There is this article about the loss of cursive handwriting. Some people lament it because they wish things were like how they were back in the "good old days". Most people don't give a crap because they type everything. The only thing for which you need cursive these days is to sign your name on the credit card reader at the store. And who knows, maybe in a few years we won't even need it then when they just ask for your thumbprint.
I however do lament the loss of handwriting, but not because I long for the olden times, but because it's pretty. It's everyday art.
I admit my handwriting has gotten chicken-scratchier over the years due to lack of practice, but there are many days when I just sit down with a blank sheet of paper and write the alphabet. It's soothing. And it's easy when you can't think of anything to draw. For each letter I've decided what my A's look like, B's, etc. I still have a hard time deciding how my upper case I's and Q's should look.
I do also have to admit that I can get pretty obsessive over my handwriting. I was entering my signature into Goo's NintendoDS Brain Age (Blue. Bloo. BLUE!) and I insisted on rewriting it like 20 times. It was freaking ridiculous. I can be pretty anal retentive sometimes.
A person's handwriting is also very telling about their personality. You know exactly the kind of girl who dots her i's with circles, or God forbid, hearts. Her letters are always bubbly and probably, so is her personality (for better or worse). My cursive has lots of flourishes, but mostly angles from right to left, which ,some say, indicates that I look to the past too much.
Oh well, if you feel like you're losing your personality on your keyboard, there is a thing that, for a fee, that will make your handwritten letters into computer font. Neat.
Maybe over time, cursive handwriting will become what calligraphy is. Beautiful but outdated, always impressive, but simpler than most people think. So in my opinion, it's worth the effort.
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4 comments:
Thats funny you mention that. I heard that someone who dots their "i"s with circles or hearts are in search of attention. I don't write too much in cursive anymore, but I have been told I write like a girl.
you throw like a girl too. no, wait, that's me.
My handwriting just sucks, always has. And I've gotten sooooo lazy with my signature. I only sign "Danyel" when it's official. Everything else is "DDDonovan" all running together. Jeez, it's not even all of that usually. It's 3 D's, o n and then just scribble.
As a handwriting instruction/improvement/curriculum specialist, I think we need to attend to the research findings (JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, May/June 1998 issue) showing that the fastest and most legible handwriters DO NOT adhere to cursive. (Neither, as it happens, do they really print.)
Highest-speed highest-legibility handwriters join some, not all, letters: making the easiest joins and skipping the rest. Also, highest-speed highest-legibility handwriters tend to use print-like shapes for letters that "disagree" between printing and cursive (even when the handwriter joins letters).
Regarding signatures: The legal sources (extensively researched by me and by my legal counsel) DO NOT justify the common assumption that signatures require cursive. The following material legally defining signatures and writing comes from definitions in BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY (eighth edition) and from definitions in the revised Uniform Commercial Code (law in all fifty USA states).
From the BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY entry for "Signature" -
"A signature may be written by hand, printed, stamped, typewritten, engraved, photographed, or cut from one instrument and attached to another, and a signature lithographed on an instrument by a party is sufficient for the purpose of signing it, it being immaterial with what kind of instrument a signature is made. ... whatever mark, symbol, or device one may choose to employ as a representative of himself is sufficient ... The name or mark of a person, written by that person at his or her direction. In commercial law, any name, word, or mark used with the intention to authenticate a writing constitutes a signature. UCC 1-201(39), 3-401(2). A signature is made by use of any name, including any trade or assumed name, upon an instrument, or by any word or mark used in lieu of a written signature."
From the BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY definition for "Writing" -
"The expression of ideas by letters visible to the eye."
Articles 1-201 (39) and 1-201 (46) of the revised Uniform Commercial Code :
(39) "Signed" includes any symbol executed or adopted by a party with present intention to authenticate a writing.
(46) "Written" or "Writing" includes printing, typewriting, or any other intentional reduction to tangible form.
Neither source mentions cursive as a requirement for signatures or for handwriting. Teachers must do many things, but must they lie to children about the law of the land? Every time a teacher says "Signatures must use cursive," that teacher has lied about the laws of the government under which we live.
For more information/resources on the above issues (and on other handwriting instruction/performance issues), visit my web-site at http://www.learn.to/handwrite . You can also contact me via e-mail at handwritingrepair@gmail.com or via phone at 518/482-6763. By the way ... teaching kids to READ cursive (whether or not they write it) takes an hour or less if done properly. I have taught five- and six-year-olds to read cursive, if they could read print.
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