Comment by hotnfresh
1 year ago
The cursive hand they taught when I was in elementary school was just ugly as sin and hard to read. Has a name, I forget, it’s the one that’s been standard in most US schools for decades, all linked up loops and curves, hardly a straight line in sight. I read once that it looks a ton better and the strokes are better-motivated if you’re using a nib pen, because lots of the back sides of loops get a thinner line which improves legibility, and the style helps orient the nib the right way as you go, which I hope is the case because otherwise I have no clue why anyone would have ever liked it or selected it to teach children
I’ve seen tons of others that are simpler, closer to print writing, and much easier to read (fewer extra loops and hoops on letters, crap like that) and I wish they’d taught us one of those, if they had to teach us cursive.
Last time this was discussed on HN, I was surprised how 'loopy' the standard American handwriting style taught in schools was.
In Britain it's much less fancy [1]. It's also normal to use a fountain pen from around age 7 — at least, I did in the 1990s, and they're still widely sold in shops. These examples seem to be pencil and a rollerball pen though.
(For more images, search "joined up writing primary school" as young children don't often use the word "cursive".)
[1] https://skidbyprimaryschool.org.uk/curriculum-intent/english... (Year 1 = age 5-6, Year 6 = age 10-11).