this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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[–] mhague@lemmy.world 86 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (29 children)

I don't remember people ever writing cursive like what I was taught growing up. People just self-servingly turbo-scribble some chicken-scratch and call it a day. The kid who can't read our B-movie elvish script isn't the one with literacy issues.

We either write within the ballpark of standardization, or we don't. I think kids should be required to put in as much effort into learning cursive, as people put into actually writing cursive. Which is to say, absolutely none at all.

(Sorry to people who actually write legible, clean cursive. I wish I got to read your output in the wild.)

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 25 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The thing is, it's easy to read good cursive. It's just another script. It took me 5 episodes of Last Exile to memorize the Greek equivalents to English letters so I could read all the text without looking up the translation guide. But when their writing looks like Jack Lew's signature, there's not a whole lot I can do to decipher it

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 63 points 11 months ago (4 children)

It's not that I never learned how to read cursive; it's that nobody actually writes it legibly.

[–] OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip 60 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (19 children)

Conservatives are trying to prevent kids from learning history and sex ed, and we're still hearing this bullshit lamentation about CURSIVE?

Schools are underfunded, teachers are underpaid and overworked, students are graduating barely able to read and with no critical thinking skills.

Who in their right mind is actually concerned about kids learning cursive?

Things I'd rather schools focus on:

Typing, Personal finance, Current events, Technology literacy, Graphic design, Human Computer Interaction

Or maybe practical skills related to trades or how to fix things: CAD, Cooking, Electrical, Plumbing

Literally ANYTHING but this cursive crap. It's useless, it's dead, move on.

[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 27 points 11 months ago (3 children)

To be fair, it's trivially easy to learn cursive and it's basically always been an extension of penmanship.

[–] nxdefiant@startrek.website 17 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I've never been in a situation where penmanship mattered. Typing skills on the other hand are abysmal across the board and hamper my coworkers constantly.

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[–] yamanii@lemmy.world 34 points 11 months ago (6 children)

This is so puzzling to me, here in Brazil everyone writes in cursive, we all learned fine as children, it exists because it's easier and faster to write with it and you are going to write a lot during all your school life.

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[–] WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I mean the problem isn't whether they taught cursive or not, it's whether you actually use it or not. Cause I was taught cursive in school but barely know how to write it now cause I never have to use it.

[–] TheActualDevil@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

I'm nearing 40 and haven't been required to write in cursive since grade school. Don't every use it unless more than a word or two a year probably. I have no problem writing in it on occasion. It's just curvier versions of letters that you link by not picking your pen up. Sure, there are some weird capital letters, but generally, knowing the concept is enough to get it mostly right. I don't really understand how some people struggle.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

She's talking about students not being able to read it.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

Right, which would be a use of it.

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[–] Fallenwout@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (9 children)

Can someone explain why one cannot read cursive? It is just a tilted (sometimes fancy) font, what's so hard about it?

Edit: After being made aware by a fellow lemmy'er and googling it, it seems I confused cursive with italics, English is not my first language. Though I learned cursive at school when I was 6 without realizing it is called cursive in English. It was part of the basic curriculum at that time, didn't know this wasn't a thing in other countries.

[–] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

There are some wonky letters, like capital G, S where if you never learned you wouldn't know what you're looking at.

[–] TealTallMachine@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago (3 children)

As someone who didn't learn English as a first language, cursive is like another language to me. I don't recognize half of the letters, and i never encountered it enough to properly learn it or have an incentive to learn it.

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[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 32 points 11 months ago

It isn't just cursive. I've seen a lot of younger people have issues reading bad copies of older print letters. Part of it isn't being used to seeing information presented in a certain way or not being found via OCR.

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 21 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I thought cursive was the American word for joined up handwriting, but reading this thread I don't really get what it means.

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[–] Guntrigger@feddit.ch 20 points 11 months ago (16 children)

In this thread:

Americans: Why do I need to learn it when I can just type?

The World: It's literally just writing. You don't want to learn how to write??

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 39 points 11 months ago (46 children)

My kids are learning cursive and I'm glad they are doing so.

But one of the main point of cursive was to be able to write more quickly, and typing has absolutely replaced that need, many times over. And also you learn print first, so not learning how to write cursive doesnt mean you don't learn to write.

Ironically, your post is supposed to be insulting Americans for not being smart, but God damn is the point fucking stupid and ignorant.

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[–] AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

The only times I used cursive was to sign my name on important documents. Now I don't even do that anymore. I just write my name with normal letters without lifting the pen.

[–] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 35 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My signature is anything from a sine to cosine wave. Doesn't matter as long as it's sined.

[–] not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

It's just a phase you're going through.

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[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Fuck cursive. Being forced to write in that was absolute torture. The forced use of specific esoteric hand-cramping illegible scribbles is asinine.

There surely was a use for penmanship before the proliferation of ballpoint pens and typewriters, but the way it was taught while I was in school was completely backwards. The intent of writing in script is to quickly flow from one letter to another without needing to lift the nib of a quill; rote learning of individual hieroglyphs with full disregard for the writer's natural hand movements is at best asinine, and at worst cruel.

The fact that we were tormented decades in the past doesn't justify more torment now. Be better.

[–] Deuces@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (19 children)

I find cursive is very useful when writing notes that only I will ever need to read. Reading and writing another persons cursive has never been easy for me and it has never impacted my life with one exception. I cannot read post cards from my aunt. Oh, and that time a decade ago when I had to fill out the "I will not cheat" pledge on the back of the SAT.

Turns out if you need to write something with speed we have these things that are like typewriters, but they don't even jam!

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] Squirrel@thelemmy.club 14 points 11 months ago

I hate "formal" cursive, but the concept is solid -- economy of motion, or time, or whatever. In fact, I've realized that some of my printing looks like cursive if I write quickly. Cursive that just looks pretty can go fuck itself.

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[–] Sawy@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

I write exclusively in cursive. It's natural for me and everyone around me was taught it as well.

[–] CompN12@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 16 points 11 months ago

For me I was taught cursive in elementary school, but it felt like I couldn't keep up writing assignments so i just stuck with printing which evolved to chicken scratch notes.

[–] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

The only time I ever use cursive is when I write my signature, and it's mostly just loops and squiggles.

[–] Wanderer@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago (8 children)

Americans why are they like this?

Faster and easier than copying a typeface.

"Omg it's so hard. It might as well be in Chinese "

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[–] chakan2@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago (32 children)

Meh...cursive shouldn't be a compulsory lesson. It should be part of art or advanced lit. It just not a necessary skill these days.

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[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (16 children)
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