BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

So true. Many former partners' children are now graduating from High School and College. Their thank you notes, when we have received them, are sloppily printed with mistakes xxx-ed out. This is part of the "don't worry about the details" indoctrination of the younger generations IMHO.

Tex-s

Jerry,

As a teacher in public schools for nearly 30 years now, I can tell you a bit about WHY cursive is not being taught, but before I make that case, I'd like to say I agree with you wholeheartedly in your concerns that a great deal of history could be effectively lost if the future generations don't read script writing. So, on with the list.

1) High stakes standardized testing in general
1.1) Test scores relate to funding
1.2) In most urban schools, at the elementary level, teachers may be dealing with 10+ languages being spoken in the homes of students who must first learn to converse
1.3) to read and
1.4) to write in print
1.5) at grade level to pass these tests
1.6) cursive is simply not a tested topic, and any historical texts on testing are converted to standard font on the tests. If it ain't tested, it ain't taught, basically
1.7) ADA law effectively requires the text conversion to print anyway, because of sight disabilities and dyslexia
2) Less conventional parenting and FAR less parental devotion to school and to discipline means even native English speakers are behind grade level at alarming rates.
And my cynical one:
3) I fully believe that some of those pulling the strings of the Dept. of Education policy would dearly LOVE to imagine a future where interested people lacked the ability to read the actual writings of Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Hamilton et al.

bamfordr Loc: Campbell CA

With respect to future generations, I expect that within 200 years the idioms, usage, and spelling will have changed so much it will take an expert to read these old handwritten documents. And, probably, to interpret the “printed” documents. There is also the interesting problem of ensuring the retrievability of electronic documents. As I recall, printed on the right paper with the right “ink”, and stored under the right conditions is the most stable, longest-lasting storage method.

Tex-s

Bob,

As a teacher of nearly 30 years, I can promise you that your 'indoctrination' angle is accurate, but the 'details' portion is far less so. For example, every middle school history text will devote page after page to 'failings of the US' like slavery, the 3/5 compromise, the 'undemocratic' Senate, the fact that only male property owners were originally allowed to vote, the trail of tears, even fiction like the idea that some medically uneducated Captain distributed 'smallpox blankets'. Lots of detail there...... What's missing in these texts is the Federalist Papers, documentation of the debates that eventually laid out the Constitution, the fact that there would be no Union without some of those provisions. What's missing is the truth that every state that illegally seceded during the Civil War saw the US government renege on the guarantees made in the Articles of Incorporation for each State.

Texts of 1960 did highlight the successes of US liberty, economy, industry, military, etc and failed to admit to failings appropriately, but the left of today wish only to illuminate failures so that they can demand 'change' in forms that ALWAYS reduce liberty. Truly, I believe the loss of personal accountability and personal liberty is already on an unstoppable track, and as I already mentioned, the loss of the ability to read actual historical writings is an outcome that only benefits those who would abandon the Constitution.

CSand Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

So much has been lost. College grads in my family do not even know the correct way to address envelopes. Thank you notes are simply shameful. And the printing they use is sloppy and looks like grade school level. These young people have good jobs. Heaven knows how.

carney2

My wife is trying to teach our grandchildren. Response from the 13 year old: "I don't want to live in the 1900s. Get off my back."

berchman Loc: South Central PA

I am so glad that I chose not to have children.

CSand Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

They have lost respect for their elders also.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Thank educators who dumbed it down. “In the future, kids need keyboard skills. So if we make it hard for them to write quickly and easily, they’ll learn to type.”

Far worse than the loss of cursive writing are the loss of phonics in teaching spelling and reading, an an utter lack of understanding of why Latin is necessary to understand language (and the sciences!) on a deeper level.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

Speaking of loss, just look at the old writings from centuries ago (Olde English comes to mind, like in Beowulf). Most of us elders would have problems with that so this is an ongoing phenomenon...

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

So much has been gained! Who cares about writing letters in 2019, other than those of us old farts who didn’t grow up with computers and smartphones?

Young people survive because they adapt to their circumstances. To keep up, we must do the same.

The Internet, email, text messaging, PDF, and mobile phone networks have all but killed off snail mail and lots of other quaint technologies.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I've been wondering about typing.

I learned 10 finger typing in High School (many, many years ago). Nowadays people type with their thumbs instead of with all 10 fingers because the other fingers are in use holding the "keyboard" which is no longer a big heavy block of metal sitting on a table. The QWERTY keyboard was developed to slow down typists back in the days when typewriters were mechanical, and typing too fast led to jams of the hammers. There are other keyboards out there, and since the mechanical typing limitation has pretty much disappeared, when are we going to evolve away from QWERTY?

I'm not talking about the Dvorak keyboard either. That was developed in the mechanical typing era. How about going back to some of the keyboards that were discarded in the development of the "slow" arrangement? Or even research into typing using thumbs only?

amyinsparta Loc: White county, TN

Try reading 17th century English. Time goes by, things change. That's life. When it all falls apart, we will start over.

Dannj

A few years ago a friend of mine had the great idea of creating a hand written family history for his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. He was going to include key events in the boy’s life especially times he had spent with him. He and his wife would write alternating sections and thought it would create a beautiful keepsake for their grandson, especially since it would be in their own hand.
When he told his daughter, the boy’s mother, about it she too thought it was a wonderful gift except for on thing: the boy probably wouldn’t be able to read it😢

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

I was a high school teacher for ten years. Not only could some kids not write cursive, but sometimes kids could not read THEIR OWN cursive.

There's STANDARD cursive, taught in schools (maybe) and there is what people actually DO, which can be quite unintelligible. I've seen a lot of that.

Then there is printed writing (by girls, I've noticed) that is so stylized that IT TOO is barely readable.

I'm fortunate (69 years old) that I get complimented on the clarity and readability of my cursive. My casual handwriting writing tends to be a combination of cursive and printed.