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Has cursive (joined up) handwriting ceased to be taught in schools, and if so when did the change occur? Neither of our grandchildren use cursive handwriting.
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Yes it's still taught. Children are normally taught to print first though.
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>> Yes it's still taught.
Judging by our teenage grandchildren, they clearly don't get a rap on their knuckes with the edge of a wooden rule for disobeying, like we did!
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When I visited Vindolanda near Hadrian's Wall last year I was intrigued by the tablets that had been preserved in the mud for 1,800 years. An archaeologist explained to me that they were in Old Roman cursive script and apart form the poor condition some had been difficult to translate because of the poor quality of the handwriting and the bad grammar and spelling.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Mon 16 Apr 12 at 15:17
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>> because of the poor quality of the handwriting and the
>> bad grammar and spelling.
>>
The Romans invented the mobile telephone and text-messaging, then?
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From the extent and crudity of their graffiti on the temples at Luxor, it wouldn't surprise me!
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I recall travelling to Rome, by thumb, back in 1987.
I was amazed that all those beautiful buildings all over the city were besmiched by so much grafitti.
Must have been the devil's own job to airbrush the rubbish off of the postcards, in those days before photoshop.
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>> >>
>> The Romans invented the mobile telephone and text-messaging, then?
>>
They, or later Latin writers, invented a system of abbreviations and the use of little marks and lines to indicate syllables omitted for speed.
And like most pre-telephone civilisations they had an elaborate system of runners and signallers to communicate quickly.
What was that interesting fact about the Spanish Armada ? The government in London knew of its sighting off Plymouth about half an hour later, through a chain of semaphore towers?
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>> What was that interesting fact about the Spanish Armada ? The government in London knew of its sighting off Plymouth about half an hour later, through a chain of semaphore
>> towers?
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The semaphore towers were Napoleonic, Shirley?
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They used a chain of beacons i believe. There are still many beacon hills about as indded there are telegraph hill form the later technology
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yup beacons for Philip of Spains arrival, One of the later telegraph towers is preserved near me
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>> Judging by our teenage grandchildren, they clearly don't get a rap on their knuckes with
>> the edge of a wooden rule for disobeying, like we did!
They stopped burning witches, and using the gibbets too.
Who needs to write in long hand these days? One needs to fill out forms in block and one needs to type emails. This is the 21st century, not the 1700's
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>> Who needs to write in long hand these days?
About a year ago, I received a letter of application for a job we were recruiting for. It was addressed to me personally and beautifully handwritten on expensive letter paper. This meant it stood out like a mile from the usual suspects massively exagerrating about their abilities in anonymous PDF documents, which we normally get from the HR agency. The CV was good as well, but he'd already grabbed my attention.
I interviewed the guy and offered him a job. He turned us down and went somewhere else. What struck me was the amount of care it implied. You can modify an anonymous letter of application, at least making sure you get the address right, whilst drinking a glass of wine and watching CSI Miami. Handwritten though - that takes effort. And it worked.
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IN most companies it would get dumped because it wouldn't be machine readable.
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I guess it's like that in big companies and the HR agencies who serve smaller companies like us. The machine readable thing has disadvantages though. I get inundated with CVs from people who turn out not to be suitable, presumably because it's so easy to generate 100s of context sensitive CVs and application letters these days.
All the CVs tend to look similar, because all the HR agencies work to a similar structure. It's nice to encounter someone who breaks the mould and manages to communicate this by the simple method of taking 30 minutes of their time and writing something by hand.
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They start teaching cursive in year 3 (age 7 to 8) at my kids primary school, both my daughters, aged 8 and 11 write better than I do, I now get them to do Christmas and birthday cards.
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>> They start teaching cursive in year 3 (age 7 to 8) at my kids primary
>> school,
That's good to know.
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I have very little sense of touch left in most of my fingers due to injuries received many years ago. My handwriting used to be pretty good prior to that but since then I really struggle with ball point pens, and as for rollerball types, well, forget it ! I'm not too bad with a sharp pencil or a fountain pen because they sort of "grip" the paper and I can compensate for the lack of feel. With anything which "slips" easily on the paper I'm stuffed ! Sometimes, when faced wih no choice but to use such a pen the results are so random I can't even read them myself !
Thank goodness so many things can be written using keyboards now. Touch screens are another nightmare for me as I can't always tell if I'm touching them or more accurately, how firmly I'm touching them and similarly the trackpad thingys on laptops. Ok with a clicky mouse but those slidey things, yeugh ! I was given an ipad thing to use for work recently. Hate it for fairly obvious reasons.
I found some written work from my schooldays recently and couldn't believe how neat it was.
My father, who was born before WW1, had quite the most beautiful "copperplate" handwriting. My mother, born a couple of decades later, had very neat handwriting but not in the same way. Even by then, I think standards must have modernised.
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"I have very little sense of touch left in most of my fingers due to injuries..."
Lucky you, Humph. I heard that sitting on your hand till your hand went numb gave you a better five knuckle shuffle.
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My writing used to be quite good, old ways of schooling i suppose, certainly no artistic talent.
Seldom make much use of it now and my writing these days is a scrawl i can barely read meself, might just as well dip a spider in the ink and let him write for all the legibility put on paper.
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For the last 15 years I only used longhand on cheques. I now write one cheque a month and I struggle to do it.
Its just one of those skills that is no longer required or used.
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In the absence of technology, then when I'm doing quick notes, as I'm naturally left handed, I scrawl with that. However, not all that long ago I taught myself to write with my right hand for the heck of it. Struggled at first, but now is better than the left.
I enjoy longhand when I need to slow up a bit, when I'm doing my stories or various research or projects. The brain seems to work better, and you have to get your phrasing right as you go, not endlessly delete and replace.
For me, there's a place in my life for slower handwritten material. Also being able to write with both hands means I have two distinct signatures - which has its uses....
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Give me a pen and paper any day!! - Biros are ok for everyday use, but for "Special" occasions (birthday cards, Invitations etc) I bring out my Parker Fountain-pen (21st present) and my bottle of Black Quink-Ink.
My Brother taught himself to write in "Olde - English" Copperplate as a kid, and can now write in it as fast as I can scrawl! - Tis a skill I often envy of him!
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>> They start teaching cursive in year 3 (age 7 to 8) at my kids primary
>> school, both my daughters, aged 8 and 11 write better than I do, ..............
Are the letter shapes the same as they were when, say, you learned to write?
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Couldn't say, but I have always had terrible handwriting.
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I was taught Marion Richardson style, still popular in the 50s and 60s, which has fewer loops than the standard looped cursive (e.f. the top of an f which is just a hook in MR) and has the 'open' b's and p's that look a bit like shepherd;s crooks.
It actually looks a bit childish even when done well, and it has morphed into very untidy looped cursive - I am a very scruffy writer., as is my wife, who was also taught MR looking at her b's and p's.
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>> They start teaching cursive in year 3 (age 7 to 8) at my kids primary
>> school, both my daughters, aged 8 and 11 write better than I do, I now
>> get them to do Christmas and birthday cards.
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Must be about the same age in my kids school - 9 year old has been using cursive handwriting for the last year or so, but my 8 year old is not using it, although she struggles at school with the three R's
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These are the letter shapes, by and large, that I was taught (in the 1940s) to use in cursive handwriting. tinyurl.com/cemkxly
Last edited by: L'escargot on Wed 18 Apr 12 at 09:28
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Asked my daughter about this and she teaches cursive in year one - 5/6 year olds - and finds it frustrating that Reception classes don't teach cursive.
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Cursive handwriting - CGNorwich
