#sidenote

colettel04:

If you were ever told or were made to learn cursive writing when you were in grade school.
I wanna see how many of you suffered like I did.

i think i’m showing my age when i say that i learned cursive as a standard method of handwriting and thought nothing of it. it was the natural progression from learning how to trace the letters of the printed alphabet, with the implication that as we graduated from simple words and sentences, so did our lettering. cursive was the standard for all our in-class assignments and tests, though i don’t know if it was generally adhered to.

these days i type more than write – my typed wpm far outstrips my handwritten wpm – but i still do write using this method; when i’m brainstorming and drafting, it’s best to take a pen to paper, and cursive transmits my ideas fluidly.

still, i’m not surprised that it’s becoming an outdated method of writing in a digital era: rapid and accurate typed wpm is probably more of an asset for students and teachers alike. what sort of handwriting (if any) does take place in classrooms these days? i suppose it’s all printed lettering, which seems time-consuming and prone to illegibility imo. but i guess if it works for them?

the important thing is being able to write in such a way that you communicate your ideas coherently and effectively, in whatever method that accomplishes it: cursive lettering, printed lettering, a hybrid of both? i don’t know. i only know that cursive has always worked for me.