There's a lot of buzz going on in Indiana -- or has been over the past few months, anyway -- about schools possibly doing away with teaching cursive.
In fact, I didn't realize kids still had to learn cursive writing that looks like this:
See, I learned to write in italics:
Sure, I connect my letters, but the letterforms of the print and cursive versions are essentially the same (which can hardly be said of traditional cursive). Learning, and using, handwriting is faster that way and it's still legible. When I learned cursive, I didn't have to start all over. Now that I use it, I can write legibly without having to lift my pen at the end of every letter.
(I took no trouble over that little scrap, but just wrote how I normally would. That's probably obvious on my terminal Hs and Ns -- I'm terrible at writing those properly unless I think about it.)
Cursive is not a script which alone promotes legibility and ease of use; nor is it the only way to write which can be done beautifully. Those who do not learn cursive are hardly doomed to staring uncomprehendingly at documents written in cursive (such as the Declaration of Independence or your grandmother's birthday card).
I must conclude that those who push for keeping cursive do so for sentimental reasons.
In fact, I didn't realize kids still had to learn cursive writing that looks like this:
See, I learned to write in italics:
Sure, I connect my letters, but the letterforms of the print and cursive versions are essentially the same (which can hardly be said of traditional cursive). Learning, and using, handwriting is faster that way and it's still legible. When I learned cursive, I didn't have to start all over. Now that I use it, I can write legibly without having to lift my pen at the end of every letter.
(I took no trouble over that little scrap, but just wrote how I normally would. That's probably obvious on my terminal Hs and Ns -- I'm terrible at writing those properly unless I think about it.)
Cursive is not a script which alone promotes legibility and ease of use; nor is it the only way to write which can be done beautifully. Those who do not learn cursive are hardly doomed to staring uncomprehendingly at documents written in cursive (such as the Declaration of Independence or your grandmother's birthday card).
I must conclude that those who push for keeping cursive do so for sentimental reasons.
Comments
Carol M.