Did You Know?

Not reading cursive isn’t a new problem.

As far back as the seventeenth century, there were many people who could read print, but could not read “written hand” (as the saying was). The topic comes up frequently in the legal documents, educational writings, and realistic fiction of the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. throughout the English-speaking countries.

Just one example, out of many, is …

“Oops, I Forgot how to Read Cursive!”

Yes, it’s possible.

In fact, it’s common.

Many people who learned cursive in elementary school have forgotten how to read most or all of the cursive letters (let alone how to write them) by the time they finish high school. A Toronto Star survey of first-year college students found that even those who had been required to learn and use cursive every day in elementary school could no longer read cursive. A line of cursive handwriting was an incomprehensible mystery to them, just as it was to other college entrants who had never been taught any cursive at all. …