Why Johnny Can't Handwrite

theodp writes "Handwriting experts fear that the wild popularity of e-mail and IM, particularly among kids, could erase cursive within a few decades. With 90 percent of Americans between the ages of 5 and 17 using computers, it's not uncommon for kids to type 20-30 WPM by the time they leave elementary school. Keyboards, joysticks and cell-phone touch pads have ruined kids' ability to hold a pencil properly, let alone write legibly, says the former president of the International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting."

Perhaps

[greechneb]

Perhaps we are just training more kids to be doctors these days...

And this is a bad thing... why?

[osgeek]

Good riddance to those pesky writing implements, I say.

And this is a problem ... why, exactly?

[Chip Salzenberg]

Oh, heavens! The ability to properly illuminate latin texts is probably dying out as well. However shall we cope?

I'd really be concerned if our spelling and math were slipping. Um, hold on a minute....

Times change

[esampson]

And in related news, experts at the United States Center for Equestrian Activities have grown increasingly concerned that the automobile will cause a sharp reduction in the horse riding skills of the average American.

In related news

[prockcore]

Studies have found that kids today can't even point to a sliderule in a room, let alone use one.

Cursive isn't important, and if it died, we would be none the poorer for it.

absurd

[potaz]

People will always need to jot things down in the forseeable future. What's easier, writing on a napkin or booting up your laptop? (or pulling your Newton 2010 out of your future-pocket?)

Besides, handwriting survived the introduction of the typewriter...

What concerns me is not that typing is becoming more popular, but that kids are learning to write on the Internet, to the point where kids hand in assignments with 'internet shorthand' in them, LOL. Wait, not LOL. WTF.

Re:Thumbs

[dtldl]

IM on mobile phones being sms text messages which havent caught on in the US, and not long ago, I was forced to do repetative excercises using "joined up" letters so I could write cursively. But whether digitally or on paper, I still prefer writing cursingly than cursively.

WPM

[Superfreaker]

"it's not uncommon for kids to type 20-30 WPM by the time they leave elementary school"

Bah, I can type way faster than that. At least 40 WPM.

Kids are slow. They're probably dumb too.

Possible benefits...

[Anonymous Coward]

Its not that handwriting is becoming sloppy, its just that more people are employing complex encrytion algorithms when writing. Doctor and professors have been doing this for years.

You're worried about DRM? It's already here...

Just never the same since Quill pens were replaced

[jdb8167]

Handwriting just hasn't been the same since Quill pens were replaced. Nobody knows how to trim a quill pen anymore.

A great loss.

Umm

[shirameroix]

"International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting"

Wow... there is such an organization? Oh man, I thought that I was a dork...

Ascii

[Anonymous Coward]

Argh, I tried to write cursive writing using Ascii characters, and I encounted the lameless filter!

Reason: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.

Yeah, that's right, cursive is junk.

That's scary.

[WalterDGeranios]

Keyboards, joysticks and cell-phone touch pads have ruined kids' ability to hold a pencil properly

That's funny. Is the reverse true? Do people that can properly hold pencils mash cell phone keypads, pull keys off keyboards, and gnaw on joysticks?

Re:Who cares?

[micromoog]

Grammar, sentence structure, and spelling.

Please diagram that sentence for me.

Re:And this is a problem ... why, exactly?

[Cpt_Kirks]

Well, they would all be monks and wouldn't be out molesting...never mind.

I'm giddy with revenge

[Mike Schiraldi]

I went to Catholic school for ten years, forced to write in script. Like eating those disgusting communion wafers and wearing an awful school uniform, the mere thought of it brings up anger tempered by the relief that nobody will ever be able to force me to do it again.

How happy to read that the world is rising up against at least one of the three.

Re:Thumbs

[shivianzealot]

So if the kids are stuck in a power outage and need to leave a message for someone, how exactly do you propose they do it?

Use a mechanical typewriter?

I don't doubt it...

[Faust7]

the next generation will be using their thumbs to do things we would use our index finger for,

...especially if more people start thinking like my girlfriend.

Re:Thumbs

[elmegil]

yeah, I have one right here in my back pocket...next to my pen, which I've forgotten how to use.

Re:And this is a problem ... why, exactly?

[Rorschach1]

Nonsense. I can illuminate a Latin text, or any other text for that matter, with a common 40-watt Halogen light. Such illumination is far beyond anything the ancient scribes could have accomplished with candles or oil lamps, and poses less of a fire hazard.

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Please diagram that sentence for me.

"Don't verb nouns." -- William Safire

:-)

Re:Thumbs

[TopShelf]

They always told me that my writing was messy and hard to read and that they would take points off for not writing in cursive. Then when I wrote in cursive, they complained even more, so eventually, I went back to my current writing.

So let me guess, you're a doctor now? Looks like things worked out just fine...

This is just another attempt

[leko]

to keep the left-handed man down! Don't listen to this handwriting propaganda. Typing sets you free!

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's an imperative to a judge named Grammar. Sentence is the verb. Structure and spelling are direct objects. (The second comma is bad style but not technically incorrect.)

Think of it as a criminal trial involving abstract concepts.

Re:uniquely american?

[Anonymous Coward]

No - the rest of the world can only write in block capitals. It doesn't have electricity either.

Re:High School Student's Opinion

[Anonymous Coward]

High school student my ass! Find a single high school student that knows what "bemoan" means and I'll give you a cookie.

You must be a college student.

Here's your post in high school student writing:
-------

does in class esay mean nething nemore?
Therz no way 2 use a comp on those bitches!

oh, and then theres teh AP tests (wtf does AP mean/?) those ~*HaVe*~ to be hand writin

in AP US we were reading Zerox's of da past years esays, th 1s that were harder to read cauz they were in cursiv cause of the damn twirly things.

I noticed the loss of cursive.. When taking the SAT a coupla monts ago when asked to copy the anor fraze ("i certicify that this is my test" shit) with instructionz saying "DO NOT PRINT" in the the box the whole fucking room started LMAO, we were like, how the fuck do you write this shit again? haha

cause I hate math i use the internet to cheat, must nice than actually writin by hand haha

so wtf am I sayin? well

I hate school, cant wait till i graduate or drop out haha

Cursive Sux!!
Hanwritin Suck ASs!
Fuck Life Man!!

The Fucking End!!

(why cant we all just chat on AIM or somtin?)

---

p.s. I'm not a highschool student. I just remember what it was like, and no I wasn't that stupid, but everyone else was. =)

Re:Thumbs

[rking]

So if the kids are stuck in a power outage and need to leave a message for someone, how exactly do you propose they do it?

So my computer should have a UPS, 'for the sake of the children'. Sounds good to me.

Re:Umm

[InferiorFloater]

Just curious, but is an engrosser someone you pass your essay to to make it more gripping? Like you give it to your editor, then your engrosser, or maybe the other way around?

Since I've never heard of them, they can't be too expensive, and I've been feeling that my writing could use a little more spice as of late...

Re:Thumbs

[outsider007]

these days there are stuffs that are impossible to write in cursive.
such as l33t h4x0r or :)

At Last!

[circusnews]

The rest of the worlds handwriting will be as bad as my doctors!!

Re:non-cursive

[Anonymous Coward]

y'all, eh?

Are you southern, Canadian, or southern Canadian?

Re:Thumbs

[CAIMLAS]

That's what pisses me off about college - you don't get any reward for conceiseness or clearly thought-out answers. So what if you can answer an essay question better than everyone else, in half as much space - the exam is to write a 2 page essay, in class, with a pen/pencil, on X or Y topic or idea.

I have a feeling that this is the doing of governmental regulation agencies.

Hatred of things

[s-orbital]

Wow, it looks like people on /. hate cursive more than SCO and Microsoft! Every bitch rant gets modded up, unlike many anti-M$ rants.

Now I will post the phone number and address of my 3rd grade teacher...

Re:So what?

[Citizen of Earth]

Cursive is:
a) hard to learn,
b) hard to use, and
c) (usually) hard to read.

Hence, the name.

Re:Thumbs

[Josuah]

My report cards all through elementary school showed "Needs improvement" under penmanship, but it didn't seem to affect my getting A's in everything else. I mean how bad could my writing have been if all of my teachers were able to read and grade it?

Why don't you ask Mrs. Peebles, your English teacher from 3rd grade? Last I heard, she got hit by a school bus while trying to figure out if some kid wrote Bench or Penis. Don't think your bad penmanship didn't have an earth-shattering effect on the course of history!

Re:Odd attitude

[Qzukk]

That is GREAT! No more having the court call my chief to try and figure out what I charged that guy.

You, sir, must be the nut who pulled me over and wrote me a ticket for doing 83.2 in a walrus zone.

I'm sorry

[Trepidity]

We read slashdot, so we did not get your joke. You'll have to explain.

Handwriting experts

[clarkcox3]

Handwriting experts fear that the wild popularity of e-mail, instant messages and other electronic communication, particularly among kids, could erase cursive within a few decades.

There is only one reason that they fear this: Soon, everyone will realize just how pointless a life as a handwriting expert is.

A Shocking Announcement

[damiena]

It is official; Netcraft now confirms: Cursive is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered handwriting community when IAMPETH confirmed that the cursive market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all children. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that cursive has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Cursive is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in a recent comprehensive literary test.

You don't need to be a Kreskin [amazingkreskin.com] to predict cursive's future. The hand writing (printed) is on the wall: cursive faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for cursive because cursive is dying. Things are looking very bad for cursive. As many of us are already aware, cursive continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Calligraphy is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core penmen. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time calligraphers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: calligraphy is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

Handwriting leader Theo states that there are 7000 literate people. How many users of cursive are there? Let's see. The number of literate versus cursive posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 cursive users. Cursive posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of printed posts. Therefore there are only about 700 users of cursive. A recent article put cursive at about 80 percent of the cursive market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 cursive writers. This is consistent with the number of Usenet posts.

Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, Cursive Handwriting Lessons went out of business and was taken over by Write Cursive Good, who sell another troubled writing style. Now WCG is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

All major surveys show that cursive has steadily declined in market share. cursive is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If cursive is to survive at all it will be among writing dilettante dabblers. cursive continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, cursive is dead.

Fact: cursive is dying

In other news

[autopr0n]

Educators are also worried that kids aren't learning proper spear-making technique.

Shockingly, no one gives a fuck.

Ignore notaries, they're clueless

[invoke]

Your notary sounds clueless about her "job", which is to validate that *you* signed the document. If signatures intrinsically meant anything, she'd have no function.

I had a notary refuse to sign an letter-of-authorization allowing my wife to take our child on vacation out of the country. "It is not a legal document", she claimed. Er, yes, it is. I wrote it, and it grants a specific, limited power to my wife. It also happens to be a required piece of documentation in that circumstance. But to her, a "legal document" is written on a form or letterhead. The barrier-to-entry for a notary seems to be far too low for (my) comfort.

Re:Thumbs

[Sinus0idal]

Pah, thats why you have a printer that can take envelopes ;-)

...and good riddance....

[thelizman]

My handwriting sucked to begin with. I'm also one of those people who can think faster than they can communicate (which makes for some interesting word combinations, like today when I read a "cyst and decease" letter aloud). Typing, on the other hand, allows me to quickly express complete thoughts in fluid form, and even edit those thoughts on the fly (ala the Backspace key).

So...fuck handwriting...

Bart Simpson says it best...

[Unominous Coward]

Mr Doyle: So, you never learned cursive?
Bart: Well, I know hell, damn, bit...
Mr Doyle: Cursive handwriting, script. Do you know the multiplication tables? Long division?
Bart: I know of them.

How well do you compose?

[AllenChristopher]

If your prose is so bland that only your penmanship can lend it a cherished style then it's lucky you're good with your hands. At least you can tickle her fancy.

Re:In other news...

[djocyko]

ah, but I am one of those 0.000000001% =P

(I've taken three semesters of Akkadian through the History of Mathematics department at Brown Univeristy)

And, I, for one, will be ready when all the lights are out, all the paper and pens and pencils and burnt wood is gone, and the only thing we've got is conveniently located clay resevoirs...

Less grafitti

[Skapare]

The more that people can't write, the less grafitti will be covering all the walls. Oh wait, now they're cracking into web sites and plastering them with HTML. Nevermind.

Re:Thumbs

[threephaseboy]

Is that a typewriter in your pocket or are you happy to see me?

Cursive is like Perl

[Imperator]

It's supposedly slightly faster to write in, but it's certainly a whole lot slower to read!

*ducks*

International Association of Master Penmen?

[[e-mail]]

Amazingly, the loseriest group ever mentioned on slashdot isn't a computer group.

My handwriting was always bad...

[RyanP]

Even before I learned Qwerty my handwriting was atrocious. If it wasn't for learning how to type in elementary school, I'd probably be creating indecypherable codes for the Allies. Of course kids need to be able to write, but this article stinks of Luddites and FUD. Must be Bic and the other writing instrument monopolies banding together to stomp out computers - "Did you know that typing leads to poor grades and bad dental hygiene? Take away your kid's computer and give them a pen!"

Oh, and my spelling sucks too.

-Ryan

Re:So...?

[duggy_92127]

...and lately I don't even really bother finishing my name.

You sign things "Anonymous Cow"?

Doug