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These days, more and more of us know someone who is utterly baffled by cursive handwriting. They will someday need to read something that is in cursive — but they are very unlikely to go to the trouble of learning to write cursive just for the sake of reading it. Even people who have been taught cursive as children often forget it, and find it a baffling mystery by the time they grow up. There are college entrants who’d “had” cursive in school at age 8, who can no longer read it by age 18. (Literally, as adults they cannot read their own childhood schoolwork.) What to do? Perhaps buy them a copy of READ CURSIVE FAST (reviewed in the Spring 2021 PENNANT) … Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735935808/ref=olp_aod_redir_impl1?_encoding=UTF8&aod=1&qid=1619952667&sr=8-1 Sample pages: http://readcursivefast.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/RCF_Preview-1.pdf To purchase direct from publisher: https://nationalautismresources.com/read-cursive-fast/ The book’s web-site: ReadCursiveFast.com To purchase direct from me: Readcursivefast.Com/order and https://read-cursive-fast.myshopify.com/ (The info there mentions “pre-order,” but that word will be changed to “order” this week.) If you’re buying from me and want an autographed copy, send your request to me at Kate@ReadCursiveFast.com (my e-mail for book-related business) and put the word “autograph” somewhere in the message, so I can see it when I fulfill direct orders. http://static.ideasunplugged.com/signature/s_036/t_r3LLkJ.jpg?v=69 Yours for better letters, Kate Gladstone author of READ CURSIVE FAST ReadCursiveFast.com CEO, Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works DIRECTOR, World Handwriting Contest 165 NORTH ALLEN STREET ―First Floor Albany, NY 12206-1706 USA landline 518-482-6763 mobile 518-928-8101 Handwriting CAN make sense. ________________________________________________________________________________________ IMG_6207.mp4

I'm preaching to the choir but ... Checking out preventive measures during these pandemic times, I was pleased to see the use of our common interest in an educational setting Digital platform, analog function https://youtu.be/W5yVGmfivAk

Hello. I'm an occasional reader on FPN who has a strong interest in handwriting and fountain pens. I am going to teach a class in February 2020 at my high school in NYC that looks at different aspects of writing. I'm hoping that my students can practice using fountain pens. Over the years I have brought in a number of my pens for them to try, and I just purchased 15 Hero 565s for them to try out. Since there's been a bit of interest, I thought I'd see if there are resources that anyone is familiar with to share with my students. Things I'm interested in doing over the course of the project: Introduce and practice writing with a variety of fountain pensPhotograph hand-painted signage around the city, building a catalog of interesting display type samplesPhotograph interesting fonts in international food markets, then use the images for inspirationVisit sign-painters in business and conduct interviews with themIntroduce and practice writing Hiragana, possibly Iroha poem (a Japanese pangram)Watching Helvetica documentary (if it doesn't put them to sleep)View Islamic writing @ the Metropolitan Museum of Art My school is located in Manhattan. We'll be traveling to the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens over the course of the class. While there are art supply stores around the city, there aren't many stores that specialize in fountain pens and fine writing. A ways back, I remember seeing on Instagram a store that was interested in sharing fountain pen resources with educators, but I didn't bookmark it or contact them. Now, at the suggestion of a few of my students, I'm going to lead a course but I don't remember their contact info. If there are any ideas or resources that people would like to share, I'd appreciate it. Maybe this thread can be the beginning of a set of resources helpful to those interested better handwriting. The link to my school is https://www.urbanacademy.org/ in case anyone is interested in learning more about what we do. Thanks!

Hello, everyone! My name is Bud Fields. I live just South and slightly left of Nashville, Tennessee in Columbia. I am not new to fountain pens, nor to journaling, but I am re-establishing my relationship with both. I look forward to learning, growing and sharing with you here. Writing Is FUN! Bud

After buying a fountain pen/stylus combo from German manufacturer ONLINE, I received supplementary material that shows just how seriously they're into using onscreen writing, apps, and other ways to update the experience of writing with an ink pen, above all for schoolkids. I'm not sure of the German curriculum requirement that compels this, but it's obviously well catered for. Key to this is the ONLINE Discovery writing app, available for iOS and Android tablets of 10" and above. According to its blurb, "ONLINE has developed a supportive app for learning to write on paper and in addition on tablets. In eight lessons teachers and pupils experience together faraway countries. They practice tracing and curvedrawing, letters and words." Not everyone may want to try this approach, but you can appreciate the effort put in to keeping cursive writing skills current. ONLINE backs this up with the Switch range of fountain pen/stylus combinations, in a range of kid-friendly colour choices. The company may or may not be doing this the right way, but it's clear that there is plenty of design nous and money invested in making sure that penmanship, as well as pens, can be more than just a matter of treasured yet outdated heirlooms.

[Whoops! I posted a dupe. Catbert posted about this before - sorry. Moderators, remove the thread if you like. David] The Comeback of Cursive Once derided as a relic of the past, handwriting looks poised for a revival The Economist, Sep 7th 2016 EXCERPT: PARENTS are not the only ones bemoaning the way so many schools have given up teaching children to write longhand. Researchers are also aware that more than mere pride in penmanship is lost when people can no longer even read, let alone write, cursive script. Not being able to exchange notes with the boss or authenticate signatures, for instance, can hurt a person’s chances of promotion... Read the full article (for free) here: http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21706459-once-derided-relic-past-handwriting-looks-poised-revival-comeback-cursive Note: I am not affiliated with U.K.-based print magazine The Economist; just an occasional reader.

Hi all! This is my first post, but I've been lurking and learning from you wonderful people for some time now. I am a public high school English / Language Arts teacher trying to start a calligraphy / handwriting club for my students. Many have shown great interest which is both amazing and scary when you consider that most of them have never learned a proper handwriting system / style in the first place. My school is big on technology and all students are issued their own laptop which, of course, drives me crazy because the worst thing you can do to kill kids' creativity when they are writing is to put them in front of a keyboard. The number of students that are pushing back against doing everything electronically and want to learn to write by hand, especially ornamental and calligraphic styles is overwhelming! So... Can any of you recommend a website or source to get large quantities of inexpensive, but reliable, fountain and dip pens and supplies? I'm looking for: About 40 fountain pens, preferably converter filled as to save on ink costs and so I don't lose my mind refilling cartridges with a syringe. About 40 nib holders for dipping. A whole mess of flex nibs for ornamental / Spencerian style writing (the more the better as kids tend to be hard on everything). Mass quantities of black ink A decent paper that can be bought in bulk without breaking the bank. I can print guide sheets and templates here at school on our copiers, but the paper we normally use is like writing on newsprint.I am paying for this out of my own pocket as I feel that the art of writing by hand is dying more and more everyday. These kids are expected to do everything on the computer, which you would think they'd love, but they actually prefer to write by hand! Any help / input / information will be very much appreciated.

Calligraphy class is starting on February 17, 2015 at Montgomery College, Takoma/Silver Spring, MD campus. http://aceitoc.montgomerycollege.edu/course/CourseView.aspx

Hope more States will follow. http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/27986804/cursive-coming-back-to-tn-classrooms

I have been helping HBO's news program LAST WEEK TONIGHT research a matter relevant to my profession and to our shared interest: namely, misrepresentations made by legislators in numerous US states, in order to require cursive. That I dislike so much about cursive-as-we-know-it is not the point of the program — the point is that the cursive boosters are systematically misrepresenting research documentation in order to make the documentation support cursive. This has been going on for a couple of years now, as you may know, in a number of state legislatures and school boards where various organizations and lobbies are "working with" state legislatures to have those legislators present — under oath — misstatements on handwriting as fact because such misstatements are necessary in order to promote cursive. The legislators, in bills they introduce & in hearings/testimony on those bills, misquote research they cite — and make other documentable misrepresentations — which the salesmen for certain textbook companies, as well as pressure-groups such as "Campaign for Cursive" (yes, an actual group!) are presenting to the legislators as fact. In some cases, it gets worse, and the legislators involved have not been "fed" anything by lobbyists, but have outright and unashamedly been making up THEIR OWN facts.) This is why the LAST WEEK TONIGHT researcher, Liz Day, phoned me yesterday for help (she'd been reading things I post as blog-comments on the Net, as well as news-pieces citing me, and had also seen state-legislature footage that showed people who were under oath, stating "facts" that were easily documented as being misrepresentations of the stuff that these people claimed to be quoting or citing), so I have spent today and tonight getting together all the documentation to send to her. So I MAY get on TV ... Or at least, my information will, and I will apparently be credited in some way. The episode airs on Saturday, November 2, 11:00 PM Eastern time.

Hooray for the PBS Newshour! http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/schools-still-insist-lessons-elegant-cursive/

What the heck is going on in America?... "Is Cursive Writing Dead?" Read article dated 28 June 2013 here: http://www.livescience.com/37831-is-cursive-dead-cursive-writing.html Excerpting: A single sentence, uttered in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin, has catapulted an issue into the national spotlight. When asked if she could read a letter in court, witness Rachel Jeantel, her head bowed, murmured with embarrassment, "I don't read cursive," ABC News reports. and... "Cursive should be allowed to die. In fact, it's already dying, despite having been taught for decades," Morgan Polikoff, assistant professor of education at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, told The New York Times.