Re:The Path to Dijkstra’s Handwriting (2013)
by lucb1e on Sunday August 25, 2019 @07:01PM
(#20796208)
> I wonder if penmanship is worse now than at any time in human history
As another datapoint, I write a few times per year. I'm not sure if my handwriting got worse (it has always been on the lower end of legible), but I do forget how to write letters. I have to consciously think how an M or a K goes, or how a U fits onto a W. It has also always been slow, nearly slow enough to cause real trouble in exams. On the other hand (pun not intended), typing is something I do faster than anyone else I know in real life, so it's not that me or my hands are slow in general.
With computer keyboards and touchscreen smartphones used for the majority of written communication, I wonder if penmanship is worse now than at any time in human history. If cursive is still taught, it's probably not for much longer.
During the SATs, we had to write in cursive some statement that we did not receive outside help. Everyone joked afterwards about how tedious it was and how we overflowed the space in which to write because we weren't practiced at making tight loops.