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Should cursive writing be required in schools?
Only three state have made cursive a part of the core curriculum requirements while 45 states require proficiency in computer keyboarding at the elementry level. Some states have made cursive optional.
Has our society advanced to the point of where handwriting has become unnecessary.
What impacts can you see on not being able to write in cursive. Could printing be just as acceptable?
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Linda Taylor 50+
John Smith 30+
Robert Winner 50+
I personally like cursive and it is much easier without the stone and chisel.
Thanks for the reply. Bob.
pat gilbert 50+
Robert Winner 50+
Linda Taylor 50+
I just can't see closing on a house with a retinal scan.
Kate Gladstone
Linda Taylor 50+
Even an notarized signature. You have to write something down. You can't just put an X and have your witness put an X and your notary put an X with a seal. What would be the point?
My handwriting is really bad, I mean really. It is almost like code that only I can read. But I also do calligraphy. So I know the skill of drawing letters. They are almost two different skills. I use the same skill in calligraphy as I do in sketching. It is connected to the art part of my brain. Handwriting is putting thoughts down. It is connected to the language/cognitive part of my brain. And my thoughts move way quicker than my hand.
And yes, I even learned Gregg Shorthand. Sometimes I slip that into my handwriting too. Maybe we should move from letters to shorthand in school? But shorthand is more like drawing sound as opposed to writing. That is connected to the auditory part of my brain. I would have to train it to move into the cognitive.
Kate Gladstone
"But you cannot develop a signature without cursive no matter how hybridized your signature is in method" —
That's false, Linda — numerous easily distinguishable signatures (including my own) are of the hybridized type: some are even printed. (For legal info, see the "signatures" FAQ on the handwriting-info site http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com — use the navigation-grid to get to the FAQ page, and search there for "signature")
Further:
Questioned Document Examiners (these are specialists in the identification of signatures, then verification of documents, etc.) inform me that the least forgeable signatures are the plainest. Most cursive signatures are loose scrawls: the rest, if they follow the rules of cursive all, are fairly complicated: these make a forger's life easy.
The individuality of non-cursive style writings is further shown by this: six months into the school year, any first-grade teacher can immediately and accurately identify (from the writing on an unsigned, print-written assignment) which of her 25 or 30 students wrote it.
Linda Taylor 50+
I think it would be very interesting but let me give you an example. I never use a cursive 's' either capital or small. The reversal of direction in the cursive drives me nuts and slows down my script. My husband on the other hand, always uses a cursive 's' unless he is using deliberate block letters for documentation clarity and in that case he is drawing letters. His script tends to be smaller and more condensed than my script which is more open and fluid. Each option works the best in our handwriting styles.
So I have a preference and he has a preference but we each choose the preference for our own hands.
I agree that first-grade teachers can accurately identify her students script. But they probably can also identify the coloring and the scissor work and the gluing skills of the students. Not sure of the research here. Most of us have lived through the question "Did you do this all by yourself?"
So if we put everyone into one single writing style because the drawing of letters for documentation purposes is no longer necessary, how can we be sure we are giving enough options for all handwriting types?