The current generation, and cursive

[Alpo]

I frequently see people on the internet bemoaning the fact that no one knows how to write anymore. They don't teach it.

 

I don't know whether they teach it now or not. Third grade, where I learned to write, was a very long time ago. I don't know if this generation knows how to write. Most communication I have with people these days is done with a keyboard.

 

But a question occurred to me. If they don't know how to write, how do they find their name? Print it? With an X?

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

As a historian, I spend a lot of time reading original records.  My area is the 18th century, but I have taken some classes on reading medieval Scottish documents, etc.  The fact is, if we have to teach future historians how to read cursive before we teach them the nuances of reading the old documents, we're going to lose entire centuries or perhaps millenia of knowledge. 

 

And, oh by the way, all of our founding fathers wrote in cursive.  No one will be able to read their wisdom if they can't read cursive, and they will be beholden to leftist propagandists who have already twisted what they said.

[Pat Riot]

In reviewing documents for my family tree I have read many Census records and other documents that were written in cursive. After personally bemoaning the fact that cursive is no longer taught a few years ago right here in the  Saloon I have since changed my mind about "writing in cursive". Just because people were taught how  to do it "back in the good old days" it doesn't mean they did it right or followed the teachings of proper writing at the time. 

[J-BAR #18287]

"...all your S's look like F's..."

 

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

19 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

"...all your S's look like F's..."

 

 

Only in printed form.  This one always throws my 20th-21st century brain for a loop, but when an "s" appears in typeface, it is sometimes replaced with a character that looks like a lower case "f" but does not have the crossbar.  "In Congrefs..."  But this is only in printed form, not in handwriting.

[J-BAR #18287]

You are probably too young to remember the comedy album by Stan Freberg, “The United States of America, vol. 1” , produced in 1961.  It contained a skit where the first reading of the Declaration of Independence included “the purfoot of happineff,” prompting my previous post.

 

Strange what geezers can remember.

[irish ike, SASS #43615]

I was thinking about this the other day.  People pay $$$$$$ for a handwritten Lincoln letter. Or similar documents. Books, handwritten music etc are all collectible. For its history and who wrote it. The current future is I'll give you a thumb drive or a "link" to my FB page. What will we be able to enjoy and cherish in the future?

Egyptian or Sumarian hieroglyphs? Nope. My granddaughter was doing math with a calculator. I asked her the same question I asked my kids. What happens if your calculator's battery goes dead? I was doing the math faster in my head than she was using a calculator. The look on her face was one of total disbelief.

[Dirty Dog Doug]

As someone with worst handwritting  I have been printing since high school

Glad I took typing as soon as I could   my grades got alot better when the papers where typed 

[watab kid]

"The fact is, if we have to teach future historians how to read cursive before we teach them the nuances of reading the old documents, we're going to lose entire centuries or perhaps millenia of knowledge. "

 

 

i think that might be the point .................

[Rye Miles #13621]

3 hours ago, Alpo said:

But a question occurred to me. If they don't know how to write, how do they find their name? Print it? With an X?

You mean SIGN???? ( you said find) I guess spelling wasn't your best topic huh??

[Alpo]

Blame otto. I do.

 

Even on the rare occasions that it just might possibly, maybe be my fault, I still blame otto.

[Rye Miles #13621]

7 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Blame otto. I do.

 

Even on the rare occasions that it just might possibly, maybe be my fault, I still blame otto.

You mean "auto"??? I see what you're doing here!

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I sign with a fingernail so often these days...

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

Otto Korrect, great alias.

[Trailrider #896]

I learned cursive in third grade in the Chicago public schools.  When we moved to the suburbs, when I started seventh grade, I found that the kids there had never been taught cursive.  My youngest grandchild was never taught cursive in school, but our daughter who has been a teacher, and was taught cursive in the same school system, has taught the child to read and write cursive.  While I do write in cursive, my handwriting is so bad, and getting worse with age, that I often print for clarity.  I will sometimes mix the two, especially when writing capital letters, such as G, S, T and S to prevent confusion.  As far as historical context is concerned, I fear that future historians are going to have a lot of trouble with written records...as people seldom, if ever, actually write letters anymore!  Most correspondence nowadays is done by email.  Unless a hard copy is printed out, the messages get deleted and volatilizes!  

Stay well and safe, Pards!

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795]

No cursive? How will they sign documents? Or loan papers? Mine isn't the most graceful looking( family curse), but at least I know how to do it

[Sixgun Sheridan]

I was taught how to use cursive in K-12 and for many of those years was required to use it when writing my papers. Since leaving school I can't think of a time I've used it, and now I kinda wonder if I even remember how to do it.

[Rye Miles #13621]

27 minutes ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

I was taught how to use cursive in K-12 and for many of those years was required to use it when writing my papers. Since leaving school I can't think of a time I've used it, and now I kinda wonder if I even remember how to do it.

You haven’t had to sign anything? Titles, drivers license credit cards etc? You don’t print/sign do you?

[Assassin]

I work with a bunch of medical types. Signatures are squiggly lines for them.

 

When our for fathers wrote out everything in cursive the majority of their constituents were illiterate and couldn't read it anyhow. 

 

I get upset when my maintenance crew doesn't know crane signals.

[Texas Lizard]

2 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

I sign with a fingernail so often these days...

Just did that today again...I love doing that....But I have to wait 10 days....

 

Texas Lizard

[Texas Lizard]

1 hour ago, Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 said:

No cursive? How will they sign documents? Or loan papers? Mine isn't the most graceful looking( family curse), but at least I know how to do it

Doc yousign and OCR programs to read it....

 

Texas Lizard

[Sixgun Sheridan]

1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

You haven’t had to sign anything? Titles, drivers license credit cards etc? You don’t print/sign do you?

 

My signature hardly resembles written English in any form.

[Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381]

The current generation can't even change a tire.

[Assassin]

11 minutes ago, Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381 said:

The current generation can't even change a tire.

They don't drive. They just hang out in the basement.

[Michigan Slim]

I learned to write in cursive at a young age. I learned to SPEAK in cursive when I started drinking. 

[Sedalia Dave]

2 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

Unless a hard copy is printed out, the messages get deleted and volatilizes!

 

Most paper these days is so acidic that in 50 years it will be nothing but dust.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

8 hours ago, Alpo said:

I frequently see people on the internet bemoaning the fact that no one knows how to write anymore. They don't teach it.

 

I don't know whether they teach it now or not. Third grade, where I learned to write, was a very long time ago. I don't know if this generation knows how to write. Most communication I have with people these days is done with a keyboard.

 

But a question occurred to me. If they don't know how to write, how do they find their name? Print it? With an X?

I helped out in a local gunshop one year during hunting season.

Must've filled out a thousand hunting licenses.

Told one fellow to sign here and he ducked his head and mumbled that he couldn't sign his name, he never learned how.

"That's okay," said I, "just make your mark, make an X and I'll witness it."

Oh good Lord .. he got HOT!

"Ah cain't do that! That's mah FATHAH's signature! That would be FO'GERY!"

Think fast.

How do I save the sale?

"That's okay," said I.  "Just make a circle, make an O."

He liked that.

He had his own unique signature now.

[Henry T Harrison]

With the exception of my illegible signature I haven’t written anything in cursive in over forty years and I spent twelve years in Catholic schools 

[Alpo]

Ever since I learned it existed, I have used online banking. I pay my bills with online banking. I tell my bank to send a check to such and such business on such and such day, and then don't worry about it.

 

A few months ago I actually had to write a paper check. I was able to write it - print it. I remembered how to fill it out.

 

But before I attempted to sign it I took a blank piece of paper and signed my name four or five times, so my hand would remember how to do it.

 

Several years ago I decided that I would do a mail-in ballot, instead of remembering to get up and go down and vote. So I ordered the ballot, and when it showed up I checked who I wanted to vote for, and then I signed it and put it in the mail.

 

About a month after the election I got a letter from the supervisor of elections office. It said the signature on my ballot did not match the signature they had on file. They said they counted this one, but I needed to come down and prove to them that I was me, and update the signature, or they would not count it again.

 

And I go down there and I look at what they have. The way I sign my name when I was 18 and registered to vote. Yeah things have changed over the 40 years or so, and my signature did not look anything at all like that.

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

1 hour ago, Assassin said:

They don't drive. They just hang out in the basement.

And if they do need to leave they take an Uber.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

8 hours ago, Dirty Dog Doug said:

As someone with worst handwritting  I have been printing since high school

Glad I took typing as soon as I could   my grades got alot better when the papers where typed 

Same here, my wife  says that my write'n is worst than any Doctor's. 

OLG 

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795]

My  family is known for it's pretty crappy cursive. I had an aunt out in California that was a school teacher, her cursive was worse than mine, and mine's pretty bad.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

16 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

"...all your S's look like F's..."

 

Not all,  many but not all.

 

 

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I thought about this for a while before replying, unusual I know.

 

cursive is easy to learn as an adult and the .0001% who have an interest in doing so. Read that as “one in a million.”

 

I learned Cyrillic in 75-76 when I did some work for the Air Force. They were computerizing Russian journals and they want to do twice as many without adding personnel.  Well that’s what they said.  

 

I know that the USArmy people in Berlin who listened to Soviet communications never learned Cyrillic but wrote in Roman letters.

 

in 2015 I decided to learn Russian, the Language.  A#1 thing we did was learn cursive, just like a Russian kid entering first grade. All homework and tests were to be done in cursive. Incidentally many letters a different from print to cursive, it’s not as easy as drawing connecting lines.

 

Whats my point?  The people who have a desire to read 15th century texts will learn how to do it

 

 

 

[sassnetguy50]

3 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

...Whats my point?  The people who have a desire to read 15th century texts will learn how to do it

What about 21st century letters and cards?  I try to print on wedding cards now.  Sometimes muscle memory takes over, writing a word or sentence in cursive.  Reading cursive will be less important as we hand writers die off.  Credit card machines are going away from signatures.  

 

We’ll have to remember how to sign the 4473.