Would You Teach Your Child To Write In Cursive?

[Cepasaccus]

A robot that can write hand-written notes for you.

 

Whats the point?

The point is to master it with a robot. The knowledge gained with this can then be used in other areas and expand it.

[amberleadavis]

An then there's this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k49ncf60zN8&feature=player_embedded

 

A robot that can write hand-written notes for you.

 

Whats the point?

 

 

Well, I have created my own handwritten font, and it's dang fun, but not as useful as I might have hoped.

[GabrielleDuVent]

An then there's this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k49ncf60zN8&feature=player_embedded

 

A robot that can write hand-written notes for you.

 

Whats the point?

 

The point is that someone took the courage and the leap to write those words out. As we all know, there is a psychological difference between typing and handwriting.

 

Also, it takes paper, energy, time, and postage to get those words to the addressee. Far more weight in those words because of the invisible factors.

 

L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. Truer words have never been said.

[proton007]

 

The point is that someone took the courage and the leap to write those words out. As we all know, there is a psychological difference between typing and handwriting.

 

Also, it takes paper, energy, time, and postage to get those words to the addressee. Far more weight in those words because of the invisible factors.

 

L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. Truer words have never been said.

 

I'm not sure, if I know someone didn't write the note themselves, but got it written by someone else it won't have the same effect.

 

If you've taken a look at the notes written by this machine, it gives a 'font face' feeling. All the letters are the same.

 

I'd say if someone's sincere enough to write a note, write it with your own hand. Getting a machine to write it for you is same as sending a text/email, it gives a very business feeling rather than a personal one.

Edited October 11, 2013 by proton007

[ReverendPen]

My kids are taught script in school. Here is a sample of my. 9 yr old using a FP that I made for him. I am a proud papa.

[cancoi]

So, I've been trying to research handwriting for kids; my 9-yr old son's handwriting is abysmal, no cursive in school, & I'm thinking of starting him with italic/cursive italic. Amberleadavis, you mentioned Getty Dubay -- did that eventually work for your child?

[jar]

A child should be taught cursive, how to make a fire, how to use knives and other tools, how to drive a stick shift, when to take off their hats, when to simply listen, when to speak, when not ...

[King Tubby]

My children attend a Waldorf school where they are taught to write in cursive with a fountain pen. I think it is a great idea and good for them.

[Kataphract]

I couldn't disagree more. The art of writing something down on paper, as opposed to using a word processor, for example, forces one to organize their thoughts. A word processor allows you to just throw anything up and then do endless edits without fully knowing where you are going in advance. I know form personal experience, the word processor has ruined my ability to sit down and write a coherent letter in a single pass.

 

-Bruce

Try composing directly onto a spirit duplicator stencil with the ribbon on your typewriter down because that made for crisper images. It's entirely a matter of self-discipline. I've seen people who can compose on the fly with a keyboard, and people who can't string together a coherent thought with handwriting. Go with what works for you, but drawing deeper conclusions than that may not work for the next person.

 

But I must admit the dang computer trying to guess what you are writing and inserting that instead of what you actually typed is reallllllllllly aggravating!

:-)

[Rubicon]

I'm counting on my kids to be so impressed by my cursive he'll clamor to learn it. Which shouldn't be too hard. I haven't met that many people who hasn't complimented me profusely on my handwriting at some point. Anything else wouldn't work. Especially not forcing. My mother has never been able to force anything on me. She tried to force the piano on me. Despite my being very talented, I hated it. She tried to force me to improve my handwriting. That didn't happen until I got so sick of it I took it upon myself to do it. When I was a kid, no force in the world could move me to do something I didn't want to do. I would have preferred if my mother didn't try so hard.

Edited February 2, 2015 by Rubicon

[Rubicon]

It's going to be pretty lame in 100 years when only fountain pen collectors know how to write and everyone else is scrawling block letters when their keyboard breaks down.

 

Oh and G-Clef, iPads are great learning tools for any language. It turns out it doesn't need to be in your native language for you to utilize it to the fullest. There was a study where they gave iPads to African children with a variety of native languages and within a month they were all fluently using it and even getting it to do things forbidden by the software. It's good that students hack them, it means they're understanding them!

Well as a person who speaks 4 languages and does Latin academically, I can't say I needed iPads to do it. It's always come easy to me. If anything, iPads and iPhones were a severe distraction in my life. I can't think of one instance when my work absolutely required iPad and it couldn't have been done better without it- I'll admit it up front. I used it because it was gimmicky and made work more fun. But I also got a lot less done. Now I can't even move five paces in my room without checking my phone. What we need in the modern world is to decrease screen time, not increase it.

[Kataphract]

I'm counting on my kids to be so impressed by my cursive he'll clamor to learn it. Which shouldn't be too hard. I haven't met that many people who hasn't complimented me profusely on my handwriting at some point. Anything else wouldn't work. Especially not forcing. My mother has never been able to force anything on me. She tried to force the piano on me. Despite my being very talented, I hated it. She tried to force me to improve my handwriting. That didn't happen until I got so sick of it I took it upon myself to do it. When I was a kid, no force in the world could move me to do something I didn't want to do. I would have preferred if my mother didn't try so hard.

Or your child might actually be intimidated by your skill - I had to eventually hand my son a sketchbook and a pencil and just leave him alone with it, and instead encourage him to simply take it with him everywhere and draw when he saw something that interested him. Only after a lonnnnnng time of encouraging him to do things his own way did he come back feeling confidant enough to actually have me teach him anything about drawing. On the other hand, I forced him to learn typing, which he hated at the time, but now regularly thanks me for doing. The down side of which is that he has no patience for cursive, though he at least can read it and appreciate it though trying to read his is a major undertaking. You win some and you lose some as a parent. :-). :-(

[flipper_gv]

I'm counting on my kids to be so impressed by my cursive he'll clamor to learn it. Which shouldn't be too hard. I haven't met that many people who hasn't complimented me profusely on my handwriting at some point. Anything else wouldn't work. Especially not forcing. My mother has never been able to force anything on me. She tried to force the piano on me. Despite my being very talented, I hated it. She tried to force me to improve my handwriting. That didn't happen until I got so sick of it I took it upon myself to do it. When I was a kid, no force in the world could move me to do something I didn't want to do. I would have preferred if my mother didn't try so hard.

 

Cool story bro.

 

Any way, as long as you have a good relation with your kid and he sees you having fun doing something he will most likely want to try it. That's how I started playing music, by watching my dad play the guitar.

 

Anyway, this whole thread is so circle-jerky it's not even funny. Who in a fountain pen forum would say they oppose to teach their kids cursive? I think it's useless for me right now to write in cursive (software engineering), but I do it out of pleasure. Most of the time people try to justify their past times with exaggerated benefits. People will talk at lengths of the goods of playing video games, drinking good wines, playing music, handwriting, reading books, listening to challenging music, but all in all, in our daily lives, it all doesn't matter. All of these won't make a better person in society, it won't make me a better software engineer, it won't make me a better parent (to an extent here), it will juste make appreciate more things in life (which is why I have soo many different interests).

Edited February 3, 2015 by flipper_gv

[JDV]

Yes, I would teach my kids cursive if I had to.

I would never, ever, send my children to public schools if I could avoid it.

[amberleadavis]

I'm slowly forcing the kids to learn because I really believe this will be one of the ways to distinguish economic class...can you read and write cursive?

[flipper_gv]

Yes, I would teach my kids cursive if I had to.

I would never, ever, send my children to public schools if I could avoid it.

 

I wouldn't if I were in a big city in the States too. In any other developed country, it wouldn't be a problem.

 

Pretty sure it's not an issue in smaller towns though.

Edited February 2, 2015 by flipper_gv

[Water Ouzel]

 

I wouldn't [send my child to a public school] if I were in a big city in the States too. In any other developed country, it wouldn't be a problem.

 

Pretty sure it's not an issue in smaller towns though.

Sadly, you're likely incorrect, if admirably hopeful.

 

In too many states the curriculum is dictated not by local school boards/districts, but by the state.

 

And they have a regrettable tendency to keep doing things shown repeatedly not to work, because it's the latest (or just pet) theory in education circles.

[KateGladstone]

Re:

"Some educators claim that cursive writing plays a role in brain and overall academic development, but others disagree and say what the studies actually show is that any form of hand lettering, including print, engages more of the brain than keyboarding does."

 

The ones who say the latter are the ones who have actually read the studies and are presenting them to their audiences without substantive alteration.

 

I have caught not only educators, but (in more instances than I like to think) legislators, altering studies (or incorrectly describing them) when giving testimony under oath. (The alterations are always to make a study support cursive.)

 

 

 

 

What do you think?

 

 

 

No longer swearing by cursive writing

Editorial

As schools update their curriculum in the computer age, the handwriting may be on the wall for cursive writing.

September 04, 2013|By The Times editorial board

For all the new things that schools will be called on to teach under the soon-to-be-implemented Common Core curriculum standards, it's a skill that has been omitted that is causing controversy: cursive writing. Good old script penmanship isn't part of the standards, which have been adopted by 45 states, including California. It's not forbidden or discouraged, but Common Core focuses on analytical and computer-based skills rather than the long hours of practice required to link letters in a flowing style. Testing, note-taking and writing for academia and business are increasingly accomplished via keyboard, not pencil or pen and legal pad.

 

Several states, including California, have kept requirements for cursive instruction in place, but many others appear ready for its demise. The handwriting may be on the wall.

That's OK. States and schools shouldn't cling to cursive based on the romantic idea that it's a tradition, an art form or a basic skill whose disappearance would be a cultural tragedy. Of course, everyone needs to be able to write without computers, but longhand printing generally works fine. Many of today's young adults, even though they were taught cursive, have abandoned it in favor of printing. Print is clearer and easier to read than script. For many, it's easier to write and just about as fast.

Some educators claim that cursive writing plays a role in brain and overall academic development, but others disagree and say what the studies actually show is that any form of hand lettering, including print, engages more of the brain than keyboarding does.

When society adds new skills and new knowledge to the list of things public schools teach, some other items have to come off the list. Otherwise, the result is a curriculum that is a mile wide and an inch deep, as California's has famously been. Cursive might be one skill that can be painlessly dropped to make way for new ones.

Because so many adults still communicate in cursive, perhaps what's needed is a transition period during which students still learn to read it — that can be taught relatively quickly — but no longer go through the laborious and painstaking process of learning to write it.

This isn't a popular notion with many parents. We all tend to think of what we learned in school as "basic" to an educated populace. How can young people do without it? Easily, as they already are proving. As easily as replacing the old John Hancock with a fingerprint scan.

[KateGladstone]

My semi-joined italic is "definitely cursive" according to some onlookers — "just as definitely NOT cursive" according to others. Neither set regards it as a sign of poor education or lower-class background.

 

 

Like other experiences that are vanishing from public schools, cursive writing is coming to mean something beyond just being a choice of input formats. It is an indicator of educational, and, sadly, class background. If it's not done already, the day isn't far off when prospective employers and admissions officers can ask for a handwriting sample and use it to pigeon-hole people into the expensively-educated or the publicly-educated class. Not at all fair, but very efficient and accurate enough.

So yes, I would certainly see that my kids had cursive writing, along with effective reading, mathematics, the sciences and humanities. We--all but the wealthy, that is--are gradually defining away our cultural heritage in the name of budget compliance.

ron

[KateGladstone]

I think I read an earlier version of that book.

That book, like graphology and graphologists in general, in my experience, abounds in demonstrable errors which the purveyor will not admit. (Of note: the author of the book you mention — Andrea McNichol — also sells a video course which claims that written Chinese has no cursive form — and which says that "this is why the Chinese never progress or invent anything." Most people here will recognize both statements as incorrect; when she has been challenged on either [once by a Chinese professor of paleography at Beijing University], her response has been: "What would you rather trust, some Chinese person or the entire science of graphology?"]

 

It is also of note that she claims to have majored in graphology at the Sorbonne — a school which offers no graphology major and has no record of her attendance — although she can barely speak a word of French and does not appear to have ever lived in France.

 

Mexico DID, however, indeed (for a few years in the past century) forbid its public schools to teach cursive. This was for the worst of reasons — a close relative of the country's president had written a book on print-wroting and wanted the maximum sales. Private schools could not be required to follow a governmental decree on the wroting curriculum, but public schools could be — and were.