This is so puzzling to me, here in Brazil everyone writes in cursive, we all learned fine as children, it exists because it’s easier and faster to write with it and you are going to write a lot during all your school life.
One thing I’ve picked up from these threads over time is that different places mean different things by “cursive”.
In some places it’s treated as “how to write legibly by hand quickly” and in others it’s more of a formal writing system designed for signatures and the like.
For example, we were required to use it while learning it, and then told not to use it for handwritten assignments once we left elementary school. It was preferred that things were written using print or typed was strongly preferred.
Kids now don’t even have to write by hand as much, because typing is a vastly more practical skill.
Notes weren’t graded, but assignments had to be handwritten in perfect cursive until it switched to being unacceptable to use cursive.
Because they weren’t teaching efficient handwriting, they were teaching a second, slightly more formal, alphabet that can’t be used in most circumstances.
In the US, my kids have done most assignments online since middle school. They’ve never needed cursive except for the brief refresher every year, and the occasional legal thing, such as a signature card to get a bank account.
Although, I’m amused that my kid in 11th grade now has to hand-write some assignments for the first time, as a reaction to generative ai.
This is so puzzling to me, here in Brazil everyone writes in cursive, we all learned fine as children, it exists because it’s easier and faster to write with it and you are going to write a lot during all your school life.
One thing I’ve picked up from these threads over time is that different places mean different things by “cursive”.
In some places it’s treated as “how to write legibly by hand quickly” and in others it’s more of a formal writing system designed for signatures and the like.
For example, we were required to use it while learning it, and then told not to use it for handwritten assignments once we left elementary school. It was preferred that things were written using print or typed was strongly preferred.
Kids now don’t even have to write by hand as much, because typing is a vastly more practical skill.
Assignments were all done in Word, that’s normal, I mean it more like taking notes during class.
Notes weren’t graded, but assignments had to be handwritten in perfect cursive until it switched to being unacceptable to use cursive.
Because they weren’t teaching efficient handwriting, they were teaching a second, slightly more formal, alphabet that can’t be used in most circumstances.
In the US, my kids have done most assignments online since middle school. They’ve never needed cursive except for the brief refresher every year, and the occasional legal thing, such as a signature card to get a bank account.
Although, I’m amused that my kid in 11th grade now has to hand-write some assignments for the first time, as a reaction to generative ai.