Have You Experienced the Curse of Cursive Handwriting
If you’re of a certain age, perhaps you learned cursive writing, also known as script, a way of writing that’s almost extinct. It’s not being taught in most schools anymore, something I find disappointing. I love my cursive writing because I find it so much faster.
When I have to fill out forms that instruct me to “please print neatly” I find it slow and tedious. I know I could write it out very clearly and much faster – my handwriting is quite nice, the result of a parochial school education and hours of practicing the Palmer method.
What Is Cursive Writing?
Perhaps you don’t even know what cursive writing is? It’s a style of penmanship that joins the letters together so that one writes in a continuous, flowing way, not lifting the pen from the paper after each letter. It’s very functional, used for ordinary daily writing as well as in calligraphy.
When I was a child, it was the universal way one wrote. In school, we spent hours practicing the Palmer method, making continuous circles that looked like a long slinky, or continuous spike-like strokes that looked like an EKG. We were taught to move our arm from the elbow to the fingertips, in a gliding motion, rather than just the hand. It was fun!
I never thought of cursive writing as anything special. It was just the way I wrote, as did all my peers. And it never occurred to me that discontinuing it would have ramifications – but it does!
If You Can’t Write It, You Can’t Read It
For one thing, if you never learn how to write cursive, you can’t read it! I found this out when I left my grandson a note one day when I went out – “Gone to the store. Back soon.”
When I got home, he asked me where I had gone, and I said, “Didn’t you see my note?”, to which he replied, “I did, Granny, but I don’t know how to read cursive.” I knew it wasn’t being taught anymore, but it never occurred to me that this meant young people couldn’t read it.
Historical Documents
So, where does that leave the Declaration of Independence? When Thomas Jefferson drafted the document before the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain, he joined most but not all the letters.
However, a few days later, it was rewritten in the fully joined, “proper” cursive style we see on display now. Think of John Hancock’s beautiful large scroll, written large and first so that Britain’s King George could “read it without spectacles.” Would it be the same in printed block letters???
What About Signatures?
Which brings up signatures. For generations, our signature has been an indicator of our authenticity, analyzed by handwriting experts to determine if it’s genuine. Can you do that with print?
Often, we’re asked to sign below and print our name beneath it. Is a printed signature legal? Can experts tell if it’s genuine? My research tells me that not only are printed signatures legal, but even something like a smiley face can be! Good grief! Remember when illiterate people made their X?
Apparently, cursive is making a return to school curriculums in the United States. One of the things holding it up is the lack of teachers who know it and know how to teach it.
Handwriting in all forms will probably disappear completely someday, now that we’ve entered the era of typing on a computer or pecking out messages in texts. But personally, I hope that cursive returns.
Let’s Have a Conversation:
How do you feel about it? Is it being taught in your school districts? Can your children and grandchildren read cursive? Can you share a story where your handwritten note could not be deciphered? Let have a laugh together!
Tags Nostalgia
I find it pathetic when I see an adult scrawling their so-called signature like they are a five year old child. I think the loss of cursive is really sad. I was talking recently with a young woman (early 20s maybe) who said she had been taught cursive but no longer remembered how to do it.
It’s sickening that cursive isn’t being taught in schools, anymore.
I am a certified handwriting analyst in two fields: question document examination and personality assessment. They are separate fields of work requiring separate certifications. I owned a business Character in Ink for more than 35 years when I still lived in the United States. (I live in Ecuador now.)
Each writer’s handwriting is unique, true even any marks made on paper. That is the reason why your signature is legal verification of who you are. The idiosyncrasies and characteristics in writing become automatic with time and practice. Aspects such as slant, depth, size, spacing, regularity, tightness, looseness, connectiveness, breaks, and so many more. And, those unique indications not only identify the writer, they also reveal the personality traits of the person. It isn’t guesswork; What is on the page is measured, analyzed and evaluated correctly if the analyst is trained through careful study.
The advantage is that writing can be analyzed whether the subject is alive or dead. I never actually met most of my clients whose handwriting I analyzed. Hundreds of people.
One interesting point about signatures: a signature that is very different from the rest of a person’s writing indicates a discrepancy. It indicates the desire to be seen in a certain way.
Case in point: Donald Trump. (This is not a biased or political comment.) He selected that angular formation everyone has seen many times. He practiced to achieve the look he wanted. The body of his writing is not cursive. It is heavy all-caps block printing and it appears in the middle zone of handwriting. (Where the lower case small letters appear. So, there are no projections into the upper zone nor into the lower zone.)
I spent the majority of my business life doing personality assessments for hiring, promoting and conflict resolution. Ditto doing personal analyses and compatibility reports. Later, I traveled to conduct seminars for fellow analysts in the United States and Canada.
It is true that much has been lost by not teaching cursive in school. A colleague of mine wrote a book entitled, What America Lost, which proves that point.
I remember hours at school on the late ‘70s practising script. With an ink pen. Line after line of letters such as f, h, j, l, y etc. Anything with a loop. We didnt question it, and ALWAYS had spare cartridges in case the one in the pen ran dry.
I love cursive. Learning it in 3rd grade was a mini right of passage. I still remember my teacher, Mrs. McGuire. She was a perfectionist and great teacher. I still use cursive as well as Gregg Shorthand! A handwritten card, note, or letter is very special.