I’ve written about cursive writing before…you see I was re-acquainted with cursive writing (as a daily activity) about 6 years ago…I found several things from this reintroduction…first, it was harder than I remembered…it takes ‘pains’ to ensure that you can write cursively with some semblance of legibility. Secondly, it is an incredibly expressive way to express oneself. And finally, I became more sensitized and aware that I was doing something few of my peers were engaged in …that is, to write in a manner with which all of us had learned in elementary school…
There are some deeper reasons to get in to the habit of writing cursively. I found that the more I wrote in this manner, the better I was able to read historical documents written in cursive… I found that writing…beyond block letters actually helps to develop some fine motor skills…more than merely learning to use chopsticks, but a bit less than sleight of hand magic (or even pen spinning). As a guitarist, I found that developing better finer control over my hands was a godsend (but that is another long…boring story…).
The Case for Cursive
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28cursive.html?_r=2
Might people who write only by printing — in block letters, or perhaps with a sloppy, squiggly signature — be more at risk for forgery? Is the development of a fine motor skill thwarted by an aversion to cursive handwriting? And what happens when young people who are not familiar with cursive have to read historical documents like the Constitution?
Jimmy Bryant, director of Archives and Special Collections at the University of Central Arkansas, says that a connection to archival material is lost when students turn away from cursive. While teaching last year, Mr. Bryant, on a whim, asked students to raise their hands if they wrote in cursive as a way to communicate. None did.
That cursive-challenged class included Alex Heck, 22, who said she barely remembered how to read or write cursive. Ms. Heck and a cousin leafed through their grandmother’s journal shortly after she died, but could barely read her cursive handwriting.
“It was kind of cryptic,” Ms. Heck said. She and the cousin tried to decipher it like one might a code, reading passages back and forth. “I’m not used to reading cursive or writing it myself.”
A loss of literacy
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/04/a-loss-of-literacy
Here’s a question: does anyone out there have problems writing by hand, period? I do so little on pen/pencil & paper* that I have been noticing some strangeness in my non-signature writing. Usually when I have to send a letter where I have to write out the address, or perhaps to write something on a card. A lot of our day to day tasks are implicit/subconscious. Our “reflexes” emerge through repetition. But what happens when “basic” tasks become exceptional events? I’ve probably gotten much better at typing with my fingers on my smartphone’s screen at this point than printing out letters. As for cursive, don’t even go there….
* Supermarket shopping lists are now a constantly updated Google Doc which I access in my smart phone.
