Aw, honey

[checkers65477]

Conversation with a student this week:

Me: ...so, if you want to put a reserve on a book, you just write the title and your name here, and we'll let you know when the book is ready for you to pick up.
Student:  *writes*
Student, looks up at me, eyebrow raised: You can read cursive, can't you?

I assured him that not only can I read cursive, I can actually write it, too.

F-list--can you???

Comments

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

I can read and write cursive, and I do sometimes! Not frequently, since my cursive is hard to read, but when I need to write quickly.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Yes, see, it IS faster than printing, don't you think? Very handy for those classes where you have to take a lot of notes.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

"While the terms cursive or script are popular in the United States for describing this style of writing the Latin script, this term is rarely used elsewhere. Joined-up writing is more popular in the United Kingdom, double writing and cursive is popular with Australian schoolchildren, and linking is more popular in New Zealand. The term handwriting is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand."

Thanks wikipedia. For a moment then I was so confused.

Here everyone writes cursive, had it drummed into me at school.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Interesting, Em. What do you call it?

Leave it to the Brits to still require it. They teach it here, briefly, but don't do any drumming.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

'Joined up writing' or just 'writing' and we call non joined up writing 'print'.

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

''Joined up writing''sounds so Primary School. :D

I don't really understand why it's supposed to *not* be legible.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

This comment made me laugh. Like that time we discovered that "pants" has a different meaning in the UK from in the US. :-b

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

I can read and write in cursive, but I'm not sure about my younger siblings :D

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

My nephew, who is 13, recently had to sign something and had no idea how to write his name in cursive. He had to learn it and practice a bit so he could do it. Not quite as bad as making an X like they used to do (John Smith, his Mark), but still.

(edited for idiotic typot)

[hebe0.livejournal.com]

I can't always read _my own_ joined up writing....

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Me, too. When I try, it's very nice. Other times, my printing is much prettier.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I've read articles about all the benefits of teaching handwriting, and making children practice; all kinds of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination and more. It's very odd that schools don't emphasize it, but of course they're too busy about teaching-to-the-standardized-test.

I have to say that when I saw your post, what I thought was:

CURSIVE!! FOILED AGAIN!!!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

:) Ok, what cartoon character said that all the time?

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I don't know!!!

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Yosemite Sam? Or Daffy Duck? I'm leaning towards Sam but I'm not actually sure.

Also the reason that nowadays they teach cursive in like third grade but never require kids to write in it is because they assume everyone will be typing. I think my eleven-year-old cousins were taught how to sign their names, and that was it. Which, again, I totally agree with what you say about fine motor skills and the like (I guess they get those from video games instead? :-b), but there you go.

It's like the death of diagramming sentences. Now, I doubt diagramming was ever widely taught up to its full potential, but I really wish I had had time to explore it more for its visual and kinesthetic possibilities--for students who need to see the whole sentence in bits. Anyway.

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

Snidely Whiplash from Rocky and Bullwinkle.The bad guy to Dudley Dooright's good guy. Also, Leslie, hahaha.

And yes, I can read and write cursive. It's hard to believe people can't! I don't have children and I don't work with them anymore, either, so I didn't know!

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

And with a name like Kampschroer, I have to write legibly just to make sure I include all the letters. Even though I was born with that name and learned to spell it when I was, like, two, I still misspell it sometimes.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Snidely Whiplash from Rocky and Bullwinkle

Ah, yes! Loved that show.

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

ha!
I can, but the legibility varies wildly depending on various random factors. Sadly, my printing isn't much better. And both are slower than my typing now.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I think that's what the kids are finding, too. Fast typing is important, fast writing not so much. It seems, too, that it's easy to get rusty at writing well in cursive.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

What I found interesting in an article I read (don't remember which one) was that they discovered that children who practiced handwriting so they were good at it (as opposed to practicing typing) actually wrote more and better (content, not writing) than those who typed things into the computer.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Hahaha I've been writing in cursive a lot because when I write to WP it's late and I'm tired and lazy and don't feel like picking up a pen. My normal handwriting is something of a mix of print and cursive.

I feel like a while ago there was a handwriting meme that went around...maybe I'll dig that up. I know that whenever I'm not involved in schoolwork my handwriting goes all to pot and I have to remember how to do it again.

[appellations.livejournal.com]

i can speak cursive!

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahaha!

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

I just happened to click on your journal and saw this...yes, I can read, and love to write cursive! People tell me I have such pretty handwriting, and I'm thinking, it's called cursive, you guys!

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Ha, I just stumbled upon this conversation (very late--hope you don't mind me chiming in). My mom taught me cursive when was 9 or 10. You're right, it's much faster for taking notes, and I like using it for formal occasions, but I also have an artistic style of printing I developed back in my teen I'm-going-to-be-a-freaking-artist years and I prefer to use that for most other things. I remember signing the attendance form in driver's ed (I always use cursive when signing my name) and the girl next to me exclaimed, "YOUR HANDWRITING IS LIKE... LIKE...A FONT OR SOMETHING!" I'm still trying to decide if it's persnickety of me to find that very, very funny. :p

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Oh man, having handwriting like a font would be awesome! My printing is very teacher-ish, I guess. And my cursive--come to think of it, I hardly ever use it, so when I do it's pretty rusty. They are thinking passing a law here in NC saying schools have to teach cursive but, honestly, why? Maybe it's just an ancient thing we don't need any more, sort of like the flowery writing of the early 1900s. Today we can hardly read that.

I bet you could make some decent money doing calligraphy for wedding invitations! :)

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Both my mother and my sister do calligraphy, and my sister has done wedding invitations. I'm sure I could jump on the bandwagon if I put my mind to practicing it, but... yeah. Practice? Nah.

Making cursive a law seems almost laughable, but I do think it's sad if students don't even get the chance/incentive to learn it. It doesn't have to look like a Medieval scroll in order to be beautiful and useful.