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I was absolutely astounded a couple of days ago when my cousin told me an eighth grader had trouble finding his band uniform from a rack of uniforms on which she had written each child's name.
When asked about this, the eighth grader said, "I can't read cursive."
I was absolutely astounded a couple of days ago when my cousin told me an eighth grader had trouble finding his band uniform from a rack of uniforms on which she had written each child's name.
When asked about this, the eighth grader said, "I can't read cursive."
Hey, you stole that from me, hahaha.
And, P.S., I've never heard cursive called "joined up writing."
How does a person even sign his name if he doesn't know how to write in cursive?
Isn't that a good question!
In my last year as a HS counselor (2003), one of my counselees brought me a college application, so that I could review it for accuracy and appropriateness. Overall, it was well-done, but the one glaring problem was that, at the end of the application, where a signature is required so that the applicant can attest to the accuracy of his/her statements, this young woman had printed her name, rather than signing in cursive script. I pointed out this problem to her, offered her a duplicate (blank) application so that she could complete it properly, and she balked, saying, "But, that is how I sign my name".
Upon further questioning, it became apparent that block lettering was all that she knew. I don't know exactly where the educational process fell apart to the extent that she never learned cursive script (or...joined together writing...if you wish ), but she was the only student whom I encountered at this point in my career who claimed to have never learned cursive script. I do recall that she had attended schools in a few different states, but one would think that, somewhere along the line, the necessity of making sure she could write in cursive script would have occurred to at least one of her elementary school teachers.
I advised her to go home, ask her parents to give her some basic instruction in how to sign her name, and to return with a properly-executed application. She did follow my directive, and although her signature looked like it had been done by a third-grader, at least I was able to submit an application with her signature in cursive script.
It's been discussed many times in the education forums and I find it very sad that people are not learning how to write. I've even read that if you address a letter now you'd better PRINT the name and address because a young postal employee wouldn't be able to read it otherwise.
How are they going to read old letters or the names of the back of their old family photographs? Read famous handwritten speeches or our nation's original documents?
It's simple to learn and doesn't take long so that can't be the reason for dropping it from the curriculum. Maybe they don't need the strict handwriting lessons that some of us endured in school, but just a little bit of attention to being able to write in your native language doesn't seem that difficult.
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), but she was the only student whom I encountered at this point in my career who claimed to have never learned cursive script. I do recall that she had attended schools in a few different states, but one would think that, somewhere along the line, the necessity of making sure she could write in cursive script would have occurred to at least one of her elementary school teachers. 
