Barney & Clyde by Gene Weingarten; Dan Weingarten & David Clark for November 25, 2012

Going, going, gone.

Although my handwriting is very bad, I believe it should be required in school. Typed homework could and often is done by someone else for the busy kid, like one of the parents. With handwritten homework the teacher can tell when a student is using a ringer. And knows if the kid can express themselves.

Cursive has nothing to do with speed, and everything to do with dip pens and fountain pens that tended to spatter or leak if the letterforms did not “flow”. Cursive became obsolete with the widespread use of ballpoint pens.

Of course it should still be taught, but not as a basic skill. Really it belongs in art class, the same as calligraphy.

I’m faster with cursive but I’m the only one who can read it afterwards.

funny – there was an article about this in today’s Living section of the newspaper

It is all stolen, without shame, from this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/gene-weingarten-cursive-foiled-again/2012/10/18/26ae0e30-117a-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_story.html

My cursive is not a pretty sight. My children do know how to write in cursive, my 11 year old daughter is teaching my 7 year old.

When I took the PSAT about a month ago it required us to copy out a statement in cursive. Most of the kids didn’t know how to write in cursive and the teacher just told us to fake it.

Cursive is obsolete. I don’t really see what the big deal is anyway. With the kids today not only printing, but writing in txt language, spelling is also obsolete. The English language is in danger of becoming as extinct as Latin. I agree with the poster above that said cursive should be taught in art class like calligraphy. A sound idea.

Hand printing can be expressive, too. See old Pogo comics for examples.

I took drafting (Mechanical,and Architectural) courses in High School and everything was hand printed (usually all capitals). After graduation I had several Drafting jobs and ALL required hand printing. This was before CAD. To this day I still print everything. Except my legal signature.

Barney, your cursive is terrible; use it much?

If nobody can WRITE in cursive it means that nobody can READ cursive. My daughter is in Grade 1 and asked me if I was writing in French.

Barney has a point here, if only for half the reasons he gives. As if every conceivable career path should involve a computer…

Civics class at that age? I went through 12 years of school (not counting kindergarten because I never went) and I never once had a civics class.