It just makes other people’s writing harder to read. And do you really save that much time writing cursive vs in print? Like a few seconds at most. But a lot of us are taught cursive early in our lives. Why?
Fyi; this is a question about the practically of cursive, not calligraphy itself. I know a lot of cursive writing can be very pretty and readable, but most people don’t write like that
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You write much faster using cursive. I couldn’t imagine taking notes in all my old uni classes just writing In block. Part of it is also just knowing how to read cursive. There’s people these days that can’t even read a basic letter because they never learned cursive. Kinda sad actually
I have thought about this before and wondered if, at some point in the future, we would need to have college level cursive courses for those subjects that would deal with old records, reading personal journals and letters, pretty much anything to do with historical research. The skill of reading cursive will still be needed long after writing long hand is no longer necessary because of technology. Even digitized records are sometimes scans of documents, so not ‘translated’ into a font.
Cursive writing unites both sides of the brain. In so doing, it promotes whole brain thinking. The earlier it’s learned in life, the greater the benefits.
Writing is very technical (left brained), while the flowing motions of cursive are artistic (right brained).
By combining these elements together, the brain becomes more integrated and works together. The more you write cursive, the better you will be able to use integrated thinking in general.
Or in short terms, cursive improves your iq.
As an IT professional all of my notes and day to day jots are in cursive it is faster especially when someone is talking to you and you don’t have quick access to a doc on your computer.
There are supposed to be educational studies linking cursive to brain development, as explained here:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain%3famp
But really, this is a case of adults saying, “I had to go through it, so my kids should have to go through it, too.”
I work in Title review. This field is used for things like buying a house, oil and gas rights, coal, other natural resources and a lot of other applications. Part of what a title attorney or abstraction does is read very old deeds and other legal documents. Nearly all of which prior to 1920 is handwritten in cursive. Additionally many of the US most important documents such as the constitution and Declaration of Independence are in cursive. I assume many other countries have similar historical documents.
Essentially, we will lose a large part of our history if no one can read cursive. A lot of people, including me, use it everyday for employment.
It’s more natural then block letters; our hands are not made for straight angle movement, so if you write a lot, it’s less tiring to keep it as one fluid motion. But if all you ever write is a handful of letters, then it makes no difference for writing. It’s also taught so you can read what people who write or wrote in cursive actually had written.
Writing in cursive (when you are actually good at it) is way faster and also much less tiring than writing in block letters. So you need cursive if you are expecting or expected to write by hand a lot, like pages and pages of it. This was more or less the case for every educated person until recently, but nowadays with computers it’s become a far less useful skill of course. So no reason really other than custom/tradition.
Yes, you can save a lot of time writing. It’s like the difference between on-screen texting (keyboard), and a real keyboard. Some people can hit 40-60 words per minute on the real keyboard, and not using abbreviated words or acronyms either.
You also save a lot of carpal tunnel, because cursive keeps your pen on the paper, you don’t have to lift it to “go to the next letter”. And the majority of the letters are not that different from the typed ones.
EDIT: It’s practical and still taught because:
* Hand-writing is still something that’s needed in day-to-day lives. The computers and phones haven’t replaced paper 100% yet. You do a lot of writing in school, high school, college, and at work. A lot of writing.
* It’s a hand- and finger-precision skill. It’s something that forces very minute and precise hand and finger movements. You know, like drawing and typing, and a lot of other tasks where we use our hands. It forces kids to develop precision with their finger and hand movements, which is very important.
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