Obviously you know this is a strawman. No one is saying they need to know every kind of cursive. No one _needs_ to know black letter english or uncial gothic.
Cursive is not that difficult. It’s print letters, connected.
But no one, even me is saying that every kid has to learn every possible bit of it. They’ll do fine without the cursive “Q”. They’ll never suffer if they learned it, but never really used it - exposure will be enough for many.
because by god that's what *I* do for a living, so every child in america should have to know how to do it too, because since i do it that means it's IMPORTANT.
I don’t know if this was directed at my post. But if it was, my comment about the calligraphy (which I do not do for a living) was only to say that when Bronzeage posted it as “good luck with reading that” under loren’s “writing != reading” I was showing that whatt looked hard to Bronzeage to read might be because he doesn’t know how to write it. Since I know how to write it, I find no barriers in working out it’s letters. Just a data point, s’all.
on the subject of cursive:
cursive is basically exactly like linux and unix - knowing it can be useful if you specifically want a job in a field catering to it (or to have it as a personal hobby) and it has absolutely zero practical application in any aspect of our lives outside of that.
No, cursive is not exactly like unix. You don’t need to be in a field catering to it to encounter it. If you work in the post office, you’ll see cursive. If you work in a school district office, parents will write to you in cursive. If you work in an engineering office, like I do, someone will write in cursive. If you work in research and you need to refer to a lab notebook, someone will be writing in cursive. If you have a ggrandmother who writes you letters, she may be doing it in cursive. If you want to read the labels on your parents’ photo album, or the journal from your great grat grandmother, or Jefferson’s letters in a history book, you’ll need cursive.
If that kid in the engineering office can’t freaking read,
”I’ll be out next week, go to admin B for help,” in cursive, then it’s not a case of an esoteric job catering to cursive-writers.
And as I said above, it’s my personal belief that not being able to write in cursive limits one’s ability to write fast while not looking. But if you don’t find that a loss, than this would not be a pursuasive part of the argument.
I wonder if schools are at least teaching people how to sign their names in proper enough cursive that it is both distinct and clear enough to be verified? I've noticed the younger generations have no idea how to sign a form or check with their actual name so they make one letter kinda cursive/loopy and able to be read, then they tend to use a squiggle or wavy line for the rest. Of course some of it could be related to impatience and nobody caring if their signature can be verified. But some of them look all owlishly dumbfunded at the art-forms connected to types of writing/penmanship not to mention a decently practical use for learning it.
So, potential practical use #1: signatures
potential practical use #2: People with motor neuron disorders/injuries/conditions can use styles of writing like this to re-learn how to sew, or grasp other mall objects. It's been used for people with certain levels of paralysis to strengthen the tendons in the hand to rehabilitate it after injury/surgery. Of course there are other types of exercises that can be used, but for variety as well as emotional health if the person is writing to friends/family while recovering, meh I think it could be argued for then.
practical use #3: Art. It works for many artists, especially comic/manga artists, to know some form of cursive/calligraphy, especially in marketing/advertising type work.
Just sayin', while I wouldn't put a whole semester to it (my grade school taught us to do essays and alphabet in about 3 weeks or so) it's still a decent skill to learn that can help underachieving or underprivileged kids have another creative outlet to use, even if it is eventual and not a massive benefit.
Saying that unless there's benefit it should go, however, is both hasty and unnecessary. The teaching of cursive takes a couple of weeks, so it is not a long haul waste, just a short stint in helping kids to write and read in more expressive manner jut by changing the way they move their pens.
Also, not sure why the original author to the article thinks its only conservatives who are pushing for it to go back in. Plenty of teachers from all manner of views find that if they just had a couple of weeks to space out teaching it, then they should, and for many of the reasons I listed and then some.
Some years back I was on a hunt for full time work rather than just full time hours, so I could apply and pay for health in from the company I worked for. I had no printer or computer at the time, so I used a sort of half cursive, half print type of writing on all my applications. A couple of my co-workers and interviewers thought that to make it look impressive, legible and so linear without a computer was admirable.
I get where people are coming from when they want to use only the most advanced and/or most current way of accomplishing something.
But every time I see something resembling that in thought, or speech or whatever, I remember that for about a week and a half in the late 90s, my Dad and his Dad were the only 2 people at their workplace who both showed up and got paid so they could save their vacation time. Why? Because they were the only ones who could draw out by hand the blueprints for certain tools, molds and instruments sold by that company. And they
needed to do it by hand because that company had no working power for almost 2 weeks due to storm after snow and ice storm.
Everyone else only knew how to do it by computer, using the most up to date programs. True this is awesome in some cases, takes less time and leads to less mistakes from handwriting issues in the notes and margins, but my Dad and grandpa used a sort of cursive that was quite blatant and only loosely tied together so nobody had an issue reading it.
And yes, I'm aware that cursive writing is not the same thing as mechanical drawing/design-work.
I'm also aware there's nothing wrong with teaching older formats, and nothing lost in doing so except a bit more time than the current formats used.
