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

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

I'm 23. I was taught to write in cursive, but haven't really done so since the third grade, when it was taught. I wouldn't say I can reliably read cursive. I had a professor this past semester who wrote on the board in cursive and that was no problem. But I've never really been able to read my dad's handwriting well, but it's arguably cursive (or it once was). My mother was never taught "American-style" cursive (for lack of a better term) in England. (I don't think they were taught any sort of joined up writing. Her handwriting is sort of joined up, but she made it up herself.)

I'm not sure how much being able to read cursive matters, though. It's not as if 'cursive' is a universal system that has been fixed through time--it already can be quite difficult to read things written two or three generations back and, pretty quickly, cursive will be the handwriting of two or three generations back. It's surprising to me that your friend can't read cursive, but I don't know how alarming it is. (Anecdote: My great-uncle left my brother a bottle of champaign with a note to be opened on his 21st birthday. We all tried to read the note. My dad, who was fairly close to the uncle, eventually figured it all out, but it took him a few tries.)