What Happened To Cursive Writing ?

[rodserd]

I wish penmanship was something that was taught in school.  My handwriting is horrible thanks to the fact my leftie mom tried to teach me (I'm a rightie).  So I write like a left handed person with my right hand.  My print is terrible and my cursive is worse.  It really looks like a 5 year old wrote it.

[dickybird]

When I was at school cursive writing was really important, we would have handwriting lessons and be given homework. When I applied for my teacher training, they made a point of telling you that your writing had to be cursive, so that led me to believe it was still important. However when I have previously worked in primary schools I think it is dependant on the teacher. The head of English at the school where I worked thought cursive writing was extremely important and she made every teacher fit it in their timetable once a day, students would be rewarded with a pen if they have excellent cursive writing. My niece who is at another school in a different county does no handwriting in school and she can not join her letters, when I asked her why she did not practise or why her writing was not joined up she told me her teacher said it wasn't important!!

I think we should be back to the good old days, and cursive writing should be compulsory and practised once everyday!!

[Wanderer]

Do you know how some identical twins have their own "language" that only they can understand, whether it be written or spoken? I see cursive writing as ending up like that. In a hundred years or so only a select few people who actually took the time to learn it will be able to read it. Like code writing in a way.

[Bob]

In second grade, we learned print writing. I remember that in third grade, we learned cursive writing. Then, for the rest of elementary school, any writing activity was preferably done in cursive. By the time I hit middle school, lots of other people from different schools also used cursive writing, but that was when I began to transition away from it because cursive wasn't required.

The cursive handwriting is not vanished totally, it is just that people are not willing to take it due to the efforts involved in developing it.

People are currently learning to write by the usual method which does not involve cursive.

The people who learnt this writing back in the days, are able to direct the current generation, but not totally!

This makes people be very reluctant to write cursive English!

I believe that elementary schools actually still do teach cursive writing. They are at the stage when they need to be exposed to different writing methods.

Although I think my print writing looks better on paper than my cursive writing, I still love to write in cursive, especially on whiteboards. The only problem that I face with cursive is that the entire word needs to be written well in one stroke or else I need to erase it because I don't like it when it looks a bit off.

[xbrix]

When I was in the 3rd grade, we had a whole unit, I think, on cursive writing. My brother is now in the 3rd grade, and he only knows how to write a few cursive letters.

I think it's a shame that they don't really teach it that much anymore, since a lot of people like cursive way better than print writing.

[airix]

I remembered that I had to write in cursive from 2nd until 6th grade. It wasn't until 7th grade that my teachers stopped caring which kind of handwriting to use. As of now I only use cursive when I am signing something.

[CeliVega]

I learned cursive writing before! But honestly, for beginners it's really hard at first. I know when you get used to it you can write a lot faster than ever before, but it really takes a lot of practice to get to that level. And not to mention that not everyone can read in cursive handwriting! I used to get scolded for writing so "untidily"! "It's cursive writing!" "It's just some messy handwriting to me!" That's why I hardly use cursive writing anymore these days.

[pahagwl]

Cursive writing is a dying art nowadays. This is due to the fact that these days, people are living their lives at a rapid pace and they do not have much time to concentrate on the form and shape of their handwriting. Nowadays it is very rare that you come across people with good handwritings. Another reason for this is the advent of technology, due to which people have started typing out their letters instead of writing them.

[angelicagapit]

I have no idea if they still teach cursive writing in the lower grades in my country, but I'm sure they do. Cursive is a big part of writing and the practice, I believe, cannot just vanish out of nowhere.

I write in cursive very often. It's faster to get things written down and I believe I have very nice cursive handwriting

[Emmanuel]

I still use it all the time. When I'm writing notes in class and I need to be quick, I always write in cursive. I was shocked to hear from a few of my friends that they had forgotten how to do it. I guess it's less common these days than I thought..

[Yorfs]

Sorry for posting to an older thread, but as a classroom teacher (to be) I find this topic interesting. In my country cursive has been taught starting from second grade. When I was in elementary school we'd have to use cursive in all our assignments up until 9th grade. Once you hit high school you didn't have to anymore, so most people chose not to.

Now, the curriculum for elementary schools changes every few years, and the letters and cursive rules have in just past 10 years changed drastically from the way I was taught. Cursive doesn't even look like cursive anymore, there are no fancy loops or binding all the letters. The modern rules are very weird and cursive looks like just regular hand writing, and certain letters don't bind together at all. The new curriculum will be taken into action in 2016, and by the looks of it they are going to change the cursive rules again. There's even big talk about removing it completely, which I kind of agree with. It can be very confusing for younger children to learn four sets of each letter and then all these rules of binding and whatnots. Who does it benefit to learn cursive when really there will be no use for the skill in later life and even teachers and other adults don't like using it? I think one arguement is that cursive looks ( or can look) pretty, but if we get rid of cursive kids could pay more attention to their handwriting in non-cursive, which can still look really good. This will also give them more practice in forming their own personal hand writing.

[Lasonax]

That's a very interesting story Yorfs!

I think we have a very simlar situation here in Sweden. I don't know what changes they have done to the curriculum as of now, but I honestly never see anyone using cursive writing at all, except for old ladies. I too was taught to write cursive writing during middle school and everything, and we were told that it was super important to learn. Because if you didn't know cursive writing when you were at high school and everything, you wouldn't be able to catch up to what the teacher was saying... That's what my teacher said.

Obviously that isn't true. Noone ever uses cursive writing, and noone has any problems with taking notes "in normal handwriting". To be honest, my normal handwriting barely looks like proper handwriting anyway. And there is a reason that I always prefer to write everything on the computer as far as assignments goes... It's happened more than once that the teacher has returned something, and told me that they cannot read what I wrote. During classroom exams, I tend to write as clearly as possible, so it's not really a problem, but sometimes it can be a problem...

What I mean with that is, with handwriting so weird even without cursive: How unreadable wouldn't my writing be WITH cursive writing? It'd be insane.

I really don't see the reason to have cursive writing at all, and i hope that it's removed from the curriculum alltogether. The teachers should focus more on getting the kids to write in their own way, but in a way that people can actually read what they have written. It's much better if they spend time on teaching the kids how to write things that are readable, than to teach them how to write cursive.

[Yorfs]

Yeah it's so odd. Everybody no matter where they are from always has the same story. Was told to learn cursive in elementary school, never used it since. It has this kind of vibe to it, that it's respected almost as like cultural heritage. "We had to learn it, so must you". Everybody knows it serves no purpose in today's world, yet insist in teaching it.

I really don't see the reason to have cursive writing at all, and i hope that it's removed from the curriculum alltogether. The teachers should focus more on getting the kids to write in their own way, but in a way that people can actually read what they have written. It's much better if they spend time on teaching the kids how to write things that are readable, than to teach them how to write cursive.

Truths! Also removing cursive would open up a lot of time for say creative writing or other linguistic studies.

[Poki]

This is odd, I was just practicing my cursive writing last night. I am twenty now, and I vividly remember the booklets and homework I used to work on. I can only imagine the future generations trying to decipher a historical document written in cursive writing. It would be like trying to read an unknown language. Seriously,if not practical, it is at least relaxing - focusing on achieving an elegant writing style makes me forget my troubles.

[dorannmwin]

My daughter is going to be starting sixth grade in the fall. When I was her age I had already learned and perfected cursive writing. She, on the other hand, doesn't have the slightest inclination to even signing her name.

I believe that cursive writing is something that is losing it's emphasis in the digital world. It is becoming much less important for people to be able to know how to write.

[Baburra]

I remembered that I had to write in cursive from 2nd until 6th grade. It wasn't until 7th grade that my teachers stopped caring which kind of handwriting to use. As of now I only use cursive when I am signing something.

I've completely forgotten that teachers often had preferences on which style of writing to use in grade school, and I was forced to write in cursive as well back then, but by the time I reached high school, the teachers there were a lot less strict too.

[Yorfs]

This is odd, I was just practicing my cursive writing last night. I am twenty now, and I vividly remember the booklets and homework I used to work on. I can only imagine the future generations trying to decipher a historical document written in cursive writing. It would be like trying to read an unknown language. Seriously,if not practical, it is at least relaxing - focusing on achieving an elegant writing style makes me forget my troubles.

I think cursive writing can be seen as a form of art in the hands of a skilled person, no doubt about that. I've also spent my fair amount of time admiring people's work writing with chinese sumi-e ink. Very relaxing and intriguing to watch.

[Rosa]

I am glad that cursive writing is still taught in schools here. It's truly an art and students who master it are always excited about it. Cursive writing is usually taught to students as early as grade 1 in private schools and grade two in public schools.

[AExAVF]

I studied in a Catholic school at one time, and cursive writing is a course that we must learn.  However, I put premium nowadays on legible handwriting, and if a person cannot understand cursive handwriting, I discard it and switch to my own writing - one which is readable to the person reading my work.  Though I can still do cursive writing, such as affixing my signature, I write mostly in print.  But given the fast pace of technology, text messaging, and advanced forms of communication, cursive writing has been left behind and most teachers nowadays will not care as to whether your penmanship is good or not.  They are more interested in the content of your work.

[whnuien]

When I was still in school, cursive writing used to be one of my favourite and many of my school mates. But nowadays, I rarely see students hand write and I'm not sure if they are now all typing at school.

Even a lot of kids nowadays know how to type before they can hand write properly.

[Rosyrain]

My cursive writing is terrible and I don't really use it anymore.  With the internet now, people don't even write letters anymore.  I used to love getting letters from my friends and family when I was a kid.  I don't even think they are teaching cursive in school anymore.

[Pink Glitter]

They are making cursive more and more obsolete  every day. Pretty soon cursive is going to go the way of short hand. We are going to be able to written in secrete code by just using plain old cursive. A number of the schools have dropped cursive form the mandatory curriculum.

[FosterTXT]

I was also taught cursive when I was in school. I recently just found out that my younger brother doesn't even know cursive and that the school he goes to doesn't even teach cursive to the students. I found this a bit odd as I think cursive is something everyone should learn.

[snowfairy]

Yes, cursive writing is still being taught here in our country. It's actually required in our school to know how to write in cursive. The only difference now from before is that during my time in school there's a particular year let's say 4th grade that we can only write in cursive. But now I think it's no longer required. It will be the student's choice if they want to write their notes in printed or cursive writing.

[Dora M]

I feel almost melancholy reading this thread. Cursive writing not being taught anymore in certain countries or schools, is almost unthinkable to me. It is such a wonderful way to convey something special, personal or intimate. How would you write a love note to the most important person in your life? Texting? Facebook? Twitter?