Cursive will no longer be a part of the US school curriculum.

[SilverComet 170]

Cursive is pretty useless now. Hell, even writing at all is becoming somewhat obsolete. But yeah, I think removing it is a good idea.

 

Is the year 2015. 

Marty McFly beat some kids in a cowboy game; in return they have to do something specific for him later that day.

He writes all the instructions in a paper with a pen he brought from 1985.

The kids look him like if he just started to recite Hamlet with a real human skull and ask:

You use your hands to leave messages?

 

[Parody from a scene of Back to the Future 2]

Edited July 21, 2015 by SilverComet

[Suukorak 354]

It's an interesting choice, I wonder who made that decision. I'm happy it's no longer mandatory - that was kind of ridiculous presuming that we'd all need it one day - but it's too bad it can't be just optional. It's an art form, after all.

Personally, my cursive is horrible, and I kind of just fake it on my signature. But that doesn't matter, since math can't be written in cursive anyway.

Screw cursive. Mine was so bad, my teachers in elementary school told me to simply stop and write free hand. And it's faster too. I can barely read cursive today. That's how useless the medium is. Taking legibility and downgrading it. 

 

Next step on things to remove from curriculums that we'll never use in real life: the pythagorean theorem. Let's' scrap that and replace it with something more practical... like learning how to fill out a tax form!

... except that I use the Pythagorean Theorem every day. Granted, I'm still a student, but I'm an engineering student, and without a doubt I'll be using it in my job. It may not be as useful for people who don't need math as a part of their job, but I get why they teach it; engineers would never get to the level of math we needed if we waited until we could take math electives (high school).

[Capricorn 19]

I think this is kind of sad, actually...cursive stimulates other parts of the brain, doesn't it? The "creative" side, that is. I use cursive as my natural handwriting and have since we started taking it as a "class" in the first year of primary. It flows very easily and smoothly, but with this, it's not a wonder so many kids these days have difficulty reading if I write them instructions. My youngest sister, for example.

Hopefully people still learn it. It's still a skill, and it looks cool. Don't you have to write in cursive on a portion of the SAT exam, too? How are they going to change that?

[cider float 2,538]

Cursing however is always going to be in the school curriculum.

[Rainboom Dash 1,056]

I had to learn cursive in primary school. Wondered why it was necessary then, and many years later don't have the answer.

[BoomSparkle 28]

I always ahted cursive, I am glad its disapearing from school, Now if only they did that when I was younger. 

[Shift 4,272]

The only thing you should use cursive for is signatures. Thank god they got rid of it. "You will use cursive everyday" my ass.

 

I agree that learning how to type should be more important than learning how to write in cursive. Technology is the wave of the future, and the more people that know how to type the better. It's kind of sad; there are very few people that I know that can type without looking at the keyboard.

[Suukorak 354]

 

 

Don't you have to write in cursive on a portion of the SAT exam, too? How are they going to change that?

Not in my experience. Besides, why should that be a tested skill? It may be pretty, but most seem agree it's not that useful to us.

Penmanship as art may be a good idea, but I don't think it was being taught as an art in most schools.

[ThePoniMan 164]

Blegh, I hate cursive. Sure, you need it in your signature, but that is literally the only use in today's world. Why learn it in school if you will not use it ever? I understand that it is an art and it can be really well-done if properly executed, but, well, you can learn that on your own time if it means that much to you. People are being overly-nostalgic of cursive. Just because they won't teach every single letter doesn't mean that people won't know how to write their signature xD They will have to learn that eventually (Not like it matters... Most people's signatures are indecipherable scribbles.. And those are from people who grew up being forced to write cursive in grade school). And to @@Suukorak, you are right. They DID NOT teach it as an art. Actually, teaching it in art class would be acceptable in my opinion. I could deal with that. BUT NO, they taught it in English class and graded you on how you did. It was stressful.

 

Also, being a lefty, I have issues writing cursive. Maybe that's why I don't like it. Mine always looks so awkward and UGLY. I hate my signature.

 

I also have a VERY hard time deciphering cursive, especially when the person who is writing it has sloppy handwriting. My one English teacher would leave comments on our writings in messy cursive, and our entire class would struggle to figure out what she was saying. Haha.

Edited July 22, 2015 by Joseph Stallion

[Capricorn 19]

Not in my experience. Besides, why should that be a tested skill? It may be pretty, but most seem agree it's not that useful to us.

Penmanship as art may be a good idea, but I don't think it was being taught as an art in most schools.

I remember when I took it last year, part of the agreement had to be written in cursive and not print. The SAT will likely become more digitalised in the future, anyways, so it's not that big of a deal.

[Suukorak 354]

I remember when I took it last year, part of the agreement had to be written in cursive and not print. The SAT will likely become more digitalised in the future, anyways, so it's not that big of a deal.

Huh. I took it about 3 years ago, it had no mention of cursive then. Go figure.

[GenderIsAnIllusion 2,177]

Cursive is not important.... It's an extremely useless skill that you never use past middle school. Glad my tax dollars aren't being used to teach this useless crap.

[Sage 125]

 

Seriously, have you ever tried reading a note written by an elderly person?  It's ridiculous.  

 

Don't get me wrong, I love cursive, but the issue stems from everyone having their own "style" of penmanship.  

 

At least with print manuscript you can read it easier.

 

~ Miles

That was extremely easy to read, then again I have a high level of comprehension. I know a lot of people who wouldn't be able to read that and they usually defer to me to 'decrypt' it for them.

 

Reading cursive is harder than writing it...

Especially true for old people's handwriting.

Penmanship is becoming a lost art! ~Miles

-------------------------------------------------------

 

I don't use cursive for anything other than my signature, and that's my own modified version of cursive, as it should me to make it unique. 

 

Anyway it's archaic and no one really needs to learn it. It doesn't hurt to learn it, but it should be up to the person

[Miles 2,512]

That was extremely easy to read, then again I have a high level of comprehension. I know a lot of people who wouldn't be able to read that and they usually defer to me to 'decrypt' it for them.

 

Reading cursive is harder than writing it...

Especially true for old people's handwriting.

Penmanship is becoming a lost art! ~Miles

-------------------------------------------------------

 

I don't use cursive for anything other than my signature, and that's my own modified version of cursive, as it should me to make it unique. 

 

Anyway it's archaic and no one really needs to learn it. It doesn't hurt to learn it, but it should be up to the person

 

Firstly, OMG I love your avvy and your sig!  Absolutely adorable <3

 

Secondly, yes I didn't mean that my cursive was difficult to read (just old people's) but, that generally speaking, kids these days are losing the ability to, as you said, decrypt it.

 

I happen to be, however, quite a paradox.  I'm a progressive traditionalist.  I believe new things that can shine brighter, should come, so that they can shine brighter.  New technology, etc...  But language isn't the same, in my mind.  We shouldn't let ourselves fall to being only dependent on our tech.  Dependent on typing on a computer.  We should retain the ability to read and write by hand as it was perfected by those before us, who didn't have computers to type on.  This kind of change isn't a reformatting, it is an update.  A building upon of old with new.  Keep the old, know how to use it, but allow the new in.  So, I think cursive isn't archaic at all.  I think it is one of two ways to write (at least English anyway).

 

The issue with old people's cursive, is... it isn't a singular system.  Print is print, no matter who writes it.  A letter written in print manuscript is the same [for Englsih] no matter who writes it.  But back in the day, before computers, penmanship was the ability to write in your own style.  That is an art.  And it shouldn't be confused with strict cursive handwriting.  

 

Styled Penmanship is the issue, not cursive itself.  It [cursive] would be actually better and easier to use than print, if strictly one style was taught.  But since that isn't the case, we see now what has become of the matter.  Goodbye to cursive because of penmanship and inability to decipher other's writing.

 

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying I dislike styled penmanship; I'm just saying: Don't confuse art and language with language arts.  That is: styled penmanship is not cursive, nor print; it is an art.  Cursive and print are language arts.  There is a huge difference.

 

I believe the best thing to say is: let it be.  If cursive isn't being taught anymore, oh well.  It's not the end of the world.  But that doesn't mean you should stop using it if you know how to use it.  Just... do it legibly.  

 

 

 

~ Miles

[Sugar Cube 4,843]

Seems to me like it hasn't been part of the curriculum since I was in grade school. I learned cursive in the third grade and was never required to practice it or use it again. I use it when signing my name, and that's about it. I honestly don't think it's an important requirement for much beyond that. Besides, I have a heck of a time reading in cursive the majority of the time.

[ChoroChii 284]

I never learned how to write in cursive and I feel like such an idiot for it.. I really don't want the school systems to take the opportunity away from kids. This is ridiculous. They go to school to learn, why take that out?

[EpicEnergy 23,218]

Yeah they removed it too late as I already learned to write in cursive and it became my primary writing style.

[Stardust 641]

Cursive like the joined up stuff cuz yea they forced it, i think it was good to learn that way but i didnt like being forced to write that way it was easier to just to write seperated letters.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

Cursive is such a very lazy easy way of writing though.... I liked it.. because the more ugly and unreadable your work is the more artistic and beautiful it becomes

Edited March 7, 2021 by Kujamih

[ExplosionMare 18,062]

Pretty sure they stopped teaching it long before 

That being said, I like signing my name, but I couldn’t imagine doing entire sentences in cursive. I can’t read anything my grandmas/grandpas write to me at times cause they all use cursive and all the letters are scrunched together.

[Flying Pencil 3,024]

I don't think I was ever teached cursive in school. But it looks hard, messy, and unreadable 

[Narcissus 354]

I'm hardly surprised. It's just another mode of intelligent communication that's gone by the wayside in the wake of internet speak and other less demanding methods. It's just more dumbing down of the world and I'm opposed to it. Whether it's used often or not, it's still knowledge and in a way, art. Teaching less is never a better thing. Knowledge is power, beauty, art and civilization. Sadly none of these things are going to survive for long as people devolve back into migrating herds shuffling along muttering lol, lmao and wyd in lieu of actual language.

[Envy 6,163]

Honestly, when have I ever used cursive in my life aside from signing my name (which isn't even strictly cursive)? Might as well spend the time teaching children something that they will actually use instead.

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

I guess if you will never write anything on paper it is fine, however as someone that does take notes especially at meetings the ability to write entire essays thanks to my cursive writing in a matter of a minute. Makes life a lot easier, especially at university where although usually you write notes on your computer. To write it in a book is somehow very satisfying and has you feel like you are paying attention in class too. So really I use it a lot and would think it is important to know although it is us curriculum everywhere else we would stick to it possibly. 

[The Kaeya Simp 13,988]

wait... it took till 2015?!

no-one uses cursive generally, in schools now they use tablets