Does the American youth really not write in cursive? - That can’t possibly be true

[Mexican Molotov Marauder]

So it’s a country thing more than an age thing, I’d say.

Absolutely. As a eurofag cursive was the basis of my literature education, the way americans write in print is so alien and weird to me it's difficult to explain.

 

[Dufe]

There was a whole meme a few years back where people would trick black people by writing down their slurs in cursive. I think it mainly stopped because the white zoomers couldn't read it either.

I remember seeing this once. Anyone have examples?

 

[YHWH's Strongest Soldier]

Cursive is also fading in Europe, but the situation is a bit more nuanced. There is an extreme and widening gap between the top students versus everyone else. Those who can both afford it and have very engaged parents still receive a mostly traditional education with the standard subjects at a higher level than their peers in addition to a classical language (or Mandarin) and actual training in the arts. Cursive is a basic expectation covered in primary school or by private tutors.

Based on the findings of PISA, the quality of the bottom and average students has plummeted between 2018 and 2022 and these are the youths who I suspect cannot read or write in cursive. Their print writing is also rarely legible in my experience. Worst of all, these issues go further than just cursive with many students being practically illiterate and unable to read literature more complex than YA novels. While they can read of course, their vocabulary is extremely limited and dependent on modern English slang. To put it simply, they do not know many "fancy" words in their native language nor can they consistently guess their meaning based on the context. This is most clear in the performance of Dutch students who fell to a historically low score of 459 for reading in 2022 from 513 in 2003. This puts them at the level of Turkey.

If you would like to learn more about the specifics of this widening gap between the top and bottom performers, I recommend fragments of Ch. 6 from the PISA 2022 Volume 1 (pp. 191-193). Migration is also a factor as the second-generation experiences a significant drop in performance when compared to natives and even first-generation migrants in nearly all western countries except Singapore. It is incredibly sad to see as the disadvantaged students are only falling lower while high performers either stay the same or improve. I hope that the overview table for USA (p. 474) was successfully attached. It is not the most extreme example but it shows the widening gap in mathematics.

 

[JohnnyG]

I can do my signature but I sometimes struggle with some letters in cursive. Overall I blame myself and relying on the education system.

For $5-10 you can get a Spencerian penmanship book on Amazon...I think the most popular one is a reprint of the ones students used way back when. If you use it for random notes day to day it won't take long to master.

 

[Shidoen]

funny story. i specifically asked to be taught cursive in 4th grade since it wasn't part of the curriculum and they had to like print out a worksheet for it

A student? Wanting to actually learn something? Imao what a faggot.

For $5-10 you can get a Spencerian penmanship book on Amazon...I think the most popular one is a reprint of the ones students used way back when. If you use it for random notes day to day it won't take long to master.

Neat I’ll have to give it a look if I remember about it.

 

[Huh what?]

Learned cursive in 3rd grade and can still read it. Never, not even once, have I needed to use it outside of school, and teachers swore we'd be using it for the rest of our lives.

 

[The Evil Midnight Bomber]

I understand why people insist on writing down notes on their phones now. They can't write in cursive and writing in print letters is slow as fuck.

 

[Man at Arms]

They need to teach cursive in highschool. I knew cursive in 1st grade but forgot it all because I didn't have to sign any documents. Anyways to answer your question I don't think they teach kids anymore it's just a daycare where the kids fuck in the bathroom (true story)

Yeah. I learned cursive while I was in school, can still use it today.

They don't teach kids any.ore because they don't want them to read the Constitution. I heard a younger person say this back to me when I told them.

"I don't need to read or write cursive because it's translated for me"
Failing to realize translation always loses its merit and it could be a lie.

 

[pork and beans]

Absolutely. As a eurofag cursive was the basis of my literature education, the way americans write in print is so alien and weird to me it's difficult to explain.

Same, eurofags united lol

 

[Fatniggo1488]

I've never really understood why the older generation is so insistent on cursive writing. Cursive really shouldn't be taught in the mainline educational cannon. The problem with cursive is that it actually takes quite a bit of calligraphy skills to make it legible. Let's be honest, most people's cursive is very difficult to read and looks like utter dogshit. Also most written communication in the modern era is typed so obviously print is more important than cursive to learn.

 

[JohnnyG]

The problem with cursive is that it actually takes quite a bit of calligraphy skills to make it legible.

I could argue that learning to write legibly is a worthwhile endeavor, and that it's almost certainly tied to other positive traits, and that removing it from education because it's hard is just another step in dumbing down society.

But even if you're of the view that cursive scripts are needlessly decadent, designed by bored Eurofags, there are more streamlined versions like Spencerian which are designed to put ergonomics and function (angle of the pen strokes matches your hand/wrist, no lifting between letters) ahead of pomp and circumstance.

 

[Hiccup Scream]

why write in scribbles when you could have clear defined lettering, you want all your letters connected go learn some sanskrit hoodoo voodoo nonsense like arab or jew-tongue

 

[regginknurd]

I'm not an American youth, but I'm a middle American. We haven't had to worry about cursive since I was in middle school. Why should I? Cursive is gay and illegible (at best). If I can't understand or read what you're writing in print then you should have your hands removed. You think cursive will make that better?

 

[FamicomGorby]

We learned cursive in like the 4th grade but mine wasn't great and my handwriting in general kinda went to shit as soon as I could type.

I understand why cursive was a thing when handwriting everything was common but don't really see the point now when everyone has a keyboard equipped device on them at all times.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

I'm on the older end of millennial and it was clear cursive went the way of the dodo by 2000 when all your teachers started insisting you print shit out on a computer anyway. Absolutely a useless skill at this point. I guess it would be useful in case of total societal collapse but unless you start teaching stuff like firemaking in public schools first I don't see an argument for it.

 

[Leeroy]

Learned it around 5th grade or so, but it's not like you really need to sign stuff in cursive as a kid, that and the teachers didn't really want kids to do it outside of the mandated assignments either, so it just became worthless at that point. Not like they ever taught it later in school either, when being able to sign your name in cursive actually becomes important. Thankfully, I can read it and sign my name with no issues, but other than those specific letters and I'd have to look up how to write so I don't accidentally fuck it up, sadly.

 

[WonderWino]

Had to learn it from grade 2 all the way to graduating high school, for some reason schools in the lower mainland have a hard on about teaching cursive. or at least they used to. That said I barely use it

Frankly i'm surprised it was taught for as long as it was. After all it was always more about the fact that people were using the old fountain pens to write most of the time, which made it useful. Those aren't used much anymore

 

[Dysnomia]

I was curious once some years ago and asked a pharmacist what happens if a person cannot sign their name. She told me they'll take anything as long as the person signs for the prescription.

Now I think it's not that important to know cursive. Print letters are much easier to read. Most people write cursive as illegible chicken scratch. I have read letters in cursive and it's often a guessing game as to what is written. Even if your printing sucks it's usually easier to make it out.

I learned in the 80s and was constantly told my lower case f's were "wrong" because I was using an older version of the letter. Something to do with the loops that made no sense to me. I had no idea what they were talking about. That's just how I wrote it. I went to Catholic school and they made you write out each letter again and again until it was perfect. It had to be exactly like the work book said. I remember sitting there writing those stupid f's over and over.

I think instead of wasting time on cursive they should go back to teaching kids how to cook or something. Life skills are more important than pretty script.

 

[Active User]

I'm at that late zoomer period where it was on its way out as I was coming up through school. I could write in it if I really needed to if I was gonna set aside time to get a refresher, but it's really just not needed for anything but my name and even then they don't really care what you sign as long as it's relatively consistent. Differences in handwriting are exacerbated a lot more with cursive, and it's often pretty hard to read even knowing how all the letters are supposed to work because they can get distorted in a way that doesn't really happen with print.

Being in this weird transitory period means we had a typing unit at around the same time we were still nominally learning cursive, and I'd certainly say the typing ended up a far more useful skill in my day to day life.