<p>As I signed a check today I realized I very rarely use cursive. I do actually write by hand sometimes, mostly in an engineering notebook or short notes (but when doing so I generally print) but in the end most of my words are typed via a keyboard into documents, IDEs (for writing software programs), emails, IMs, texting, CC, etc. Other than writing my signature, which is something I don’t do that frequently and when I do it’s not really all that legible, I pretty much never write in cursive. Neither does anyone I know now that letter writing by hand is pretty much obsolete since being taken over by email, IM, text messages, etc.</p>
<p>I think within the last 30 years or so cursive writing has pretty much become a relic of the past, like hieroglyphics, to the point of obsolescence and wonder if there’s even much emphasis in using it in schools anymore and if so, whether there should be. I can’t say I miss it but have any of you noticed this phenomenon?</p>
<p>I was thinking pretty much the same thing recently. Christmas cards, formal announcements and invitations are about the only time I use cursive writing (and want it to look nice). Grocery lists don’t count. </p>
<p>I never thought my high school typing class would be the most important course I took.</p>
<p>I use cursive when I’m taking notes (in meetings/depositions/court) or outlining a brief, but it might as well be hieroglyphics, because nobody except me could ever possibly decipher it. The only other time I generally use it is when I write birthday and holiday cards to people. Then, I make an effort to write more legibly, but I’m still astonished, when I come across something I wrote in high school or college, to see just how much my handwriting has deteriorated over the years.</p>
<p>Remember handwriting awards? My kids were taught cursive but never required to use it, so they didn’t. When my daughter endorses her paycheck in cursive, the result looks like a kindergartner’s attempt. I think the quasi printing most student use really slows them down in written tests, SAT essays, etc., and it’s a shame, but maybe in due course no one will ever be asked to write a test by hand.</p>
<p>My cursive AND my printing have become nearly illegible. Too many years of all day computer use… I really have to concentrate on any form of handwriting to keep it from being a scrawl. And I did have much more extensive writing instruction in school than my kids have. I can only imagine what their handwriting will be like when they are middle aged.</p>
I’m wondering if the generation of our grandkids will even bother with the instruction anymore. I suppose using the time to improve their ability to use a computer/app/gadget would be more practical. Our kids’ generation may have been the last to learn and use cursive en masse.</p>
<p>There was strong emphasis on cursive when I was in elementary school, which was in the 90’s. Nothing that wasn’t in cursive was accepted. But I think that was just to make sure we would know how to do it, because I’ve never had to use it since except for my signature.</p>
<p>It’s rare but still used. At the doctor’s office I volunteer at, the doctor writes all in cursive…then again, she’s in her 60s.</p>
<p>I don’t think that cursive will be completely gone because what would we do with signatures then? But we’ll probably end up only knowing enough cursive to sign our names.</p>
<p>My kids don’t use cursive. They learned it, but if they need to write by hand, they tend to print. I think I know why. When we learned cursive (back in the stone age), we used it for years. We rarely typed anything, even in high school, and in college we took our notes by hand, not on a laptop, so it stayed with us as a skill. Today’s generation learns it about a year ahead of when they learn to use a keyboard and then they are quickly computer literate. My youngest child seemed to start using a computer for homework assignments while still in elementary school. His actual use of cursive was short-lived. He prints when he takes notes. I rarely use cursive now and I find when I want to write a handwritten note, that I actually have to focus on the writing, it’s not second nature anymore.</p>
<p>I think my kids learned it in 3rd grade and then never had to use it again. The bad thing is they really find it hard to read cursive because they have never had to very much. </p>
<p>When I was in boarding school back in the stone ages we had to write everything in italic - with a real italic fountain pen - the sort you filled up from an ink well - not even the ink cartridge type. Man, just writing this it makes me feel really old - like I was just one step after quill pens!! All our homework and essays was done in ink in italic and we got our knuckles rapped with a ruler for poor penmanship. </p>
<p>Would never guess it now - my writing is atrocious. My 87 year old Mum has very nice cursive writing.</p>
<p>I usually use a cursive/print hybrid. It’s…unfortunate looking but seems to have evolved and lasted because it was the fastest way to get my longhand class notes on paper.</p>
<p>Cursive is dying out because the art of handwriting is dying out (due to typing and whatnot). Teachers used to grade that stuff in the 70s and beyond. When I was in grade school in the late 90s and the early 00s it was barely taught. Now its hard to find more that a few people under 25 that can read or write in cursive (from what I’ve seen),</p>
<p>I abandoned cursive as soon as I could - long before computers came along. I can print at least twice as fast. I hated getting graded on penmanship back in grade school. Seemed like a minor physical skill was somehow elevated to the status of an academic subject.</p>
<p>I an a teacher’s aide in the 4th grade at a catholic school…they still teach it, but they do not grade it. There is a state-wide handwriting contest still, and becuz i work for a 65-year-old teacher who prides herself in her beautiful handwriting, she concentrates on it much more than the 25-year-old teacher next door, who doesn’t require the kids to even write their names in cursive on their papers.</p>
<p>one humorous story i have was when my son was getting his first driver’s license. poor child could not make a cursive “J” to save his life…for his OWN middle initial! must’ve tried 7 times before giving up!</p>
<p>my friends and I agree…receiving a handwritten note is a very special gift…and a very rare one indeed. email just isn’t the same.</p>
<p>For my A Level examinations, I wrote the equivalent of 21 essays in 20 hours (spread out over 21 days). The exams are structured such that one typically has between 40 to 60 minutes to write an essay between 3 to 5 sides long (some students can go up to 7 sides for an essay per 45 minutes). For many students I knew doing the A Levels, cursive was a necessary compromise between writing speed and legibility.</p>
<p>It’s not dead yet - I’m 21, and I still tend to cursive, although it’s not a “true” cursive - it’s tailored for utility rather than penmanship, so to speak.</p>
<p>Neither DS nor DD can write in cursive. Once they finished the 3rd grade (when they learned cursive), they both abandoned it. They print in this teeny tiny print that only someone with a magnifying glass can read. Seems to be the trend among their peers. (I think they write so small because they can fit more onto the page when writing essays with a limited amount of space provided.)</p>
<p>I write mostly in cursive. I throw in some print by way of not always connecting my letters. Like others who have posted here, when I was in school I took cursive-based notes that only I could read due to all my made-up shorthand. I can barely read my own notes now that years have passed. Makes me wonder why I saved all those college notebooks.</p>
<p>I was recently looking at some very old census forms. It’s amazing how beautiful and perfect people’s cursive was back then. I think people considered it reflection of themselves.</p>