<p>Regarding signatures, I agree with the observation that most people use squiggles, even if they can/do write in cursive. I used to work for a guy whose signature consisted of a squiggly line that turned into a straight line. In no way did it even VAGUELY follow the contours of his name.</p>
<p>^^Studies have shown that the higher status people attain in life the less legible their cursive signature becomes. The CEO’s signature is rarely more than meaningless squiggles, but the entry-level secretary’s signature is usually quite readable.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about those kids who aren’t learning cursive–there will be fewer and fewer occasions on which anybody will have to read cursive. As for signatures, you can always just make a big X.</p>
<p>My signature still bears a faint resemblance to cursive writing. The first and last letters are - if not decipherable, at least defensible. After twenty years my secretary can do a reasonable forgery on checks and letters. Maybe it’s time for a new secretary. ;)</p>
<p>Last year I learned that my HS senior D and her friends could not read cursive well. I was shocked. Yesterday her grandmother sent both my D and me notes in the mail, written in very old cursive style. She handed hers to me and said, “Can you read this?” Of course I could, and of course I was shocked again. I always write in cursive and my D has a nice cursive hand when she does it. That is why I was so surprised she couldn’t read it. I have kept journals for 25 years in cursive with the intention of handing them over at some time to someone. Will anyone be able to read them?</p>
<p>S1 learned cursive in third grade and everything he did on fourth grade had to be in cursive. After that no one seemed to care. Now he prints. He has no prob. signing his name but don’t know if he could really read cursive writing. He’s twenty-three.</p>
<p>S2’s third grade teacher spent the last two weeks of school teaching cursive. The kids could not have cared less at that point.<br>
They learned to write their names. That was about it. S2 was never asked to use it again in school at any time.
He can sign his name but am pretty sure he’d have a hard time reading cursive. S2 is twenty.</p>
<p>I guess I’m one of the few who still uses cursive writing on a regular basis. Although many medical facilities are phasing out hand written notes in medical charts there are some that still work the old fashioned way. Just to show my age, I find this much more efficient. As for my kids they barely learned to write in cursive and their signatures look like they are written by someone who just learned to write. As much as computers do for us I still think there are times that good pen and paper skills are very useful and the schools have shortchanged them. Those of the ages of my kids 16-19 really fell through the cracks because keyboard skills were also not taught. Fortunately, facebook and instant messaging have helped tremendously in filling in these gaps!</p>
<p>Until I saw this thread, I didn’t even realize that so many people my age can’t read cursive, let alone write it. I’m 19, but I use longhand for nearly everything. In my politics class, I was the only one, out of 75 students, that took handwritten notes. What’s funny is that I normally had better, more thorough notes because I can write efficiently with cursive. Most of the others typed too slow, or got distracted half way through the lecture and perused Facebook…</p>
<p>We were taught cursive in the third and fourth grade and we were required to use it on everything - even a slip of paper - in fourth and fifth grade. As a result, we loathed it. Everyone immediately went back to using print in sixth grade and all but one or two students have used print since. Cursive is much slower than print (if you want it to be legible), at least for our generation. I know enough cursive to sign my name, although the vast majority of that is print anyways. I can print very quickly and neatly. Cursive is like a dinosaur - yeah, it used to work, but there are much more efficient ways of writing now. As for speed, I wrote eleven pages (eleven sides, I should say) in 75 minutes on the AP English Literature exam. And I have really small print.</p>
<p>I do wish schools would do away with cursive. We spent a LOT of time on cursive - a bit of second grade, almost all of third grade English, and then much of fourth and fifth grade in the form of mandated writing assignments and handwriting checks. That time could have been spent elsewhere, especially on something that the students weren’t going to abandon in middle school anyway.</p>
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<p>I completely agree: definitely the most challenging part of the test. I think I just wrote with loopy print. I don’t pick up my pencil when I print (people pick up their pencils?), so instead of trailing over the page I just wrote darkly so it looked like my print was cursive-connected.</p>
<p>I was never taught how to type either. I type about 40 wpm - 50 on a good day but my accuracy never has a good day. I look at the keyboard, although I don’t have to, it’s mostly habit. I type with 3-4 fingers in my own way. I really need to learn to touch type and I wish I could (any ideas? I have 34 days before college), so that I could type faster and stop habitually learning at the keyboard. But it is difficult to learn to type al over again when I already type sufficiently.</p>
<p>applicannot - I was never taught to type, either. I actually learned through Instant Messaging. When I first got it, I had to stare at the keyboard and I typed using only my index fingers. Now, I can touch type upwards of 95 WPM. </p>
<p>You should try some online typing games, like TypeRacer. Kind of lame, I know, but they do help. And they’re kind of addicting, but that might just be because I’m a nerd.</p>
<p>Keyboarding…my husband always laughs at himself. He remembers taking typing in high school (you know with carbon paper and white out and inky ribbons) and rolling his eyes about how stupid it was to take the class…he was NEVER gonna need to know how to type! Maybe cursive will have a new “futuristic” purpose some day.</p>
<p>I often teach composition as one of the many English courses I teach on the college level. The students all write cursive. </p>
<p>My two kids both use cursive. One (D) uses a modified form, half printing/half cursive she devised herself and S, who is a lefty, uses cursive.</p>
<p>H uses cursive but we wish he wouldn’t. He printing isn’t any better. He too lazy to lift up his pencil when he writes 4’s, so all his 4’s look like 7’s or 9’s. All his phone numbers and addresses read wrong. Grr.</p>
<p>I used cursive, printing, combination. I devised a handwriting I really liked in high school and still use it.</p>
<p>However, all of us use the computer so much that it is kind of moot.</p>
<p>I write all my articles, short stories, poems, novels, letters, whatever first draft on computer.</p>
<p>I tell my students to do the same, but they prefer cursive first drafts. At least that means <em>some</em> editing is going on.</p>
<p>Gosh… now I feel very fortunate reading all this. I was taught both cursive and touch-typing in 3rd grade. I didn’t think it was unimportant then, and I still think it’s important now.</p>
<p>I didn’t use cursive outside of essays while I was in high school, but now in college I find it so useful for taking notes. I also just enjoy how it looks, so I use it even for writing grocery lists.</p>