tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028602332732833042.post2800249996167439748..comments2024-02-16T05:30:02.319-05:00Comments on Jane's Ride: Why Kids Hate Cursive – Part 2 of an interview with Kate GladstoneJane Kennedy Suttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519340747761460017noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028602332732833042.post-65536955589650887642010-02-03T17:30:43.365-05:002010-02-03T17:30:43.365-05:00Very interesting interview - the poll results did ...Very interesting interview - the poll results did surprise me - but the more I think it does make sense - Penmanship is a key skill to have. Cursive can be hard initially (like with anything new) but will get easier with practice and persistence.Sandy Naiduhttp://www.handwritingebooks.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028602332732833042.post-47041140705071480282010-02-02T17:35:19.067-05:002010-02-02T17:35:19.067-05:00Thanks for all your interesting comments!
To L. ...Thanks for all your interesting comments!<br /><br /><br />To L. Diane Wolfe and Carol Kilgore: You're not the only ones who recognize Italic as basically a systematized version of what you're already unconsciously doing.<br /><br />Quite a few of the folks whom I introduce to Italic handwriting say -- as you are saying -- "This is what my writing approaches; I never knew it had a name." <br /> <br />If we taught kids about colors the way we usually teach them about handwriting, we'd be teaching them to name the color red and the color violet ... but to leave unnamed and unexplored and un-thought-about the vast and immensely useful palette of colors in between those two extremes. In handwriting, too, there is a vast spectrum between the stylistic extremes taught in most classrooms as "print" and "cursive." It is this vast and useful scribal spectrum that Italic occupies and thereby helps us handle to best advantage.<br /><br />Teaching kids that only two kinds of good handwriting have names is like teaching them that a good box of crayons has only two.<br /><br /><br />It's interesting that Stephen Tremp uses cursive for his signature and for nothing else. Many people believe that legal signatures require cursive: in fact, signatures are legal in any style that the writer habitually uses for his or her signature. (Don't believe me on this -- check with a lawyer, and/or visit my FAQ page whose material on signatures cites legal reference sources on this topic.)<br /><br />By the way, I've found over the years that some people who'd like to change their signature's style -- or just improve its legibility -- never actually do so because they imagine that changing their signature would somehow make their existing and/or future signatures illegal. Common sense and daily experience show that such a notion is nonsense<br /> Most married women, after all, change their signatures because they change their surnames -- also, consider what would happen if your signature became worse for any reason (such as a stroke or other permanent injury affecting writing). Would you have to stop signing checks and anything else? No -- you'd just go to your bank, fill in a new signature card, and otherwise make your new signature known by starting to use it. The same procedure applies in cases of handwriting improvement. If you were to improve (or otherwise stylistically change) your signature, you would cope with the improvement in the same way that people cope with a deterioration of their signatures: make the new signature known by using it, visit your bank to add a new signature card to your account -- and don't forget to have the bank keep the old card on file, too, in case of outstanding checks!<br /><br /><br />To Helen Ginger who (like Jane Sutton) will miss cursive when it finally goes the way of hieroglyphs and cuneiform: It's interesting that you'll miss a style which you also recognize as not being the best way to gain "fast and easy" handwriting. I don't pretend that Italic is as fast as shorthand -- but the shorthand systems I've seen are quite time-consuming to memorize, and very hard to keep memorized once you have learned them. (Still, I won't rule out the possibility that shorthand might even make a comeback, since some recent computers accept writing done with styluses -- or fingers -- on the screen. However, shorthand of any form is unlikely to put an end to every other way of writing: as long as kids are learning to read the English language in its present written form, they are probably going to have to learn to write some style of that written form.)KateGladstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07062492442607584456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028602332732833042.post-29167478851314750902010-02-02T12:28:21.740-05:002010-02-02T12:28:21.740-05:00I don't think it matters much anymore now that...I don't think it matters much anymore now that we depend on computers, texting, and other means of writing. Cursive is dying. I'll miss it. Why didn't it go to shorthand? If you want fast and easy, shorthand would seem to be the answer.<br /><br />Helen<br /><a href="http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Straight From Hel</a>Helen Gingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09794759602654727110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028602332732833042.post-34669460317691320362010-02-02T12:25:02.766-05:002010-02-02T12:25:02.766-05:00I think with the computer and keyboard people are ...I think with the computer and keyboard people are becoming less concerned with their penmanship, especially the cursive form. I never us it anymore. My signature is the exception.<br /><br />Stephen TrempAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028602332732833042.post-65789085023756821982010-02-02T11:11:32.946-05:002010-02-02T11:11:32.946-05:00This is so interesting. Thanks. This is sort of ho...This is so interesting. Thanks. This is sort of how I write. It's good to know it has a name!Carol Kilgorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15168273312704732896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2028602332732833042.post-35079635789761833652010-02-02T07:11:29.026-05:002010-02-02T07:11:29.026-05:00Hey, now I know what to call it! I write in Italic...Hey, now I know what to call it! I write in Italic - I mostly print with some cursive.<br />My mother has the most beautiful cursive handwriting - beautiful, sweeping, even curves & flow. Mine was always so choppy and blocked. It was ugly!L. Diane Wolfehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06425864276166334896noreply@blogger.com