B.C. by Mastroianni and Hart for July 06, 2014

Too close to the truth.

’Cursive ’ is not taught in the classroom anymore. Kids pick up cursive watching TV and listening to the big kids on the playground..The same is pretty much true for Sex Ed.

The lessons are faster.just a littttle too long for their attention spans.

Cursive was necessary, in the days of quill pens — it greatly reduced the risk of making ink blots, compared to block lettering. Writing with cursive is faster than block lettering, even with ball-point pens. However, writing in cursive isn’t a very useful skill in the smartphone age.

Cheating has always been necessary, it’s the only way some kids can get through school… and it teaches a valuable life skill. Not getting caught!

I always wondered why they spelled it “skool”…now I know!

How true this is!!

I hear they don’t have to learn cursive any longer with the exception on how to write your own name. How sad.

gonna make it hard to read some of the documents written in that age of quill pens and ink pots. like the declaration, the constitution. there are reasons to learn this skill, even in this age of smart phones. just sayin

There was a news article several months ago about a 16-year old who cannot get a passport because he cannot write his name.

Computer apps are marvelous. They allow you to waste time very efficiently.

Cursive is just connecting the printed letters, with just a couple of changes. Or do they just learn the block letters?

Eventually, it’ll just be icons (pictograms), and we will have moved backward by about 5000 years.

Cursive writing is an interesting skill. We were taught to write neatly and legibly. Unfortunately, unless there is constant reinforcement of skills we tend to lose them as we grow older and lazier. I’ve seen quite a few examples where I would much prefer the writer used block lettering.

My cursive is so much less legible than my block lettering I have not written anything but my signature in cursive for more than 30 years. I do not lament its passing.

It’s not that bad… yet! My school system blocks Facebook. :)

Cursive is slower for me because I have to go back and fix things. I used it in school from 2nd through 6th (couldn’t wait, back then, and I was ‘corrected’ when I signed my name in cursive too early), but when a friend started printing everything, I decided to go that way too. Now if I have to take notes in class, I do it on my computer, where I can type most everything a teacher says and sort it all out later.

I used to think the “Soylent Green” was the scariest futuristic movie because it seemed it was so likely to happen that way, but now I’m starting to think the most likely is “Idiocracy”.

" Cheaters never prosper "…. But the get 100%

This class is hooked on phoneics.

How many of you remember drawing ovals in writing class? 2nd grade, I think it was.

Without cursive how are doctors going to write confusion prescriptions? Then the pharmacists won’t have any mysteries to solve.

So,instead of signing your name everyone now is to print it?? Very secure.

BrianK ..ipads

I got in trouble while learning the Palmer method and cursive…Sue carol took issue with my dipping her dangling pigtail in my desk inkwell!

Yeah…it’s no longer cursive… I think it’s “high school girl fancy” that you cannot read anyway. WHO taught them to write this way and when will it stop?? Aarghh

From “Psychology Today”, March, 2013: “Yet scientists are discovering that learning cursive is an important tool for cognitive development, particularly in training the brain to learn “functional specialization”2—that is, the capacity for optimal efficiency. In the case of learning cursive writing, the brain develops functional specialization that integrates both sensation, movement control, and thinking. Brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of brain become co-activated during the learning of cursive writing of pseudo-letters, as opposed to typing or just visual practice.”

We wonder why one of the most schooled nation on earth is one of the most uneducated. It’s because we do not truly value intellectual activity. Technology is the PRODUCT of human intellectual activity, not a substitute for it.

re: Asimov’s short: Well, critical thinking is already one of the lost arts; history is pointless to many; common sense isn’t any more; math isn’t even needed to figure your pay; and the greatest value of our once-vaunted-as-setting-us-apart-from-the-animals thumbs is…well, YOU know. So, Dr. Asimov, we have arrived at your future. Hooray for us, and welcome to The Dark Ages Part II. For THAT scenario, see H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine”, after George goes into the future of the Eloi and Morlochs.

Today’s strip is making me sick!I don’t mean we should resort to chisels and stone tablets; but, a line needs to be drawn in the sand regarding educating our kids today. That is, of course, if they actually know what sand is…

I received this from a close friend a couple of days ago:

IDIOT SIGHTINGI handed the teller at my bank a withdrawal slip for $400.00I said “May I have large bills, please”.She looked at me and said “I’m sorry sir, all the bills are thesame size.” When I got up off the floor I explained it to her….

IDIOT SIGHTINGWhen my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it.We went to the service department and found a mechanicworking feverishly to unlock the driver side door. As I watchedfrom the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handleand discovered that it was unlocked. ‘Hey,’ I announced to thetechnician, ’it’s open!’ His reply: ‘I know. I already got that side.’This was at the Ford dealership in Canton,MS

IDIOT SIGHTINGWe had to have the garage door repaired.The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a ‘large’ enough motor on the opener.I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest oneSears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower.He shook his head and said, ‘Lady, you need a 1/4 horsepower.’ I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4.He said, ‘NO, it’s not..’ Four is larger than two.’We haven’t used Sears repair since.

IDIOT SIGHTINGMy daughter and I went through the McDonald’stake-out window I gave the clerk a $5 bill.Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter.She said, ‘you gave me too much money.’ I said, ‘Yes I know,but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back.She sighed and went to get the manager, who asked me to repeat my request.I did so, and he handed me back the quarter, and said ’We’re sorry; but we could not do that kind of thing.’The clerk then proceeded to give me back $1 and 75 cents in change.Do not confuse the clerks at McD’s.

IDIOT SIGHTING IN FOOD SERVICEMy daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco.She asked the person behind the counter for ‘minimal lettuce.’He said he was sorry, but they only had iceburg lettuce.— From Kansas City

IDIOT SIGHTINGI was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airportemployee asked, ‘Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?’To which I replied, ‘If it was without my knowledge, how wouldI know?’He smiled knowingly and nodded, ’That’s why we ask.’Happened in Birmingham , Ala.

IDIOT SIGHTINGThe stoplight on the corner buzzes when it’s safe to cross the street.I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine.She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for.I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red.Appalled, she responded, ‘What on earth are blind people doing driving?!’She was a probation officer in Wichita , KS

IDIOT SIGHTINGAt a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker who was leaving the company due to ‘downsizing,’ our manager commented cheerfully, ‘This is fun. We should do this more often.’Not another word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare.This was a lunch at Texas Instruments.

IDIOT SIGHTINGI work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into itself and for the sake of her life, couldn’t understand why her system would not turn on.A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriff’s office, no less.

If you want to write something that will really grab people’s attention, write it with a fountain pen in a neat Spencerian script! But even Palmer-style cursive will get a lot more notice than something hand-printed or computer-printed.

It’s even more worthwhile to learn cursive now that it has become less common, because it makes it really stand out and get noticed. That makes it a little more tolerable that schools are failing to teach it.

I learned cursive in third grade, used it until college…. I learned Greg Shorthand in twelfth, if you can read it at all, you can still read it better than than my longhand or my print…. One of my many cousins signs his checks in block print. Someone once insisted he sign in cursive but the bank refused to hono it because it did not match the printed signature on file.

What the hell is cursive?

says prawnclaw – Cursive is the second “R” in readin’, ‘ritin’, and ’rithmatic. It will soon be a lost art and then what will banks and lawyers do?

After Hurricane Ivan, the Intracostal Waterway was impassable to fuel barges which had supplied Pensacola and surrounding areas.NO GASExcept for Walmart and Murphy Oil. They used tank trucks to bring it down from Montgomery..Except for them, we REALLY would’ve been hurting.