The future of writing

[Armistead]

Cursive handwriting is becoming a thing of the past, many schools no longer teach it. I read one article that handwriting itself may become a thing of the past, replaced by voice to text shorthand of sorts.

Most legal items, etc., require you sign your name in cursive, because print is easy to copy. If you've ever been effected by credit card fraud, the only thing that may save you is your signed name. I had to submit mine numerous times in front of detectives, about 20 times in a row on several occasions.

It may be simple, but giving up handwriting for technology is also another method of government control, where everything we say will be through some software program that can be spied on.

[AVGWarhawk]

Sign_______X________

[CaptainMattJ.]

Did you seriously just equate the falling out of cursive to increased government control?

I do not know where you speak of when you say "many schools no longer teach it", as its almost required where i live, and is still perfectly relevant for reading cursive and learning how to sign your name. However, while writing entire letters in cursive can be artistic, most people, doctors especially, have handwriting so terrible it becomes completely counter-productive. Technically you dont even need good cursive for a signature. Just look at Bush's signature. Its a damn scribble.

[Father Goose]

Cursive handwriting is becoming a thing of the past, many schools no longer teach it. I read one article that handwriting itself may become a thing of the past, replaced by voice to text shorthand of sorts.

We're one EMP attack from using nothing but cursive. :O:

[Stealhead]

If that happens it really will not matter if you can write honestly.

I think cursive has more value teaching kids discipline and how to follow an instruction.Many people though their cursive is hard to read and another problem is that people write letters in different ways.You either have someone who does not write in cursive very well or you have someone that gets too artistic with it.

Writing in cursive and signing a signature are not one in the same though many people sign completely opposite of how they would write.Your signature is just a pattern of how you sign your name.The best that a signature expert can do is look at known samples and look for common patterns.Plenty of people just sat down at some point and messed around until they came up with a good way to sign their name. That is what I did when I was 15 or 16 and it has been the same sense then.My signature I doubt you'd be able to tell what my name is besides the fact that it starts with a "T" and has another "t" in it.Without seeing my name elsewhere on the signed document in some way associated you would have no idea what my name is which I like because it is not an American first name anyway.



In the military you where required to print on all forms and documents and only sign your name.This is because cursive can be hard to read even when it is well written do to variation in styles.

[Skybird]

Maybe we should also stop teaching math and the four basic calculations, for as long as their and batteries, there will be pocket calculators.

:dead:

As I use to say: we live in the time of skyrocketing infantilization.

Genetic biologists assume that human intelligence already has spiked a maximum around 3000 years ago. Back then, there was a need to be smart and clever, and the absence of technical aids and helps and so forth mad eit vital that you could cope with situations and assess them correctly nevertheless. At that time and the following centuries, we also saw a blossoming, an amassed blossoming of thinking, and some of mankind most remembered thinkers and philosophers did live.

Different to what politically correct people usually claim, at least framing factors of intelligence are very well inheritable, scientifically this is consensus and is not questioned anymore since almost half a century now. Mathematical models of genetics resulted in a calculation showing that since 3000 years ago the average IQ of mankind is shrinking again.

Needless to say, this theory is passionately debated. If you want to see biologists going for each others throats in no time, mention it, and have your popcorn ready. :03: Not only is it political dynamite, for where you claim inheritable genetic markers for intelligence you necessarily imply that some people (or races!) by birth are more (or less) smarter than others, and how can you dare to claim that! :stare:, but you also deliver a tremendous blow to mankind's ever inflating ego.

I think the basics and principles of math as well as reading and writing should remain mandatory in school. Like I also think that while there is nothign wrong in having a navigation software on a tablet, you should also be able to read a paper map and navigate and find your position by compass. For interest I even learned the using of a sextant, long time ago, though I never needed it. :) And the basics of all this are part of elementary astronomy lessons anyway (which was my hobby).

We should not make us slaves of technical tools whose functional principles we can no longer understand, because we found it wise to not learn them anymore. This can only lead the way to your demise: intellectually, and by the loss of knowledge from that: practically as well.

Maybe one day we end with something like Frank Herbert envisioned it in "Dune": a Butler's djihad. :) Death to the machines!

[Armistead]

Did you seriously just equate the falling out of cursive to increased government control?

I do not know where you speak of when you say "many schools no longer teach it", as its almost required where i live, and is still perfectly relevant for reading cursive and learning how to sign your name. However, while writing entire letters in cursive can be artistic, most people, doctors especially, have handwriting so terrible it becomes completely counter-productive. Technically you dont even need good cursive for a signature. Just look at Bush's signature. Its a damn scribble.

No, many schools don't teach it or don't progress it beyond a certain grade.

I didn't say the end of cursive would lead to more govt. control, I said technology. The future seems to be voice to text through software, as you know the govt can has it ways of spying on computer run programs.

I'll try to find the one link referring to China, where they're testing a voice to text type of shorthand. The issue being, papers you submit in class no longer go not only go to the teacher, they can be stored and viewed by the govt. Sure it exist most everywhere, but I think it's the future

[August]

I do not know where you speak of when you say "many schools no longer teach it", as its almost required where i live, and is still perfectly relevant for...

Not so many years ago it really was required. We spent hours and hours every week practicing cursive writing.

[Takeda Shingen]

Every school and district that I have ever worked in continues to teach cursive in middle elementary school (third and fourth grades) and requires students to submit work in cursive. There were no plans to change that.

Hilarious that in six posts we went from good old days to war on education to government control to post apocalyptic society to eugenics and racial superiority. That's some fancy mental gymnastics.

[razark]

The local school seems to wobble back and forth on continuing to teach it. My fourth grader is in full-on complaint mode regarding learning cursive. I told him if I had to put up with learning it, so did he. Truth is, I can't even remember the last time I used cursive. I don't know if I've done it since high school, and I doubt I could do it now.

Maybe we should also stop teaching math and the four basic calculations, for as long as their and batteries, there will be pocket calculators.
Said fourth grader was doing his math homework last week with a slide rule.

[Buddahaid]

The local school seems to wobble back and forth on continuing to teach it. My fourth grader is in full-on complaint mode regarding learning cursive. I told him if I had to put up with learning it, so did he. Truth is, I can't even remember the last time I used cursive. I don't know if I've done it since high school, and I doubt I could do it now.


Said fourth grader was doing his math homework last week with a slide rule.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnwOE_44D9M :O:

[Aktungbby]

The local school seems to wobble back and forth on continuing to teach it. My fourth grader is in full-on complaint mode regarding learning cursive. I told him if I had to put up with learning it, so did he. Truth is, I can't even remember the last time I used cursive. I don't know if I've done it since high school, and I doubt I could do it now.


Said fourth grader was doing his math homework last week with a slide rule.
Learning cursive these days is 'old school' to say the least with the overload of texting gear we strap on the kids now. One way around it is to encourage calligraphy as an art form in schools that still have art programs. I personally still maintain good pens, inkwells, and stationery to indulge in the past art of personal correspondence and my wife calligaphied our wedding invitations by hand some 33 yars ago (and the thank you notes as well). The great samurai duelist of the Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi was a noted calligrapher. If a samurai can do it, a Kaleun can do it better, und in Gothic script! Since most kids do have a sense of style tied to 'personal cool', I think it would work if promoted that way. My Cross pen set from graduation is still a prize possession and my wife loves her Mountblanc pen. As for MY signature: they don't call it a John Handcock for nuthin' ie still the benchmark for over two hundred years and still hard to outdo without style, penmanship and a real good goosequill! When you sign something it means you stand behind it, even if its just your tax return, so it ought to look like something unique to the writer... but maybe that's 'old school' too...alas. Good thread Armistead! :know:

[Wolferz]

The idiocracy has begun.:hmmm:

[August]

Us left handers have more than our share of trouble handwriting especially cursive. :yep:

[Wolferz]

Once they invent and manufacture the LCARS we won't need manual handwriting in any form except on signage. We already have the data pads that were originally envisioned by Gene Roddenberry, along with wireless upload and download capability.

At the present time writing will only make a full return if we lose all of our electricity a' la J J Abrams' Revolution nanites.

[Mr Quatro]

I read this on the web several months ago too ... I think it was Ohio had already decided to stop teaching cursive writing.

I guess keyboards and text messaging will be the norm ...

What about personality ... there really is something about hand writing analyzes from a person hand and mind on the paper. I sincerely believe this is a big mistake.

My older friends have beautiful hand writing and my children can't even spell.

[Aktungbby]

[QUOTE=Mr Quatro;2113036]
hat about personality ... there really is something about hand writing analyzes from a person hand and mind on the paper. I sincerely believe this is a big mistake.[QUOTE]

Damn straight!:Kaleun_Salivating: I never hire anyone whose writing tilts to the left. They're unstable and contrary!

[Wolferz]

Damn straight!:Kaleun_Salivating: I never hire anyone whose writing tilts to the left. They're unstable and contrary!

Probably liberals too.:03:

[Armistead]

Us left handers have more than our share of trouble handwriting especially cursive. :yep:

I wrote with my hand all reached over in common left hand style. I then taught myself to write correctly and my writing improved greatly.

[TorpX]

I then taught myself to write correctly and my writing improved greatly.
Do you mean you now write with your right hand, or just a different left-hand style?

[Aktungbby]

I wrote with my hand all reached over in common left hand style. I then taught myself to write correctly and my writing improved greatly.
Bet you shoot that flintlock right handed too; wouldn't want ya' to be blind!:arrgh!:

[Platapus]

Us left handers have more than our share of trouble handwriting especially cursive. :yep:

That's because people like you are so sinister.

[Aktungbby]

That's because people like you are so sinister.
'Unstable and contrary' will suffice Platapus, remember ...charm uber alles!:arrgh!:

[Takeda Shingen]

I am left handed, but was ambidextrous as a child. I would write with my left hand until I reached the center, and then switch to my right. When forced to choose a hand, I went with left because that was the hand I always started with. Looking back, I wish that I wasn't forced to choose. It would be very cool to have equal dexterity.

[vienna]

I learned cursive writing in school through the Palmer Method. Over the years, my handwriting has deteriorated from legible to a scrawl that would make a doctor look at my writing and say "What does this say?" The keyboard has eroded whatever dexterity I had for longhand writing. I have given serious thought to getting hold of a Palmer method book and trying to re-learn my handwriting skills...

There is an intersting possibility a sort of resurgence of the art and occupation of "scribe" may come out of the dependence on the keyboard. Much as the then new field of typist came out of the invention of the typewriter, people, having lost or diminished their own handwriting abilities, may seek out someone else with the "gift" of clear cursive handwriting to produce those documents that seem to be all the better for the "human touch". It could be a sort of full circle: the scribe displaced by the typist displaced by the scribe...

The far worse loss and potential problem comes from the dependence on automatic spell checking and grammar correction. The degree to which the simple abiltity to spell and use correct grammar (Hi, Steve) has fallen among the most educated of professional people of the younger years is startling. In past years, I have found younger co-workers, some educated by some very prestigious colleges and universities, in wonder and awe at my seemingly "magic" ability to use language and the likewise abilities of others my age. I guess when one is soley strivng to be the next MBA to become a multi-millionaire, the simple chores of a well-rounded education are a drudgery...

I once read a novel where it became necessary to "turn off" all the GPS satellite systems worldwide in order to thwart a terrorist attack. The unexpected side-effect was to cause the running aground of several commercial ships due to the ships officers not being able to navigate in the old manner since they had become totally dependent on GPS navigation systems. There may be likewise shoals and reefs ahead for those who become dependent of machines to do everyday tasks...


<O>

[Armistead]

Bet you shoot that flintlock right handed too; wouldn't want ya' to be blind!:arrgh!:

I can do anything with my right hand as I can my left, cept write....
Some things I have to use both hands.:D

[Takeda Shingen]

Some things I have to use both hands.:D

Like shoveling crap.

[Madox58]

It would be very cool to have equal dexterity.
My Grand Mother could write with both hands equally well.
It always amazed me. And I wish I could do that.
I can read forwards, backwards, upside down, upside down backwards and so on.

[Sailor Steve]

@ Vienna: My handwriting is mediocre but legible and always have been. I read things written by the Founders and their contemporaries and I'm amazed at the skills they owned. On the other hand they seem to have written slowly and carefully when it was for public consumption but weren't quite so careful otherwise.
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/rough.htm

When I was thirteen my mother lived in a trailer park. She commented to me once that the manager of the park had "the most beautiful handwriting I've ever seen." It's a practiced skill, just like anything else. :sunny:

[Takeda Shingen]

My Grand Mother could write with both hands equally well.
It always amazed me. And I wish I could do that.
I can read forwards, backwards, upside down, upside down backwards and so on.

I read forward, backward, upside down, inside out, etc, but it certainly isn't intentional.

[Aktungbby]

I can do anything with my right hand as I can my left, cept write....
Some things I have to use both hands.:D
Above the belt old son!:arrgh!:

[Aktungbby]

I learned cursive writing in school through the Palmer Method. Over the years, my handwriting has deteriorated from legible to a scrawl that would make a doctor look at my writing and say "What does this say?" ..


<O>
Nonsense! the doctor would hire you on the spot to write the prescription orders...I've never been able to read one yet!:arrgh!:

[vienna]

I am slightly dyslexic reading normally (right-side up, left to right) but for some strange reason I can easily read text if it's upside-down, backwards, in reverse, etc. I don't know why I can do this, but it does come in handy. I first became aware of this odd ability while in grammar school when I was sent to the Mother Superior's office and found I could read the papers on her desk (including my open student file) while she was lecturing me on whatever transgression I had committed...

I used to be able to write upside-down also, but I fear I may have lost that ability as I am now so poor in just writing right-side up...

[Madox58]

Back in the '70s while in school I took a speed reading course.
I was twice as fast as the teacher with twice the comprehension.
I was told I was cheating.
So I had that teacher hold a book upside down and I read it without pause.

I got a good grade for that course and had the teacher tell me "I'm sorry I doubted you! You are very gifted."

Back then I was like 'WTH ever! But don't call me a cheater ever again!"

It took me years to figure out not everyone can read like I can.

[nikimcbee]

I can't write in English cursive anymore, but I can do it in Russian. Back before there were word processors, I had to do ALL of my Russian HW in cursive or it was not accepted by the teacher.

God forbid if I had to write in English cursive.:dead:

[Armistead]

My wife has the best handwriting I've ever seen, course she's a good painter and studied calligraphy. She can write equally well with both hands. My daughter is a better artist than my wife, but really average handwriting.