BS: Cursive writing outdated?

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 10:28 AM

My primary school was a bit antiquated, I remember when we first started at the school we were issued these 'fountain pens' which were wooden sticks with a metal nib screwed on the end. Horrible things they were, if they weren't filled enough with ink the nibs made a scratchy mess on the paper, too much and it blotted the work. Thank goodness for the ballpen.

When I write to friends and family I do use print. Funny enough my son bought me a calligraphy set a couple of Christmases ago because he heard me say that I liked old fancy writing. I haven't got around to doing anything with it yet I must try and find some spare time to do it.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 01:39 PM

Ink was fun. You could make littlme pellets out of paper and dip them in the ink and fire them at people with a ruler. And play darts with the pens.

Ball points are convenient, but boring, and make for terrible writing.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 02:23 PM

Like some of you out there, I began with those worn out excuses for pens and inkwells. To add to the torture, we were given the cheapest grade of newsprint paper to use. The blotting and tearing was amazing. [This may have been why Sinatra left Hoboken as soon as possible.]

When I went to a different school system we were given more courses in cursive. In addition to the chart up at the teacher's station, we each had a book showing the direction of the strokes we were supposed to imitate to get the best results. My script never has gotten beyond barely readable.

My son had a totally miserable time learning to handwrite. In fact, he never got beyond a very minimal printing ability. At some point, in Junior High, he was diagnosed as disgraphic and, at my wife's insistance, went to a charter school devoted to kids who were classified as disgraphic. There, he flourished and is now in his sophomore year at Hunter.

The question, though, is whether he is better off or not. Even though he types away at a mad rate and communicates well by computer, his limitations will never be overcome. In truth, I believe I am also disgraphic to some degree but, because I was forced to learn the available technology, ie handwriting, I got lessons in perseverance and accomplishment which I probably would not have gotten otherwise.

I also believe that a certain amount of his disability is due to the syndrome of too many people tellin him he was a poor, disabled kid instead of telling him "learn it, kid, this is what we do" and making it stick.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 02:31 PM

Is it just me, or do other people cramp up doing cursive writing while still being able to print?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 02:36 PM

Did anyone else try putting liver salts in the inkwell? You could get a good result with sherbet, too, but that was a waste of sherbet, whereas liver salts were no loss.

At the moment it's not practical to take notes from a speaker using anything other than handwriting of some sort, but the technology will probably catch up.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: Becca72
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 02:38 PM

It's just you, Joe. :-)
I actually find it more tedious to print than to write in cursive.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: Bettynh
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 02:46 PM

Joe, it's obvious you're not from the pen-nib and Inkwell generation. If you hold an ink pen that tight you're sure to make holes in the paper. Or break the pen-nib.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 03:29 PM

I think it may have something to do with my being left-handed. My mother was left-handed, but was forced in school to write cursive with her right hand. As an adult, she ordinarily printed with her left hand; but she would still do cursive with her right hand. Her cursive handwriting was beautiful, much unlike my own.


As for "not knowing how to load envelopes into a printer," I think that's more the fault of the printer. Ten years ago, I had an HP inkjet printer that had a special slot for envelopes, and you could print envelopes without unloading the paper tray. Not so with more recent HP printers - you have to take out all the paper, readjust the paper guides, and hope that the envelope feeds into the printer properly. I get three misprints every time I print envelopes, no matter how many envelopes I print - so I try to print envelopes in batches.

At the women's center where I do volunteer work, we keep one typewriter for addressing envelopes. Computer printers just don't do the job very well.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 06:29 PM

"it's not practical to take notes from a speaker using anything other than handwriting"

Well nowadays, you can just record the moment on a small digital recorder, which you can scan thru later for written notes...

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 06:41 PM

Scanning by listening is far far slower than scanning by reading. Imagine trying to find a particular point in a lecture that took an hour by listening to a recording, if you hadn't made any notes at the time...

Nobody has yet mentioned shorthand. I can't understand why learning this doesn't appear to be part of any mainstream school curriculum, alongside more traditional forms of handwriting.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 06:59 PM

"Scanning by listening is far far slower than scanning by reading"

Whatever happened to "Squeech" - squeezed speech? It was a technique that allowed one to play speech - supposedly other sounds too, but aimed at speech - back at other than normal speed, so that the pitch was not altered, but only the pace of the speech, so that one could cram in spoken info faster.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 07:04 PM

Inkwells! When I was in 3rd grade (1947-48), it was an 'honor' to be trusted to take the big bottle and go 'round and fill the inkwells. They had semi-circular glass inserts with a metal flip-lid. I even...once...dipped a little girl's pigtail in my inkwell! her name was Margaret Holder and she was the 1st 'crush' I ever had... (I was barely aware of WHY I was attracted at that age, but she was pretty & fascinating)
We used ink for the next 3 years a bit, but by the time I was in 7th grade..."middle school", inkwells had disappeared.

I changed schools in the 6th grade, and while I was there we started a school 'newspaper', with a student contest to name it. The school was "Irving", and *I* won with the name "Irving Inkwell"....so the term was still in regular use.

Miss Isgrigg, our penmanship teacher in the 3rd-5th grades emphasized that really good cursive handwriting required gently moving the entire arm, not just working the wrist & hand about....perhaps that's where Joe's and others' problem with cramped hands came from...(No, I could never do it well...but the old man I mentioned earlier who did professional calligraphy certainly did!)

Charlie Baum, who chairs the Getaway, does some very nice calligraphy.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 03 Sep 10 - 05:25 AM

>Did anyone else try putting liver salts in the inkwell? You could get a good result with sherbet, too, but that was a waste of sherbet, whereas liver salts were no loss.

At the moment it's not practical to take notes from a speaker using anything other than handwriting of some sort, but the technology will probably catch up.

Valmai (Lewes)<

Sorry I am digressing here from writing but this reminds me of the sherbert fountains in the UK my friends and I used to get mouthfuls of this sherbert get it all foamy and pretend we were either zombies or rabid in-between moving from class to class.

When I started work I was sent to a Secretarial college for 2 days a week, I could type already but anyway the course included Typing, English and Pitman's Shorthand. But there has never been an instance to use shorthand ever for me unfortunately, dictaphones were becoming more popular to use and easier operate and my boss would just leave all the work he wanted me to do recorded on a tape. Then much later IT took over in the job that I do now and it is easier (lazier?) just to send a text or an email but I am going to try to make an effort to write more letters, that is going to be the next New Year's resolution.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 03 Sep 10 - 05:39 AM

Patsy, if you tried that stunt with liver salts it would probably have increased everyone's typing and shorthand speeds no end.

Valmai

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Sep 10 - 05:56 AM

For the purpose of copying an entire letter an audio recording obviously makes sense - but when it comes to retrieving bits of information from an extended lecture or interview written notes of some kind are far quicker.

Subject: RE: BS: Cursive writing outdated?
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 03 Sep 10 - 06:27 AM

True, McG of H. You select what to make a note of as the talk/evidence/speech is being made, automatically discarding repetition, hesitation, deviation and plain horse manure. A complete record of everything said at a meeting would not be any use as minutes.

Valmai