I've heard some schools are reintroducing it now, but that doesn't help those that never learned.

I don't remember people ever writing cursive like what I was taught growing up. People just self-servingly turbo-scribble some chicken-scratch and call it a day. The kid who can't read our B-movie elvish script isn't the one with literacy issues.

We either write within the ballpark of standardization, or we don't. I think kids should be required to put in as much effort into learning cursive, as people put into actually writing cursive. Which is to say, absolutely none at all.

(Sorry to people who actually write legible, clean cursive. I wish I got to read your output in the wild.)

It's not that I never learned how to read cursive; it's that nobody actually writes it legibly.

Conservatives are trying to prevent kids from learning history and sex ed, and we're still hearing this bullshit lamentation about CURSIVE?

Schools are underfunded, teachers are underpaid and overworked, students are graduating barely able to read and with no critical thinking skills.

Who in their right mind is actually concerned about kids learning cursive?

Things I'd rather schools focus on:

Typing, Personal finance, Current events, Technology literacy, Graphic design, Human Computer Interaction

Or maybe practical skills related to trades or how to fix things: CAD, Cooking, Electrical, Plumbing

Literally ANYTHING but this cursive crap. It's useless, it's dead, move on.

Not being able to write cursive I understand.

Not being able to read cursive is an issue that will out your lesser education and put you at a disadvantage in social situations.

This is so puzzling to me, here in Brazil everyone writes in cursive, we all learned fine as children, it exists because it's easier and faster to write with it and you are going to write a lot during all your school life.

Can someone explain why one cannot read cursive? It is just a tilted (sometimes fancy) font, what's so hard about it?

Edit: After being made aware by a fellow lemmy'er and googling it, it seems I confused cursive with italics, English is not my first language. Though I learned cursive at school when I was 6 without realizing it is called cursive in English. It was part of the basic curriculum at that time, didn't know this wasn't a thing in other countries.

I mean the problem isn't whether they taught cursive or not, it's whether you actually use it or not. Cause I was taught cursive in school but barely know how to write it now cause I never have to use it.

It isn't just cursive. I've seen a lot of younger people have issues reading bad copies of older print letters. Part of it isn't being used to seeing information presented in a certain way or not being found via OCR.

Fuck cursive. Being forced to write in that was absolute torture. The forced use of specific esoteric hand-cramping illegible scribbles is asinine.

There surely was a use for penmanship before the proliferation of ballpoint pens and typewriters, but the way it was taught while I was in school was completely backwards. The intent of writing in script is to quickly flow from one letter to another without needing to lift the nib of a quill; rote learning of individual hieroglyphs with full disregard for the writer's natural hand movements is at best asinine, and at worst cruel.

The fact that we were tormented decades in the past doesn't justify more torment now. Be better.

Cursive is dumb anyways. Let's have a second way to write that's harder To do, less legible, and designed for old school fountain pens no one uses that have difficulty with upstrokes

The only times I used cursive was to sign my name on important documents. Now I don't even do that anymore. I just write my name with normal letters without lifting the pen.

I thought cursive was the American word for joined up handwriting, but reading this thread I don't really get what it means.

Permanently Deleted

In this thread:

Americans: Why do I need to learn it when I can just type?

The World: It's literally just writing. You don't want to learn how to write??

I write exclusively in cursive. It's natural for me and everyone around me was taught it as well.

I hate cursive.

For me I was taught cursive in elementary school, but it felt like I couldn't keep up writing assignments so i just stuck with printing which evolved to chicken scratch notes.

I don't get it. Are children in north-america taught writing with block letters ? What do your writing copybooks look like ?

The only time I ever use cursive is when I write my signature, and it's mostly just loops and squiggles.

Americans why are they like this?

Faster and easier than copying a typeface.

"Omg it's so hard. It might as well be in Chinese "

Meh...cursive shouldn't be a compulsory lesson. It should be part of art or advanced lit. It just not a necessary skill these days.

From what I understand cursive was supposed to help children practice fine motor control. But now that our main ways of communicating with one another involve using one's fine motor control let alone anyone who's touched a gaming system of any kind the cursive is kinda superfluous

We learned cursive in second grade, meaning that when I was eight years old I knew how to write in cursive. Now I can still read it, but have very little idea of how to write it.

As in, joined-up writing?

I don't actually knew what "cursive" meant, searched it and I was today years old when I learned that "cursive" is everybody's handwriting around here. Why should it be different? Nothing is quicker. Ask my doc.

I hate how way more school districts (at least in North America) insist on teaching kids cursive than the ones that teach kids how to touch type.

Which skill do you reckon they'll find more valuable in their adulthood?

It doesn't help anyone. It's an antiquated skill that's only being brought back to pander to the boomer class.

I was taught how to do joined up writing I. Primary school (no idea if that's cursive though) as soon as I was told in secondary school that I didn't have to write joined up, I stopped. I've always struggled reading cursive, if I play a game and it has it for journals then I can't read it at all. Especially when it's older style cursive like from the 1800s or early 1900s.

There are many old documents written in hieroglyphs. Most people have come across hieroglyphs at one point or another. I don't think most people wold benefit from being taught hieroglyphs in their childhood.

How the hell can be people so illiterate??

Bold of this lady to think that the authors most likely to see their books in public and school libraries get any meaningful say in book cover design.

Image Transcription: Twitter Post

Jessica Malone Grider, @mrs_g_rider

Please stop using cursive fonts for YA book covers. I can't get them to circulate because the teens can't read cursive.

I'm gen z and learned cursive, so I don't know what generation didn't.

Don't lower yourselves to the lowest denominator.

Please use only Noto Sans Linear A Bold Size 42 for cover

The other end of the spectrum would be block lettering like old architectural documents usually had.

those who never learned

FTFY

People need to know cursive, it's part of our language. Most languages have this.
And learn METRIC already you heathens!!!

Turns out that cursive is just a terrible way of writing. Yes, some people think it looks fancy but in terms of functionality it's absolute garbage.

Or...people can stop being catered too because they are uneducated. I'm sick of things being dumbed down to suit the lowest common denominator.