<p>First a little story - on the way out the door to school this morning, my almost 15, freshman son announced that he needed a check for the cafeteria to cover the last couple of weeks of school. I said, do you know how to write a check, he said sort of, my reply - good time to learn, you write it in the car and I’ll sign it. He did indeed have a fair idea of what to do, but when I glanced over at the first stop after he began writing, I noticed that he was PRINTING the check. I say, You can’t PRINT a check! He says, I haven’t written in cursive in 5 years, I don’t know how. And we discovered that indeed, there were some letters he didn’t know how to make at all! The school name begins with an “S”, I had to do that one, after a bit he remembered how to do a lower case f for “fifty”. I could barely believe it! His handwriting was legible, if somewhat labored and childish looking - he hadn’t written in 5 years. He takes a lot of laptop classes, and I use to print in math class. What will he do on the SATs (if he takes them). Do your kids write in cursive???</p>
<p>Mine can, but avoid doing so when possible. We all have absolutely abysmal handwriting; three of four of us are lefties, but the righty is no better. If I could have dropped out of fifth grade to get away from the teacher who tortured me for doing everything wrong (especially persisting in being left-handed), I would have.</p>
<p>When I correct student papers, I have to warn them in advance to have no qualms about asking for translations of my comments!</p>
<p>My younger son, 17, was never taught and never learned cursive. As far as my mother was concerned, this was nearly as bad not learning how to read. I, OTOH, always print, even on checks, and my signature is sort of a hybrid. I can appreciate beautiful penmanship; no one in my family has it.</p>
<p>Who says you can’t print a check? I’ve been doing it for years. Since printing is typically far more legible than cursive, I’m sure the banks prefer printing (except for the signature, of course). </p>
<p>I agree that cursive is becoming a lost art, but with the possible exception of thank you notes, I’m not sure what the value of cursive is in today’s age of computers.</p>
<p>My kids learned cursive in the lower grades and still use cursive alot in school now (they are in 4th & 6th grade). but they go to Catholic school so I think it’s pretty typical that they are taught it.</p>
<p>My husband, age 47, was not taught cursive either and has not suffered for the lack of it. His printing is fluent and easy to read.</p>
<p>Both my children have very nice handwriting, which they were taught by their third grade teacher.</p>
<p>There is no requirement that checks be written in cursive. In fact, I print mine out on my computer and sign them.</p>
<p>Delurking to offer my $0.02 - I’m a freshman in college and am honestly one of the few people I know that still writes in cursive. Most people probably still know how; they just choose not to. Aside from one-word or sometimes one-sentence answers, I always fill out tests in cursive, since for me it offers the best combination of speed and legibility.</p>
<p>Well, “you have to print the check” was what I would call a Mama answer, made under horror and duress, but truly, I’ve never seen an adult person manually print a check, on the computer, yes of course. My real amazement was his inability to write cursive.
Doesn’t cursive “go faster”? I could never have printed fast enough to make it through med school. As an aside, JCAHO is beginning the first assault on MDs’ bad handwriting, by outlawing the abbreviations we all learned on the wards - so cursive may win out there if it is faster. They want computer order entry, but the private docs will fight them tooth and nail.</p>
<p>Oh, and I don’t think he could sign his name, either - of course I signed the check. I’ll have to ask him tonight.</p>
<p>I have seen kids who write in all caps. Imagine the time that takes…</p>
<p>I was taught to write in cursive from day one, though my handwriting remains horrible. But both my kids, born in the US, were taught print and only learned cursive in 3rd or 4th grade. By then, they were too eager to write for content to slow down for the sake of practicing cursive. I think this is why so many Americans do not write in cursive. It is introduced too late (applying Piagetian development theory) to schoolchildren.</p>
<p>I learned cursive in 2nd grade, and was required to write in everything for school in cursive in pencil until 5th grade, and in cursive in black ball point pen until 8th grade (except for math, which was always pencil). </p>
<p>If I need to write quickly I type, since I’m fastest at that. I find that the extra speed of writing in cursive comes with too much difficulty in reading later… my hurried printing is a bit slower than my hurried cursive, but I can actually read the printing later so it’s worth it.</p>
<p>Strange… I write in cursive most of the time (been in American/International-based schools over S.E. Asia and here), and only in print when I’m writing the 12th page of my 16 page letters. My cursive isn’t that messy, I think; definitely not like my history teacher’s, which even I have a problem reading.</p>
<p>I like writing cursive; looks artistic, ‘flowy’ and sometimes I like making little fancy swoops and hooks. 
I consider it quicker than my printing.</p>
<p>My kids can write in cursive and so can I. None of us do, however. By the way, I always print on my checks. </p>
<p>My kids don’t even have to write that much anymore and type more than they write, I think. They are both very fast typists on a keyboard. </p>
<p>I used to teach primary grades and it was a REALLY big deal about cursive writing and the students were dying to learn and be allowed to “do cursive” as it was considered more grown up. I taught a multi grade 1-2-3. Started cursive with second graders. My own kids started younger because they begged to and had already been early readers and writers prior to kindergarten. They knew I had all sorts of teaching materials and wanted me to make them little “cursive” workbooks (I made my own when I taught school, rather than using published cursive books). My kids were so into it back then! But once cursive was no longer required…and also because almost all of their schoolwork was done on computers, I did notice that they only print now. They do sign their names in cursive though!</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>These days, there are many of my students that come in with nearly no cursive, but a good handle of italic script (which I have started using for my programming class…for whatever reason, to me, cursive looks weird for computer programs). OTOH - I really like cursive. I have also “picked up” letters from people - I borrowed my F, I, J, and T from my German teacher and my G from Goldsmith’s Department Store (among others). T’would be interesting if someone had to do a handwriting analysis though - “Clear teutonic origin with traces of retail.”</p>
<p>I pushed and pushed my D’s teachers to teach cursive; they always said it would happen in a later grade and/or should have happened in an earlier grade, so she never learned. I taught her how to write her name, so she could sign in cursive. But she prints everything else. The SAT instructions for the essay portion REQUEST that you print - it’s easier to read. Fortunately, since that’s what she does anyway, she can do it pretty fast – but not neatly. Germans form their letters a little bit differently, so her printing is now something of a hybrid.</p>
<p>My boys were taught cursive; the oldest prints anyway, the second uses cursive. It still seems odd to me, but it seems to be working. What’s ironic is that my oldest learned to read and write before he started kindergarten, and wrote in cursive until his kindergarten teacher made him print. He never went back.</p>
<p>The grade school they went to taught D’Nealian (sp?) printing, which is supposed to set the students up for cursive down the road - the letters have curved tails rather than straight backs. So it seems especially strange that they never continued on with D to teach her to connect the letters.</p>
<p>I was always taught that cursive was faster, and I still think so. But S1 can whip through the symbolic lettering on his Palm even faster!</p>
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<p>I’m an adult and I print everything including checks – everthing except my signature. The signature is cursive. Problem is my cursive is slow to write and hard to read. I abandoned cursive over 40 years ago back in jr. high, basically as soon as the teachers would let me.</p>
<p>I view cursive the same as caligraphy –> looks great when done well but is impractical for daily use.</p>
<p>I <em>ALWAYS</em> print my checks, except for the signature! I have excellent cursive handwriting, but my printing is extremely distinctive and, I’m told, quite beautiful…almost a kind of script in itself. Professors in college would ask me to address their Christmas cards for them and even now, store clerks take a triple take <em>lol</em>. </p>
<p>Oldest S thinks cursive is a waste…He did it for his cursive classes and has printed everything since about 6th grade. No complaints ever from teachers (except none of his writng is all that nice <em>lol</em>).</p>
<p>I do have one child, my fourth (and second boy), who CANNOT…I mean CANNOT, write cursive, despite instruction. I’m sure he has some sort of odd processing issue because when he tries to do it, it comes out like gobbledegook. He can print a sentence in 15 seconds that it would take him 10 minutes to attempt to write in cursive. His teachers always make the exception for him when everyone else is required to write in cursive, which is rarely anyway.</p>
<p>I happen to like the look of beautiful handwriting and appreciate the “old school” cursive, but to me, it’s certainly not something that should take up much time in school.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>This is all quite interesting! My son’s school is another D’Nealian ?sp, school which they switched to after DD went through. They started D’Nealian in kindergarten, then did cursive, basically connecting the letters, not old time cursive, in second grade. There was no writing after second grade, they begin keyboarding using a little spelling computer in 3rd grade, and don’t teach formal keyboarding classes. My son types about 60-70 words a minute, and he is slow.</p>
<p>Printing is okay. My handwriting is a combination of cursive and printing. When I write all cursive, it seems to take too long to connect all the letters.</p>