/1/ Fortunately, learning to read cursive takes far less time and effort than learning to write it! (You don’t need to write cursive in order to read it. Learning to read cursive takes 15 minutes to an hour — learning to write it requires weeks at best, more often some months of concentrated time and effort that could very well go to other, more important studies.)

/2/ The fastest and most legible handwriters avoid “pure” cursive anyway. Highest-speed, highest-legibility handwriters join only some, not all, of the letters — making the easiest joins, and skipping the rest — and use print-like shapes for those letters whose printed and cursive shapes “disagree.” This makes it extremely doubtful that anyone should continue to idolize cursive.

Kate Gladstone
Founder and CEO, Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works handwriting improvement service
Director, the World Handwriting Contest
http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com

I’m horrified that handwriting should disappear, our hands express our true selves thru pens/pencils/brushes and indeed fingers in the example of finger painting. Stress, enthusiasm, concern, fear, inhibitions, exhibitions are all communicated thru our hands, and to in a sense chop them off is indeed a shame.

Brilliant poetry by the way James, if only you could allow your self to be expressed thru ur handwriting as a creative outlet without the fear of being measured on the result. Who cares on the numbers awarded anyway, that’s only a way to keep writing uni(n)formed and same old same old. Just maybe dear James it’s a big, fat, THREE, that’s got you in a grip??

Consider this….. we are in fact creating and inventing a completely new means of handrighting.. thru computers, touch screens… the progression of computers seems to indicate there will in fact be a more hands on approach to technology. Could be due to a number of reasons.. repetitive strain injury for example… keeping our hands locked in a particular fashion causes strain and injury to our bodies (surprise surprise), therefore an outlet for more movement in the body thru computing is making it’s way to the masses via the creators who are quite possibly experiencing similar restraints. PERHAPS it’s only a matter of time before we get a little more handy with these plastic boxes. Phew… almost off the pedestal…

Computers CAN and ARE immortalising fonts for those of similar views… IE it’s a hoot seeing my handwriting on the screen. I can change the whole screen to look like I wrote everything on it and there’s a real sense of authorising information. A very cool thing, which comes highly recommended…. just one moment for a little advertising please.. in four words, and two full stops.

Get fonted. On MADinMelbourne.com.au

OK, I’m off the stool now…. NEXT…..

If there was a way that I could symbolically watch as handwriting dangled by one hand from a cliff, slowly losing its grip, one finger at a time, and do nothing, I would. I would watch all of its little, weak, frail fingers lose their strength one at a time until finally, the grip was completely lost. I would watch with an open and quiet satisfaction as handwriting fell from the cliff. I would watch as its feeble, brittle bones broke and shattered against the rocky outcroppings. I would stare down upon the lifeless remnant of handwriting, sprawled against the valley floor. No more. Handwriting would be no more and I would find peace.

Hugs!