Technolandy

Day 15 (of 2026/27) Curse that Cursive

Heard outside my office – a student struggling with some of the notes written down for them by an assistant.

It’s hard to read… tricky because your spelling seems different to what I am used to.

That cursive script.

So the Education Assistant sought an alternative…

Scanned the document

Used a program/app (Lens) to change the script into a more readable font.

People may worry that kids won’t be able to read old correspondence that’s been handwritten…

They don’t realize that even for us who had too much cursive in our upbringing…

Not all cursive is created equally.

I’ve struggled trying to decipher others scrawl…

Many give/gave up when they look at mine…

And for those who yearn for the poetry of World War I and all the fancy writings…

Keep in mind that it is the 1% of 1% – the ‘good parts versions’ – that are being shared for us to be jealous of… 

Not the default font…

Comparing today’s ordinary texts to the museum pieces of handwriting of yore. 

Kids can decipher cursive…

But why bother?

There’s an app for that when necessary.

We don’t teach every obsolete technology simply because it might someday be encountered. 

Nobody is championing the lost art of the slide rule (I googled it to check) beyond the specialists who love to dive deep in that area

(Yes, I still ‘teach’ how to read ‘it’ – figuring that if they can read what I put on the whiteboard will be good practice for anybody elses… )

But as for the good old days… they weren’t.

Handwritten submissions were a challenge… 

legibility was the tip of the iceberg.

.

For those with fond memories of loops and curls – please model it more often

So that there is more of a reason to learn it beyond

“It’s supposedly good for making connections between hand and brain” 

(Except when it doesn’t)

Handwriting can have cognitive benefits. That doesn’t automatically mean cursive is uniquely responsible for them.

I’ll stick with my printing that mirrors texting (though more often using all capitals – just slightly bigger ones at the start of proper words and sentences.

But prove me wrong:

Use more cursive – then take a photo

And paste that on your posts.

Model less typing and more handwriting – but…

If you make an error, 

Please start again…

No strikethrough’s or whiteouts – that’s messy…