Penmanship

[Mobasser]

My grandson was working on his cursive writing last night, as part of his homework. I was happy to see it.                        Growing up in the 1960s, it was mandatory to learn cursive writing. I remember teachers being strict about this also.                                            I think there are 21 states that have mandatory cursive writing in school now. If you take a whole classroom of kids, and teach them cursive writing, this is one thing that makes each kid different from the next. It's they're own style , and, no two are exactly the same. My mom had really good penmanship, and got compliments on this many times. My own is fair, and passable. Were you taught penmanship in school? Do you use it very often now?               It's a skill, and like any skill takes some practice to learn.

[J Francho]

Yes, I was taught cursive.  I almost never use it, unless signing a card for someone.

[MN Fisher]

Taught cursive in school - another 60s elementary student here.

 

But like John, I almost never use it...signing cards and official forms is all.

[Mike L]

Honestly I don’t remember! ?

 

I print everything except fir my signature which isn’t the prettiest and fir some reason never very consistent. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[A-Jay]

I was taught cursive in 3rd grade I think. (circa 1967)

Mrs. McKinnon, big woman with a nasty attitude and a short temper.

I was not very good at it in the beginning and she would loom over me during class work.

Almost pooped my pants every time.

Between that and the multiplication tables, 3rd grade was a bear for me. 

But I love her for it because I use both those deals every day.

#goodteachersrule

btw - my Mom & grandmother's hand writing was like art work.

Lynn's got that stuff down as well.

A-Jay

 

[DitchPanda]

I was taught cursive in school but like the others mentioned above I almost never use it.

[gim]

Nope, was never taught it.  I use a sloppy mixture of standard letters and cursive to sign my name nowadays.

 

My standard handwriting was so bad when I was younger that I had to take an extracurricular writing class to improve it.  It was effective.  I have to take regulatory notes for my current position right now and its considered evidence in some cases, so it has to be legible.  If its not legible, its not permitted, and therefore will not be used as evidence.

[casts_by_fly]

We were taught it in elementary school and used it through high school because computers were not common enough in homes at that point.  By the end of High school it was 50/50.  I don't use it at all now.  We were signing some mortgage documents last week and I had to script sign my name instead of my normal signature.  It was hard and I had to practice it a couple times (made extra hard because we had a guys night the night before I I'm not convinced I was sober yet). 

[Southernbasser]

1 hour ago, J Francho said:

Yes, I was taught cursive.  I almost never use it, unless signing a card for someone.

Same with me. 

[volzfan59]

I've never thought that my penmanship was great, but everyone else says that it's great. I use cursive a lot in letters and cards unless I'm writing one of my young (under 10) grandkids. Even though it's a lost art, I enjoy writing letters.

[Mobasser]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

I was taught cursive in 3rd grade I think. (circa 1967)

Mrs. McKinnon, big woman with a nasty attitude and a short temper.

I was not very good at it in the beginning and she would loom over me during class work.

Almost pooped my pants every time.

Between that and the multiplication tables, 3rd grade was a bear for me. 

But I love her for it because I use both those deals every day.

#goodteachersrule

btw - my Mom & grandmother's hand writing was like art work.

Lynn's got that stuff down as well.

A-Jay

 

A-Jay, my teacher was Mrs Ramsey. Very strict on cursive writing. Many of the girls in the class had good penmanship. I struggled with multiplication tables also. My dad bought simple flash cards, and within two or three weeks I learned them all by memory, with dad working with me every night. I ended up becoming a carpenter, and used multiplication every day.                I completely agree. Good teachers rule.

[Tennessee Boy]

[Bird]

Another 60's elementary student so yes.

Only use it for signature nowadays.

[galyonj]

I was taught cursive until jr high. Then I stopped using it altogether.

 

By the time I got to college, almost everything I did was typed, and the touch-typing I taught myself while I was being forced to learn cursive became a far more valuable skill to have.

 

So I can type really fast with good accuracy, but my handwriting is hilariously bad. Which is fine. Nobody but me ever sees it.

[LrgmouthShad]

Never use cursive except to sign. 
 

My handwriting is fast and not pretty. I leave out many strokes and sometimes words are connected by a single stroke
 

I can always read it, but others have a hard time. 

[Darth-Baiter]

i could probably write a sentence neater and clearer with my feet at this point.  i dont know what the heck happened to my handwriting.  it is awful. 

 

fun factiod.  my handwriting is much better and easier to decipher if i use a pencil.  super odd.    i would like to apologies to my Fishmas recipient.  i penned a note and put it into the box.  good luck reading that abominantion. 

[GreenPig]

I was taught cursive in school but only use it to sign my name. Many times it's with a finger tip on some kid of electronic device so it looks bad no matter the effort used.

I used to go through a pen a week as a A & P mechanic doing paperwork/sign offs but it was all block printing.

[gim]

I used to work as Pharmacy Tech when I was in college.  Customers would show up with new prescriptions and sometimes the handwriting by the MD was so bad we literally could not read it.  The Pharmacist would have to make a phone call to the MD's office to confirm what the prescription actually indicated.  So then the prescription filling would be delayed and the customer would get upset.  That is a real life situation where it pays to write legibly.

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

I used to work as Pharmacy Tech when I was in college.  Customers would show up with new prescriptions and sometimes the handwriting by the MD was so bad we literally could not read it.  The Pharmacist would have to make a phone call to the MD's office to confirm what the prescription actually indicated.  So then the prescription filling would be delayed and the customer would get upset.  That is a real life situation where it pays to write legibly.

When written prescriptions were more common,

(most are digital now), I've never been able to decipher any of them, ever. 

Even when I knew what it was suppose to say. 

I always just thought that illegible mess was some how deliberate and

something Dr's were perhaps taught in medical school.

#secretcode

A-Jay

 

[Bankbeater]

I learned cursive in 2nd grade.  Still use it today to take notes at work.  For a while my writing was getting very bad, then I started wearing my glasses and my writing really improved.

[roadwarrior]

13 minutes ago, Bankbeater said:

then I started wearing my glasses and my writing really improved.

 

 

                                                           

[Jigfishn10]

RW, you’re killing me, man.  

[J Francho]

Those handwritten scripts are in Latin. 

[BrianMDTX]

I learned cursive all through grade school. Mine was so bad Sr. Rose Raymond had my mom buy a composition book with dashed lines in the middle so I would learn to keep my lower case letters properly sized. I’ve always been an outside-the-lines kinda guy lol. 
 

Without cursive, how can you have a signature? 

[Mobasser]

2 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

I learned cursive all through grade school. Mine was so bad Sr. Rose Raymond had my mom buy a composition book with dashed lines in the middle so I would learn to keep my lower case letters properly sized. I’ve always been an outside-the-lines kinda guy lol. 
 

Without cursive, how can you have a signature? 

I don't know what would be considered a signature without knowing cursive. Otherwise, there's nothing individual about it.