Why is calligraphy not taught in schools?

[ShannonCT]

Except the thing that says you didn't cheat. It explicitly says you need to use cursive.

Doesn't matter. I printed my declaration last June and it didn't stop me from getting a 2400.

 

[Tomoyo]

Doing that while making it look like you didn't lift your pen/pencil and still leaving it legible is quite difficult.

(Of course, I really don't think anyone cares about that thing, but it's there.)

Doesn't matter. I printed my declaration last June and it didn't stop me from getting a 2400.

It doesn't affect your score. It affects when someone might accuse you of cheating and you somehow end up in court, or something like that.

 

[mangxema]

I think your middle school teachers were influenced by horrible cursive of your predecessors and revoked that policy as such.

It probably was hard to read... Here's the thing though... take 'a' and 'ci'. If you're writing quickly, those can easily look the same, save for a dot. Yeah, you can probably figure it out by context, but when I'm reading something I don't want to have to decipher it. On the other hand, if you're not writing quickly, you're an idiot for using cursive. Way easier in print... though to be fair, my print has absorbed a couple cursive-like features, especially with 'e''s.

 

[ShannonCT]

It doesn't affect your score. It affects when someone might accuse you of cheating and you somehow end up in court, or something like that.

I'm willing to bet that cursive vs. print is legally irrelevant nowadays.

 

[Tomoyo]

It probably was hard to read... Here's the thing though... take 'a' and 'ci'. If you're writing quickly, those can easily look the same, save for a dot. Yeah, you can probably figure it out by context, but when I'm reading something I don't want to have to decipher it. On the other hand, if you're not writing quickly, you're an idiot for using cursive. Way easier in print... though to be fair, my print has absorbed a couple cursive-like features, especially with 'e''s.

I see you haven't seen some of the print that I've seen lately.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Okay so why is the lack of people writing in cursive a problem? Because no one can write in print, either! 90% of the boys in my school have near-illegible handwriting, and of the 10%, only about 1% can write legible cursive. There's a running joke that the declaration on the SAT test is the hardest part of the test because it requires you to write in cursive. If we taught calligraphy in elementary school, the students would be able to write easily, legibly, and consistently in cursive.

I was taught cursive in elementary school, but subsequently forgot it, because print is much easier for me. On the declaration for the SAT, I couldn't write it, I had to print it. The old hag adminstering the exam threw a fit! She said "you HAVE to write in cursive" I said "look lady I don't know cursive so I can't write in cursive."

 

[ummmm........]

I've gotta say I'm with BB on this one. I'd probably take the time to learn calligraphy if I counted myself among the idle rich, or at the very least I'd start to learn it with the best intentions of finishing.

And kids who write in cursive did do better on their SATs . . .

 

[Nick Garai]

Because Microsoft Word has the Calligraphy has a Font style.

 

[Tomoyo]

It's much more impressive if you do it yourself.

 

[skadistic]

I thought calligraphy and cursive were two seperate things?

I still have alot of hand writen things to do in my day to day and write in a mix of print and cursive.

 

[Tomoyo]

Teaching calligraphy helps students write prettier cursive.

 

[Irish Caesar]

I see you haven't seen some of the print that I've seen lately.

People who can't print probably wouldn't have cursive or calligraphy any better at all, though. It seems that really what you want is people just having more attractive handwriting, which I certainly don't disagree with.

 

[mangxema]

Calligraphy basically is prettier cursive, only to the nth degree. Formal invitations, that sort of thing. Highly impractical for everyday use.

 

[Perfection]

Mm-hmm. I have multiple arguments.

Well, they all suck

Hmm. Cursive and GDRs don't quite mix.

Indeed, sucktastic things don't mix well with fantastic things.

Then you can be a doctor, I guess.
Or a pharmacist

Electrical Engineers can have bad handwriting too

I didn't get to make coil pots until ninth grade.

Sucka!

While I'm typing this post, I forgot what this was in response to, and I"m too lazy to check, so I just won't reply to it.

I keep the posts I'm referencing in another tab so I don't have this problem

It causes unneeded stress.Calligraphy builds social skills too. Little kids can talk while doing calligraphy and discuss how useless it is.Yeah, but you don't need funding to teach calligraphy. Well, not that much funding.It's almost like that now.

Actually, you'd need a whole lot of money, because you'd have to hire specialists to teach the children caligraphy, or hire trainers to teach the classroom teachers to teach it.

Mm-hmm. It's a lost art in the Western world.

I intend to keep it that way

So's calculus. You can't exactly use calculus to sow corn on a farm.

Yeah, but you do need calculus knowledge in a very wide assortment of jobs and it's not mandantory.

I would. It's too curly.

Cursive is curly and you like that

It would be really cool if everyone who write pretty.

I will never write pretty and could never write pretty no matter what occured.

Because that's the only time you can indoctrinate calligraphy into their little brains for life!

I'd indoctrinate them with much more useful skills. Like math and how to present yourself.

Yep, yep.

except that it would take much much more time then making a wreath. Learning caligraphy is a major time commitment.

Writing classes have switched the focus more towards writing well, since no one cares about grammar anymore. At least, that's the way it seems. No one knows how to use correct grammar anymore.

As long as it's not grammatically ackward or hard to decipher, I don't see the utility in grammatical formalism.

Doing that while making it look like you didn't lift your pen/pencil and still leaving it legible is quite difficult.

Noone cares if it's legible or not. Seriously, they accepted mine and it looked like utter indecipherable crap.

 

[Irish Caesar]

Electrical Engineers can have bad handwriting too

But they probably shouldn't...

Although I do have the sensation that I'm one of the very few engineering students these days with nice engineering hadwriting.

 

[mangxema]

But they probably shouldn't...

Nah, it's ok... we draw lots of pictur-*ahem*..."schematics"

Although I do have the sensation that I'm one of the very few engineering students these days with nice engineering hadwriting.

I think it's just guys in general. I've seen plenty of guys who aren't in engineering majors with handwriting way worse than mine....

 

[skadistic]

But they probably shouldn't...

Although I do have the sensation that I'm one of the very few engineering students these days with nice engineering hadwriting.

Thats why I use a proofreader/writer.

 

[Dann]

Cursive handwriting and calligraphy may be dying in the Western world, but thankfully not in the rest of the world. The Far East (Chinese, Japanese, Korean), the Arab world and the Indians have all managed to preserve their own calligraphy as a highly prized art form.

I agree partially with BB. Think Gothic lettering. Think fancy artistic fonts that can't be produced on a word processor with the same grace. Are you willing to let such legacies of your culture simply pass into history?

As with many other subjects that are no longer that "necessary" in this modern and lazy world of ours, let cursive and calligraphy continue to be taught as subjects, but make them elective. That way you get only the interested learners, and not a bunch of unenthusiastic students forced into doing something they don't like.

 

[mangxema]

Are you willing to let such legacies of your culture simply pass into history?

Absolutely.

Then again, I'm biased against ornate things. I write like Arial font, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[bhsup]

I view what you all are talking about as penmanship, not calligraphy. Penmanship used to be taught in schools, my mom has told me about how they used to practice it even into high school. Calligraphy, in my mind, is the writing of those fancy, schmancy lettering schemes like you'd see in old Bibles and such .