymore. I also do the mix with out even thinking about it, wierd! Now I’m thinking about it! Thanks, lol!
October 5th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
If I ever write anything at all, I mix cursive with print, but I must confess: I even type my grocery list! Sick, huh?
October 5th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
My cursive was so bad that if I didn’t remember writing it even I couldn’t read it, that is why I went to the mixed style but since almost everything I write these days in on a computer I barely write now. It’s kind of sad because in the 1800′s you were judged on the quality of your penmanship and it was expected to be impeccable. If you look at any of the old documents they are stunning just to see the quality of the writing.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Not sure if cursive is dead. I still use it and a mixture of it and printed letters. Most people can’t read my cursive writing so I mix the two. The most odd thing is we wrote a birthday card to our grandson last year (15 yo) and he couldn’t read it. I asked if he could read cursive and he wanted to know what that was….so maybe it is dead in the schools now. It really is a shame.
.-= Dana´s last blog ..Blog Giveaway … Details =-.
October 6th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
I teach Elementary students, so this post intrigued me. I have recently been reading student responses and having my students grade them. If the responses are written in cursive, the students have the most DIFFICULT time reading them. I actually had one group of students take away points because they could not understand it since the paper was written in cursive. I asked my “teachers” if that should be counted against the student. We agreed it should not be counted against the student because the teacher should be able to read cursive. This also made me wonder if cursive is dead. When I taught fourth grade, I made my students write in cursive all of the time. It’s not mandatory, but it should be.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Like many of your responders, I was great at cursive in 3rd grade. My teachers were amazed (pathetic that I remember? haha), but since then time and muscle memory have crippled my cursive, mashing it into chicken scratch.
@Maria: Your perspective is fascinating. My high school teachers would threaten “F”s if our penmanship wasn’t up to their reading ability. Cursive was incredibly important at the end of high in AP Tests for essays. How else can you get all your thoughts down in such a short amount of time?
October 8th, 2009 at 8:05 am
The first time I wrote cursive since childhood was my wedding. Otherwise I print or type. The wedding invitations and thank you notes were very difficult to write. I had a 25% failure rate but fortunately purchased many extras.
I learned cursive in school. I’m 30. All school work and reports were to be written in cursive until about 6th grade, when we had PCs in school. Oddly my brother, 5 years younger than I, did not learn cursive at all. By the time he entered school it had be dropped as a requirement. I’d have to say cursive is “dead” in everyday use. But I think it will persist in formal, elegant situations.
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October 14th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I think my handwriting is mainly manuscript (I had to google it!) We just called it normal or joined up writing! How technical lol. My handwriting has definitely got worse now I work on a PC all day
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October 20th, 2009 at 3:37 am
Don’t we all just use keyboards these days? The pen is dead my friend.
October 25th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Yeah it is writing in cursive is still very much ALIVE… It is funy, though, that teachers waste students precious time memorizing the curves and waves of writing in cursive… Too much effort, I guess, for something that is not really necessary. I am now a professional and I don’t write cursive… I write in print and in most instances use the PC for reports, the mobile phone for messaging– and we all can see that doctors doesn’t write prescriptions anymore – they already have software to generate it after a patient’s consultation… See how useless it is to exert so much effort in teaching cursive-writing…
October 31st, 2009 at 4:08 am
cursive writing is still alive, my son is practicing cursive writing since he was grade school up to elementary but when he was on junior high, he neglect using cursive anymore.. but at least he has the idea on how to write it..
by the way I think this site is a compliment of yours, The Freelance Writer’s GPS is a new e-book that tackles how we can start our career in freelance writing industry, I found it very useful so I wanted to spread the word about it..
December 8th, 2009 at 9:08 am
As so many others have observed, cursive is still alive and kickin’. I think many people combine it with print as their own personal shorthand for writing as quickly as possible. The great thing is when you send (or receive) a hand written thank you note it is now so much more appreciated.
February 1st, 2010 at 3:54 pm
My handwriting is terrible, I always blame my computer. In my country there are several legal documents that have to be handwriten and stored on paper, although they have their digital and printed version (dont know why). So some accounting and legal companies hire beautiful girls (mostly part-time students – other not so beautiful) with beautiful cursive handwriting to perform that job.
I was very impressed the other day when I saw a girl handwriting a whole document on a company that has several thousand dollars invested in high-tech servers and storage solutions. It was weird.