Cursive writing

I am a controversial guy. On this blog and on my Facebook page I talk about politics, music, religion, social issues, and most controversially-my belief that cursive writing is rather antiquated and perhaps doesn't need to be taught in schools. For the record, I can read and write in cursive but no, I don't think it's an art form and frankly, it's not a skill that is in great need in 2017.

Oh boy, did this kick up a hornets nest. I was stunned, stunned that people cared so much about this issue. Saying that I think cursive is sort of useless was the moral equivalent of talking about someones mother and saying their religion is false. To end the argument/discussion I said "Out of everything I post about on Facebook THIS is the most controversial? Let's get back to talking about abortion and gun rights."

Some people complain that high school graduates aren't ready for college, much less the real world. They can't read and write a complete sentence and worse, they only communicate using texting language and emoticons. This is a problem, though I think the older generations are too tough on younger ones. The majority of high school graduates can probably communicate in complete sentences. Just because they have a typo here or there doesn't mean much. Interestingly enough though, many people who complain about the skill set of high schoolers want them to learn cursive instead of balancing a checkbook or learning basic business skills like negotiating or how to take orders from a boss. In the real world, if your boss asks you to stay late guess what-it's best to stay late. Some high schoolers don't know that.

Cursive writing won't help them. Important documents that at one time were written in cursive are available in different languages, not to mention different fonts. Not being able to read cursive does not mean you won't be able to read the Constitution-but people won't read that anyway-curisve or not.