random poll

[rm]

Super busy. Am suddenly curious about this. Apparently most kids entering college in the US this year don't know how to write in cursive. I suspect this is less a sign of the apocalypse than it feels like to me.

So, tell me things (as usual, poll is un-scientific and reflects my biases and experiences (and 49-year-olds can choose which age category they like better!) -- if the boxes don't work, my apologies and comments super welcome.):

[Poll #1607173]

Comments

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

And people actually write them in cursive? In a work environment?

That strikes me as utterly bizarre, but maybe my workplace is the oddity.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I do if I'm not at a computer -- I need the speed, and I can't print that fast.

[idunn.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Print takes me forever and I don't have the time when I'm juggling multiple projects at once.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

And my printing is much faster than my cursive. And more legible.

I guess I associate cursive writing so strongly with elementary school that using cursive in the workplace feels childish to me. Like writing in crayon. It's just not something that adults are ever called on to do, in my world.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

If you have to write a quick note and you are not at a computer (or typewriter), then, yes, a note in cursive is the way to go. And what if you need to make a note to yourself and you're not at a keyboard, are you going to take the extra time to p.r.i.n.t e.v.e.r.y single letter or are you going to rip it out in cursive? Speeding up the handwriting process is what cursive is FOR.

That said, my handwriting (cursive) has absolutely gone to pot over the years. Doctors have more legible signatures than I do. The exception, oddly, is when I am handwriting verb conjugations, which is really more of a meditative exercise than anything else.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

If I'm going to write something in cursive, I have to stop and remember how to form every letter, which is a slow enough process that I usually end up writing them separately and having to go back and fake the joins. And sometimes add the loops afterward if I forget where each one is supposed to start. My printing is very rapid. (And also tends to join up more, and more fluidly, then my cursive does.)