I have worked as a typist, and know that skill on the keyboard is sometimes imitated. Nothing wrong with that, but handwriting has its own style and character. My son was a poor writer, a fact reflective of his mental states. Teachers often promised to help but never did, saying “things have changed…etc”. He is now in college and needs handwriting for his covert notes and notetakening. In his ’past life’ at secondary school I felt he was sometimes marked down because the teachers couldnt read his writing. The evidence is coming out as now his papers must be keyed,and the marks are going better…..(sic)

My son is in Grade 9 and absolutely will not take any notes in cursive writing. After learning the basics in Grade 3 there was no requirement from teachers to persue cursive. So, back to printing he went. In grade 8 he had to actually “pay$$” to get copies of notes as he could not get it all copied down during class time. He now is much slower at cursive than printing (lack of practice) and it’s hard to convince him that cursive is the better way to go. Laptops are the “thing” in colleges/universities but they need the skill in primary school and high school to get them there!

Well, I do think cursive writing is obsolete. I was never good at it, and was never forced to do it after grade 5. Printing, however, will never be obsolete, no matter how effective computers become. Coming from a math teacher’s perspective, I could never do all my math on computer.

I was never very good at cursive writing and once the teacher pressure was off (about Grade 5) I went back to printing and kind of developed my own ’attached printing’ that allowed me to write quickly enough to keep up in University, and my note-taking skills became of more importance than my writing. I think stressing the importance of cursive writing in and of itself is pointless. The Neatness and Fine-motor skill, however, that this almost-dead art naturally demanded are what have been sacrificed and need to be retrieved for this keyboarding generation.

i am still in school and think its easyier and quicker to use a pen and paper to make notes and my school bag is havy enough with out haveing to take a laptop plus we have to learn how to make our hand writing legible for our exams . when were in class we have an hour to copy our homework up if weve done it on the computor!!!

what do most of these students do when the electricity goes out? I am glad I know how to write cursive, it is so pretty. Also, cursive penmanship can delineate between capital and lower case letters. I like to know when a sentence ends and starts.

The late 19th / early 20th century forms of cursive writing ARE obsolete. Much of the focus was on style and correctness of letter forms rather than speed and readability. The fastest handwriters do not use a strictly cursive script. They use a combination of block and connected letters. In Austrailia, they recognise this and teach a new form of cursive where the letter shapes are closer to their printed counterparts. Speed and readability is the focus.

I must say that when taught how to write in cursive writing, I never stopped! It is so much faster then normal writing and it is neat. All I use is cursive writing.

I love my cursive writing it’s so pretty and faster then print. I’d rather use my cursive writing then laptop for notes since it’s much faster. I learned in grade 3 perfectly and it was better then the teachers LOL.

Being a teenager who constantly takes notes, I use cursive writing all the time. I can take many more notes much more effectively than printing or even using a computer. With a little practice, my cursive is legible and a timesaver…it also looks pretty cool compared to my friends sloppy printing. I really do think it is a necessity.

As a college instructor, it is absolutely appalling to note the increasing number of students who are unable to take efficient notes during a lecture – because their handwriting skills are abominable. It has become increasingly obvious that these young people are simply unable to keep up with material being presented to them in class. I’m forced to slow down, even during power point presentations, because some of these kids are scribbling everything out in manuscript, rather than cursive.

Cursive was designed as an innovation to make handwriting quicker. In the digital age it is irrelevant. Most schools teach hand writing in third grade and spend hours having students copying letters and words to practice cursive. But even better yet we occasionally find teachers arguing over what type of cursive to teach. Do we teach D’Nealian style or Zaner-Bloser. The problem is it is irrelevant. We should be providing laptops around 5th grade maybe earlier. Text to Speech software will continue to improve. It’s like arguing we should still teach morse code. Because honestly you might just find yourself trapped in a dark castle without a cell phone and the only way to call for help will be morse code.

I’ll also write out this comment in cursive and mail it to you.

I learned the d’nealian style and I found that cursive takes longer for me to form my letters (three humps for the letter m?!) My hand also tires faster from writing in cursive because I do not get as many breaks from my hand being frozen in one position as with cursive.

The only contemporary uses of cursive are signatures (which can be individualized to the point of being unrecognizable) and writing a contract before a standardized test such as the SAT, or the Praxis. Printing is also easier to read because it is harder to mistake one letter for another (such as an m from an n, an r for an n, a q from a g, etc.) Not using cursive takes the individuality out of writing but printing is more practical for today’s uses of handwriting.

this article made me puke

You said “still has its’ place”. I think you meant “its” meaning belonging to it.

The fact that handwriting is “irrelevant” is far from the truth. The human body is wired for movement. Typing on a keyboard is not movement, it is merely tapping keys to see a perfectly formed letter on a page. Most human beings will remember something if they write it – going through the motions if you will. While writing letters of the alphabet, many modalities are being used. The writer has to stay within lines, properly grasp a writing implement (which builds muscle strength), recall strokes that make up a letter, organize the strokes, synthesize them in an orderly fashion, then add spacing so everything does not run together. Letter formation is not an easy task. Today’s youngsters come from an immediate gratification
point of view. The goal is to get the task done quickly.

If handwriting is “irrelevant” what would happen if the electricity went out for days like it did on the east coast last month? This dying art and important skill needs to be nurtured,revived and viewed with the respect and importance it deserves.

No one is arguing that writing is obsolete… just the cursive form. The argument that “cursive is faster” is absurd. You’re very likely to be much more proficient at an activity that you practice more often. Who cares what your writing looks like? It’s the content and legibility that ultimately counts. A well dressed idiot is still an idiot.