Crisis for Conservatives!
<sarcasm>
I'm sure this particular issue has not received the attention it properly deserves!
Write your congressmen!
Now!
I mean it!
Forward this to everyone in your address book!
I really, really mean it! This is so much more important than Kid Rock and Spongebob!
</sarcasm ends>
Via Rand Simberg, with whom I agree 100 percent on this.
I stopped using cursive in eighth grade. For quick notetaking I use a modified (and largely illegible to others) hybrid of print and script. Whenever I have tried to "fancy up" a thank you note by writing it in cursive, it looks like an eighth-grader's messy writing. Much better to print legibly than to adhere to a pointless old tradition.
I do almost all writing (including outlining and drafting, when applicable) on a keyboard these days. I occasionally plot out visual works (slideshows, web pages) with pen and ink, but do all content at the computer.
I say give the kids typing lessons for most of the time spent on cursive, and use just a small amount of time to teach them how to read cursive, which is still a valuable skill (the reading, that is). Let them learn it with calligraphy as an elective for occasional use. Otherwise, pitch it overboard.
I strongly agree. I stopped trying to use cursive in high school, when I had to take notes in biology quickly enough that I couldn't read what I wrote. My handwriting is quite legible, even though it's not pretty [it's very identifiable as mine though; I can quickly flip through a patient's chart and see where I wrote something].
I took a brief summer class on typing; it ended up being very helpful.
Posted by: owlish at January 23, 2005 11:58 PM