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this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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I feel like I'm going mad with this thread now. I write all the time be it notes or whatever, when I'm literally on a computer too. Weren't post-its created in the US? What do you do with them just stick them around? Notebooks at school? Do they exist anymore? Or is everyone just using their expensive smartphones as notepads now?
My mind is being blown by how little it seems you guys are using one of the most basic building blocks of society!
Everything I write with a pen or pencil uses unconnected letters and I don't ever.think about joining letters up unless someone unearths elementary school era trauma
In American high schools many have tablets or laptops for school work and note taking. Some American high schools still have you do written reports instead of typed, but you’re not allowed to use cursive, you have to print.
Overall you’re correct that handwriting as a whole has seen a steep decline in American culture, but it still exists in relative abundance, it’s just that the remaining use cases for it preclude the use of cursive writing.
It sounds like the use cases are specifically being reduced because of restrictions on using it within the same school system where it's being taught. Which is just... odd.
You could say that, although I wouldn’t call it odd. Non-cursive print is more legible across a wider group of writers, so the restrictions make sense. There’s a reason the legal documents in even your country of origin are printed and not written in cursive script. It’s a choice of practicality over elegance which is just kinda indicative of American culture as a whole.
America's institutions writ large are dysfunctional and falling apart at the seams. Part of the rot is outdated pratices that are continuing seemingly only because the very elderly exclusively tasked with running things insist on them out of pure tradition and nothing else. Cursive is seen in this light by many people, me included, since it's outdated and useless and for some mildly traumatic
Just my personal experience, but American kids are taught cursive in elementary school (around age 8) and then basically told not to use it in favor of the print lettering they learned first.
Schools require all assignments to be written in print, and I can't remember the last time I saw cursive "out in the wild." It's just not used in daily life unless you make a habit of using it in your personal writing/notes. The only time it ever comes up again in American schools is where certain statewide exams or college applications or something will require you to write a paragraph in cursive and then grade you on the quality of your cursive. The emphasis is put on the shape of the lettering, not the speed vs readability of the writing. So for most people, their experience with cursive is being taught a skill they're not supposed to use as a child, and then being judged for not using it almost a decade later because being able to write in it is supposed to make you look better for college admissions or something. Hence the hate.
Most Americans generally write in something with some degree of the style of a cursive script but with clearly defined and separated lettering, like D'Nealian print. But our society heavily favors print writing in basically all facets of life and "true" cursive largely feels like something you pull out for special or formal occasions - like writing the annual Christmas card to grandma, or when you're printing up wedding invitations or something.