Several
weeks ago I had lunch with my brother, my sister-in-law, and one of my cousins,
and for some reason we started talking about handwriting and how sad it was
that cursive is losing ground.
Since
I write middle-grade fiction, I send my manuscripts out to be beta read by
third through sixth graders. I just received a batch of evaluations, and, as
usual, even the sixth graders had printed their answers to the questions. I
think the school they go to does teach cursive in the higher grades, but
obviously that is not the handwriting of choice.
I
hate to print because it takes me twice as long as writing the same thing in
cursive. But when I send thank-you cards to my beta readers, I have to remember
to print. It isn’t natural for me, but since I’m not sure if the girls will be
able to read the cursive, I have no choice.
Some
peoples’ cursive is hard to read, but that’s because of the person, not the
nature of cursive. My cursive tends to be sloppier than my printing, but both
are legible. And because I don’t have to lift my pen from the paper, using
cursive saves me significant time.
Besides,
anyone who says it’s easier to read printing than cursive hasn’t compared them
enough to judge. I’m having a terrible time reading the printed comments from
one of my 6th grade beta readers. Would I have had trouble reading
her cursive, too? Maybe. But it couldn’t be a worse struggle than I’m having
with her printing.
I’ll
never understand why cursive went out of style.
Unless
someone is purposefully trying to make my life harder.
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