Why is calligraphy not taught in schools?

[Technocactus]

What's cursive?

It's joined-up handwriting.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Basically, it's handwriting not in capital letters.

I thought everyone wrote like that.

It's joined-up handwriting.

Oh. At school we were told that it was just called "joined up writing".

 

[Technocactus]

Oh. At school we were told that it was just called "joined up writing".

Same at our school. No-one ever said "cursive" to us.

 

[Masquerouge]

I thought everyone wrote like that.

I thought that too, so I'm with you...

 

[Tomoyo]

People actually call it "script" around here... (I think 'script' really just means anything handwritten, though.

 

[Masquerouge]

On a side note, I have a pretty bad handwriting per French standards. However, when I came in the US, my English teacher showed my papers to the class as an example of the neatest handwriting she had ever seen.
That made me laugh, but sadly I think she was right. My fellow students had the crappiest handwriting I had ever seen.

 

[MrCynical]

I think the distinction with cursive is that all the letters in a word are joined, whereas with normal joined up writing some joins (particularly with letters like s, j and g where you have to cross back over the letter) are omitted.

I don't have a lot of patience for cursive writing, so I certainly wouldn't want to see it emphasized in schools. It is highly arguable whether it is faster (in practice a mixture of joined letters and printed seems faster rather than including superfluous loops), and as to legibility I invariably find cursive writing worse. Frequently it is very neatly illegible, but that still makes it useless with the exception of its use as a signature.

As to calligraphy, while it's a nice artform, I don't see any need to emphasize it more than, for example, origami. Neatness is not the function of handwriting, and far too often legibility is sacrificed for it. In any case it is becoming increasingly true that anything where neatness is required should be typed.

 

[Paradigne]

I agree that caligraphy should be tought in art class. It is a dieing art form, but IMO art itself is dieing so whats the difference?

I taught myself aligraphy in high school, I rarely use it but it does come in handy on occasion

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Basically, it's handwriting not in capital letters.

I thought everyone wrote like that.

No way - i never knew such people exist. But if they're all american then it makes perfect sense.

I don't know how such a person can be called literate - they should be called half-iliterate or smthing.


But this begs the next question:
Is writing in capital letters taught in school ? That would be insane.

I realised that the Caligraphy classes in the 2nd grade just emphasises on the beauty of writing. But from first grade, the only thing we are taught is this "cursive" writing of which you speak (for everyone here it's called "writing like a normal person" ).
Until 5th grade, writing in capital letters is forbidden. I remember the teacher often scorned me for making the first letter of the word a non-cursive capital letter.

 

[Tomoyo]

Is writing in capital letters taught in school ? That would be insane.

It's not taught, but some teachers (non-English teachers) do prefer all capital letters.

I realised that the Caligraphy classes in the 2nd grade just emphasises on the beauty of writing. But from first grade, the only thing we are taught is this "cursive" writing of which you speak (for everyone here it's called "writing like a normal person" ).

No one writes in "cursive" anymore.

Until 5th grade, writing in capital letters is forbidden. I remember the teacher often scorned me for making the first letter of the word a non-cursive capital letter.

They should do that on this side of the pond. It's embarrassing to have to ask the person next to you how to write a cursive capital "D," then having to practice for weeks before I got it just right.

 

[Irish Caesar]

I've never encountered any teacher who preferred all capital letters; I began doing it for physics and engineering sorts of classes, though.

 

[mangxema]

I think the distinction with cursive is that all the letters in a word are joined, whereas with normal joined up writing some joins (particularly with letters like s, j and g where you have to cross back over the letter) are omitted.

I think it's probably the same thing, just called something different in other regions. Everyone has their own habits and idiosyncrasies in writing...

It's embarrassing to have to ask the person next to you how to write a cursive capital "D," then having to practice for weeks before I got it just right.

I hate the cursive 'D'; it's so inefficient and... well, girly. I have a hard time starting my signature with something as frilly as a 'proper' cursive 'D'.

 

[Bill3000]

No one writes in "cursive" anymore.

Because it offers nothing beneficial for writing. Print is more legible and faster, and the computer is better than both.

 

[TheBladeRoden]

Am I the only one who's used lower-case non-cursive letters?

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Here's my handwriting. Horrible i know.

Spoiler :

In 2nd grade my lowest marks were at caligraphy.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

It's not as bad as mine. I don't think it can be called hand writing.

 

[TheBladeRoden]

It's messy but legible

Spoiler :

 

[Murky]

My hand-writting is ok if I have enough time to do it properly. My class notes were a mess of course because the instructors didn't like to wait.