<p>m2ck - I read somewhere (I think in one of DD’s Josefina stories from the American Girl Collection) that people from earlier days use to create beautiful handwriting and signatures precisely because they saw their handwriting as a reflection of their intelligence and economical status. Hmmm . . . what does that say about us? :)</p>
<p>I only write in cursive.</p>
<p>I love writing in cursive. I love the beauty and fluidity of the letters and words. My children never write in cursive, though.</p>
<p>I think one of the reasons handwriting has gone awry is that it became a component of some reading programs and the same amount of time is no longer spent teaching it. I was not satisfied with my younger son’s printing or cursive and I wasn’t happy with the program at our school. I ended up researching programs on my own. </p>
<p>I found a program I liked called Handwriting Without Tears. It was developed by an occupational therapist and offers a developmental approach to handwriting. I also teach at the school my son attends and presented the program to the lower school staff. They all loved it and it is the program we now use JrK-4. HWT introduces cursive in third grade. Our students have done well with the program and the teachers all comment about the improved handwriting skills.</p>
<p>Some links:</p>
<p>[Rx</a> for Poor Penmanship at Hand for Doctors? - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/2003/aug/11/local/me-handwriting11]Rx”>Rx for Poor Penmanship at Hand for Doctors?)</p>
<p>[Kate</a> Gladstone’s Handwriting Repair: Handwriting That Works](<a href=“http://www.handwritingrepair.info/]Kate”>http://www.handwritingrepair.info/)</p>
<p>[Jane’s</a> Ride: A Brief History of Handwriting](<a href=“http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/2010/01/brief-history-of-handwriting.html]Jane’s”>Jane's Ride: A Brief History of Handwriting)</p>
<p>Some of the census forms had beautiful penmanship. Unfortunately, many did not and they are virtually illegible.</p>
<p>An increasing number of school systems in my state have done away with cursive instruction. I agree with an earlier poster. Typing, and algebra I also, have consistently been the two HS courses I have used on a daily basis.</p>
<p>I’m actually not a parent, but as a recent high school grad I can say that although some teachers required certain things to be written by hand, most discouraged cursive because in 90% of cases it is simply illegible. Most of the girls I know have very neat, “print” handwriting that I would even call a sort of art. I enjoy writing by hand and making it look pretty, I just hate how ugly cursive (usually) is. As for cursive being faster…well, I don’t know. I’ve never had any speed problems with my usual handwriting, and I take notes by hand.</p>
<p>My son is going into seventh grade in a NYC public school. He has never learned to read or write cursive. I worry about that.</p>
<p>My S learned cursive, but his handwriting is atrocious. I encourage him to do everything possible by word processing/printing.</p>
<p>My D’s are in Catholic school, the rising 6th grader does everything in cursive, though it is pretty poor looking (doesn’t seem to affect her grades)</p>
<p>I can hardly hold a pen anymore due to carpal tunnel issues; I write anything by hand as a last resort. (I hate! hate! multipage applications or forms that have to be filled out by hand)</p>
<p>I, too, only write in cursive and use it every day. I learned to write fast on law school exams and printing is so …s l o w.</p>
<p>Can’t type for beans.</p>
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Has he written his signature yet? If not, will you plan to teach him that so he can use it on checks, CC slips, and documents? I wonder if some people are now just printing for their signature. Some docs used to indicate not to ‘print’ the signature but I wonder if that’s reasonable anymore.</p>
<p>I love finding odd notes or recipies that my mom had written out in cursive. Her handwriting makes me happy and i feel as if i still have a part of her although she has been gone for 15 years now.</p>
<p>I love to write in cursive- I think better that way. Anyone remember the Palmer method? I loved practicing the o’s and diagonal lines. Of course, I went to grade school in the 1960’s. </p>
<p>I never took a typing course,and cannot touch type- I have to look at the keyboard. I can compose with a keyboard, but my best writing comes when I have a pen or pencil in my hand.</p>
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<p>No real need. The fact is, many of us who know how to write our names in cursive, have a signature that does not resemble actual cursive but is maybe one recognizable first letter followed by an incomprehensible squiggle. No one seems to have a problem with it.</p>
<p>Yeah, honestly. If your son’s name is George Smith, you can probably get away with something that looks like g~~`~~ it probably won’t be scrutinized again until someone steals his identity and uses it to sign up for a terror website.</p>
<p>zooser, I’ve been concerned that my son who, like yours, is entering 7th grade, cannot write in cursive. There was an attempt to teach it at some point, but it was never really pursued. My older son didn’t learn it, either, and he uses printing that is so small that I’m surprised his teachers accept it. </p>
<p>I had the intention of teaching S2 cursive myself this summer, and printed out some worksheets I found online, but somehow I never got to it.</p>
<p>I have letters that my father and my uncles wrote home during WWII. Every one of them had beautiful cursive writing. I think it came from the nuns.</p>
<p>As I read this, I can see why it is useful to teach it still because our kids may need to READ it at some point. Sort of like learning Roman numerals, I guess. But rarely will they write in it. Even though my kids write hand written thank you notes, they usually print them.</p>
<p>I’m one of very few in my friend circle who uses cursive with any regularity. I retaught myself in junior year because I realized it was kind of stupid to have wasted all of third grade learning something I never used.</p>
<p>I went to a private school in TX (way easier than my public school in CA!) through the middle of 4th grade. My primary beef with their handwriting program was that K and 1st were just printing, yes, and 3rd was cursive, that’s fine, but 2nd was D’nealian. Which is basically just print with loops and swooshes added on. It was supposed to be a stepping stone sort of thing but even as a 2nd grader I just thought it was a waste of time.</p>
<p>I too find cursive way faster than printing, which requires you to lift your hand a lot.</p>
<p>As a college student, I rarely see cursive used. I’ve always found it faster to print and IMHO, printing also makes written communication easier with people due to printed characters’ similarity to typed ones. I agree about signatures not always being “textbook cursive.” Official documents get my normal signature, but when signing relatively unimportant things, my signature is a much less legible version of my normal signature. </p>
<p>It’s been mentioned elsewhere on CC that the section on the SAT where one has to write out the certification statement in cursive is possibly the most difficult part of the test and I’d have to agree. That said, I feel quite confused when I see high school students printing their name instead of signing a document.</p>