Links

[chromodynamics]

• Education
• Cursive writing rapidly becomes passe
  I found the this interesting, as both a representative for our county is quoted, and my son has taken it upon himself to learn cursive (he's in first grade, and I have no idea what sparked him to do this, but reading this article I am glad that he has).
• Gaming
• Burger King orders up Xbox games
  So while McD's is focusing on healthy food choices and excercise for kids, BK has gone with video games that teach kids how to stalk. wtf?
• Just for Fun
• Top Ten Geek Wallets
  Each of these are interesting, though I don't think I would want to actually carry any of them.
• Linguistics
• FBI agents still lacking Arabic skills
  Only 33 with limited proficiency, that is all they have.  (Also they need Urdu and Farsi speakers.)
• Science
• BECs confound at higher temperatures
  This is mainly for me, I'm not sure anyone else would be interested (though it's very cool!).
• Physicits observe subatomic quick-change artist
  Ditto my comment above.
• Scientists teleport two different objects
  Now this you should look at. Teleporting a macroscopic atomic object over half a meter, while converting between light and matter! Awesome!

Comments

[jlh.livejournal.com]

The odd thing about that handwriting article is that they conflate cursive with handwriting in general. People often admire my handwriting, and I really think one reason it's stayed nice is that I never started taking notes in cursive; I've always printed them. So I print pretty damn fast, and my printing never really got that messy because hey, it's still printing, though truly it's sort of a mix of printing and cursive. Anyway, I think that I also printed in my blue book exams in college but I won't swear to that. So I'm not sure it's all that crucial that people were printing on the SAT's.

However, I do of course share the same concerns as the other historical scholars, and in fact we've talked about it in the hallways at school. I wonder if reading cursive will become like reading 18th c cursive with all the weird "fs" and stuff?

I do still write in cursive in letters and cards and if I'm leaving someone a personal note, however.

[longtimegone]

So I print pretty damn fast, and my printing never really got that messy because hey, it's still printing, though truly it's sort of a mix of printing and cursive.

That's exactly how I am (though I'm not taking notes very often any more). I remember taking my AP exams in high school and writing the essays for the literature portion in my print/cursive mix, but I really couldn't tell you the last time I actually set out to write something in cursive. Hmmm.

[chromodynamics.livejournal.com]

I think I almost always used cursive on exams in school, just because it is so much faster to write. But since that was such a long time ago, now I often have to remind myself if ever I need to write cursive, like on a check ("okay, is capital Q like this or like this?"). I almost exclusively use cursive when writing checks (which in and of itself has gone way down thanks to electronic bill pay) and signing my name, and that's about it.

[chromodynamics.livejournal.com]

I too had a lot of practice printing (school notes, yes, but by far thanks to all those years of D&D) and so used cursive rarely, except when I was writing essays and had a lot to say in a little time. For me cursive was always faster, just not my default method of writing.

Yes, I thought the historical aspect, and using handwriting for proof of existence/authorship, was very interesting. If cursive continues to decline, will printed signatures be accepted? I would think that printing would be much easier to forge than cursive, but maybe not. Of course, soon we will have microchips in our fingers or retinal scans and never have to sign anything again...

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

Will O be taught cursive? We started learning it in second grade. I can write in cursive, but I don't. We had to write everything in cursive in elementary school, but I quit once they stopped making us in junior high, as did most people I know. My handwriting is very legible (it's sort of a girly, round print/cursive hybrid -- my brother calls it "cloud writing" :p), though. But it IS bad if kids can't read cursive.

That was a really interesting article -- thanks for the link!

[chromodynamics.livejournal.com]

In the article, an official from our county's school board said that they, "don't have separate handwriting instruction for handwriting's sake," so I don't think that he will. However, they do focus a lot on printing, and his printing is excellent, considering he has just started 1st grade. He has already figured out a lot of cursive on his own (and he prefers mommy's writing as daddy's has too many loopies), and I just spoke with C and after reading this article she ordered a handwriting book so that he can practice more.

I'm glad you enjoyed the article!

[folk.livejournal.com]

Although I couldn't get to the article you linked (O MSNBC, my MSNBC), I find the US insistence on a nationally standardised cursive script almost incredible. I could never do it as a kid, and although I can now (with some limited aspects of consistency), I had to have remedial handwriting lessons when I moved to the UK schooling system at the age of 11, because the chicken-scratch printing that ended up being my primary writing method was that bad. I also quite like the diversity of writing that British people end up with, actually.