• EatATaco@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    My kids are learning cursive and I’m glad they are doing so.

    But one of the main point of cursive was to be able to write more quickly, and typing has absolutely replaced that need, many times over. And also you learn print first, so not learning how to write cursive doesnt mean you don’t learn to write.

    Ironically, your post is supposed to be insulting Americans for not being smart, but God damn is the point fucking stupid and ignorant.

    • Benaaasaaas@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      We don’t learn “print” at all in Europe, so cursive is a synonym for writing here.

    • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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      11 months ago

      It wasn’t meant to be insulting to Americans, the hate for learning to join up letters and write quickly just doesn’t really make sense to the rest of us.

      You know what’s stupid and fucking ignorant? Assuming everyone has a laptop on them all the time. Do people really not write notes anymore? Handwriting notes is much more conducive to learning than typing and is a basic skill that aids education at all levels.

      • ShaRose@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        I’ve got a phone on me far more than I have a writing instrument, let alone paper: and I suspect that is true for the overwhelming majority of people.

        I’ll even just give you that cursive improves retention and learning and fine motor skills (there are studies that go either way, and my personal experience is that it did nothing at all, but fig leaf): is the benefit worth the time versus just having more time in class for the subjects in question?

        • Globulart@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          If you’re giving the idea that cursive improves retention and learning then I would say yes definitely.

          It’s a revision technique you can use for every exam, at the cost of what? a year of lessons once a week or so? (I have no idea how long cursive is learned for to be fair, I just learned to join writing in English while learning other stuff, seems like a weird thing to specifically have a lesson for to me).

          My point is you’re not going to learn a meaningful amount extra with that time, you’re already dividing your time by 10 or so subjects, having 10% more learning in each subject for 1 year out of the 11-15ish years in education won’t make a noticeable difference, certainly not more than learning an effective revision method for exams.

          Just my opinion anyway. As a kid I used to argue with teachers all the time that I shouldn’t have to write things by hand because I’d be typing the rest of my life anyway. That doesn’t help in office meetings taking notes though and even when I have a laptop the notes are no better honestly. I feel like if I learned to write then barely did it ever again it would be so slow that it would be a genuine disadvantage.

        • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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          11 months ago

          You’ll give it to me? Thanks I guess. All I’ve seen are studies that show the brain learns better when using handwriting over typing.

          I also tend to have a smartphone on me all the time, but if I’m in a situation to take notes, I’ll always bring some writing implement. I’m not taking notes in an office meeting on my phone for numerous reasons and even when I’m at a multiscreen computer I still want to take physical notes.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        11 months ago

        You can take notes without cursive. Even if it’s technically faster, most people’s cursive is an illegible scrawl, often even to themselves. I can scribble really fast, too, but so what?

        This is somewhere between annoying and a minor problem for most things. It became downright dangerous when doctors would write out a prescription, and the pharmacist would misread the dose by an order of magnitude or more.

        Also, I like using fountain pens, and I find I have to slow down anyway for the flow to be right. Modern one’s don’t tend to dribble ink the way an old quill pen might, so lifting it from the page is no problem.

        • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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          11 months ago

          Yeah you can also learn shorthand and take notes super fast. But that is a completely different language. Cursive is literally just joining up letters you are already learning at that point in school.

          • BURN@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Cursive is not just joining letters, at least how I was taught. Cursive is a completely different way of writing that involves specifically no up strokes. That’s separate from “joined writing” which is a term I haven’t heard before this thread.

            • diannetea@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              I would call that calligraphy, not cursive. The cursive I was taught in the US has many upstrokes and you only lift your pen at the end to cross t and x and dot I and j.

              • BURN@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                I think this may be the crux of the issue. Nobody was taught a consistent ‘cursive’. We were all taught basically different dialects, without really realizing it, so nobody can read anyone else’s cursive

            • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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              11 months ago

              I mean, that was also what I learned in the UK. We used fountain pens specifically so that it had to be no upstrokes, but the alphabet wasn’t as complex and dated as some people are posting examples of.

              I think “joined up” is just the trashy crude way we call it! I think I had heard of the band Cursive before knowing what it was.

      • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        It wasn’t meant to be insulting to Americans, the hate for learning to join up letters and write quickly just doesn’t really make sense to the rest of us.

        Lol this is like the best example of pissing on my foot and telling me it’s raining.

        You know what’s stupid and fucking ignorant? Assuming everyone has a laptop on them all the time.

        And if I had argued that we shouldn’t need to learn cursive because everyone has a laptop all the time, this wouldn’t be a completely fucking stupid argument. Alas, I did not.

        I also almost never write in cursive and know how. I can count on one hand how many times in my life I was like “oh crap! I should switch over to cursive to save some time!” and I lost all the fingers on that hand in a freak grenade accident (joking).

        This is especially stupid because I actually support kids learning cursive. It’s just a skill that is much less important than it was 50 years ago and so I don’t particularly care either way if kids learn it.

        You can just admit you were wrong, its much easier than trying to pile on more nonsense to justify the ignorant insult.

        • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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          11 months ago

          I was wrong about what exactly? My facetious point about American and World views on the matter? I still think it was on point despite not being 100% serious.

          It’s absolutely commonplace in the UK to learn this at an extremely young age and not something that “takes up valuable learning time”. It seems weird not to learn it. How about we don’t learn how to paint either because most people don’t have use for watercolours in their daily life?

          I think the fact I’m being down voted by the Americans who don’t want to learn cursive is kind of a hilarious confirmation.

          • Cornelius@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            There’s no need to learn cursive, it serves no functional purpose that typing cannot match. Other than your signature, which… you have to learn how to do separate to cursive anyway to protect yourself from fraud by making it as unique and as difficult to replicate as possible.

            • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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              11 months ago

              Good luck typing something when you have no electronic device nearby or no power. I know we live in a connected, techno-cebtric world now, but it’s wild to think that this simple skill is no longer valued at all by some.

              Also, your signature being the thing protecting you from fraud is quite hilarious from a European perspective too!

              • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Since the invention of the smartphone I haven’t been without an electronic device nearby for a single moment. And if by some chance I find myself in this incredibly unlikely scenario, a power outage that’s long enough to outlast my phone battery, and for some reason desperately need to write something down, I could just write it down in print. That is, if I can even find a piece of paper and a writing utensil. I just don’t think the few times over the course of my life that this incredibly unlikely scenario happens, will make it somehow worth it to learn and remember a second form of hand writing when the first will do.

                • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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                  11 months ago

                  Remember a second form of hand writing? What did they do to you in your schools??

                  Block letters to me are just the same capital letters I would use for cursive. They are one and the same to me and I don’t get how its such a big deal to write fluidly in one pen stroke.

                  • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    In America, cursive letters don’t look like block letters. Thats the point of this entire post. Kids can’t read it because it’s almost like learning a second alphabet. If they were one and the same why would anyone have trouble reading it?

                    In America plenty of people write regular print fluidly in one, or fewer pen strokes. But that’s not the same thing as cursive in America. Cursive is a very specific script of very extravagant, stylized letters.

                    I was taught to read and write cursive in grade school and now as an adult I literally can’t, because I’ve forgotten.

      • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You know what’s stupid and fucking ignorant? Assuming everyone has a laptop on them all the time.

        You’re right, that is stupid. Thats why most of us use smartphones, the fuck?

        • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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          11 months ago

          Yeah, it’s definitely not ignorant to assume everyone in the world can afford an expensive smart phone for every child to replace a simple pen and paper…

            • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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              11 months ago

              I just don’t get why its such hell to join up the letters! At least when we learned in the UK it was emphasised large versions of the ones we would join up later. I remember the capitals and small next to each other with all the small letters having curly bits before we learned to join them.

          • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Anyone who is actively participating in society in a first world country can afford a cheap smartphone. And if you live in the U.S. and somehow can’t afford one, the government will give you one for free. So it isn’t so much “ignorant” as it is “accurate”

            • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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              11 months ago

              Ah yes, such accuracy. Fuck everyone that’s not in the US.

              Having to rely on my government to give me a smart phone, so I can take notes in class, is one of the oddest things I’ve heard to “prove” kids should not be taught a basic skill.

              • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                That’s the neat part, you don’t have to rely on the government to give you a smart phone to take notes in class. You can still take handwritten notes without cursive. It’s really very easy. It almost sounds like you don’t even know how to write legibly in print?

                • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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                  11 months ago

                  Your condescension doesn’t even make sense. You had the opportunity to say I was poor or didn’t know how to use a smartphone or something.

                  But no, you maintain that everyone in the world should have a smartphone at all times and are on some sort of high horse about being able to write simple letters only.

                  • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    It makes perfect sense. Maybe you spent too much time in school learning cursive and not enough time learning critical thinking?

                    But no, you maintain that everyone in the world should have a smartphone at all times

                    You don’t have to have a smartphone at all times if you don’t want to. You still don’t need cursive. I’m not sure what’s so difficult for you to understand. Most people do, and most people will use their phone. If you’re one of the few people on the planet who are both educated but also can’t/don’t want to use a phone, you still have the option to write by hand, and you still don’t need cursive to do that.

                    You speak of high horses while you insist that you’re somehow more enlightened because you know how to write a specific way that gives you some marginal benefit in situations that most people don’t even find themselves in.

                    We get it, you’re a very special cookie. But the rest of us are just fine without lol.