2.29.2012

R.I.P., cursive

The fine art of cursive writing seems to be in decline.  Many schools prefer to teach their students computer keyboarding skills, believing that these skills will serve the students better in the future.  I think the students are being short-changed.  If the family computer is viral, or there is an electric outage, completing that rough draft in  longhand will be impossible.  Because keyboarding classes are making penmanship classes a rarity, the student may not even be able to write in manuscript legibly, much less cursive.  Also, documents originally completed in script, such as the Declaration of Independence, may be unreadable by future generations who only recognize letters in simple fonts like Arial..

Like the hieroglyphics of the past, the cursive writings of more recent history may soon only be readable by scholars who specialize in "ancient" writings.  "The handwriting's on the wall."  Let's make sure it's legible, and keep it relevant!