I love
cursive and am glad that I got to learn it in school! But, I have to admit, most of the time, my writing is a combination of
printing and cursive, unless I make a conscious effort to stick to one or the other. According to Sarah Matson, an Occupational Therepist, who
does Handwriting Without Tears (HWT)workshops, most people combine the two. I attended one of their workshops last week. The program starts with printing and continues into cursive. I used the printing component all of this year and find it works like magic.
Jan Olson, the
creator of the HWT program believes that
it’s important for children to learn cursive. Today, however schools really do not
place a lot of emphasis on it, ours included. I agree with Ms. Olson, it’s
a good skill to have. Thus, I will try to pass it on to our 4-6 students next
school year. One of the arguments HWT uses is a valid one: ‘All tests are still
handwritten.’ Cursive is supposedly more efficient, as it helps people get more
down on paper in less time. I heard of a guy who claims he wouldn’t have passed
the bar exam without cursive.
We can
probably all agree that computers have caused the cursive demise.
However, there are still plenty of ways that people use curves and loops to communicate, including these:
ü Sending
greeting cards – the paper type you pick up at the store
ü Shopping
lists - at least I don’t think people
run to the computer for those yet
ü Letter
writing – remember, Dear Grandma…..
ü Notes
– 'Will be out late – leftovers in fridge. Enjoy!'
I always think cursive reveals a bit about someone’s personality.
Apparently others feel the same: Handwriting analysis, aka graphology is used by professionals in various ways. Learn more here.
I think cursive is a useful skill. I use it just about every time I write. Sometimes I print, but usually when my audience will be children. : )
ReplyDeleteI also like to write in cursive because it's faster.
Thank you for stopping by my blog today, Linda. : )
Cursive is a lost art. I lost mine when I taught 1st and 2nd grade how to print and then for my personal needs went to the typewriter and of course now the computer...
ReplyDeleteI agree Linda. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be making a comeback. Now we have sort form texts instead. LOL
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you have a child who is struggling with learning challenges they learn better and faster with cursive than printing. I used to understand the "hows" and "whys" of that better than I can remember now. However I've seen it with my own eyes. Some kids improve in their learning, their attention and in their writing by switching from printing to cursive.
Great topic!
Jodi
99% of the things I write are in cursive :-) xo
ReplyDeleteWhat a weird coincidence, just 2 weeks ago our English school teacher had asked me if I use cursive or printing when I write, I stood there thinking, and you know it all depends on what I'm writing, letters, are all cursive, when I need to write an announcement on our bulletin board eg: weeding strawberries, it's printed, for a card, the homemade ones, it's a combination of both.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how or why it is this way, but when I was younger with a vast amount of penpals, most of them wrote the cursive, but there was one who printed, all her letters were printed. And it was only hers, maybe she found it easier.
When I was in school, before I started writing cursive, sometimes the older girls would help our teacher with writing out assignments on the bulletin boards, and one of them wrote them out in cursive, and we hated it. But when I started cursive, I found myself doing the exact same thing when I was writing our assignments, it definitely was faster, and to me, easier!
But I must say it is becoming a lost art, mainly because hardly anybody sits down to write a handwritten personal note anymore.