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This post is absolutely ridiculous on so many levels, but if you want to go that rout
Printing requires more coordination than cursive. LOL
You want to see if there is a correlation between athletic activities and penmanship????
I think we all can agree that women typically have better penmanship than men, yet men as a collective whole are far more coordinated than women.
You're welcome
Penmanship is more a product of effort than ability. I agree that someone with poor handwriting is more likely to have poor table manners than someone with good handwriting, but it's for the same reason someone with poor handwriting is probably more likely to have a dirty house. It's because they don't care.
OK, can you cite where printing takes more coordination than cursive? This makes no sense. Think about the level of motor skills involved recreating the character(s).
To write clearly and legibly in cursive as shown on a chart that is used in elementary schools requires more coordination and skill than printing legibly.
Most anyone can print 'legibly', even those with chicken scratch or death claw like printing - because it is short, non continuous strokes. Whereas, cursive writing, with continuous flow and connectivity (curves and spacing appropriate to delineate the adjacent letters) requires more coordination, deftness and fine motor control to be legible and differentiate the character.
Try it.
As for the athletics and penmanship, note, I said 'certaintypes of athletic activity'. Let me illustrate what I am trying to say.
There are different types of athletic activities. Some require brute force, speed and strength, others, extreme body control and balance, others, fluidity and synchronicity of motion, some fine nuance of grip, pressure, release points, 'feel' type elements to be successful. Most sports have most or all of these at varying degrees.
My conjecture - and it is a hypothesis based upon type of athletic endeavor - is that those who excel in fine technical skilled sports like: Golf (grip, fluidity), certain Gymnastics (hand feel balance), Pool / billiards (touch), Darts (heft) would tend to be more highly correlated to those who have good penmanship since they developed finer motor skills in their hands at early age. [Although with current generation of athletic training at such early ages it may be less insignificant.]
Whereas, Sports with a higher dependency on speed and/or strength, like Wrestling, Weightlifting, Football, Basketball, Hockey I would suspect have lower correlation to penmanship.
I would equate it to the often noted 'finesse' athletes of one sport versus the brute force dominant type of athlete. I would hypothesize that those athletes who are more finesse' oriented may have a higher correlation to better penmanship i.e. fine manual dexterity motor control. Note, I was also being sarcastic in getting a grant to study this, due to this being the type of minutiae that academic grants tend to be awarded for.
And we can readily disagree, it's just a hypothesis based on observation over the years.
Cursive writing is being phased out of the educational system in a lot of parts of the country. I keep hearing people freak out about this, but I don't really see the point of teaching cursive writing to our kids. We're not exactly dipping pens in ink these days, so what's the big deal? Printing is so much easier to read anyways, and with all the time that is wasted on teaching cursive, kids could be learning something useful like typing or another language.
Give me an actual legit reason for teaching cursive writing to all students. To me it's seems like teaching old English. It obviously would be important for a historian or something of that nature, but it has no place in modern society IMO.
Personally for me it is a big deal. I am no historian but have developed a hobby where I am researching documents written about 150 years ago all in cursive. If I would have lived 50 years or so from now where (probably) they do not teach cursive, I would have been severely handicapped in wanting to learn all about this person whom I have grown to love and who has made huge impact in my life. Not that this matters much to you personally (or has much practical use for the world), yet I feel I certainly am not the only person in the world who has had this experience (I would not presume to think that I am that unique).
I guess to the future me's of the world--oh well, that's just tough that you'll probably have to put someone who you might have grown to love and who may have had a huge impact on your life on hold until you get the time out of your busy 40-hour work week + all of life (+ all that other stuff which will be added onto what we'll have to do in the future so as to make these days look so laid back and slow-paced) to learn cursive. Hopefully you'll have enough time to do it before you die (and that your mind will be able to pick it up in old age compared to how easily one learns--usually--when a child).
Granted, the obsoleteness of Latin has probably killed a lot of would-have-been interests if that language was still taught in schools as it was before. I guess we'll have to think of cursive as the new Latin. Nevertheless, I am so thankful to the Lord that He has arranged for me to be born in this time so that I could still read the letters of my dearly beloved.
Cursive writing is being phased out of the educational system in a lot of parts of the country. I keep hearing people freak out about this, but I don't really see the point of teaching cursive writing to our kids. We're not exactly dipping pens in ink these days, so what's the big deal? Printing is so much easier to read anyways, and with all the time that is wasted on teaching cursive, kids could be learning something useful like typing or another language.
Give me an actual legit reason for teaching cursive writing to all students. To me it's seems like teaching old English. It obviously would be important for a historian or something of that nature, but it has no place in modern society IMO.
I agree completely. It's a waste of time.
This whole "cursive craze" was revived by the Neo-Conservatives and the Christian School movement.
Why is writing in script - which is what we called it - all that important?
You are so correct, there are other things that students could be learning other than "cursive" or "script".
Creating your unique signature and handwriting analysis. Cursive is a good tool. People's print can look similar but cursive rarely does.
You can tell a lot from a person's handwriting - it's very revealing. Handwriting reflects our individuality because each person's handwriting is like a unique fingerprint, no other one like it in the world. Also, some people have the most beautiful and elegant handwriting, particularly people in their 60s and 70s (even older, but the handwriting of older people understandably gets a little shaky with age). People that grew up on the East Coast have very distinctive and elegant writing, too.
So what's the professional manner? I would assume printed, being that so many people under the age of 35 can't read or write in cursive. I don't know about other parts of the country, but I grew up in the PNW and the school I attended went to d'nealian in the mid 80's. I would think that the military wouldn't even allow cursive writing on reports these days, as most of the kids joining the military these days can't interpret it. Add to this the fact that anyone that has learned English as a second language has no idea how to read cursive writing.
Also, I'm a physical therapist, and I can assure you that nothing in the rehab center that I work for is written in cursive outside of a personal note by one of the older secretaries or nurses. Any type of actual document or report is done in print. There is no rule to this that I know of, but all of our employees use print for everything but our signatures.
Most of the kids in the military can't interpret cursive writing?
Never in all my born days have I met anybody with a basic grasp of English that cannot 'interpret' cursive writing. It's just ordinary letters joined up, hence we used to call it in elementary school 'joined-up writing'. It's not a secret code, it's just English.
If there are genuinely people in the military who can't read joined up writing then heaven help us.
Q: What does that say about the education system?
A: That we need to teach people cursive writing!
It improves reading and spelling ability. When printing, some children write so erratically that it is difficult to determine where one word ends and another begins.
Nuts. The same can be accomplished teaching them to type. Or, for that matter, by teaching them to print neatly.
*did not teach son to write cursive. He is now a college professor. Apparently did not hold him back at all*
Teaching kids to draw has far greater benefits. Restore art and music education to the public school curriculum if you want to see great strides in lateral thinking, creativity, and ingenuity.
Originally Posted by AmazinGracie It improves reading and spelling ability. When printing, some children write so erratically that it is difficult to determine where one word ends and another begins.
Nuts. The same can be accomplished teaching them to type. Or, for that matter, by teaching them to print neatly.
*did not teach son to write cursive. He is now a college professor. Apparently did not hold him back at all*
Note the bold....I never said ALL children, only some. This includes my 8 year old grandkids.....I find it very difficult to read their "printing" for the reason stated above. However, I see your son is not included in this group...good for him.
I, myself, use cursive and print together. I'm not sure when or how this started, but it is what it is.
It's no big deal to learn to write. Once you can print, you join the letters together, slant them and you are writing. You don't have to have great penmanship--you can learn that on your own if you are ever interested but you should know how to read documents from the past.
If you can't read the letters your grandmother wrote, the Declaration of Independence, old papers of any kind, you're at a disadvantage and you're missing out. If you ever have a job that requires literacy--true literacy, not just reading block letters--you are at a disadvantage. For something that doesn't take very long to learn and is not hard.
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Handwriting
