[email protected]

In a message dated 12/23/01 12:23:38 PM, dvilter@... writes:

<< Is cursive obsolete? >>

I think so. Except as something pretty, like calligraphy.

Zoe learned to read cursive just the same as reading everything else - took
her a little longer. She likes to write her name in cursive though.

Paula

[email protected]

In a message dated 12/23/01 11:23:27 AM, dvilter@... writes:

<< Is a person considered illiterate if they can't read cursive? >>

I don't think so.

I gave a gift with a mushy card to a friend of mine (public schooled) when he
was 22, just a few years back. He couldn't read the card.

<<How would an unschooler ever get the desire to learn it if they never run
across it?>>

The first time my boys brought me cursive to read it was a letter in a puzzle
book--one of those "find the key" adventure books with way more art than
text. But one of the puzzles was a cursive note. They were fine on the
logic and math, but the cursive was a big puzzle. <g>

Holly thinks cursive is interesting and so she'll practice words or ask how
to connect one particular letter. She wanted some practice paper to show her
how far up different lines went. I found some on sale at the university
bookstore. She hasn't really used it yet.

The little electronic spell-checker we got her for her birthday in November
will write a word out in cursive, slowly, so you can watch, after it gives
you the spelling and the definition.

When I leave notes for the kids I print if it's for Marty or Holly, and Kirby
seems to have picked up reading cursive, or at least my version of it.

Sandra

zenmomma *

>>Is cursive obsolete?<<

Yes. Or at least it's fast becoming obsolete as a well-used written form of
communication. I write in a sort of half print/half cursive hybrid. My
husband can't write in cursive at all. Conor has no desire to learn and I
think his energies would be better spent in learning how to type faster.
Casey has been practicing cursive since she was 4. She thinks it's cool.

~Mary


_________________________________________________________________
Join the world�s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com

[email protected]

In a message dated 12/23/2001 2:10:19 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:


> I was reading a Christmas card to my son the other day. I was reading it to
> him because it was written in long hand, cursive, and my son doesn't know
> how to read it or write it. Later when we were talking about the makeup of
> his 1750 point Warhammer 40k army and I was looking at his draftsman like
> printing of his list, I panicked. Those ugly fears that --I know how to do
> something that he doesn't --grabbed me and I asked him if he was interested
> in learning how to read or write cursive. He said "yeah that would be
> interesting, but not now."
>
> So I started thinking...
>
> Is cursive obsolete?
>
> I don't use it. My written communication with him [and everyone else] is
> either typed on the computer or handwritten printing, the way I prefer to
> write. The only place my son runs across cursive is in letters from his aunt
> and uncle. His reading is almost exclusively printed.
>
> Is a person considered illiterate if they can't read cursive?
>
> How would an unschooler ever get the desire to learn it if they never run
> across it?
>
> We didn't have much to do with his learning handwritten printing. I now
> marvel at how he forms letters, mostly starting at their bottoms. Nothing
> like the uniform way the public school taught me. He prefers unlined paper.
> I don't know what he would use as a model if he did have a desire.
>
> Does anyone here have experience with this? It seems like something a
> person could easily pick up if there was a need. But what if that need
> doesn't arrive until some vitally urgent bit of information needs to be
> understood with no time for the learning?
>
> So is cursive obsolete? Did any of your kids learn cursive? How? Why?
>
> -Dan Vilter
>
>

I write notes in cursive for my son about half of the time, figuring he'll
practice reading it. Ultimately it helps to know how to read cursive.

Then there's one of my pet peeves. Both my ex-husband, Julian's dad, and my
partner have illegible signatures that involve writing part of their names
and making a messy line for the rest. If we try to cash a child support check
at the bank they ALWAYS have to have the signature card faxed. I hate it.

So I told Julian that it was MY stuff, but that I really wanted him to learn
to write a legible signature in cursive. I don't care if he ever writes
anything else in cursive. Since it was my agenda (although he agreed how
inconvenient it can be dealing with the bank), I bribed him. We agreed on a
certain number of pages of practice signatures and I offered him something he
wanted. (I don't remember what it was now, but he thought it was worth it.)
He did it, he got his prize, and he can now legibly sign his name. I never
felt strongly enough about another piece of knowledge or skill, figuring it
wasn't important. But the kid can write his name.

Kathryn

P.S. His printing is also messy, but I can deal with that. :)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

>>Is cursive obsolete?<<

My grandmother could ONLY write in cursive. She said she could read the
printed word but had no idea where to start to form the letters. Her school
said that it was easier and better to learn the fluid moves of cursive rather
than picking up the pen on each stroke in print.

One of my friends, a used-to-be teacher, said that she was forced to teach
cursive to 3rd or 4th graders. She told the kids that it was ridiculous. If
they all learned how to sign their names in cursive, they would be fine. So
they sat writing their signatures during "cursive period". She said that all
the children had really interesting and fun signatures.

The Germans have a writing in-between print and cursive. Kind of like the
printed words are connected.

kelly

[email protected]

In a message dated 12/23/01 3:50:09 PM, dvilter@... writes:

<< > When I leave notes for the kids I print if it's for Marty or Holly, and
Kirby
> seems to have picked up reading cursive, or at least my version of it.

So is that just from reading your notes?
>>

After I read this cursive stuff here today, I went and wrote some things for
Holly and Marty. Holly, who is just a beginning reader, was interpreting the
cursive better than Marty was. But later Marty was reading aloud to me from
a Dork Tower comic (a hard passage, truly) and was having some difficulties
pronouncing long words he hadn't heard aloud before (naturally), so it's not
clear what was what.

The main problem they (Marty/Holly) had was telling an "o" from an "a" (not
caring that an o always comes off the top) and thinking that there were w's
everywhere.

I remember very sweetly the day a few years ago that Holly tested to see
whether cursive was real writing and not just scribbling. She whispered
something in my ear for me to write down, and told me to stay there and be
quiet. She took it in the other room for her dad to read aloud. We passed
the test, as did cursive.

Sandra

[email protected]

On Sun, 23 Dec 2001 10:22:23 -0800 Dan Vilter <dvilter@...> writes:
> So is cursive obsolete? Did any of your kids learn cursive? How?
> Why?

Cacie started coming across cursive in books every so often, usually when
the book is trying to make a word or note look handwritten. I believe she
found it in both Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter books, among others.
Sometimes she'd want to read a card or letter from someone who wrote in
cursive, too. For a while I read stuff to her, then she started reading
it to herself. I'm not sure how well she reads it now, I think well
enough to figure most things out.

She learned to write her name in cursive a couple of years ago, it was
All The Rage among her little clique of friends. She got kind of into it,
sort of letter by letter, then her dad came to visit, saw what she was
doing, and apprently tried to teach her more than she wanted to know and
that was it - I found the paper she had been writing on with "Dad" and
"Butterfly" on it in his handwriting, and scribbles through all of it.

So, anyway, a few weeks ago she was writing on the whiet baord and asked
me how to make a couple of letters in cursive, and she messed with it a
bit and then asked it I'd write one new letter on the board every day for
her to copy, which worked until the F crisis earlier this month (since I
didn't know how to make capital F's in cursive, although thanks to the
webpage someone sent I do now :-). By then she apparently had a critical
mass, since she'd been asking for other letters too, so now she wrotes a
new message on the board every couple days in cursive ("i love grandpa"
is there now, along with "mint tea" on the grocery list), and mostly
she'll ask me how to do one or two letters first. She probably has about
85% of the lower case ones down now, and she knows how to connect them...
I don't think she knows many capitals.

She doesn't write much at all, I think cursive is more art to her than
writing...

I think it sometimes makes life easier to be able to read it, sort of
like it sometimes makes life easier to be able to tell time on an analog
clock, but I don't think it's essential, except perhaps for a
signature... but I knew a guy whose legal signature was a line with one
loop in it, and he didn't need cursive for that... anyway, I wouldn't
have worried if she hadn't learned it.

Dar


________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.

[email protected]

> So is cursive obsolete? Did any of your kids learn cursive? How?
> Why?
>
> -Dan Vilter


I think my son was six or so when he noticed cursive, usually when I was
writing letters.
He asked about it. I told him some people write this way and banks like
you to sign checks this way. He asked what his name would look like in
cursive and I showed him. He practiced it and now signs his name on
cards, etc, in cursive but doesn't write that way. I don't think he ever
tried anything beyond his name.
His printing is very stylized and beautiful so I thought he'd like
cursive, but he's nine now, and doesn't seem at all interested in it. He
can't read it, as far as I know and doesn't seem to care.
I just work on the theory he'll learn it when he wants to, or needs to.
We'll see.

Deb L

Diane

My son discovered a script font on the computer and occasionally writes
various things (usually all of our names) in "loopy font." I figure he'll
learn to read it in the scheme of things, but I don't know how he'll write.

:-) Diane

> > So is cursive obsolete? Did any of your kids learn cursive? How?
> > Why?
> >
> > -Dan Vilter

Jocelyn Vilter

on 12/23/01 11:02 AM, SandraDodd@... at SandraDodd@... wrote:

> The little electronic spell-checker we got her for her birthday in November
> will write a word out in cursive, slowly, so you can watch, after it gives
> you the spelling and the definition.

*I* want something like this<g>. Wherever did you find it? I've seen spell
checkers but never one like this.

Jocelyn

[email protected]

In a message dated 12/24/01 11:26:12 AM, JVilter@... writes:

<< *I* want something like this<g>. Wherever did you find it? I've seen
spell
checkers but never one like this.
>>

Radio Shack! by the counter, in a bubble package, it's blue.