Cursive writing - being old doesn't mean it has to die!

I'm trying to send this link to as many teachers as I can contact. If you aren't a teacher, then surely you know a teacher. The value in this article below is that a vast body of history will be unavailable to many studious people if their quest for knowledge depends solely on reading documents that are only available in printed or digitized text.
The counter-action to this deprivation would be to inform school board trustees about articles such as are in this link so they might realize their lack of foresight in directing the school curriculum for which they are responsible.
If you have received this from me, please consider passing it on to someone else who might make a difference to what is happening to our youth's comprehension of the world's past.
Sadly, I am unable to pass this message any further than to my English speaking and writing friends!

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/shunned-computer-age-cursive-makes-comeback-california-2024-01-27/?user_email=fc89f8ef4936989ae13d4f442226bc6df204063776de74f998644cde7cc08a46

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

HootyTheNightOwl

Irony is that we won't need writing as much in the future as we do now... it'll all be about how well we can code.

We'd be better off cutting down on those cursive writing lessons and introducing more functional ICT lessons into the curriculum so that children today at least have a chance to get a foot on the ladder right out of school.

JollyRoger · 70-79, M

@HootyTheNightOwl But you are missing my point..... Until 40 years ago many documents of worth: Manuscripts, Wills, Love letters were mostly written in cursive style.... If you are researching the life of someone (who knows whose life that person may become in later history), then access to those documents become an important part of history. Why should a researcher (say in 100 years time) have to become a linguistic archeologist just to read the language they speak? That loss lies on us, the teachers who were short-sighted in our job. WHAT IF: the world of digitized language suddenly collapses and all we're left with for our history is hand-written records?

HootyTheNightOwl

@JollyRoger They're already storing these documents in caves as it is... in the event that we lose access to digital copies of these files - there's nothing to say that we will have anything to fall back on.

We still use Latin to this day... are you fluent in Latin???

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@HootyTheNightOwl I think there will always be space in the curriculum for activities which do not seem to have an immediate economic utility. Why do we bother to learn how to draw or paint pictures, when we have cameras? Handwriting practice teaches children co-ordination, concentration and fine motor skills. Plus digital technology is nowhere near as advanced as its supporters would like us to think. The last set of professional exams I took are still done in longhand (except for dyslexic students) as the conditions of a traditional exam which guard against cheating, etc, cannot yet be replicated electronically.

NativePortlander1970

@HootyTheNightOwl Then history will be lost.

JollyRoger · 70-79, M

@HootyTheNightOwl Addendum: Here's another 'forward looking retro' thinker like me -
this on thinks about preserving 'sound bytes' instead of words on paper.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/desperately-seeking-new-home-3-million-sound-recordings-2024-02-01/?user_email=fc89f8ef4936989ae13d4f442226bc6df204063776de74f998644cde7cc08a46

HootyTheNightOwl

@JollyRoger It's not just cursive writing that is dying... but any form of writing. Our exam boards have decided to start making parts of some exams digital now.

On the one hand, that might help with making exam papers legible and some (listening) parts of exams more disabled friendly... (yes, I still remember struggling with my French listening papers because the tape recorder was distorting in the echoy school hall) - but it would be interesting to understand the security behind the system to ensure that there's no cheating/hacking and make sure that grades can't be influenced in any way after the exams are over. We already had problems with hackers getting into the NHS's systems - so I can see how this could be another challenge to be cracked.

The problem with amassing collections like this is that, like every museum, it has to be profitable. There has to be a way to make it pay for itself - and that can negate the idea of it being "accessible to all".