What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

The only letters I know how to write in cursive are the ones that make up my first and last name. What was the point of learning this absurd form of writing?

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

Completely agree. Why it was ever used is beyond me.

Thank goodness it's being phased out of schools. And to think for years we wasted time teaching our kids this nonsense when it could have been spent on science & math.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

Back in the day I could diagram a sentence like no one's business...but yeah, I can't write in cursive anymore. Haven't been able to since like 8th grade

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

I believe a lot of schools are now dropping it.

I always hated it because it was always taught to this lefty by right handed people.

My mother still used it exclusively and I can barely read it.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

I write a lot of notes and am often in situatons where I don't have a handy dandy lap top to type things up as they are being said. I still use cursive for my own note taking or "notes to self" kind of thing.

I can read it, not sure anyone else could. My son is actually learning it now.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

I remember having it drilled into us when we were going through school, now it is a bit of a lost art. I am a middle school special education teacher and the things that scare me are our kids are not proficient spellers and their basic math skills are weak, this goes for all students not just students with disabilities. The days where we had to memorize our spelling words and multiplication facts are no longer practiced and it is a shame.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

Cursive should be dropped from the curriculum. If anything cursive masks bad spelling. Since it all looks like gibberish you would assume the letters were correct and pass over them. It is nearly impossible to read something written by another human being in cursive.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

Personally, I think we should in fact not teach our kids any math because computers and calculators can do it. No need to teach writing, after all word can take dictation and fix spelling and grammar mistakes(well not FD's), and well obviously reading is passe with text readers. I think we can tho' develop large spaceships, that travel aimlessly through space until we are so fat that we just slide on the ground when the geo-stabilizers give out.

Learning cursive, in and of itself isn't critical, but learning that learning takes patience and practice probably has a value that some might suggest is intrinsic, whatever that means.;)

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=Schneed10;841637]Completely agree. Why it was ever used is beyond me.

Thank goodness it's being phased out of schools. And to think for years we wasted time teaching our kids this nonsense when it could have been spent on science & math.[/quote]

The ironic thing is I usually tell people that ask why we learn "pointless" stuff in school (ie stuff we won't use in our jobs after we graduate) is because up through college you're learning how to learn. Also a lot of curriculum leading up to college help create well rounded students. Still I remember cursive was suppose to be one of those things that we were going to be able to use after school.

One of the things I've heard a lot is that computers and widespread adoption of word processing was a huge game changer. Still it's kind of funny how I look back and think of how I was required to write in cursive all the way up to high school.

I actually tried to read some of my old report cards from back in the day but the early ones were written in cursive and it took me twice as long to deduce in what ways I was disruptive in class.

But yeah, seeing as how our generation has fallen behind academically compared to the rest of the world we may have been better off spending more time on the core subjects of math and science.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

I remember thinking this same thing when I was in like the 9th grade. The funny thing is our teachers back in middle school were telling us how high school and college classes would make us write in cursive. It never happened lol.

Today i don't know a single person other than the occasional old person who still writes in cursive. Other than writing my name, I don't write anything in cursive. Haven't since about 8th grade lol.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;841729]I remember thinking this same thing when I was in like the 9th grade. [B]The funny thing is our teachers back in middle school were telling us how high school and college classes would make us write in cursive.[/B] [B]It never happened lol.[/B]

Today i don't know a single person other than the occasional old person who still writes in cursive. Other than writing my name, I don't write anything in cursive. Haven't since about 8th grade lol.[/quote]

Lol. Other threats I remembered.

- 3rd Grade, you'll be writing everything in pen next year, except for math.

- 4th Grade, you're not going to be allowed to use calculators at all next year

- 8th Grade, when you get to high school teachers won't tolerate tardiness. Your classes might be all the way on the other end of the school and they won't care.

- Senior Year, When you get to college you're going to have to study 3 hours for every hour you're in class. I'm sorry but no one does that. There are people that study a lot but no one goes to class 15 or 18 hours a week and then studies for 45 to 54 hours outside of class during that same week. Except for people that are literally addicted to studying and academics.

[url=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/574993-3-hours-studying-each-hour-class-do-well.html]3 hours of studying for each hour of class to do well? - College Confidential[/url]

Also teachers "lock the door right after class starts" so people who are late are forced to miss class. I didn't have a single teacher that did that.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

I just tried writing a few sentences in cursive and I feel I did okay for the most part, but it's also irrelevant considering I haven't written a handwritten letter since I was writing to my brother while he was in boot camp and I probably won't be writing any handwritten letters in the future. Cursive is just outdated in the internet age, I'm not suprised schools are getting rid of it.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

F cursive.

So pointless.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=Dirtbag59;841736]Lol. Other threats I remembered.

- 3rd Grade, you'll be writing everything in pen next year, except for math.

- 4th Grade, you're not going to be allowed to use calculators at all next year

- 8th Grade, when you get to high school teachers won't tolerate tardiness. Your classes might be all the way on the other end of the school and they won't care.

- Senior Year, When you get to college you're going to have to study 3 hours for every hour you're in class. I'm sorry but no one does that. There are people that study a lot but no one goes to class 15 or 18 hours a week and then studies for 45 to 54 hours outside of class during that same week. Except for people that are literally addicted to studying and academics.

[url=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/574993-3-hours-studying-each-hour-class-do-well.html]3 hours of studying for each hour of class to do well? - College Confidential[/url]

[B]Also teachers "lock the door right after class starts" so people who are late are forced to miss class. I didn't have a single teacher that did that.[/B][/quote]

I've done that. It was only once or twice for particularly troublesome folks. I haven't done it often.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

I bet my teachers would be irate that I write in ALL CAPS all of the time.

Always.


Why? I work in finance and a lot of Government forms require it, plus it helps cut down on errors in interpretation.

Also, it looks neater.

I started doing it in my first accounting job out of college, for a construction/prop mgmt company in MD. The owner actually asked I use only CAPS and it's become a way of life for me.

My handwriting is neater than most peoples', as it needs to be when you're working with numbers and money.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=Mattyk;841767]F cursive.

So pointless.[/quote]

I don't know if the pun was intended but I found calling it pointless quite hilarious.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

You have to remember, a lot of historical documents were written in cursive, so it's still important to at least teach kids how to read in cursive. They may find reading these documents would be like trying to read something in a foreign language.

It has also been proven that children with learning disabilities or certain intellectual disabilities, such as Down Syndrome, have benefited greatly from learning to write in cursive. The cursive writing seems to help develop fine motor skills, and has helped those children to understand better how words are formed (since cursive letters are written together) than writing individual letters.

Even though I am in Computer Information systems, I would never want to be a slave to the technology - and I think we are starting to teach ourselves and our children to be just that. That is why I don't buy the excuse that we're doing more and more "writing" on computers which makes cursive obsolete. What about writing signatures? While, yes, we don't always use perfect cursive to write our signatures, cursive does help to establish our identities when it comes to our signatures. It's a heck of a lot easier to copy someone's signature that is written mostly in print than it is a cursive signature. Even though we might be moving into the point of replacing hand written signatures with passwords and thumb prints, you still have to fall back to the good ol' fashion hand-written stuff if your computer system goes down.

So, I'd say even though cursive may not be as important to learn as say math or science, it still serves a very useful purpose in our society.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=Monkeydad;841927]I bet my teachers would be irate that I write in ALL CAPS all of the time.

Always.


Why? I work in finance and a lot of Government forms require it, plus it helps cut down on errors in interpretation.

Also, it looks neater.

I started doing it in my first accounting job out of college, for a construction/prop mgmt company in MD. The owner actually asked I use only CAPS and it's become a way of life for me.

My handwriting is neater than most peoples', as it needs to be when you're working with numbers and money.[/quote]

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]ONE OF MY BIGGEST PET PEEVES IS TRYING TO READ SOMETHING IN ALL CAPS. It’s horrible. [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]I agree with dirtbag that part of the reason we learn stuff is so that we learn how to learn stuff. I also agree with everything skinsguy says. Ill add that cursive probably falls under the arts category and while I probably place the arts as the least important subject taught in school I think its important everyone gets an opportunity to be exposed to as many different subjects as possible. [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Im a firm believer that everyone has different natural talents and strengths and that people who excel in one particular thing should try and develop that skill as much as possible. Everyone needs to be well rounded but if youre naturally bad at math it’s a waste of time to try and become a mathematician. [/FONT][/COLOR]

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

When it's typed in all caps, I agree with you, but written...it's very legible and when you're dealing with codes and crap on forms...it helps it never to get mis-read.

I've just done it so much at work, it's carried over to the rest of my life. I guarantee my handwriting is more legible than 99% of people.

I CAN write in cursive if I need to. I'll usually save it for when I want to hang up a sign at work and don't want anyone to know it was me who wrote it...ha. Works every time, they know my writing but when they see the cursive...I'm never suspected because it looks like a woman wrote it.


I used to do Calligraphy when I was young, still do occasionally for special crap. However, cursive in everyday matters...unnecessary.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

I can write in cursive but it does not hide my spelling mistakes and poor grammar. For that reason why take Algebra? Never helped me sell insurance.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=skinsguy;841943]You have to remember, a lot of historical documents were written in cursive, so it's still important to at least teach kids how to read in cursive. They may find reading these documents would be like trying to read something in a foreign language.

It has also been proven that children with learning disabilities or certain intellectual disabilities, such as Down Syndrome, have benefited greatly from learning to write in cursive. The cursive writing seems to help develop fine motor skills, and has helped those children to understand better how words are formed (since cursive letters are written together) than writing individual letters.

Even though I am in Computer Information systems, I would never want to be a slave to the technology - and I think we are starting to teach ourselves and our children to be just that. That is why I don't buy the excuse that we're doing more and more "writing" on computers which makes cursive obsolete. What about writing signatures? While, yes, we don't always use perfect cursive to write our signatures, cursive does help to establish our identities when it comes to our signatures. It's a heck of a lot easier to copy someone's signature that is written mostly in print than it is a cursive signature. Even though we might be moving into the point of replacing hand written signatures with passwords and thumb prints, you still have to fall back to the good ol' fashion hand-written stuff if your computer system goes down.

So, I'd say even though cursive may not be as important to learn as say math or science, it still serves a very useful purpose in our society.[/quote]

And I guess we can't transpose historical documents into text to be stored on CPUs? And I guess we can't find other ways to develop the fine motor skills of certain kids?

Cursive's usefulness diminishes with every passing day. Our society makes progress so we don't have to continue doing things that are a complete waste of time.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=firstdown;842024]I can write in cursive but it does not hide my spelling mistakes and poor grammar. For that reason why take Algebra? Never helped me sell insurance.[/quote]

Sell insurance? Probably not, because a monkey could do that. But to calculate what the term life premium should be on a 45 year old man who smokes and has heart disease? You need algebra and then some.

Was what Firstdown does for a living just blasted here?...welcome to my world FD

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

Less time posting more helping the 4 letter network come up with ways to keep this skins down!

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=Schneed10;842028]And I guess we can't transpose historical documents into text to be stored on CPUs? And I guess we can't find other ways to develop the fine motor skills of certain kids?

Cursive's usefulness diminishes with every passing day. Our society makes progress so we don't have to continue doing things that are a complete waste of time.[/quote]

Sure, you could transpose those documents, but being someone who enjoys history, I absolutely hate the idea of everything being stored on some CPU. I personally like the idea of being able to read every word of the authentic document. To me, it's empowering.

And, in this day and age where our country should think in terms of fiscal responsibility, why should we spend millions of dollars on alternate therapies for motor skills when we already have a cost free solution? My point is, to say cursive is a complete waste of time is sorely an incorrect statement to make.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

CPUs do not store things. Their "storage" are stuff like the L1 and L2 caches, which only assists them in processing info, not storing them long term.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

Although I haven't written in cursive except for maybe a page or so a couple weeks ago, I say it is much easier on the hands than print. Now, I must have a fine memory because I know how still write every word in cursive(and adhere strictly to the the cursive on the worksheets they gave out).

That said, word processing has supplanted cursive a long time ago.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

My absolute favorite is when someone (always over the age of 50) sends you an e-mail in a cursive font. I normally either delete it before reading or let them know the next one will be. Shit kills my eyes.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

I love cursive,its so much faster than the other way.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=SmootSmack;842048]Was what Firstdown does for a living just blasted here?...welcome to my world FD[/quote]

Suggesting algebra is unnecessary is about as ignorant as a comment can get. The blast was deserved.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=SirClintonPortis;842124]CPUs do not store things. Their "storage" are stuff like the L1 and L2 caches, which only assists them in processing info, not storing them long term.[/quote]


Dude, I know...I'm in I.T..... most people refer to CPUs as the actual computer...YES...I know that's technically incorrect, but I was NOT referring to the processor chip on the computer.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=skinsguy;842123]Sure, you could transpose those documents, but being someone who enjoys history, I absolutely hate the idea of everything being stored on some CPU. I personally like the idea of being able to read every word of the authentic document. To me, it's empowering.

And, in this day and age where our country should think in terms of fiscal responsibility, why should we spend millions of dollars on alternate therapies for motor skills when we already have a cost free solution? My point is, to say cursive is a complete waste of time is sorely an incorrect statement to make.[/quote]

OK, dinosaur.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=skinsguy;842160]Dude, I know...I'm in I.T..... most people refer to CPUs as the actual computer...YES...I know that's technically incorrect, but I was NOT referring to the processor chip on the computer.[/quote]

Yeah, they're called IBMs, but CPUs...everyone knows that! :D

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

Ok just the other day i was having a conversation sort of like this with my grandma. She turns 75 this year, is in fairly good health for an old person, and she is still independant and able to drive safely and get herself around.

My mom for the longest time has been trying to get her to go paperless on some of her bills because one of the bedrooms in her house is becoming worse than a library with all these returned checks and all that stuff. The point i'm trying to make is there are going to be a lot of people from "back in that day" who still do things the antiquated and archaic way.

My grandma could save herself a lot of time and effort by letting my Mom sign her up for paperless billing on things, and set her up to pay her utilities online (phone, cable, etc...) But my grandma insists on doing it the old-fashioned way, even though some of the places she goes to don't accept checks anymore, my granny doesn't own a credit card, and she is obviously leery about carrying large amounts of cash when she goes to town.

Cursive makes me think of all those things. It was something that worked great once upon a time when people dipped their quills into inkwells and wrote on parchment that was lit up by kersoene lamplight.

There truly is not much use for it today. I'm not busting on the old folks in this post, but honestly the only people i know that still use cursive is the 60+ crowd, and even at my company we all use print on the few documents we have to hand write on.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=skinsguy;842160]Dude, I know...I'm in I.T..... most people refer to CPUs as the actual computer...YES...I know that's technically incorrect, but I was NOT referring to the processor chip on the computer.[/quote]

Unlike the electron flow standards, I cannot see any reasonable basis for such a disgusting misnomer.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=SirClintonPortis;842352]Unlike the electron flow standards, I cannot see any reasonable basis for such a disgusting misnomer.[/quote]

You must be experiencing some type of [B]I[/B]ntel [B]D[/B]isability of the [B]10[/B]th power of [B]T[/B]elecommunications.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=Schneed10;842206]OK, dinosaur.[/quote]

Whatever man. All I'm saying is, being so dismissive over a learning tool like that tells me one hasn't looked at all evidence of the importance of cursive. Yes, we as adults in this day and age of doing just about everything on computer no longer see the importance of such a learning tool as cursive. That is because we have developed a disconnect with children's learning. And, in my humble opinion, I would much rather use funds to research a better use of technology in areas such as finding cures for deadly diseases, rather than to find a more expensive, alternate way of developing motor skills when there are existing, inexpensive ways of accomplishing the same task.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=Schneed10;842029]Sell insurance? Probably not, because a monkey could do that. But to calculate what the term life premium should be on a 45 year old man who smokes and has heart disease? You need algebra and then some.[/quote]

This monkey will compare pay checks with that person any day and make him wish he was a monkey.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=Schneed10;842029]Sell insurance? Probably not, because a monkey could do that. But to calculate what the term life premium should be on a [B]45 year old man who smokes and has heart disease[/B]? You need algebra and then some.[/quote]

BTY I don't need algerbra to know that person cannot buy life ins. See even a monkey can do that.

Re: What was the point of learning cursive in school?
 

[quote=firstdown;842479]This monkey will compare pay checks with that person any day and make him wish he was a monkey.[/quote]

Well to be entirely fair to you, you own your own business. While selling insurance is the business you're in, I'm sure you would acknowledge that you don't spend anywhere near all of your time selling insurance. You are an entrepreneur and an administrator as much as you are an insurance salesman.

I've got respect for what you do, because there's significant risk in it. If things go south and you lose clients, your bottom line takes a direct hit. So I admire the gumption and the ability to be successful in that environment. Keep in mind though, the actuary that makes $90K - $150K developing the insurance premium rates does so with nearly no risk to his income, and excellent hours.

Actuaries are among the most likely professions to leave work on time at 5pm, and are among the least likely to be laid off. You can make a lot of money selling insurance if you run it like an entrepreneur, but you also take on a lot of risk. Algebra buys those guys a pretty smooth life. That's all I'm sayin.

Sorry for minimizing what you do, I know it's more than selling insurance (same cannot be said for all insurance salesmen). Just making the point that math can get you a nice paycheck and great job security.