Young People Have Lost The Ability To Read Cursive.

[Buzz_130]

Henry Kissinger, in his new book World Order, address the change brought on by the connection of the world to the internet. His insight is outstanding. People (of all ages) have become outstanding researchers. Our ability to gather facts and data surpasses any of the experts from ages past. But we are now lacking the ability to synthesize, analyze, and sort through the data to create information. And with the loss of our ability to create information, we lack the wisdom to use it.

 

I think there is a significant difference between training and educating people. Training is the task to teach people how to do something. This is often accomplished by repetition and simple instruction. To quote my 7th grade English teacher, "Education is everything you have left after everything you've memorized is forgotten." Education is learning how to think. My kids also complain in the most classic manner: when am I going to use this? When I answer, just about every day, they sigh. I try to show them how each class is supposed to teach them different ways to look at problems to organize their thoughts to create certain decisions. Like all kids, they know better.

 

Handwriting, in my work, is a requirement. Electronic devices are not allowed in meetings or briefings. But email and PowerPoint is ubiquitous. I can work in these different mediums with ease, and I think it's still a requirement to teach those that will replace us the same.

 

Handwriting isn't about what I'll use in "real" life. Writing by hand is an expression of thought that requires a deep level of thinking in addition to motor skills.

 

Buzz

[mounty]

That's a really mature hand. Congratulations. I remember when I was 14 (in 1978) a new boy (no gurlz allowed) joined the school. He had the most wonderful copperplate handwriting but within a couple of weeks had to drop it because the lecture style of teaching required a higher WPM than he could maintain. What a shame. I hope you can keep going with your hand-writing.

[BookCat]

I recently did some literacy marking for a teacher friend of mine and was heartened to see that most of the children had attempted to write in cursive. These children were approx eleven years old and English was not their first language.

The cursive was often hard to read, but hey, they were trying! It was great to know that they were still being taught to do this.

Edited June 8, 2015 by BookCat

[e-beth]

I am 63 and have a 25 year old daughter who will be graduating with a degree in Soil Science next semester from Iowa State University. She plans to get her masters with a specialization in soil and water conservation. We are very proud of her accomplishment.

 

 

Congratulations to your daughter! I grew up in the town next door to ISU (Nevada, IA) but live in the Bay Area now and so am tickled whenever I see that someone has gone to ISU since I don't find too many of them in my daily life these days.

[e-beth]

Another issue now I have seen is many new-gen professionals cannot write a report or a letter properly. Copy, Paste and blunder.

 

Do you mean they cannot format it properly or they are unable to compose their thoughts and present them clearly? The formatting issue could be due to the auto-formatting in MSWord which attempts to format the document for you as soon as it sees a key word, such as "Dear" or sees you are typing a list. It drives me up the wall. I took a year of typing in high school (I'm 41) and learned how to properly format documents and I would like to set it up myself thank you very much. Especially since the auto-formatting is often wrong.

[httpmom]

 

Congratulations to your daughter! I grew up in the town next door to ISU (Nevada, IA) but live in the Bay Area now and so am tickled whenever I see that someone has gone to ISU since I don't find too many of them in my daily life these days.

Thanks! It was the simple fact that ISU had the best program in the country for what she wanted to study. She LOVES Ames and we do too.

[Manalto]

 

Do you mean they cannot format it properly or they are unable to compose their thoughts and present them clearly? The formatting issue could be due to the auto-formatting in MSWord which attempts to format the document for you as soon as it sees a key word, such as "Dear" or sees you are typing a list. It drives me up the wall. I took a year of typing in high school (I'm 41) and learned how to properly format documents and I would like to set it up myself thank you very much. Especially since the auto-formatting is often wrong.

 

You can disable Auto Formatting.

[KateGladstone]

That's why I designed (and had a software company build) the free iPad app "Read Cursive" ... to teach people to do exactly that.

 

I'm 16 right now and many people my age and younger are unable to read my cursive handwriting and it would seem cursive in general.

This troubels me since I'm planning on writing in cursive for the rest of my life. Could it be that when I get older, almost no one is going to be able to read my handwriting.

Here's my handwriting so you can see that it's quite legible:

DSC_0256.jpg

Older people tend to be able to read it clearly.

I'm worried about my generation.

[LexicalCat]

I found the handwriting very easy to read!

 

I teach college, and I can attest to the truth of this post's main claims:

 

* Young people can't read cursive

* Most of them can't write cursive.

 

My handwriting will not win any penmanship prizes, but it's more than legible, yet time and again, I find myself having to read aloud comments I've written on student papers to the students. Even worse, I've been asked to read the comments by OTHER professors, too, so even if you think I'm bending the truth and my handwriting's horrid, it's not just me!

 

My students when they write by hand, very few write cursive, and most of it is very, well...childish looking? Like it looks like mine did when I was a third grader and still had penmanship classes. They are so used to texting that the slowness of handwriting frustrates them, I think.

 

I teach a course in linguistics, and just last year I added a mini unit on handwriting. Part of it was a poll: I went over Palmer, D'Nealean, and the other major penmanship styles taught in the US and then asked my students to ID which one they had learned.

 

Most said they had learned NONE. Printing only.

 

YIKES!!

[______Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

Heck, not just young people, I am in my mid 40's and I never learned to write in cursive because I refused to do so, regardless of how much my teachers threatened to hold me back!

 

Why did I refuse? Because as a child I never could read my moms cursive handwriting, and others for that matter unless it was perfectly penned, which rarely happened! I saw no value in learning something that I saw a total waste. Why unreadable cursive when perfectly good print works a gazillion times better.

 

Print with perfection was also what I was taught later in life when I became a board draftsman in highschool.

 

So I guess young people cannot read cursive, and that is nothing new.

[aeba]

Well, writing cursive will not be in Finnish 2016 school curriculum as a mandatory thing.

 

While we are at it, should we be worried that when I was still in school, even some teachers couldn't read fraktur?

[TXKat]

...okay, this might be a little OT, but it was touched upon in different posts above.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html?_r=2

[NinthSphere]

Well, writing cursive will not be in Finnish 2016 school curriculum as a mandatory thing.

 

While we are at it, should we be worried that when I was still in school, even some teachers couldn't read fraktur?

 

I laughed out loud when I had to read something off of the board from the previous class's instuctor because our instructor was struggling to make sense of it. He turned to the class & said "I have trouble reading cursive. See, that's cursive." I said,"No, we call that messy printing."

[Manalto]

"Cracked" lists cursive as one of five "bad ideas humanity is sticking with out of habit."

http://www.cracked.com/article_19151_5-bad-ideas-humanity-sticking-with-out-habit.html

[carsinoma]

i think your handwriting is beaitiful but needs to be a bit vertical and a little bigger letters. May be some more space between letters will beautify and make more readible your handwriting.

Edited July 30, 2015 by carsinoma

[Sasha Royale]

I am very pleased to be among people who enjoy writing cursive.

Please remember that gentlemen do not use cursive in front of ladies.

[Lothianjavert]

Your handwriting is beautiful! I find it easy to read as well. Mine has never been that attractive but it is legible unless I am extremely rushed. I'm 40 so like most my age I was taught cursive in school and required to use only cursive as of 3rd grade. We learned the Palmer method. While I do print at times, my default is cursive. When my family sends cards, letters, etc., it is all done in cursive. My grandmother still uses the Parker 51 she got as a gift when she was a young woman.

 

I can't imagine not being able to access family records, letters, read the captions on family photos or to read historical documents. However, I come across more and more young adults that can neither read nor write in cursive and request to have things re-written for them.

[Manalto]

I come across more and more young adults that can neither read nor write in cursive and request to have things re-written for them.

 

Really, how much coddling can one do? It's the same language, for heaven's sake.

[haruka337]

Really, how much coddling can one do? It's the same language, for heaven's sake.

A whole lot more. I know parents who type papers while their teen dictates. I'm under the impression that the papers typed are more the parent's wording than the kid's.

 

Learing basic cursive in my youth has allowed me to clearly read every piece of cursive that's come under my gaze, from historical documents to my old boss's chicken scratch. As for my two teen potatoes, they are puzzled by cursive and have the penmanship of a cranky 5 year old.

[Manalto]

Please remember that gentlemen do not use cursive in front of ladies.

 

It's precisely these glimpses of humanity and grace that remind me why I continue to return to this smoky old bar with its outdated jukebox and warm beer.